Parish council agenda template

A free agenda template for parish and town councils in England, with every standing item explained and the notice rules set out. Use it as it stands, or strip it back to what your council needs.

No email address required. If you'd rather see how the whole cycle works in software, CouncilPapers builds this agenda for you from your committee's template - but the file below is yours regardless.

This guide covers England. Welsh councils follow different notice rules after the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021. It's general guidance, not legal advice: for a specific problem, ask your county association or NALC.

The Template

Download the Word template

LITTLE COMPTON PARISH COUNCIL

NOTICE OF MEETING AND SUMMONS TO MEMBERS

A meeting of the Full Council will be held on
Monday 13 April 2026 at 7.30pm
at the Village Hall, Church Lane, Little Compton

To all members of Little Compton Parish Council: you are summoned to attend the above
meeting for the purpose of transacting the business set out below.

Members of the public and press are welcome to attend.

J Marsh, Clerk to the Council (Proper Officer)                       Issued: 8 April 2026

AGENDA

1.  Apologies for absence
    To receive apologies, and to consider any written request for approval of absence.

2.  Declarations of interest
    To receive declarations of interest in items on this agenda, and to consider any
    written requests for dispensation.

3.  Minutes of the previous meeting
    To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 9 March 2026.

4.  Public participation
    A period of up to 15 minutes, with up to 3 minutes per speaker, for members of the
    public to raise matters. No decisions may be taken.

5.  Progress on resolutions from the last meeting
    To receive an update from the Clerk. For information only.

6.  Planning applications
    To consider and agree the council's observations on:
    6.1  26/00421/FUL - 12 Mill Lane: two-storey rear extension
    6.2  26/00438/TCA - The Green: fell one sycamore in the conservation area

7.  Finance
    7.1  To approve the schedule of payments totalling £4,182.16 (Annex A)
    7.2  To receive the bank reconciliation and budget monitoring to 31 March 2026

8.  Grass cutting contract 2026–27
    To consider the quotations received (Annex B) and to award the contract.

9.  Mill Lane parking
    To consider the working group's report (Annex C) and to agree next steps.

10. Correspondence
    To note correspondence received since the last meeting (list attached in Annex D).

11. Minutes of committees
    To receive the approved minutes of the Planning Committee meeting held on
    23 March 2026.

12. Items for a future agenda
    To note items for inclusion on a future agenda. No decisions may be taken.

13. Date of the next meeting
    Monday 11 May 2026, 7.30pm, Village Hall. This will be the annual meeting.

14. Exclusion of press and public
    To resolve that, under section 1(2) of the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings)
    Act 1960, the public be excluded from the meeting during item 15 on the grounds
    that publicity would be prejudicial to the public interest by reason of the
    confidential nature of the business to be transacted, namely the terms and
    conditions of employment of a named individual.

15. Staffing: review of the Clerk's terms and conditions

The bit at the top is doing two jobs at once

That header isn't decoration. A single document is serving as both the public notice of the meeting and the summons to members, and the law treats those differently.

Three clear days before a parish council meeting, notice of the time and place must be fixed in a conspicuous place in the parish, and a summons to attend, specifying the business proposed to be transacted, must be served on every member (LGA 1972, Schedule 12, paragraph 10(2)), and that summons must be "certified by the proper officer of the council". In practice the summons and the agenda are the same document, which is why the header below does both jobs.

Two things follow that are easily overlooked:

• The clerk certifies the agenda, not the chair. Paragraph 10(2)(b) puts the certification responsibility on the proper officer, which makes the agenda the clerk's document. Standing orders often require the clerk to consult the chair about content - consultation, not control.

• Email is expressly allowed by the statute, with one condition. Paragraph 10(2A) defines the "appropriate method" of sending a summons as either leaving it at or posting it to the member's usual place of residence, or "where the member has given consent for the summons to be transmitted in electronic form to a particular electronic address (and consent has not been withdrawn), sending it in electronic form to that address".

  So this isn't merely a practice blessed by standing orders, which is how older guidance frames it - it's in the Schedule. But it turns on consent to a specified address, so keep a written record of each member's consent and the address it covers, and treat a withdrawal of consent as putting that member back on post.

Three clear days: how to count it

This is the single most common procedural error, and the counting rule isn't intuitive. It is also the one point where we part company with NALC's published guidance, so it has a guide of its own: three clear days' notice, with a calculator.

The short version. "Clear days" is not defined in the statute. Both end days (the day the notice is issued and the day of the meeting) are excluded. NALC's guidance additionally excludes Sundays, bank holidays and the statutory Christmas and Easter breaks, attributing that to LGA 1972, s.243, but it treats Saturdays as valid countable clear-days.

So the safest advice is to count cautiously: exclude the day of issue, the day of the meeting, and Sundays, bank holidays and days of a statutory break. That satisfies every reading of the provision.

For a meeting on Monday 13 April 2026:

Three clear days is the minimum, not a target. Smaller authorities must publish agendas and meeting papers at least three clear days before the meeting under the Transparency Code in any event, and members need time to read them, so most councils work to five or seven days.

Every standing item, and what it's for

1. Apologies for absence

Receiving apologies and approving an absence are different things. A councillor doesn't need the meeting's approval to miss a meeting - but a member who fails to attend any meeting of the authority for six consecutive months, counting from their last attendance, ceases to be a councillor unless the council approved the reason before that period expired - and note that attendance at a committee or sub-committee, or at a joint body, or as the council's representative at another body's meeting, counts as attendance for this purpose (s.85(2)) (LGA 1972, s.85). So the wording matters: if a member has written in asking for approval, the meeting resolves on it, and that resolution goes in the minutes.

2. Declarations of interest

Where a member has a disclosable pecuniary interest in a matter being considered, and it isn't already on the authority's register, they must disclose it to the meeting (Localism Act 2011, s.31(2)), and they may not participate in the discussion or the vote (s.31(4)). Standing orders may additionally require them to leave the room while the item is dealt with (s.31(10)).

Note what the statute does not say: nothing in s.31 requires the disclosure to be minuted. Sector guidance often cites s.31(2) for a minuting requirement, and the section does not contain one - it is about disclosure to the meeting. Minute it anyway, because it is the only evidence the member complied and your code of conduct or standing orders may require it. Just don't cite s.31(2) for it.

Put this item early, and put dispensation requests with it. A member may only realise they have an interest once they've seen the agenda, so the request often arrives in the few days before the meeting.

3. Minutes of the previous meeting

The meeting approves the previous minutes as a correct record - not as a matter it now agrees with. Amendments at this point correct accuracy; they don't reopen the decision.

Note what this item is not: resolutions take effect immediately when passed, and don't wait for the minutes to be written or approved.

4. Public participation

There is no statutory right for members of the public to speak at a meeting of a parish council, its committees or sub-committees. The public's statutory right is to attend (Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960, s.1, extended to committees by LGA 1972, s.100).

A public participation session is therefore something your council chooses to offer through its standing orders. Record in the minutes that a session was held, and what was raised in outline. Set the length and the per-speaker limit in standing orders, not on the night.

One practical point: confining speakers strictly to items on the agenda tends to read as obstructive, and there is merit in letting residents raise other matters - provided everyone understands that no decision can follow without notice.

5. Progress on resolutions from the last meeting

Avoid the heading "Matters arising". It is ambiguous, and in practice it invites members to reopen settled decisions. "Progress on resolutions" says what the item actually is: an update, for information.

6. Planning applications

List each application with its reference, address and a short description, and make clear that the council is agreeing observations. Parish councils are consultees, not the planning authority - the decision belongs to the district or unitary council.

7. Finance

Payments are a standing item at or near the end for most councils. Authorised payments should be made as soon as practicable after the meeting, in accordance with your financial regulations.

11. Minutes of committees

Receiving or formally acknowledging or adopting committee minutes at the next meeting of the parent body is standard practice, and it's how the council keeps sight of delegated work. Note that the parent council has no role in approving a committee's draft minutes - the committee approves its own, and full council merely receives them.

12. Items for a future agenda, and the case against "Any Other Business"

A meeting can only deal with business on the agenda. That follows from paragraph 10(2)(b): the summons must specify the business proposed to be transacted, so business nobody was summoned to cannot be decided.

Which is why "Any Other Business" is a trap. It collects matters that were never advertised, and no decision can lawfully be taken on any of them. The template replaces it with "Items for a future agenda", which gives members the same outlet without inviting an unlawful decision. Our separate guide works through what can and can't happen off the agenda.

14–15. Exclusion of press and public

Flagging an item that will be taken in private, and setting out the proposed resolution, is good practice rather than a statutory requirement. The wording of both must not itself disclose the confidential information.

Note one nuance. Section 1(2) of the 1960 Act requires "other special reasons" to be "stated in the resolution", and sector guidance takes the view that a meeting need only confirm the broad reason rather than the precise legal basis. Stating the reason plainly, as the template does, satisfies either reading and gives you a defensible record.

Our separate guide covers this in full: exempt business and confidential items.

A few rules worth knowing before you set the agenda

• Where you can meet. A full council meeting can't be held in premises licensed for the supply of alcohol unless no other suitable premises are available free of charge or at reasonable cost (Schedule 12, paragraph 10(1)).
• Quorum. "At least one-third of the whole number of members of the council", and "in no case shall the quorum be less than three" (Schedule 12, paragraph 12). "Whole number of members" is orthodoxly read as the full complement of seats, including vacant ones. Setting an agenda that only works if everyone turns up is a risk.
• How many meetings. The annual meeting must be held in May, and there must be at least three other ordinary meetings a year (Schedule 12, paragraphs 7(2) and 8(1)).
• The annual meeting is different. The first business is the election of the chair (LGA 1972, s.15(2)), and in an election year the meeting must be held on or within 14 days after the day newly elected councillors take office.
• No virtual meetings. The temporary pandemic provisions expired on 7 May 2021 and were not renewed; local council meetings must be held in person. See can a parish council hold virtual meetings?.

Adapting it for committees

Committees need their own standing items and their own terms of reference. Two differences matter for the agenda:

• The public's statutory right to attend covers the full council and its committees, but not sub-committees - attendance at a sub-committee is a matter for standing orders (1960 Act s.1; LGA 1972 s.100(2)).
• Statutory notice rules bite differently below full council level, so it is worth requiring three clear days' notice for committees and sub-committees in your standing orders in any event.

If you're deciding whether a committee is the right answer at all, our help centre covers when to create a committee.

Doing this without a Word file

The template solves the format. It doesn't solve the recurring work: rebuilding the same standing items every month, renumbering when an item is inserted, keeping a confidential version and a public version in step, and getting the papers out three clear days before.

That's what CouncilPapers does. Each committee has its own model agenda, numbering adjusts itself, recurring items come from a library, and committing the agenda publishes the public version and notifies members in one step. See model agendas and building an agenda, or start a free 45-day trial.

See it in use

These are live public pages, published by clerks using CouncilPapers: Edenbridge Town Council, Horne Parish Council and Outwood Parish Council.

Last reviewed 26 September 2026. General guidance for councils in England, not legal advice.