Annual Council meetings - reminder on dates if you have elections
13th of February, 2023
Annual council meeting dates for councils with elections and the Coronation bank holiday
Further to our guidance in the October 2022 legal bulletin, we now know that Monday 8 May will be an additional bank holiday to mark the coronation of HM King Charles III. The 2023 local election date is Thursday 4 May and councillors would ordinarily take office on Monday 8 May. Our view is that councillors will now take office on Tuesday 9 May making the relevant 14-day meeting period for the purposes of paragraph 7 (2) of Schedule 12 to the Local Government Act 1972 Wednesday 10-Thursday 25 May inclusive.
This an area where we are aware there have been different interpretations of the computation of days and we have not counted Sundays in our 14 day calculation.
We are aware that councils may have questions about pre-election publicity because of any Coronation related events pre-election. Our advice is essentially limited to councils ensuring that publicity is in the name of the council rather than any individuals. We will update our briefing L01-22 linking to the LGA’s guidance when the LGA update the guidance, which currently refers to the 2022 local elections.
Annual council meetings dates - uncontested elections
Further to our annual meeting day guidance in December 2022, we have been asked about the earliest date a council annual meeting can be held where there is no contested election. Our view is that where there is no contested election, so it is known whom to summons, the summons can be served in sufficient time with the requisite three clear days’ notice so that the annual council meeting could be held on Tuesday 9 May. That is the day councillors will take office because of the Coronation bank holiday on Monday 8 May. Councils have to know who they need to summons so notice cannot be given before results are known where there are contested elections.