Who counts to make a Council quorate

Question

A Councillor has a clear cut financial interest as they supply alcohol under contract to a bar run by the Parish Council

At a meeting specifically about the bar they declare an interest but don’t say what it is and there’s no mention of a dispensation
Personally I believe at best they shouldn’t be allowed to stay in the room when anything relating to the bar is discussed
At worst the Council shouldn’t have a financial relationship like this with  a Councillor especially as there is some shall I say ambiguity about how the contract was obtained

The Councillor said he wouldn’t vote but then proposed a motion and discussed it but didn’t vote

Without him being present I don’t think the meeting was quorate so should he have been counted towards the number of Councillors present
Personally I think not

Answer 1

If the councillor declared an interest, they should have left the room.  When a councillor leaves the room (even to go to the toilet), they affect the quorate levels as they are not present.  The level for quoracy differs if it is full council or a committee.  For full council it is 1/5 rounded up and for a committee it is a minimum of 3 councillors.

From what you have written, they should have declared, left the room and therefore could have made the meeting inquorate.

Comments

Thanks for the reply
I have eight years experience with Parish Councils and I’d never been to this particular Parish  before but I’d heard there were severe problems so I went out of interest

I have no idea if they have a dispensation,
This particular Councillor and the Chair called this meeting to reverse a decision properly made only two weeks ago even though NALC told them they couldn’t
I can’t access Standing Orders because the website ( which I understand they pay a small fortune for ) has not worked properly for months and the Clerk shrugs her shoulders

They demanded as a member of the public that I signed in which I refused

They didn’t warn the public about recording

They allowed some of the staff who were in the public gallery to join in during the meeting and give their opinions about how the bar should be run

They discussed and apparently agreed matters not on the agenda
Once I’ve got the Standing Orders and dispensations I’ll think about what to do next

---

Sounds like a right shower but sadly, not the only council that acts like this and gets away with it.  I fully support Chairs who like to conduct relaxed meetings but that doesn't excuse not following the law.  The only challenge for you is how you would tackle this bad behaviour as there is very little in terms of consequences, especially if the monitoring officer for the area is inefficient.  Good luck!

---

Hi MrsAbster.  You say a quorum is one-fifth of the seats, but my research has a different number: "A Town or Parish Council must be quorate in order to operate. A quorate is defined as being one third of its membership, but no less than three."
Did you mean to say one-fifth?

---

You are right it is 1/3 and my mistake.  Our quorate is 5 (15 councillors) hence my typo!