On May 8, 4:40=A0pm, "Peter Crosland" wrote:
> Martin Brown wrote:
> > On May 8, 2:07 pm, "Peter Crosland" wrote:
> >> Martin Brown wrote:
> >>> We have tried asking this question of our county council for
>
> >>> How long should Parish Council Minutes be archived for as a minimum?
>
> >> As a general legal principle you need to keep the records for at
> >> least six years.
[snip]
> >> The records are required to be open to inspection during
> >> normal office hours without charge.
>
> > This seems a rather onerous burden for unpaid volunteers with no
> > permanent offices or staff.
>
> It is one of the responsibilities of the clerk to the council.
Who to the best of my knowledge is also an unpaid volunteer. The
annual precept for this rural Parish is a whopping =A3400 per annum
(mostly for insurance, grass cutting and admin in that order). He
cannot be paid very much if at all.
>
> > Does publication of the modern PC minutes on the Internet satifsy this
> > requirement adequately?
>
> Since the minutes have to be kept in writing and they are open to inspecti=
on
> then probably not.
OK. Thanks.
Just to clarify the situation having no premises and with someone
demanding to see all the PC minute books right from the year dot we
still have a problem finding a place where he can examine them (and
also be supervised). The cheapest option so far is a room in the
village hall at =A32/hour, but even that would soon mount up.
>
> >> AFAIK the parish council is supposed to
> >> have published an FOI scheme that includes a schedule of charges.
>
> > Is there a boilerplate template for this somewhere?
>
> How can you be sure such a template meets the legal requiremts?
I can't. I am just asking questions to try and clarify what needs to
be done.
> Ask advice from the district council.
Thanks. Will do. I am trying to get a rough idea of the issues
involved. There didn't seem to be any cogent description of best
practice that I could find with Google. Your answers have given me a
few keywords that pick up some other helpful related documents
including a job description for the role of Parish Clerk.
Regards,
Martin Brown |