The rule is in paragraph 10 of Schedule 12 to the Local Government Act 1972 and it is one sentence long, but it has caught out more councils than any other. A meeting called without proper notice can have its decisions challenged, and “any other business” is not a way round it. Here is what the rule asks and how experienced clerks apply it.
What the law requires
At least three clear days before a meeting of a parish council:
- Public notice of the time and place of the meeting must be displayed in some conspicuous place in the parish (the noticeboard), and it must set out the business to be transacted, which means the agenda.
- A summons to attend, specifying the business and authenticated by the proper officer (the clerk), must be sent to every councillor. It can go by email to a councillor who has consented to that, and it’s sensible to hold the consent in writing; otherwise it is posted to, or left at, their home. A summons that doesn’t arrive doesn’t invalidate the meeting, but a notice that goes up late does.
The Transparency Code adds the website: the agenda and papers must be published online in the same period. Three places, then: the board, the inboxes and the site.
What “three clear days” means
“Clear” days exclude the day the notice is given and the day of the meeting. Section 243 of the 1972 Act then says that Sundays, bank holidays, days in the Christmas and Easter breaks and days of public thanksgiving or mourning don’t count either. It says nothing about Saturdays. NALC’s view is that a Saturday can count for a parish council; a 1993 Court of Appeal case about a principal council (R v Swansea City Council, ex parte Elitestone) treated clear days as working days, and some advisers apply that to parishes too. The cautious practice, and the one most clerks follow, is not to rely on a Saturday.
So for a meeting on Tuesday 11 November, counting Thursday, Friday and Monday as the clear days, the notice must be up and the summons sent by Wednesday 4 November. (If you counted the Saturday you could leave it until Thursday; don’t.) For a Monday meeting it’s the previous Tuesday. If a bank holiday falls in between, go back another day. Your standing orders can set a longer period, and NALC’s model ones do.
Most clerks don’t cut it that fine. A week is the usual practice, and the council’s standing orders may require more. Giving extra notice is never wrong. Giving less is.
What goes on the agenda
Enough that a councillor, or a resident, can tell what will be discussed and what might be decided. “Playground” isn’t enough if the council intends to approve an £8,000 contract; “Mill Lane playground: to consider quotes for replacing the climbing frame and resolve which to accept” is. The test the courts apply is whether the public had fair notice of the business. Draft agenda items as if someone will object later, because sometimes they do.
Items that always appear: apologies, declarations of interest, approval of the last minutes, public participation (if the council allows it, and it should), finance, planning, the date of the next meeting. Items that never belong: “any other business” as a heading under which decisions are taken. A chair can allow an announcement or a note for a future agenda; a chair cannot allow a resolution on something nobody was told about.
Where to put it
- The noticeboard. Dated, signed, and photographed with the date showing. The photograph is your evidence if the notice is ever questioned.
- The website. With the papers. A resident who can’t get to the board, or can’t read it, has the same right to know. If the agenda goes up as a PDF scanned from the signed copy, it will be unreadable on a phone and by a screen reader, which is a separate problem with the same solution: publish it as a page.
- The councillors’ inboxes. The summons, authenticated by the clerk, which is why the clerk’s name is at the bottom of every agenda. Keep a copy of the sent email.
Extraordinary meetings
The chair can call one at any time. If the chair refuses, or doesn’t act within seven days of being asked, any two councillors can call it themselves. The notice rules are the same: three clear days, public notice, summons. The urgency doesn’t shorten the period; it just means an extraordinary meeting next week rather than the ordinary one next month.
If it goes wrong
If the notice went up late, or the agenda didn’t say what was decided, the safe course is to put the item on the next agenda and take the decision again properly. Minuting that this has been done costs the council nothing. Defending a decision that was taken without notice can cost a great deal more, and the internal auditor will ask about it.