Extraordinary Meeting: Saturday 22nd May 2021
Minutes of an Extraordinary meeting of the PARISH COUNCIL on Saturday 22nd May 2021 at the Recreation Ground at 3 pm
Present: Cllrs Dinsdale (Vice Chair), Edwards, Glasse, Mallows, O’Callaghan, Oliver
Apologies received from the Clerk and Cllrs Brown, Prince, Watterson
One comment from a member of the public had been received by the Clerk and passed on to the Vice Chair regarding limiting the time for which a mandate to represent the Council’s views would stand – it is hoped the agreed final wording of the resolution is satisfactory regarding this point.
The meeting was opened at 15:00 by the Vice Chair
There were no declarations of interest
The following statements were made by the Vice Chair by way of introduction:
Background
Parish Council meetings must now be held in person, and given the frequency at which these meetings occur, there are often important matters on which submissions need to be made by deadlines that fall in advance of the next regular meeting, and which fall at a time when it is not possible to arrange a special meeting, or where an appropriate meeting is prevented by the unavailability of a quorate number of PC members or the Clerk.
Under such circumstances any submissions from PC members are treated as personal opinion, but have no legal standing as representative of the Council’s position.
As a recent example we received notice on Monday 17th May of the need to make a submission to South Cambs District Council regarding East West Rail by Friday 21st May.
The pressing issue of East West Rail, and its effect on our community, is a matter where the Council has taken representations from many interested parties and has an agreed general position. The Chair is aware of the Council’s general position, and it is proposed that the Chair be given a mandate to represent the Council on the East West Rail topic where it is not possible to meet and obtain an appropriate resolution in advance of the required submission.
We recognise that the representation of the views of the Council as a corporate body will not be the same as any individual’s opinion. The emphasis given to each point is a matter of judgement appropriate to the requirements of each submission, and there will be time pressures so it will not always be possible for all contributions to be fully represented.
1. The following Motion was proposed after some discussion and amendments:
This Council authorises the Chair (or Vice Chair if the Chair is unavailable, in which case the wording ‘Chair’ in (iii) to (vi) below refers to the Vice Chair) to make any representations he or she deems fit to any person, body or authority regarding the Council’s general position on East West Rail and associated topics, subject to the following conditions:
(i) This motion applies for six months unless revoked by a resolution of the Parish Council before that time and will lapse on 22/11/2021 unless renewed by further resolution.
(ii) The Council endorses any such representations made prior to this resolution, provided that they conform to conditions (iii) to (vi) below.
(iii) The Chair will only make such representations if they are required in advance of a scheduled Council meeting, where the item has arisen in time to be put on the agenda.
(iv) The Chair will for the avoidance of doubt include the phrase “on behalf of Great and Little Eversden Parish Council” or “on behalf of the Eversdens Parish Council” to distinguish any communications including his representations on behalf of the Parish Council from personal correspondence.
(v) The Chair will undertake to notify PC members in advance, to solicit their opinion, and wherever practical will circulate to PC members a summary of the representations that they propose to make. Any representations will be consistent with the Parish Council’s agreed general position on East West Rail.
(vi) The Chair’s representations, made pursuant to the authority granted by this motion, shall be copied in full to PC members in a timely manner following their submission.
The resolution to adopt the above motion was passed unanimously.
The Vice Chair closed the meeting at 15:10 pm.
