Quorum numbers

Question

We have a situation . In October 12 of our councillors were disqualified on bloc , not attending a meeting . Our council consists of 15 in total . There was one empty seat already ( councillor had moved out of area ) . Our local MDC put in 3  district councillors, making 5 in total .
My question is , in this situation does the 5 make a quorum ?
Look forward to answers .

Answer 1

I think this answers your question 

https://centralbeds.moderngov.co.uk/documents/b7486/Local%20Government%20Act%201972%20-%20Section%2091%20-%20Inquorate%20Council%20Thursday%2017-Sep-2015%2018.30%20COUNCIL.pdf?T=9

Out of interest were the resignations some form of protest ? 

Comments

Hi , no we did not resign, we were disqualified. It is very political. As a group we had 14 of the 15 seats . Of the 2 remaining ( 1 of our group ) was on long term sick , the other ( not of our group , brother in law to the clerk ), attended a zoom training session . We were well and truly stitched up . It was part our fault , we were doing business via email etc , COVID situation completely forgot 6 month rule. I understand the 1/3rd min 3 councillors for a quorum, but on legislation.gov.uk section 45 completely threw me . I do not understand what it means in our situation.

Answer 2

Did you receive a summons to attend the Zoom meetings along with an agenda form the Clerk?  If not then I would argue you can't be disqualified if you were prepared to attend meetings you weren't made aware of.  If so talk to the Monitoring Officer

Comments

Not strange really, we live in an area where wearing a particular colour rosette gets you the vote regardless. Of course there have been elections , but wearing that colour rosette got you the vote every time .Until 2019 , times change , parishioners are fed up with the status quo , unfortunately that colour rosette believes it has the god given right to ‘’ be in charge ‘’, yes you are probably right , politics is a strange thing , however politics should have nothing to do with parish councils. Yes I know that’s a naive statement .

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I can understand what you are saying about political colours but who people stand for has no baring on parish council law all colours have to abide by the law set out by the government.

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This thread started out as to what numbers make up a quorum in our particular situation . It has developed into something much wider . Yes we made mistakes , but unless you are in our shoes it is impossible to understand a very confusing situation  regarding individuals , history etc. As I said we made mistakes , we are  a group of amateurs, 4 previous councillors , but none of us fully understood the technicalities of council . We relied on the clerk to keep us on the straight and narrow, yes clerk is cilca  qualified , therefore professional . We were councillors for no other reason than to do what we thought best for our community . Maybe we should just let the previous team  get on with it  if that’s what the parish want .

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I understand what you say , however it seems from my short experience with the events of the last few months , that there is no law regarding parish councils . It seems to me that parish councils are a law unto themselves . Unless they blatantly fiddle money or commit fraud , or other serious criminal act , they can do as they wish . Of course I may be wrong , but that is how it seems .

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After gleaning through some of the comments previously made, I read it as a number of councillors blaming the clerk when the clerk is an employee of the council to do the councils bidding, yes the clerk is there to offer advice and guidance but not there to nurse maid councillors, this is where I have found as an experienced councillor the relationship with the chairman and clerk is imperative. the best councils work closely with the clerk and not against them which looks like this could have been what has happened in this case as it has been repeated the clerk and brother in law but as I said with a majority of 14 to 1 this should not have posed any problem. i am quite disturbed with your last comment saying parish councils are a law unto themselves there is a book available for anyone to read which is the Arnold Baker local council administration, a lot of councillors behaviour has also been overlooked with the standards board not having any power to deal with parish/town councillors behaviour unless its of an extremely illegal act such as fraud as you have said.  Did any of the of the old and new councillors carry out any training through its local council association as these are a great source of advice but like I say politics is a strange and wonderful thing.

Answer 3

What a palaver! This raises so many issues, but I'll focus on the future.

The role of a temporary councillor (i.e. your principal authority's appointees) is to manage the council's affairs until sufficient new members can be appointed to resume local control. The legislation requires co-opted vacancies to be filled "at the earliest opportunity". So if you're all willing to be co-opted, this must be an agenda item at the next meeting. If they refuse to do this, report them to the monitoring officer.

Comments

Hi , the co- option notice is already out  , our names are in , but it will be a miracle if any of our group are re- instated , considering the make up of the district councillors as appointees. We are not in their ‘’gang’’. After the May 2019 elections they were wiped out 14 - 1 and they took it very personally. We shall see .

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They don't have a choice. They are there in a purely administrative capacity. If you qualify to be a councillor, which you obviously do, and they have no more candidates than vacancies, they must co-opt.

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Hi , I think the next parish council meeting is on the 15th. March . I will leave comments on the outcome.

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Surely they are putting the cart before the horse  first you notify the electorate of the vacancies and invite 10 of them to ask for an election and if nothing happens within the time limit then and only then can the cooption process begin
So we’re the notices posted ?

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I think you might have missed a trick here. With 10 signatures asking for an election, an election has to be held, then stand for election. If elected, then there is nothing they can do, apart from putting up their own candidates of course.  It will cost the parish of course, and all the rigmarole of standing for election of course, but worth it I would suggest.