Voting rights for non-councillors?

Question

Our local town council has a committee consisting of councillors and non-councillors. The non-councillors have voting rights. Is this allowed?

Answer 1

No. The legislation is contained in the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, section 13.

"...a person who -
(a) is a member of a committee appointed under a power to which this section applies by a relevant authority and is not a member of that authority;

shall for all purposes be treated as a non-voting member of that committee, joint committee or, as the case may be, sub-committee."

The Secretary of State has the power to grant exemptions for specific purposes and there are currently four contained in the Parish and Community Councils (Committees) Regulations 1990:

(a) the management of land owned or occupied by the council;
(b) where the council are a harbour authority as defined in section 57(1) of the Harbours Act 1964(1), their functions as such;
(c) any function under section 144 of the 1972 Act(2) relating to the promotion of tourism;
(d) any function under section 145 of the 1972 Act relating to the management of a festival.

Comments

DtC's knowledge is boundless.  The organisations he provides his professional services to are indeed very fortunate.

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Thank you Sam.

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Thanks DavetheClerk for this answer - especially for quoting chapter and verse.

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Looking into this further I see that the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, section 13,  sub-section 4,  does list its own exemptions where non-members can have voting rights, and sub-section 4(e) is:
'a committee appointed under section 102(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 (appointment of advisory committees by local authorities);'
The key word of course is 'advisory' and committees (or sub-committees) appointed under s.102(4) have no power to discharge the functions of a council. Nevertheless they are an instance where non-members can exercise voting rights.