Hello, May I check the correct procedure following co-option? 1. Ask them to complete a declaration of acceptance of office. 2. Send them the recent Code of Conduct and ask for confirmation of reading. 3. Inform Electoral services of their acceptance. Housekeeping duties: Ask them to set up a Council email address, supply meeting dates, add them to the Website. Anything else please? Many thanks in advance :-)

As a resident I have discovered many of the Parish Council procedures are unlawful and discriminatory. For example I have tried to be a Councillor through co-opt policy but find the National policy has been amended to allow the Parish Council (all very close friends) to reject any person they want without any reason. Even when they meet national requirements. I challenged that and other policies and they would not supply any reasons and have been made vexatious and I have been told I have no right to appeal to that decision. That cannot be right surely ?

This is what appeared on the pubished agenda for tomorrow evening's ordinary parish council meeting. Item - Clerk’s appraisal and terms of employment (closed session) To receive feedback from the clerk’s appraisal and review terms of employment including hours, salary and office rental. As the Clerk's terms of employment have never been made available to residents, tax payers have no idea what the Clerk's hours are or any other details of their terms of employment, let alone their contract. What right does a resident have to demand access to this information and, if the session is closed to the public, what details of exactly what was resolved must be revealed/reported after the item has been discussed and decided upon by the council - ie when the council come out of closed session into the public meeting, as well as the minutes relating to that item? The last time this happened the council did not allow any information to be revealed about the Clerk's terms of employment claiming they were private and confidential. So much for openness and transparency.

Hello all, I have already published the agenda for our meeting this coming Thursday but today, I have received the completion of audit paperwork for the year 24-25. Ideally I would like to proceed and advise the Council of the result and display the notice for 14 days. Can I do this or do I have to wait until next month? Many thanks in advance!

I am a town councillor, and I record public parts of our meetings. For about a year, other members of my council have attempted through various means to prevent me from recording the meetings. At next week’s meeting, the town council is expected to pass a policy that will ban councillors from recording meetings (see linked draft policy). Part 1.12 of this policy bans councillors from recording the meetings and has been included specifically to try and prevent me making the recordings. After the last meeting, one councillor told me this explicitly. There are several questions I have that arise from this that I hope you can assist me with. * First, can a town council’s policy or standing orders prevent me from exercising lawful rights granted by the Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014? * Second, if this motion is passed, assuming the above answer is ‘no’, and I refuse to stop recording the meeting, could that give rise to a standards complaint against me because I have breached the council’s policy? Or, if a complaint is made against me, would the Regulations provide an absolute defence to a hypothetical complaint? * Third, if this motion is passed and assuming the answer to question 1 is no, and I refuse to stop recording, would it be possible for the chair of the meeting to state that my conduct is disorderly and therefore either order me to leave the meeting or adjourn the meeting? * Lastly, the town council is obliged to hold a minimum number of meetings every year. Does a meeting that is called, opened, and then immediately adjourned (eg because of the above) qualify as a meeting or not?  If not, what happens if a town council does not hold the required number of meetings a year? I would be grateful for any other comments you may have on the draft policy. From my point of view it is very poorly worded and contradictory in places but if it is in effect unenforceable or unlawful then it would be my preference to ignore it rather than to try and tidy up the wording!

Can anyone help on this one? Whole council and all staff resign. ALC provide interim cover for 'admin purposes' but neither resolved by previous nor council in waiting to act as proper officer. Uncontested election returns 10 of 11 seats New Cllr declaration of Acceptance of office forms are made in front of whom? Who produces agenda and issues summons for first meeting and accepts Declarations of Acceptance of Office? Can 1 elected Cllr take the declaration of another and then vice - versa until all are declared and a council formed? There is no properly appointed PO until the council is formed and resolved to appoint one. Para 7 MSOs allows for an extraordinary meeting to be convened by (x) number of Cllrs, they then sign agenda and issue summons. Is there another way?

Hi Do any councils pay part of the clerks utility bills mobile phone or internet as they work from home. If so how is it calculated. TIA

Please excuse this question but I have little hands on experience of our accounting  system.  What is correct procedure when an  EMR is deemed to be no longer needed?

Hi We are reviewing our website and email and would be interested to know who you use. Currently we are with Hugo Fox but would be interested if anyone uses anyone else. Thanks in advance CC

Hello all, It seems our local planning department is working at full speed and I have received 3 applications this week. The Council does not meet in December and the applications have been sent to the Councillors to consider if they want to meet to discuss any of them, the replies being that the applications are not remarkable. My question is regarding the public however, my agenda would be the normal course to advise the public of such applications, what should I do instead please? I can post the applications onto the social media page that I would normally post the agenda, do I have to mention that the Council won't be discussing them before the 21 day deadline though? I doubt the Council would ask for an extension given these applications are alterations to submitted and supported applications. Any advice most welcome or examples of what your Council does. Thank you in advance.

In my experience the widely adopted flexibility of general reserves (GR) can be an enabler to various forms of budgetary abuse.  Some observers , however, indicate that as indicated in the new Sapp guidelines paras 5.33-5.37 that a reserves policy should indicate a fixed percentage level of NRE  for GR.   Whilst I appreciate that all reserves must be justified is it fair to say that GRs level should be similar year on year ?  Would appreciate views on interpretation.

What would anyone consider appropriate staffing costs for a Town Council as a percentage of the total budget?  I have concerns that the staffing costs for our Town Council are increasing as a total percentage of the budget to now over 52% of the total budget, up from 48% this current year.

Two councillors have not attended council for 6 months so have ceased to be councillors.  The notices of vacancy have not been published but the clerk has acknowledged the vacancies and will post them soon.  Since we are within 6 months of the next scheduled election there cannot be a by-election, but can the council co-opt to fill the vacancies? If so, since the parish is warded, does a co-option applicant have to apply for a specific vacancy, e.g. North ward or South ward?  Or can they just apply for a vacancy?  If co-option is allowed, there are likely to be at least 3 applicants for the 2 vacancies.

Do any other pcs do this

I am sorry to ask this question but after many years of argument I feel no nearer to a solution.  As someone who has always worked with budgets I find it unbelievable what some RFOs and PCs seek to defend when setting budgets /precepts.  This stems from the lack of clarity of the relevant legislation which gives PCs the scope for interpretation.  When setting its precept my PC does this.  It has a revenue budget of roughly £250k and its sets the precept to pay for that so effectively it gets fresh money to operate each year.  In the meantime, line 6 on the AGAR shows reserves of roughly £550k  consisting of roughly £400k EMRs and £150k GR.   These are not included in the precept calculation and left to run as they are.  Examination of these reserves shows that much is not justified but held under spurious contingency names. In year reviews of reserves are held and if one EMR is critiqued it is simply vired to general reserves which are now up 7 months of NRE.  This is explained away by the 3 -12 months rule.  Line 6 on the AGAR for recent years indicates these reserves are never spent and remain largely unaltered,  The defence seems to be that the operating budget and reserves are two separate entities and left to the PCs  discretion.  The ultimate question is what the proper way of is setting the precept and can it be enforced.    The guidelines seems so vague that  I suggest many PCs are getting away with highway robbery.   My way is that the precept should sum of all budgets set and justified (including reserves) less forecasted end of year cash in bank.  I have various IAs agreeing with me whereas ours gives my PC a clean bill of health .  There has to be  a right way.

Hi we have just been told we will be charged £70 for a debit card. Can anyone advise on how to purchase items without a card, can we use personal cards and claim back. Thank in advance CC

Hello, my coumcil meeting is scheduled to by held tomorrow night 08/12/2025, I am led to belive that I should have recieved three clear days notice of the meeting in the form of a (summons to attend) to date I have received no notice of a meeting, or a summonds to attend, either by post or by email, I am also led to believe the council meeting sould  have be advertised on local notice boards around our village, I have received noticed this as not happened, can you please advise what action I can take on this matter, we have a proper officer in place, which I am not happy about, thanks in advance for any inforation.

Welcome to Town & Parish Councillor Q&A, where you can ask questions and receive answers from other members of the community. All genuine questions and answers are welcome. Follow us on Twitter to see the latest questions as they are asked - click on the image button above or follow @TownCouncilQA. Posts from new members may be delayed as we are unfortunately obliged to check each one for spam. Spammers will be blacklisted.

I'm fairly sure I'm in the right about this, but just wanted to check in case there is a "special rule" or difference in law that I'm not aware of. A candidate who stood to be co-opted to fill one of 5 vacant seats on the council was rejected last month. They have re-applied this month. Under our standing orders (NALCS model), we have the following rule: A resolution shall not be reversed within six months except either by a special motion, which requires written notice by at least 3 councillors to be given to the Proper Officer in accordance with standing order 9, or by a motion moved in pursuance of the recommendation of a committee or a sub-committee. Voting the candidate on would, in my mind, be unlawful as it's a reversal of the previous decision without the special motion being passed. Can anyone confirm if my understanding is correct? Our clerk, who I trust and have faith in, sought advice from democratic services at the principal authority. I'm yet to confirm with the clerk, but I'm assuming the PA have suggested the candidate could still stand, as they remain on the list of people up for co-option, and the clerk has recently distributed an updated co-option policy for approval that specifically stops repeated requests.

A clerk has refused to show invoices to councillors. Can that happen? Can councillors insist on seeing invoices before they agree a payment?

Hello, We have a shared Speed Indicator Device agreement with another Parish Council. Problems have arisen regarding finding a contractor to move the SID each set period. They have requested that the Chair of our Council attend a meeting to negotiate and possibly accept an agreement without consulting us first . I can find nothing in official Gov.Co guidelines that allow the Chair to attend meetings (except as an Ambassador or To Represent The Council at Official Functions) on the Parish Councils behalf and negotiate without their own Council being consulted to agree to any proposal. Is it within the Chairs remit to attend such a meeting to negotiate and make decisions on the their own Councils behalf in their absence and without their involvement in said decision making?

Recently my council advertised a personal committee meeting would be held regard's applying for a new clerk, when it came to the section where the Public/ and press were to be excluded, myself and my fellow Councillor were also ordered to to leave the meeting, was the chair allowed to ask us to leave.

Welcome to Town & Parish Councillor Q&A, where you can ask questions and receive answers from other members of the community. All genuine questions and answers are welcome. Follow us on Twitter to see the latest questions as they are asked - click on the image button above or follow @TownCouncilQA. Posts from new members may be delayed as we are unfortunately obliged to check each one for spam. Spammers will be blacklisted.

At a recent council meeting, the meeting room was full and many residents could not gain access to the room. The council have the option to book a larger venue. The Clerk stated the council are allowed to refuse access to the meeting on H&S grounds without a resolution from the council and without deferring the contentious agenda item to a time when all interested residents could attend. Is this correct?

We have been let down by our normal hall for PC meetings, we have a village church that is available, can we hold the meeting in there, there would be no issues with it being labelled an emergency meeting. Regards CC