Parish meeting

A parish meeting, in England, is a meeting to which all the electors in a civil parish are entitled to attend.

In some cases, where a parish or group of parishes has fewer than 200 electors, the parish meeting can take on the role of a parish council, with statutory powers, and electing a chairman and clerk to act on the meeting's behalf.

Parish meetings are a form of direct democracy, which is uncommon in the United Kingdom, which primarily uses representative democracy.

In England, the annual parish meeting of a parish with a parish council must take place between 1 March and 1 June, both dates inclusive, and must take place no earlier than 6pm.

In areas where there is a parish council, the chairman of the parish council shall chair the parish meeting, and the parish meeting has none of the powers listed in the next section of this article. It acts only as an annual democratic point of communication.

In areas with no parish council, the parish meeting has the following powers:

Allotments: a parish meeting may hold and administer allotments for cultivation (s.33 (3) Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908);

Bus Shelters - a parish meeting may provide and maintain a bus shelter (s. 4 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1953 and s.179 of the 1972 Act);

Burials: a parish meeting is a burial authority. It may therefore provide burial grounds and may contribute toward s the cost of burial facilities provided by others(Para 1(c) of schedule 26 to the 1972 Act);

Cemeteries and crematoria: power to adopt byelaws made by a district or London borough council or the City of London (Para11(1) of schedule 26 to the 1972 Act);

Charities: a parish meeting has the same powers as a parish council to appoint trustees to parochial charities. The audited accounts of all parochial charities (except those for the relief of poverty) must be sent to the chairman of the parish meeting who must lay them before the next meeting (s.79 (2) of the Charities Act 1993);

Churchyards:liability to maintain a closed Church of England churchyard may be transferred to a parish meeting by the same process by which such liability is transferred to parish council (s.215 (2) of the 1972 Act). i.e. by serving written request on the chairman of the meeting. See also LTN 65 - Closed Churchyards and Disused Burial Grounds.

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