EXTRAORDINARY PARISH MEETINGS

Question

Please excuse any repetition here but I have a situation where a local group (6 residents of the electorate) wants to organise an extra ordinary Parish meeting and I need to communicate the criteria correctly. So  a few questions

a) To whom do the residents issue their notice to in the first place . Chairman/ Clerk? Is there a form of words?

b) how long have they got to decide/ organise meeting (clerk is on leave for 14 days)

c) i understand the PC chairman can act Chairman. What happens if they decline
d) who decides the Agenda and can it contain a resolution for Cllrs to vote on
e) Is that resolution binding much like any other ?

f) Is it a public meeting ? Can it contain public participation ?

Any other advice would be useful

Answer 1

The six electors call the meeting, so they are responsible for making people aware and for publishing the agenda. They should notify the parish council. The chair of the parish council may attend and, if present, must chair the meeting. If not the chair, the vice chair (if there is one). If neither, the meeting elects a chair. The full details are set out in Part III of Schedule 12 of the LGA 1972.

Comments

So lets be clear is this a meeting of Councillors or  just a meeting of electors i.e. just like a Parish meeting? .  I understand that the  purpose is to summarise things in the form of a question . So would this be posed in a yes or no format ?

---

This would be a Parish Meeting, the annual meeting of electors, which the members of the parish council may attend. Those who call the meeting determine the items on the agenda and the nature of discussions thereon. It doesn't need to be a single issue meeting.

---

Sorry Dave I am confused / Are you saying that that an extra ordinary Parish meeting if ii is called by 6 residents is  a meeting in which all attendees are only  there in their capacity as electors, including any Councillors. . If that is the case then I can understand why the Agenda seeks to vote on a question ie its not a meeting of Councillors.    Similarly if it is a meeting called by 2 Councillors  it is also a meeting or residents not the Council ?

---

Members of the public cannot call a meeting of the council. They can call a public meeting and invite the members of the council, but they are not obliged to attend. Any two members of the council may call a meeting of the council, but that would be conducted in the same way as any other meeting of the council, according to standing orders, except that the two councillors would issue and sign the agenda.

---

Got it.  I suppose the recent Handforth PC  video was the latter, In which case I cant see what the the local NALC  lady was there for? It was advertised as an extraordinary meeting  but perhaps it was just plain extraordinary

Answer 2

I don't think the term extraordinary is appropriate.  It would be  a meeting of the parish, not the parish council. Normally this is organised by the parish council and takes place on a specific date.    NALC say  The parish meeting of a parish must assemble annually on some day between 1st March and 1st June, both inclusive, in every year. In a parish which does not have a separate parish council, the parish meeting shall, subject to any provision made by a grouping order, assemble at least on one other occasion in the year. In other cases, subject to the aforementioned requirements, meetings of parish meetings shall be held on such days and at such times as may be fixed by the parish council or, if there is no parish council, by the chairman of the parish meeting.
If one has already been held in the Financial year, I don't think there is any legal reason why another can't be held, but the Parish Councillors might not be as willing to attend an additional one.