Parish Council Meetings
It has been noted that over the past couple of years there has been a decline in the amount of business coming before parish council meetings. This, despite the claim made by various Governments to disseminate powers from central control to the various tiers of local government. It is clear that the powers given to parish councils involve time, effort, expertise and expense that cannot possibly be achieved by residents performing the role on a part time basis.
The irony is that the workload on councillors and the parish clerk remains the same. However, most information, consultation documents and necessary paperwork now comes via email, is forwarded when relevant to councillors for a comment or a decision. What we have also found, is when a decision or response is necessary, the deadline has passed before it can be brought before the scheduled meeting.
Therefore it has been agreed by the parish councillors to hold meetings every two months (instead of monthly) as an experiment for 2016/17. The meetings will take place in May, July, September, November, January and March. They will be held as usual on the third Tuesday in the month and commence at 7pm.
The councillors have agreed that should an issue come before the parish council that is urgent or requires a meeting of residents an extra meeting will be called outside of the dates listed above.