Agenda item

Annual General Meeting 2020

Recent Government Regulations introduced due to the Covid-19 pandemic (The Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 No.392) made under Section 78 of the Coronavirus Act 2020 allow for Local Authorities to make a choice as to whether to hold an Annual Meeting for 2020 only, usually a mandatory requirement.

 

Following the meeting of the Charter Trustees on 23rd January 2020 where Councillor Fran Smith and Councillor Sue Lees were officially nominated to serve as Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Taunton respectively for the 2020/21 Municipal Year and so it is expected that these positions are not subject to change.

 

This report seeks a resolution from the Charter Trustees as to their preference to hold an AGM virtually or to not.

 

Minutes:

The Clerk had included a brief report in the Agenda papers based on advice from the Association of Democratic Services Officers (ADSO) on the government regulations made in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which seemed to indicate that the Charter Trustees had a choice as to whether to hold an Annual Meeting in 2020, usually a mandatory requirement.

 

The Charter Trustees on the 23rd January 2020 had officially nominated Cllr Fran Smith and Cllr Sue Lees to serve as Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Taunton respectively for the 2020/21 Municipal Year and so it was not expected that these positions were to change.

 

The Mayor of Taunton had received an email from the Chair of the Association of Charter Trustees Towns and Charter Trustee Councils (ACTT), Cllr Jim Anderson, which stated the following;

 

“Charter Trustees are required by Regulation to meet and appoint a Mayor and Deputy Mayor for the coming year within 21 days of the Annual Meeting of the parent authority. No exemption to these Regulations were specifically mentioned in 2020 Coronavirus Act. 

 

If a parent Authority chooses to postpone their AGM till 2021, the Charter Trustees are not required by Regulation to elect a Mayor until a period 21 days after that 2021 AGM. The incumbents can remain in post.

 

I’m not aware of many local Authorities (with Charter Trustee arrangements) planning to hold an AGM under ‘lock-down’ conditions - the Coronavirus Act 2020 clearly allows them either hold or not hold such a meeting - and so our Executive advice is that your ‘public’ Mayor Making should only take place at a time when the public can attend, and in the meanwhile their incumbents terms be extended.

 

You will be aware that the Coronavirus Act 2020 proceeded swiftly through Parliament without detailed scrutiny - this was necessary but sometimes some consequences, interpretations and clarifications were overlooked. The mandate to close Cemeteries is one such example and regrettably another is the omission of Charter Trustee bodies from the lengthy list of ‘authorities’ that are permitted to postpone or otherwise conduct public meetings in the absence of the public.

 

The Association has enlisted the help of an MP to determine how autonomous Charter Trustee bodies are; Anthony Martin ACTT Hon Sec is seeking similar advice direct from MHCLG, and until and unless a clear instruction emerges from the Government the ACTT advice to Charter Trustee bodies must be to postpone their usual planned activities for safety and public health reasons without attempting to second guess the date for any lifting of public meeting orders.

 

The most challenging set of circumstances for a Charter Trustee body is the situation where the parent Authority has, via Teams, Skype, Zoom or some other means a plan to conduct the 2020 AGM in the lock-down or Social Distancing period that we are currently in. Unless a clear exemption is issued by MHCLG, or clarification of the terms of the Coronavirus Act, then you will be obliged to conduct some similar kind of Charter Trustee meeting within 21 days in order to fulfill your Regulatory requirements. Various options exist to do that, but all of them will require the robing, speeches and general (and sometimes grand and exclusive) procedures of your historic public meetings to be delayed by weeks or months until it is safe to do so. Your ‘Regulatory’ meeting will need to merely be the formal proposition of Mayor and Deputy Mayor, a vote and then close meeting. In that way you will have fulfilled Regulatory requirements without placing your colleagues and residents in danger.”

 

The crux of this advice meant that the Charter Trustees as a body were not specifically referred to in the legislation and so an AGM will thus have to take place.Somerset West and Taunton Council had confirmed they would be holding their AGM on 26th May 2020 and so the Charter Trustees would be required under the current law to hold an AGM in the 21 days afterward, but this would be a brief meeting and take a straightforward appointment of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor.