Issue - meetings

The Council had been informed that seven parish councillors had resigned recently from Normandy Parish Council. 

The statutory notices of vacancy had been published and written requests for an election to fill the vacancies had been received from the required minimum of ten electors residing within the parish.  The election would take place on 6 May 2021.

The effect of these resignations was that the Parish Council was now inquorate – with two remaining parish councillors – and unable to meet lawfully to transact the business of the Parish Council. 

Councillors considered a report which asked the Council to make an order under Section 91 of the Local Government Act 1972 to make temporary appointments to Normandy Parish Council to fill some or all of the vacancies pending the outcome of the election.  The effect of making the temporary appointments was to enable the Parish Council to conduct its business lawfully until then.

As this was the first occasion that a local parish council had become inquorate for many years, it was proposed that the Council delegated its power to make Section 91 orders to the Managing Director, in consultation with the Leader of the Council, political group leaders, local ward councillors, and the Monitoring Officer. It was also proposed that the Council should adopt a procedure for dealing with inquorate parish councils in the future, a copy of which was set out in Appendix 1 to the report.

Upon the motion of the Leader of the Council, Councillor Joss Bigmore, seconded by the Deputy Leader of the Council, Councillor Caroline Reeves, the Council

RESOLVED:

(1)   That an order be made under Section 91 of the Local Government Act 1972, the effect of which is to appoint on a temporary basis the following persons to fill five of the vacancies on Normandy Parish Council so that the Parish Council is quorate and can continue to act:

·       Councillor David Bilbé

·       Councillor Bob McShee

·       Councillor Ramsey Nagaty

·       Councillor Paul Spooner

·       Councillor Fiona White

(2)   That authority be delegated to the Managing Director, in consultation with the Leader of the Council, political group leaders, local ward councillor(s), and the Monitoring Officer, to make orders under Section 91 of the Local Government Act 1972 should a similar situation arise in future in respect of any parish council in the borough, following the procedure set out in Appendix 1 to the report submitted to the Council.

Reasons:

(1)   Section 91 of the Local Government Act 1972 allows the Borough Council to appoint a sufficient number of persons to act as parish councillors on a temporary basis, to enable the work of the Parish Council to continue until it has a sufficient number of elected parish councillors to be quorate.

(2)   To enable the Borough Council to act quickly in the future should any parish council within the borough become inquorate.