Clerk’s report

Adoption of meeting-management software

Purpose: To consider adopting ClearDays, an online tool for preparing and publishing the council’s statutory meeting documents.

Background. The council is required to publish notice of its meetings, with the agenda, at least three clear days in advance (Local Government Act 1972, Sch 12), on a website as well as the noticeboard (Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 / Local Government Transparency Code). Public-sector web content is also expected to meet accessibility standards (WCAG 2.2 AA), referenced in Assertion 10 of the Annual Governance and Accountability Return. These duties currently depend on manual drafting and manual date-counting by the Clerk.

What the tool does. ClearDays generates the Notice of Meeting, Summons and Agenda with the statutory wording; computes the “three clear days” publication deadline in accordance with s.243 LGA 1972 (Sundays and bank holidays disregarded), showing its working; publishes documents to an accessible public page; publishes minutes after the meeting; and provides a calendar feed of meetings and statutory deadlines (AGAR, public rights period, Annual Parish Meeting window) to which members may subscribe.

Cost. Free of charge during the current early-access period; the published price thereafter is £19 per month for parish councils (£39 for town councils), cancellable at any time. No long-term contract. [Adjust if pricing has changed.]

Data protection. The tool stores only the council’s name, the Clerk’s name as it appears on documents, and the meeting documents themselves — all of which are public information. It sets no cookies and uses no tracking. No personal data of councillors or residents is processed.

Risk of doing nothing. A notice published late (miscounted clear days) can expose the council’s decisions to challenge; an inaccessible website risks non-compliance with the accessibility duty referenced in the AGAR.

Recommendation. That the council (a) adopts ClearDays for the preparation and publication of meeting documents for a trial period of six months, and (b) reviews its use at the end of that period.