Council Meetings
In this section you can find out information relating to the Parish Council’s committee structure and meeting schedule. Council and committee meetings are held in Burnham Park Hall on either Monday or Tuesday evenings.
Members of the public are welcome at all meetings except on the rare occasion where sensitive matters such as staffing may be discussed. A public participation period is set aside at the start of each meeting in which the public may ask questions or make comments regarding any matter.
​
Full Council - The Full Council meetings are meetings of the whole corporate Council body of Councillors. It usually meets on a Monday evening every 6 weeks and is responsible for overseeing the work of the committees, making key decisions that cannot be delegated, and reviewing major strategic or financial matters.
​
Burnham Park Management Committee - The Burnham Park Management Committee meet on a Tuesday evening approximately 6 times a year to discuss matters relating to the administration and management of Burnham Park Hall.
​
Recreation & Amenities Committee - The Recreation & Amenities Committee oversees the managing of the Council’s parks, playgrounds, football pitches, street furniture, and public toilets. It meets about 6 times a year on a Tuesday evening.
​
Policy & Resources Committee - The Policy & Resources Committee oversees Council strategy, policies, procedures and finances, as well as approving grant applications and managing staffing issues. It meets about 6 times a year on a Tuesday evening.
​
Planning Committee - The Parish Council Planning Committee considers applications in its area at its meetings, usually every three weeks on a Monday afternoon, and makes representations to Buckinghamshire Council. The Planning Committee also considers major local and regional planning issues, and planning policy matters.
The Parish Council is not the Local Planning Authority, and has no powers to determine planning applications in Burnham. These are decided by Buckinghamshire Council, and you can find out more here. However, they consult the Parish Council on most applications in Burnham. As well as being able to raise any issues with the Parish Council, we strongly recommend that anyone wishing to support or oppose an application does so directly to Buckinghamshire Council.
​
Annual Parish Meeting - The Annual Parish Meeting takes place each year, between 1st March and 1st June.
The meeting is an opportunity for local groups to report back to residents on their work over the past year, and for residents to raise and a take a poll on any local issues.
Confusingly, the Annual Parish Meetings is not a council meeting, (although, even more confusingly, it’s organised by the Parish Council, and the Chair of the Parish Council has to preside at the meeting if they are present).
​
The Terms of Reference for all Committees can be viewed here.
Agendas and Minutes
In this section you can view agendas and minutes relating to recent and upcoming Council and Committee meetings.
​
​
​
​
Agendas are available 5 days before a meeting is scheduled to take place.
Minutes are available after a meeting has taken place. Please allow up to 5 working days for Minutes to be uploaded onto our website.
Schedule of Meetings
Council and Committee meetings are held in Burnham Park Hall. Click the link below to view the schedule of meetings for the year.
Public Participation at Meetings
All meetings are open to the public unless their presence is prejudicial to the public interest by reason of the confidential nature of the business to be transacted or for other special reasons (i.e. confrontational, abusive etc.)
​
The public’s exclusion from part or all of a meeting shall be by a resolution which shall give reasons for the public’s exclusion.
​
Members of the public are permitted to make representations, answer questions and give evidence in respect of any item of business included on the agenda. The period of time which is set aside for public participation is at the Chairman’s discretion but in general should not exceed 15 minutes.
-
The opportunity to speak is on a first come first served basis. Each member of the public is entitled to speak only once and for no longer than 3 minutes. Therefore if more than 5 people have signed in to speak it will be the first 5 given this opportunity unless it is all on the same subject.
-
Questions asked by a member of the public during a public participation should NOT require an immediate response.
-
The Chairman may at any time choose that a question asked by a member of the public be directed to another Councillor for an oral response or to an employee for a written or oral response.
-
The Chairman can elect whether or not to hear a member of public speak if they feel the subject in question has already had enough hearing.
-
If a member of the public interrupts the proceedings at any meeting the Chairman may, after warning, order that they be removed from the meeting and may adjourn the meeting for such a period as is necessary to restore order.
-
All public participation will be included in the minutes for that meeting.
-
All comments need to be addressed to the Chairman.
-
Only one person may speak at a time.
-
For an enquiry not relating to a current agenda please write to the Clerk for a written response after the next meeting of the full Council.