June 25th Minutes
Minutes of the Keelby Parish Council Extraordinary Meeting
Held in the Village Hall on Tuesday 25th June 2024 commencing 7pm.
Those Present: Councillors T Wright (Chair), M Turner, S Knight, C Tym, G Lovatt, T Bentham and M Wright
In Attendance: None
1. Apologies - Ref 24/104: Councillors P Wilks and R Bedwell.
Absent without notice: Councillor R Dannatt
2. Introduction – Ref 24/105: The Chair welcomed everyone and explained that the purpose of the meeting was to formally approve (by the means of a vote) a number of items that were agreed at the meeting held on 4th June 2024 which were agreed/resolved but not voted on at the time. He explained that all items have already been debated/discussed and agreed, so only a vote on each item was required.
3. Approval of the minutes of the meeting held on 7th May 2024 as a true record – Ref 24/106: Proposed and seconded; a vote was taken on the accuracy of the minutes; All in favour. It was therefore RESOLVED that the minutes were an accurate record of the meeting.
4. Approval of the payment schedule (Ref 24/92) – Ref 24/107:
Proposed and seconded; a vote was taken to approve the item; 5 for, 1 against. It was therefore RESOLVED that the payment schedule be approved.
5. Approval of the regular payments schedule for 24-25 (Ref 24/101) - Ref 24/108:
Proposed and seconded; a vote was taken to approve the item; 5 for, 1 against. It was therefore RESOLVED that the regular payment schedule be approved.
6. Approval of the revised Cemetery Policy (Ref 24/93) – Ref 24/109:
Proposed and seconded; a vote was taken to approve the item; all in favour. It was therefore RESOLVED that the revised Cemetery policy be approved.
7. Approval of the revised Social Media Policy (Ref 24/93) – Ref 24/110:
Proposed and seconded; a vote was taken to approve the item; 5 for, 1 abstention. It was therefore RESOLVED that the revised Social Media policy be approved.
8. Approval of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) Policy (Ref 24/93) – Ref 24/111:
Proposed and seconded; a vote was taken to approve the item; 5 for 1 against. It was therefore RESOLVED that the GDPR policy be approved.
9. Approval of the HR and Personnel Committee Terms of Reference (Ref 24/103) – Ref 24/112:
Proposed and seconded; a vote was taken to approve the item; 5 for 1 against. It was therefore RESOLVED that the HR and Personnel Committee Terms of Reference be approved.
10. Approval of the appointment of the new Handy Person (Ref 24/102) – Ref 24/113:
Proposed and seconded; a vote was taken to approve the item; 5 for 1 against. It was therefore RESOLVED approve the appointment of the new Handy Person.
11. Conclusion – Ref 24/114: The Chair closed the meeting by advising that he and the Clerk, as proper officer have been discussing the over-use of the voting process and after taking advice from LALC sand considering best practice, he advised that going forward the current regime would only resort to the use of voting when a matter of discussion is contentious. Where items on the agenda are supported wholeheartedly by the council, they would not need a vote to be resolved. He cited an example of the approval of draft minutes and payment schedules which are normally not contentious. However, if there is a contentious debate (such as recent discussion over the Sports facilities), then a vote would be taken and recorded.
He went on to say that Councillor Knight had raised a point that should she (or any other Councillor) wish to have the minutes record their actual vote (for or against) this would be allowed, but the request would have to be made at the time of the vote and could not be done retrospectively (e.g. when approving the minutes); he went on to say that any Councillor requesting this would be agreeing for their details to be included in a public document and this would be recorded in perpetuity. Further to this Councillor Knight has also raised a request for a Councillor to be allowed to include in the minutes a reason/explanation for voting in the way they had; this would not be supported going forward as it is not in keeping with best practice and advice received from LALC.
The meeting closed at 19.10