CORRECT PROCEDURE
The Parish Council is a corporate body and can make decisions. Individual Councillors cannot.
The Council can delegate some decisions to the Responsible Financial Officer eg Clerk or a committee, but these have to be agreed and recorded in the Standing orders.
Planning
The Planning Committee is an agreed delegated committee given power to make planning decisions. Finance – No financial decisions can be made by a committee. They must be agreed by full Council.
Working Parties
Anyone who undertakes to find out more information on an item, that they have agreed to be responsible for is free to do so, so long as they:
- DO NOT MAKE ANY DECISION ON THEIR OWN
They need to produce a report and bring it to the next Council meeting, or ideally give it to the Clerk to attach to the Agenda for the following meeting, at which time the Council can debate the issue and make a decision.
The implementation of decisions must be made by the Proper Officer of the Council after the decision has been properly minuted and recorded.
1. FIND OUT INFO
2. WRITE A REPORT AND GIVE TO THE CLERK for the AGENDA
3. DEBATE THE ISSUE IN COUNCIL
4. COUNCIL WILL MAKE A CORPORATE DECISION
5. DECISION RECORDED IN MINUTES
6. DECISION ACTED ON BY PROPER OFFICER ie CLERK on Parish Headed paper
7. RESULTS of decision reported back to the Council by the Clerk
The following can be under the remit of the parish council:
Parish councils have a variety of powers and duties, all of which impact directly on the community.