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The Annual Parish Meeting is a legacy from the Middle Ages, when Local Councils did not exist, and all local decision making was carried out by meetings of the whole community, normally taking place in the church vestry. In legal terms, it is a quite separate body from the Parish Council, although it is invariably the Parish Council that arranges it. Although the Annual Parish Meeting is normally called by the Chair of the Parish Council it may also be called by at least six residents of the Parish that have the right to vote at an election. Its decisions are not binding on the Parish Council, though the Parish Council will normally take heed of what is said at the meeting.
The Annual Parish Meeting is open to all electors of Lanreath Parish, who have the right not only to attend but also to speak on any matter of local interest. This is in contrast to a Council meeting, where electors who are not Councillors have no automatic right to speak (though the Parish Council does have set times before or after the Council meeting when electors can raise matters of concern to them).
The Annual Parish meeting has its own minutes, which should be kept separately from the Parish Council minutes, and these minutes can only be approved by the next Annual Parish Meeting which will, of course, not be held until the following year. It is however, good practice to bring the draft minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting to the next convenient meeting of the Parish Council, since otherwise matters are unlikely to get progressed, however, the Parish Council does not actually approve these minutes, as they do not belong to the Council.
The Annual Parish Meeting must be held each year between March 1st and June 1st. The Chairman of the Council must, if she/he is present, take the chair – even if she/he is not an elector for the parish. If the Chairman is not present, the Vice-chairman of the Council must preside. If the Vice-Chairman is not present, then the Meeting must elect a Chairman, for this meeting only, from amongst the local electors present. The Chairman has the casting vote in addition to her/his own vote.
Although the Annual Parish Meeting is open to all members of the public and press, only local electors have the rights to speak and vote at the Annual Parish Meeting. All issues are decided by majority vote of those present with each resident entitled to vote having one vote per issue. Parish Councillors attending the Annual Parish Meeting, if they are on the Electoral Roll for the Parish, have the same voting rights as other electors.
Unlike the Parish Council Meetings, where the agenda must be published at least three working days prior to the meeting, Agenda items for the Annual Parish Meeting may be added up to, or even during the meeting.
The date, time and place of the Parish Meeting must be published by public notice at least 7 clear working days prior to the meeting.
Documents for the Last Annual Parish Meeting
Agenda for Annual Parish Meeting
The Parish Council meets in public at the Lanreath Village Hall on the third Tuesday in every month except for August and December. Extraordinary meetings may be held between regular meetings where there are urgent matters that require the council’s immediate attention.
Members of the public are always welcome to attend parish council meetings, and if they wish, to speak on any topic of interest or concern to them. For further details and a list of meeting dates please click on the button below.
The meetings are conducted in accordance with the Lanreath Parish Council Standing Orders and the Lanreath Parish Council Policy on Audio/Visual recording and photography at Parish Council Meetings. Both of these documents are available to view and download from the Documents page of this website. The agendas and minutes of meetings for the last two years are included below. Documents for earlier meetings may be obtained on application to the Parish Clerk.
From time to time the Parish Council may appoint committees and task-and-finish groups to undertake work on behalf of the Council. The Council will set their terms of reference, and the committee will report periodically to the Council. Details of the activities and terms of reference of any current committees may be found on the Council Business page of this website.
Interim legislation that allowed public bodies to meet remotely during the pandemic has lapsed and from the 7th May 2021 all meetings of public bodies, including Parish Councils, are required to be held face-to-face.
Rather than attending in person, members of the public are encouraged to submit any queries or observations that they wish raise against a particular meeting agenda item by email to the Parish Clerk, Rebecca Warren clerk2lanreathpc@gmail.com or via the ‘Contact Us’ page of this website.
Where a group of members of the public wish to submit questions or raise observations regarding a particular item, it is recommended that they select a spokesperson to attend the meeting on behalf of the group in order to reduce the number of persons attending a meeting.
The Parish Council will continue to monitor the latest Government COVID advice and may revert to conducting meetings following the COVID Safe Procedure and Risk Assessment, should this be deemed necessary. Copies of these documents may be downloaded by clicking on the buttons below.
The Agenda for the Extraordinary Parish Council Meeting to be held on Tuesday 10 December 2024 can be downloaded by clicking on the button below. The Agenda for the meeting to be held on Tuesday 21 January 2025 will be made available to download from here, on or before Wednesday 15 January 2025.
Due to COVID 19 restrictions no Parish Council Meeting was held in April 2020
The minutes of Public Meetings organised by the Parish Council on behalf of the community may be downloaded from this section. They are intended to be an accurate contemporaneous record of Public Meetings. They are not a statutory record of a Parish Council meeting and, as such, do not require formal approval of the Parish Council prior to publication.