The National Park Authorities (England) Order 1996

Article 9

SCHEDULE 2 MEETINGS AND PROCEEDINGS

First meeting and other meetings before 1st April 1997

1.—(1) The first meetings of a National Park authority (in the following provisions of this Schedule referred to as “the Authority”) shall be convened by the acting proper officer as soon as practicable and, in any event, within 21 days beginning on the establishment day, and shall be held at such place and hour as may be fixed by him.

(2) That meeting shall be treated as the annual meeting of the Authority in the year 1996.

(3) Notice of that meeting shall be published at the place where the meeting is to be held and the summons to attend the meeting shall be signed by the acting proper officer.

(4) Until the completion of the election of a chairman of the Authority at that meeting, the acting proper officer shall exercise any functions falling to be exercised by the chairman and the deputy chairman of the Authority but the acting proper officer shall not vote at the election of the chairman of the Authority unless the votes for election of the chairman are tied.

(5) Without prejudice to the generality of article 11(1) of this Order, at the first meeting of the Authority the acting proper officer shall exercise any functions falling to be exercised by the proper officer of the Authority in relation to the meeting.

(6) The standing orders for the regulation of the proceedings and business of the existing council, or, as the case may be, the Board, of which the acting proper officer is an officer shall apply at the first meeting of the Authority.

(7) The Authority shall hold such further meetings before 1st April 1997 as may be necessary for the purpose of doing anything which, in accordance with section 65(3) of the 1995 Act, it considers appropriate for the purpose of securing that it is able properly to carry out its functions on and after the date.

(8) So far as is consistent with the preceding provisions of this paragraph, the following provisions of this Schedule shall apply to the calling and conduct of meetings under this paragraph.

Annual and other meetings

2.—(1) The Authority shall in every year after 1996 hold an annual meeting. The first meeting held after 31st May in any year after 1996 shall be the annual meeting.

(2) Such meeting shall be held at such hour as the Authority may fix or, if no hour is so fixed, at twelve noon.

3.—(1) The Authority shall in every year after 1996 hold, in addition to the annual meeting, at least three other meetings for the transaction of general business.

(2) Those other meetings shall be held at such hour and on such days as the Authority may determine but shall be held as near as may be at regular intervals.

4.—(1) The chairman of the Authority or, if the office of chairman is vacant, the deputy chairman of the Authority may call an extraordinary meeting of the Authority at any time.

(2) If the offices of chairman and deputy chairman are vacant, the proper officer of the Authority may call an extraordinary general meeting of the Authority at any time.

(3) If the chairman, or the deputy chairman if the office of chairman is vacant, or the proper officer if both offices are vacant, refuses to call such a meeting of the Authority after a requisition for that purpose specifying the nature of the important or urgent business, signed by five members of the Authority, has been presented to him, or if, without so refusing, the chairman or, as the case may be, the deputy chairman or proper officer does not call a meeting within seven days after such requisition has been presented to him, then any five members of the Authority on that refusal or on the expiration of those seven days, as the case may be, may forthwith call an extraordinary meeting of the Authority.

Chairman and deputy chairman

5.—(1) The election of a chairman and of a deputy chairman shall be the first business transacted at the annual meeting of the Authority.

(2) A person elected as a chairman or deputy chairman of the Authority may at any time resign his office by notice in writing delivered to the proper officer of the Authority.

(3) Where a casual vacancy in the office of chairman or deputy chairman of the Authority is filled the person so appointed shall hold office until the date upon which the person in whose place he is elected would regularly have retired.

(4) Where necessary, the meeting at which such a casual vacancy is to be filled shall be convened by the proper officer of the Authority.

Calling of meetings

6.—(1) Meetings of the Authority shall be held at such place, either within or without the National Park for which it is established, as it may direct.

(2) Three clear days at least before a meeting of the Authority—

(a) notice of the time and place of the intended meeting shall be published at the principal offices of the Authority and, where the meeting is called by members of the Authority, the notice shall be signed by those members and shall specify the business proposed to be transacted; and

(b) a summons to attend the meeting, specifying the business proposed to be transacted, and signed by the proper officer of the Authority shall, subject to sub-paragraph (3) below, be left at or sent by post to the usual place of residence of every member of the Authority with a copy to the proper officer of the council for every principal area the whole or any part of which is within the National Park for which the Authority is established, the Countryside Commission and the Secretary of State.

(3) If a member of the Authority gives notice in writing to the proper officer of the Authority that he desires summonses to attend meetings of the Authority to be sent to him at some address specified in the notice other than his usual place of residence, any summons addressed to him and left at or sent by post to that address shall be deemed sufficient service of the summons.

(4) Want of service of a summons on any member of the Authority shall not affect the validity of such a meeting.

(5) Subject to section 100B(4) of the 1972 Act(1), except in the case of business required by or under this Order or any other statutory provision to be transacted at the annual meeting of the Authority and other business brought before that meeting as a matter of urgency in accordance with the Authority’s standing orders, no business shall be transacted at a meeting of the Authority other than that specified in the summons relating thereto.

Conduct of meetings

7.—(1) At a meeting of the Authority the chairman, if present, shall preside.

(2) If the chairman is absent from a meeting of the Authority the deputy chairman, if present, shall preside.

(3) If both the chairman and the deputy chairman of the Authority are absent such other member of the Authority as the members present shall choose shall preside.

Quorum

8.  Subject to the provisions of paragraph 45 of Schedule 12 to the 1972 Act(2), no business shall be transacted at a meeting of the Authority unless—

(a) at least one third of the whole number of members of the Authority are present; and

(b) of those present at least one is a local authority member and at least one a Secretary of State member.

Minutes of proceedings of meetings

9.  A copy of the minutes of the proceedings at each meeting of the Authority shall be sent to the proper officer of the council for every principal area the whole or any part of which is within the National Park for which the Authority is established, to the Countryside Commission and to the Secretary of State within thirty five days of the date of the meeting at which those minutes are approved.

Computation of time

10.—(1) For the purposes of computing the period of three clear days under paragraph 6(2) of this Schedule there shall be excluded any day which is a Saturday, Sunday, or bank holiday, Christmas Day or Good Friday.

(2) In this paragraph “bank holiday” means a day which is, or is to be observed as, a bank holiday, under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971(3), in England and Wales.

(1)

inserted by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985 (c. 43).

(2)

Paragraph 45 in Part VI of Schedule 12 to the 1972 Act is applied to a National Park Authority by virtue of paragraph 12(1)(a) of Schedule 7 to the 1995 Act.

(3)

1971 c. 80.