AN UNLAWFUL decision was made by councillors in one Herefordshire village, council documents have revealed.

Draft minutes reveal that a decision over a village car park made by Pencombe Group Parish Council this summer should not have been made at all.

The council's published agenda said councillors would receive an update on the car park from Councillor Tony Brazier. 

Currently early negotiations are underway to secure a load to build the car park, the July draft minutes said, with the chairman summarising that the budget should be established and the clerk confirming that a re-consultation would be needed with locals if the costs exceeded the estimates agreed when the project started.

A vote was taken after a proposal from one councillor that there should be no financial commitments until a further village meeting had agreed the expenditure, and it was unanimously agreed that quotations would be obtained from contractors and presented at a village meeting seeking authority to proceed. 

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But, the draft minutes said "this decision was unlawful since it was not in line with the meeting agenda which was “to receive an update”. The vote does not stand and the matter is the subject of an extra ordinary meeting held on 1 August."

A report from the clerk, presented to councillors at the August meeting said the approach resolved to be adopted as the way forward with the project last October could not legally be overturned without an explicit agenda item proposing that this decision be set aside and a new decision taken.

"It certainly cannot be set aside based on an agenda item which is to receive an update on the car park," August draft minutes said, also quoting National Association of Local Councils guidance that "a council cannot lawfully transact any business which is not included on the agenda".

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"Consequently council has no option but to disregard the vote and decision taken to refer the decision on the car park back to the village," the minutes said.

"Council is of course free and able to take such a decision on the car park following proper listing in the agenda for the relevant meeting."

This would give all councillors a chance to prepare for that discussion, review and test the earlier decision, and to progress to any new decision in full knowledge of all the consequences.