CouncilPapers.

What tags are

Tags are labels applied to agenda items. They allow the same topic, project, or reference to be tracked across multiple meetings — so a councillor or clerk can quickly find every item where a particular subject has been discussed, regardless of which committee discussed it or how long ago.

Tags are council-specific. Each council manages its own set of tags, and they are only visible to councillors when logged in to the Councillor App. They do not appear on the public portal.

The tag structure

Tags in CouncilPapers use a two-level hierarchy separated by a pipe character (|). The text before the pipe is the category; the text after is the specific tag within that category.

For example:

Planning | QQ/2025/00123/FUL

Planning | QQ/2025/00456/LBC

Projects | Rugby Club Lease Negotiations 2026

Projects | Playpark Renovations

In the Councillor App, tags from the same category are grouped together, making it easy to browse all items related to a particular topic area.

A tag does not have to have a specific sub-category — a top-level category tag such as Elections can be used on its own if no further detail is needed.

How tags are created

Tags are created by staff only. They can be created at any time — including retrospectively, long after a meeting has been minuted. This means a clerk can tag historical items to build up a consistent record over time.

When adding a tag to an agenda item, the clerk types into the tag field and CouncilPapers suggests matching existing tags via autocomplete. If the typed tag does not yet exist, it is created automatically when saved.

Consistency matters

Because tags are typed rather than selected from a fixed list, consistency requires discipline. A tag of Finance | and a tag of Accounts | would be treated as wholly separate tags, and items tagged with one would not appear when browsing the other.

The practical recommendation is to agree your tag categories before you start, write them down, and stick to them. A small number of well-used categories is more useful than a large number of inconsistently named ones.

Suggested starting categories for most councils:

• Planning | — for planning applications (see below)
• Projects | — for named projects and ongoing workstreams
• Finance | — for budget and financial items
• Personnel | — for staffing matters

Planning applications and automatic tagging

When a planning application is imported into CouncilPapers, the system automatically applies two tags to the associated agenda item:

• The planning application reference (e.g. Planning | QQ/2025/00123/FUL)
• The application's postcode (e.g. Planning | TN8 5AA)

These tags are created automatically — the clerk does not need to do anything. This means every planning item is immediately searchable and browsable by reference and location from the moment it is imported.

What councillors can do with tags

When a councillor views an agenda item in the Councillor App, any tags applied to that item are shown. Clicking a tag displays a list of every other agenda item across all meetings that shares the same tag.

This makes tags particularly useful for tracking ongoing topics. A councillor interested in a specific planning application or project can tap its tag and immediately see the full history of how it has been discussed across meetings.

Tags and search

Tag text is indexed and searchable. A councillor searching for a planning reference or a project name will find items tagged with that text in their search results, even if the reference does not appear in the agenda item text itself.

For more on search, see Using search effectively.