Chaos rules for council (From Gazette Series)

Chaos rules for council

HAWKESBURY annual parish meeting on Monday was dubbed a shambles and made void because councillors felt it had not been correctly advertised.

Councillors were also unable to deal with items on the agenda as they were incomplete and chairman Cllr Sue Hope was unavailable due to a South Gloucestershire Council commitment.

The assembly was not fully advertised as clerk to the parish council Vanda Preece had resigned after the last monthly meeting. Only one notice about the meeting was posted in the village and councillors agreed they should have been issued throughout the parish.

After councillors had dealt with matters they were able to, it was proposed that the meeting was declared void and held again, once it had been correctly advertised.

Vice-chairman Cllr Danny Blakeney explained: "Unfortunately, as the clerk has resigned, relevant notices were not issued. This meeting could be void because it hasn't been advertised properly. Mrs Preece resigned and there was nobody there to do it. It should be posted around the parish and be signed by the clerk. This is a shambles."

Cllr Andrew Musty added: "There are a lot of questions being asked and only Sue (Hope) can answer them. This is because we are really reliant on Sue and that is a really weak position to be in."

Cllr Hope She arrived later during the later council meeting. She had been due to update councillors and the public on matters relating to South Gloucestershire Council and give a chairman's report.

Afterwards she said: "I apologise that I was late but I was in a cabinet meeting which went on a little. We have rescheduled the annual assembly for Tuesday, April 27. The meeting was advertised and I have seen notices in the village. I have been trying to get hold of the ex-clerk to see what happened.

"We are in-between clerks at the moment and we have got to have some understanding of that."

Councillors also brought up the issue that a paid temporary worker had been asked to take minutes of the meeting, without members being consulted.

Cllr Derek Higgs said: "I object to the fact that someone was asked to take the minutes as nobody was asked or informed. I would prefer that all decisions are taken en bloc."

Cllr Hope replied: "I only found out that Mrs Preece was unable to do the meeting at short notice. We needed to take the minutes of the meeting, so I asked the Beaufort Bureau to step in. I had to make a quick decision so that we did have minutes taken."

The annual assembly will be held at Hawkesbury Methodist Church Hall on April 27 (7.30).