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The Annual Parish Meeting - Dawn Hoskins (26th Mar 2013 - 11:44:53) The Annual Parish Meeting I would like to thank the Chairperson of the Council for organising a very interesting and informative set of speakers at the Annual Parish Meeting. It was very informative to hear about local police issues and how the police are dealing with specific areas of concern in the parish such as speeding and anti-social behaviour. Also, the information on the Joint Core strategy was spoken in clear layman’s terms with lots of questions and answers from the audience afterwards. Again Cllr Ferris Cowper – who so regularly attends our meetings came and gave a full report which was most interesting. As did Cllr Glass. For those interested in the policy differences between a normal council meeting and the annual one – it is this…. No votes are taken at an annual meeting – and even if they were they would not bind the parish council. It is simply the forum in which every person on the electoral roll is invited to attend, ask questions and express their opinions. Historically, the annual meeting was the platform for any disgruntled cllr or any cllr who felt strongly about an issue to speak up in their own personal capacity about it. This was so that any cllr who felt they had been pressured or pressed into making a decision could voice that to their voters. What this means is that the normal standing orders do not apply as such. Generally if a cllr is misbehaving the chairman can eject that cllr – not so at the annual meeting where all are free to speak as they chose. That is why it is so important that the voters turn up and ask the questions that they want answers to. It was a great shame that so few parishioners chose to attend. Although that did leave more refreshments per head afterwards!

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