Minutes of Council meetings are a public record of decisions made by the Council and as such must be held in perpetuity. They must also record which Councillors were were present at a meeting, those not present, and any apologies for absence from Councillors which were approved.
Desborough Town Council was formed in 1974 and it isn’t possible to put the minutes of all the meetings over those 47 or so years on the website. Copies of old minutes are held by the Northamptonshire Archives.
Minutes available on this (or any other) website are for convenience and the official paper minute book remains the only lawful and authentic record. Some copies of minutes are available in only paper form. These have been scanned meaning that they may not be readable by text readers (and therefore will be non-compliant with WCAG2.1aa). If you come across a set of minutes like that and need a transcript please contact the Town Clerk for assistance.
Councils operate under municipal years which run from May to April*
Council minutes 2023 – 2024 (current year)
*In 2020, and in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, when it was not safe for people to meet in person, the Government introduced “The Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020” which made a number of changes to Councils and procedures. These included:-
- extending the 2019-20 municipal year;
- postponing the 2020 elections;
- allowing remote access to meetings and online meetings.
For Desborough Town Council the 2019–20 municipal year was extended to include the monthly meetings in May and June, the Annual Meeting for 2020–21 was held in July 2020.