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Residents & Visitors

A Parish Council is there to serve the Residents of the Parish and other members of the public interested in the Parish, such as workers and visitors to the area. Fawfieldhead is eager to hear your views and every Parish Council Meeting has a slot available for you to address the Parish Councillors on the subject you regard as requiring attention. The Clerk of the Parish Council appreciates being informed about one week before the meeting of your intention to attend and the subject you wish to speak about, so that it can be properly included on the agenda and Councillors can prepare to be able to ask or answer questions on that subject. If you just want to listen to the proceedings just arrive at the meeting.

Advice for members of the Public when attending meetings of Fawfieldhead Parish Council

Meetings are conducted in accordance with the best practice guidelines laid down by NALC (The National Association of Local Councils).

The Chair of Fawfieldhead Parish Council welcomes Parish residents, the Press and any other members of the general public to any of our meetings and, to avoid misunderstandings, would like to draw the attention of those attending to the following extract from our adopted procedures;

Conduct of all persons at meetings

  1. No person shall obstruct the transaction of business at a meeting or behave offensively or improperly. If this standing order is ignored, the chairman of the meeting shall request such person(s) to moderate or improve their conduct.

  1. If person(s) disregard the request of the chair of the meeting to moderate or improve their conduct, any councillor or the chairman of the meeting may move that the person be no longer heard or excluded from the meeting. The motion, if seconded, shall be put to the vote without discussion.

  1. If a resolution made under standing order (b) above is ignored, the chair of the meeting may take further reasonable steps to restore order or to progress the meeting. This may include temporarily suspending or closing the meeting.

  1. Meetings general framework

  1. Meetings shall not take place in premises which at the time of the meeting are used for the supply of alcohol, unless no other premises are available free of charge or at a reasonable cost.

  1. Three days minimum notice shall be given for any meeting to take place. Such minimum three clear days for notice of a meeting does not include the day on which notice was issued, the day of the meeting, a Sunday, a day of the Christmas break, a day of the Easter break or of a bank holiday or a day appointed for public thanksgiving or mourning.

  1. The minimum three clear days’ public notice for a meeting does not include the day on which the notice was issued or the day of the meeting unless the meeting is convened at shorter notice

  1. Meetings shall be open to the public unless their presence is prejudicial to the public interest by reason of the confidential nature of the business to be transacted or for other special reasons. The public’s exclusion from part or all of a meeting shall be by a resolution which shall give reasons for the public’s exclusion.

  1. Members of the public may make representations, answer questions and give evidence at a meeting which they are entitled to attend in respect of the business on the agenda.

  1. The period of time designated for public participation at a meeting in accordance with standing order (e) above shall not exceed ten minutes without the consent of the chairman.

  1. Subject to standing order (f) above, a member of the public shall not speak for more than three minutes without the consent of the chairman

  1. In accordance with standing order (e) above, a question shall not require a response at the meeting nor start a debate on the question. The chairman of the meeting may direct that a written or oral response be given.

  1. A person shall raise his hand when requesting to speak

  1. A person who speaks at a meeting shall direct his comments to the Chair of the meeting.

  1. Only one person is permitted to speak at a time. If more than one person wants to speak, the Chair of the meeting shall direct the order of speaking.

  1. Photographing, recording, broadcasting or transmitting the proceedings of a meeting by any means is not permitted without the Council’s consent.

  1. The press shall be provided with reasonable facilities for the taking of their report of all or part of a meeting at which they are entitled to be present.

  1. Subject to standing orders which indicate otherwise, anything authorised or required to be done by, to or before the Chair of the Council may in his absence be done by, to or before the Vice-Chair of the Council.

  1. The Chair, if present, shall preside at a meeting. If the Chair is absent from a meeting, the Vice-Chair, if present, shall preside. If both the Chair and the Vice-Chair are absent from a meeting, a councillor as chosen by the councillors present at the meeting shall preside at the meeting.

  1. Subject to a meeting being quorate, all questions at a meeting shall be decided by a majority of the councillors or councillors with voting rights present and voting.

  1. The chair of a meeting may give an original vote on any matter put to the vote, and in the case of an equality of votes may exercise his casting vote whether or not he gave an original vote.

  1. Unless standing orders provide otherwise, voting on a question shall be by a show of hands. At the request of a councillor, the voting on any question shall be recorded so as to show whether each councillor present and voting gave his vote for or against that question. Such a request shall be made before moving on to the next item of business on the agenda.

  1. The minutes of a meeting shall include an accurate record of the following:

  1. the time and place of the meeting;

  2. the names of councillors present and absent;

  3. interests that have been declared by councillors and non-councillors with voting rights;

  4. whether a councillor or non-councillor with voting rights left the meeting when matters that they held interests in were being considered;

  5. if there was a public participation session; and

  6. the resolutions made.

  1. A councillor or a non-councillor with voting rights who has a disclosable pecuniary interest or another interest as set out in the council’s code of conduct in a matter being considered at a meeting is subject to statutory limitations or restrictions under the code on his right to participate and vote on that matter.

  1. No business may be transacted at a meeting unless at least one-third of the whole number of members of the council are present and in no case shall the quorum of a meeting be less than three.

  1. If a meeting is or becomes inquorate no business shall be transacted and the meeting shall be closed. The business on the agenda for the meeting shall be adjourned to another meeting.

  1. A meeting shall not exceed a period of 2 hours.

Safety and Comfort; For reasons of order and safety young persons under the age of 16 are not permitted at meetings. There are Fire Exits clearly marked within the Parish Rooms. The Clerk would be grateful if all persons attending a meeting would give a name on entering the Hall, so that proper fire safety regulations can be followed and, in the event of the Fire Service being called out, a list of persons in/out of the building can be provided.