Cancelling or removing a meeting

When a meeting isn't going ahead

Sometimes a scheduled meeting will not take place as planned. CouncilPapers gives you three ways to deal with this, and the right one depends on how far off the meeting is, how significant it is, and whether its agenda has already been published.

Delete the meeting

Deleting removes the meeting completely - it disappears from the Meetings list, the calendar, the public website and everyone's subscribed calendars.

Use this when the meeting is far off, routine and frequent, so that its quiet disappearance won't cause any confusion - for example a regular committee slot some months away that is no longer needed.

Deleting is permanent, and it also removes any draft agenda and items attached to the meeting. Don't delete a meeting whose agenda has already been published, or one that people are already expecting - cancel it instead, so the record is preserved.

To delete, open the meeting, click Edit Meeting, and use the Delete Meeting button.

Move the meeting date

If the meeting is simply happening on a different day, you can edit it and change its Start Date rather than cancelling it. See Creating a meeting for how to edit a meeting's details.

Two things to be aware of before you move a date:

• No one is notified. Moving the date just moves the meeting - it does not send any email to councillors or the public. If people need to know, tell them separately.
• The web address does not change. A meeting's permalink is based on its original date (for example 20261001-full-council). Moving the meeting to a new date leaves that address unchanged, so the link will no longer match the new date. This is usually harmless, but worth knowing if you share meeting links.

You can only change the date while the meeting is still being prepared - once the agenda has been published, the meeting's details are locked. At that point, cancel the meeting instead.

Cancel the meeting

Cancelling keeps the meeting on the record and clearly marks it as cancelled: it stays visible on the public website, the councillor app and your admin screens with a Cancelled (or Abandoned) badge, rather than vanishing.

Use this when:

• the meeting is close to now, so people are already expecting it;
• it is a landmark occasion - for example the Annual Meeting of the Council - where the record should show it was due and then cancelled; or
• the agenda has already been published, so the meeting is a matter of public record and must not simply disappear.

A cancellation can also be recorded during a meeting that is abandoned part-way through - for example a fire alarm or a loss of quorum - in which case the minutes are curtailed at the point the meeting stopped.

If the agenda has already been published, there are a couple of extra steps to get the record right. See Cancelling a meeting after the agenda is published.