Agenda item

Minutes

A Member sought clarification on the content of committee minutes particularly for those committees operating in a quasi-judicial capacity. In her view the minutes of meetings where the decision was exposed to appeal should be noted in more detail.

Detailed discussion ensued during which, amongst other things, the following comments were made:-

·          Members were reminded that the current style of the minutes had been agreed by the Court as part of the last governance review. It noted that they should be concise, that they were not verbatim and where necessary, they should give a flavour of the proceedings.

·          The information used at appeal stage was usually taken from the committee report and not the minutes. The minutes were referred to only if the decision taken differed from the recommendation in the report.

·          Reference was made to decisions agreed by narrow margins and a Member questioned whether Standing Orders should be changed to enable individual voting to be recorded in the minutes;

·          Members questioned the merits of audio recording minutes and whether the time of arrival and departure of individual Members at meetings should also be recorded.

After further discussion, the Assistant Town Clerk undertook to report back to Committee on the above mentioned points.