Standing Orders for Farningham Parish Council
These Standing Orders apply to
meetings of the Parish Council and its Committees (and sub-committees where
appropriate)
1. Meetings
a)In a year
of ordinary
elections, the Annual Parish Council
Meeting shall be held on or within 14
days following the day on which councillors
elected take office and
b)In a year
which is not an election year the
Annual Parish Council Meeting shall
be held on such day in May as the Council may direct.
c)In addition to the Statutory Annual Parish
Council Meeting at least three other statutory
meetings shall be held in each year
on such dates and times and at such place as the Council may direct, including the Annual Parish Meeting (not to be confused with the Annual
Parish Council Meeting) which
shall normally be held in April each year.
d)Any 2 members may submit a written
request signed by them to the Chairman to call an extraordinary
meeting. In the event of the Chairman not calling the requested
extraordinary meeting within 7 days of receiving
the request, then the 2 members may call an extraordinary
meeting.
e)All members
of the Council shall be given (by post, email or
left at their residence)
at least 3 clear days' notice of all
meetings of the Council, specifying the business proposed
to be transacted (the Agenda).
f)The person
presiding at a meeting may exercise all the powers
and duties of the Chairman in relation to the conduct of the meeting.
g)A schedule of Full Council and
Committee Meetings to be held in the next Council year,
shall be prepared
within one calendar month of the
Statutory Annual Meeting. The
schedule shall be posted on the Council's notice boards
and distributed to all Councillors and Committee members.
The schedule may be subject to change by subsequent resolution
of the Full Council, provided that
the schedule is re-posted more than one calendar
month prior
to the first meeting that is so
affected.
h)Meetings of Council and
committees and sub-committees shall conclude by 10pm, unless a 30-minute
extension is specifically approved by a majority of the members present. Any
further extension may be effected by a suspension of this Standing Order, when
approved by a majority of the members present.
2 Proper Officer
The Proper Officer
of the Council is the Clerk. The
Responsible Financial Officer of the
Council may be the Clerk or an appointed Councillor.
Other duties and responsibilities of the Clerk
are as laid down in the Conditions
of Service Contract and Job Description.
Notwithstanding those duties and responsibilities,
it shall be the duty of the Clerk to
advise Members on the content and
interpretation
of these Standing Orders.
3 Quorum
(a)
Three Members
shall constitute a quorum. If a quorum is not present
when the Council meets or if during a meeting the number
of Members, for
whatever reason,
falls below the quorum, the meeting
must be adjourned immediately and the
business not transacted at that
meeting shall be transacted at the
next meeting or on such other day as the Chairman
may decide.
(b) A quorum for a
committee or sub-committee is 3 voting members.
4. Voting
(a) Members
shall vote by show of hands or, at
the discretion of the Chairman, by secret
ballot.
(b) If a member so requires, the Clerk shall
record the names of the members who voted on any question so as to show whether
they voted for or against it. Such a
request must be made before moving on to the next business.
(c) Subject to (d) and (e)
below the Chairman may give an original vote on any matter
put to the vote, and in any case of an equality of votes may give a casting
vote whether or
not he/she gave an original vote.
(d) If the person presiding
at the annual meeting would have ceased to be a member
of the council but for the statutory provisions
which preserve
the membership of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman
until the end of their term of office he/she may not give an original vote in an election for
Chairman.
(e) The person presiding
must give a casting vote whenever
there is an equality of votes in an
election for Chairman.
(f) The Chairman and vice-chairman
ex-officio shall be voting members
of every committee.
5. Order of Business
(a) At each Annual Parish Council Meeting the
first business shall be:-
- To
elect a Chairman of the Council
- To
receive the Chairman's declaration of acceptance of office or, if not then
received, to decide when it shall be received.
- In
the ordinary year of election of the Council to fill any vacancies left
unfilled at the election by reason of insufficient nominations.
- To
decide when any declarations of acceptance of office which have not been
received as provided by law shall be received.
(b) At every
meeting other than the Annual Parish Council Meeting the first
business shall be
- to
appoint a Chairman if the Chairman and Vice-Chairman are absent.
- to
receive any declarations of acceptance of office and undertakings to observe
the code of conduct as are required
or, if not then received, to decide when they shall be received.
(c) At all meetings, after the first
business has been completed, the order of business, unless the Council otherwise decides on the ground
of urgency, shall be as follows:-
- To
consider the Minutes and after consideration to approve the signature of the
Minutes by the person presiding as a correct record.
- To
deal with business expressly required by statute to be done
- All
other items on the agenda in any order as decided by the Chairman.
6 Minutes
(a) No discussion shall take place on a motion
to agree the Minutes other than upon their
accuracy.
(b) Any corrections shall be made by moving that the Minutes are agreed
with the corrections
stated.
(c) The Minutes must record the names of members
present at that meeting and the
declarations of interest of any member.
Apologies for absence should also be
included.
(d) The Minutes of a meeting must be circulated to all members
as soon as practicable, and referred to the next ordinary meeting for
agreement, and signing by the Chairman.
7 Resolutions Moved On Notice
(a) Except as provided by these Standing
Orders,
no resolution may be moved unless
the business to which it relates has
been put on the Agenda by the Clerk
or the mover
has given notice of its terms to the
Clerk at least 3 clear days before the next meeting of the Council.
(b) Every resolution or
recommendation shall be relevant to some subject which affects the Parish
Council's area.
(c) Any decision or resolution
made shall not be reversed nor reviewed within six months, unless required to
do so for legal reasons or if the original decision was flawed, including by
being based on incomplete or inaccurate information, or if circumstances
relating to that decision materially change, including but not limited to a
change in the financial situation or replacement of officers or members of
council by any means.
8 Resolutions Moved Without Notice
Resolutions on procedural
matters may be moved without notice.
9 Questions &
Petitions
(a) A member may ask the Chairman
of the Council or the Clerk any question concerning
the business of the Council, provided
7 clear days' notice of the question
has been given to the person to whom
it is addressed.
(b) Every question shall be put and answered
without discussion.
(c) A person
to whom a question has been put may decline to answer.
(d) Petitions may be received at (ordinary) meetings of the Council providing
that the petition is received by the
Clerk no later
than mid-day 4 working days before the day of the meeting and is signed by at least
10 electors within the parish. (refer to The notes on "Governing
Documents for Parish Councils" appended to the Standing Orders for
additional guidance)
10 Public Question Time
(a) A maximum of 15 minutes
will be allowed for public
questions, starting at a previously advertised
time in the Agenda (normally 9pm).
(b) Any elector within the parish
may put a question to the meeting about a matter
for which the Council has a responsibility or
which affects the parish.
(c) An elector putting a question may speak for no more
than 3 minutes.
(d) No discussion shall take
place on any such question except at the exceptional discretion
of the Chairman (but in any event no
decision(s) can be made at this time, because all decisions require
that the subject of any potential decision be previously
advertised by 3 clear days' notice in an Agenda).
11 Member Question Time
(a) A maximum of 15 minutes
will be allowed for members' questions, starting
at a previously advertised time in the Agenda (normally
9pm).
(b) Any member may put a question to the meeting about a matter for
which the Council has a responsibility
or which affects the parish.
(c) A member putting a question may speak for no more
than 3 minutes.
(d) No discussion shall take
place on any such question except at the exceptional discretion
of the Chairman (but in any event no
decision(s) can be made at this time, because all decisions require
that the subject of any potential decision be previously
advertised by 3 clear days' notice in an Agenda).
12 Rules of Debate
(a) No discussion of the Minutes
shall take place except upon their accuracy. Corrections to the Minutes shall
be made by resolution and must be initialled by the Chairman.
(b) The ruling
of the Chairman on a point of order or on the admissibility of a personal
explanation shall not be discussed.
(c) Members shall address the
Chairman. All Members will indicate when they wish to speak by show of
hand. If two or more members wish to
speak, the Chairman shall decide who to call upon. No discussion shall take place
except through the Chair.
(d) Whenever the Chairman
speaks during a debate all other members shall be silent. No members of the
public including District and County Councillors and Police Officers will be
allowed to speak, other than when invited to respond to a specific agenda item,
without having first indicated by show of hand that they wish to say something
and they are given permission to do so by the Chairman.
(e) Members of the public can
attend meetings of the authority for the purpose of making representations, giving
evidence or answering questions but must abide by these Standing Orders.
13 Closure
A motion of closure of a debate may be moved at any time but must be
proposed and seconded without
comment. The Chairman may refuse such motion if he/she feels that the question
before the Council has not been
sufficiently debated.
14 Rescission
of Previous Resolutions
A decision of the Council
(whether affirmative
or negative) shall not be reversed
within six months except by a special resolution,
the written notice of which bears the names of at least 4 Members of the Council. When such a resolution has been disposed of, no similar resolution
may be moved within a further six months.
15 Reports from
& Recommendations of Committees
(a) Recommendations
of committees must be included in full on the Agenda for
the Council meeting.
(b) Recommendations
can not be discussed until they have been moved and seconded (this is normally done by the Chair
and Deputy Chair of that committee).
(c) Reports from
committees can only be noted or received, except that at the Chairman's discretion,
such reports
can be discussed. However, decisions
can not be made by the Council unless the Report
was circulated to Councillors 3 clear
days before the meeting.
16 Voting On Appointments
Where more
than two persons have been nominated
for any single position to be filled
by the Council and of the votes given there
is not an absolute majority in favour of one person,
the name of the person having the
least number of votes shall be struck off the list and a fresh
vote taken, and so on until a majority
of votes is given in favour of one
person.
Alternatively, when filling one or
more positions, it may be agreed in advance to conduct the vote as a Single
Transferable Vote whereby those
eligible to vote indicate their preferences
in writing on a ballot paper, indicating their
first preference with "1", and further preferences with "2", "3" etc until no further preferences
can be made. The person(s) reaching the quota will be thus elected. The quota
will be the rounding up to the nearest whole vote above "the result
of dividing the total vote cast, by one more
than the total number of places
to be filled".
If
the quota has not been reached by
enough candidates, first the surplus of the leading candidate who exceeds the quota
(if any) will be redistributed by second preference, each with a value equal to the surplus divided by the number
of papers being redistributed.
Secondly the candidate with the lowest number
of preferences
will be eliminated from the contest,
and their votes re-distributed
in accordance with the next preference
shown on each of their ballot papers (redistributed with a value equal to that when the paper was added to their
pile). These two processes will be repeated until enough candidates reach the quota, and are
deemed elected. (When electing one person,
this re-distribution
is much simpler as it requires
only the elimination of the bottom candidate each time, and redistribution
of each paper with a value of one.)
17. Discussions and Resolutions Affecting
Employees of the Council
If
at a meeting there arises any question relating to the appointment, conduct,
promotion, dismissal, salary or conditions of service of any person employed by
the Council, it shall not be considered until the Council or committee (as the
case may be) has decided whether or not the press and public shall be
excluded.
18. Resolutions on Expenditure
Unless
previously agreed
and included in Budget, any resolution
which, if carried,
would, in the opinion of the Chairman,
substantially increase the expenditure upon any service
which is under the management of the
Council or reduce
the revenue at the disposal of any committee, or
which would involve capital expenditure,
shall, when proposed and seconded,
stand adjourned without discussion
to the next ordinary meeting of the Council, and any committee
affected by it shall consider whether it desires
to report
thereon.
19. Expenditure
(a)
Orders
for the payment of money shall be
authorised by resolution
of the Council and cheques etc signed by two Authorised
Signatories (refer to Financial Regulations for
authorisation of amounts in excess
of £1,000).
(b) Where
it is necessary for the Clerk
to make a payment before it has been
authorised by the Council, such
payment shall be limited to £100.
Councillors shall require
authorisation from the Chairman
of the Council or, in his or her
absence, the Vice-chairman but the
limit of such expenditure shall be
£50.
20. Sealing of Documents
(a) A document shall not be sealed on behalf of
the Council unless its sealing has been authorised by a resolution.
(b)
Any two members of the Council named in a resolution moved under the provisions
of paragraph (a) of this Order may seal, on behalf of the Council, any document
required by law to be issued under seal.
21
Financial Matters
Any proposed
contract for
the supply of goods, materials, services and the execution of works
with an estimated value in excess of £50,000 shall be procured on the basis of a formal
tender as summarised here
below:
a) A public
notice of intention to place a contract
to be placed in a local newspaper.
b) A
specification of the goods, materials,
services and the execution of the works shall be drawn
up.
c) Tenders are to
be sent, in a sealed marked
envelope, to the Clerk by a stated
date and time.
d) Tenders submitted are
to be opened, after the stated
closing date and time, by the Clerk
and at least one member of the
Council.
e) Tenders are
then to be assessed and reported to the appropriate meeting of the Council.
The Council is not bound to
accept the lowest tender, estimate or quote but will seek to achieve best value.
Standing Orders shall apply to tenders
as if the person making the tender were a
candidate for an appointment.
22 Special Meeting
The
Chairman of a committee or the Chairman of the Council may summon an additional
meeting of that committee at any time. An additional meeting shall also be
summoned on the requisition in writing of not less than a quarter of the
members of the committee. The summons shall set out the business to be
considered at the special meeting.
23.
Code
of Conduct
All
members must observe the adopted Code of Conduct in force for
the time being, and currently this includes:
(a) The Clerk
will compile and hold a Register of
Members Interests,
or a copy thereof,
in accordance with agreement reached
with the Monitoring Officer of the Responsible Authority.
(b) If a member has a personal
interest as defined by the Code of
Conduct adopted by the Council then he or
she shall declare such interest as soon as it becomes apparent, disclosing the existence and nature of that interest
as required.
(c) If a member who has declared
a personal interest then considers
the interest to be prejudicial, he or
she must withdraw from the room
during consideration
of the item to which the interest relates.
(d) All members must observe
the Code of Conduct which was adopted by the Council.
(e) If a member reasonably
believes another member is in breach
of the Code of Conduct, that member
is under duty to report
the breach to the Standards
Board, which can be done via
Sevenoaks District Council.
24 Interests
(a)
If a member has a personal interest
as defined by the Code of Conduct then he/she shall declare
such interest as soon as it becomes
apparent, disclosing the existence
and nature of that interest as required.
(b)
If a member who has declared a personal
interest then considers the interest
to be prejudicial, he/she must withdraw from the
room or
chamber during
consideration of the item to which
the interest relates
except that Members have the same rights as the public (see the Standing Order covering
Rules of Debate).
(c) The Clerk may be required to compile and hold
a register of members' interests in accordance with agreement reached with the
Monitoring Officer of the Responsible Authority and/or as required by statute.
25
Candidates for Appointments
(a)
If a candidate for any appointment
under the Council is to his/her knowledge related
to any member of or the holder
of any office under the Council, he/she
and the person to whom he/she is related shall disclose the relationship
in writing to the Clerk. A
candidate who fails so to do shall be disqualified for
such appointment, and, if appointed, may be dismissed without notice. The Clerk
shall report
to the Council or to the appropriate
committee any such disclosure.
(b)
The Clerk shall make known the purpose of Standing Orders to every candidate.
26 Review
of Pay and Conditions
In
every year, not later than the meeting at which the estimates for next year are
settled, the Council shall review the pay and conditions of service of existing
employees.
27 Canvassing
of and Recommendations By Members
(a)
Canvassing of members of the Council or of any committee, directly or
indirectly, for any appointment under the Council shall disqualify the
candidate for such appointment. The
Clerk shall make known the purport of this sub-paragraph of this Standing Order
to every candidate.
(b)
A member of the Council or of any committee shall not solicit for any person
any appointment under the Council or recommend
any person for
such appointment or for promotion;
but, nevertheless, any such member may give a written
testimonial of a candidate's ability, experience
or character for
submission to the Council with an application for
appointment.
28.
Minutes
(a)
All Minutes kept by the Council and by any committee shall be open for the inspection of any member
of the Council.
(b)
Confidential items will be withheld from
public copies of Minutes.
(c) All members shall receive
copies of all minutes of all Full Council Meetings, Committee meetings and
Sub-committee meetings.
29. Unauthorised
Activities
No
member of the Council or of any committee or sub-committee shall in the name of
or on behalf of the Council Issue orders, instructions or directions unless
authorised to do so by the Council or the relevant committee or sub-committee.
30. Admission of The Public and Press to Meetings
(a)
The public and press shall be admitted to all meetings of the Council and its
committees, which may, however, temporarily exclude the public by means of the
following resolutions
"That
in view of the special, confidential or
commercial nature of the business about to be transacted, it is advisable in the public interest that the press
and public be temporarily excluded and they are
instructed to withdraw"
The
Council shall state the special reason for exclusion.
(b)
The Clerk shall afford to the Press reasonable facilities for the taking of
their report of any proceedings at which they are entitled to be present. There shall be no audio or video recording or
photographs of the meeting without the express approval of the Council, but
such approval will not be unreasonably withheld, as it is now permissible to
record on audio or visual any meetings of the Council unless they or part of
them require the public to be excluded for reasons of confidentiality or
business or commercial sensitivity. (Separate procedures about recording are
being drawn up following a Government directive of August 2014.)
(c)
If a member of the public interrupts
the proceedings at any meeting, the
Chairman may, after warning,
order
that he/she be removed from the meeting and may adjourn
the meeting for such period as is necessary
to restore
order.
31. Any
Other Business
Any
Other Business will be included on
the agenda for matters of information
only but will not be Minuted unless requested
and approved by the meeting.
No
decisions can be made on matters unless
they are itemised on an/the Agenda
that has been circulated the 3 clear days before
the meeting.
32. Confidential Business
(a)
No member of the Council or of any committee or
sub-committee shall disclose to any person
not a member of the Council any
business declared to be confidential
by the Council, the committee or the
sub-committee as the case may be.
(b)
Any member in breach of the provisions of paragraph (a) of this Standing Order
shall be removed from any committee or sub-committee of the Council by the
Council.
33.
Liaison
with County and District Councillors
A
summons and agenda for each meeting together with the draft parish council and
relevant committee Minutes shall be sent to the County and District Councillors
for the appropriate division or ward.
34.
Papers for
the Public
Unless
instructed otherwise, the clerk
will make a minimum of 3 copies of the Agenda and Minutes of meetings available
to the public at any one Parish
Council meeting.
35. Code
of Conduct on Complaints
The
Council shall deal with complaints in accordance with its complaints policy.
36. Variation, Revocation and Suspension of Standing Orders
Any
or every
part of the Standing
Orders
except those printed in bold type
may be suspended by resolution in relation to any specific item of business.
If
Standing Order 7a (Resolutions) or
31 (AOB) becomes suspended under an
invoking of Standing Order 36 (Variation, Revocation & Suspension), then any
subsequent decision(s) taken by Councillors
at that meeting must be by recorded vote, in order to protect
any absent councillors and other residents'
interests.
37. Length
of Meetings
Except
at the discretion of the Chairman, all meetings of the Council shall finish not
later than two and a half hours after commencement, and any business not
transacted shall be carried over to the next meeting or such other date as the
Chairman may decide, unless it is specifically resolved to suspend this
Standing Order.
38. Standing Orders to be Given to Members
A
copy of these Standing Orders
shall be given to each member by the
Clerk upon delivery to him/her
of the member's declaration of acceptance of office and written undertaking
to observe the Code of Conduct
adopted by the Council.

Winter's Day in Maplescombe Valley