Parish Council meetings

Much of the business of the Parish Council is carried in in public meetings.

How meetings work

The Parish Council meets at least ten times a year. There may be occasions when additional meetings are held to discuss specific topics.

The meetings are held in the Village Hall, in Barton Stacey, on the third Tuesday of each month, except for August and December, and start at 7.30pm.

The public are most welcome at all regular council meetings.  The way in which the public may participate in meetings are subject to a number of government regulations, as explained below.

Meetings normally last up to two hours, depending on the number of topics to be discussed. Meetings are minuted by the Clerk, and these are available for public inspection, once they have been ratified at the subsequent meeting.

Public participation

The initial ten minutes of each regular council meeting are set aside for public participation.

It should be noted that under local government regulations only persons registered on the electoral roll are permitted to speak. 

Parishoners will be able to speak for a maximum of two minutes each within the allotted ten minutes.  If several parishoners wish to express similar views it is suggested that a spokesman will then speak on behalf of the group.

When parishoners wishing to speak arrive at the meeting they should give their names to the Clerk and say that they wish to speak.

The Clerk will accept the first five names given.

To avoid arguments and keep the length of meetings to a reasonable level, councillors will not enter into discussion with parishoners during the ten minutes allocated for public participation.

Topics raised will normally be placed on the Parish Council agenda for the next meeting, unless the Chairman decides that the matter is very urgent in which case it will be discussed under "Any other matters which the Chairman considers urgent" at the end of the meeting.

Apart from the initial participation session, the public are not allowed to speak in the meeting. This is also a local government regulation.