Question

Does the clerk have the authority to exclude councillors from the council administration office?

Answer 1

In short, yes. This should only happen in rare circumstances, and mostly councillors and clerk maintain cordial relations. However, councillors do not have the right to make demands of the clerk, or to take up their time unreasonably. The clerk is responsible to the council, and in order to be efficient, must have control of their time. Unfortunately, occasionally councillors fail to treat the clerk with proper respect. If the clerk feels threatened or if they feel that their work is being disrupted, then they are entitled to ask a councillor to leave or to exclude them.

Comments

Hi, many thanks for this valuable response.

Answer 2

There is another problem that is the polar opposite of this:   Some groups of Cllrs  e.g. Chairs & Vice Chairs visit offices regularly and have their own form of "inner circle" with the Clerk and seek to direct policy and decisions outside the normal meeting structure and SO's of their respective Councils.  Effectively they are attending  non publicised meetings with no summons issued.

Some Clerk's operate from their own home for a few hours a week and don't have an admin office. They may also have a day job.  So in such circumstances it would not be unacceptable to exclude a member.

On the other hand if a member wants access to confidential information that is keep in the Council office, they should be able to go there to view it.