The Annual Parish Meeting must be held each year between March 1st and June 1st. This is, in legal terms, a totally separate body from the Parish Council, but it is invariably the Parish Council that arranges it (simply because it is unlikely that anyone else will do so).
The decisions of the Annual Parish Meeting are not binding on the Parish Council, but it is a useful forum for the Parish Council to learn of issues that concern parish residents.
It may help to remember the difference between the two meetings as the Annual Parish Meeting is a legacy from the Middle Ages, when local Parish Councils did not exist, and all local decision making was carried out by meetings of the whole community, taking place in any available large building eg the church vestry.
The Annual Parish Meeting is open to all electors of Barnburgh and Harlington Parish, who have the right not only to attend but also to speak on any matter of local interest. This is in contrast to a Parish Council meeting, where electors who are not Councillors have no automatic right to speak (although Barnburgh and Harlington Parish Council does have a set time before any Parish Council meeting when electors can raise matters of concern to them).
The Annual Parish Meeting has its own minutes, which are kept separately from the Parish Council minutes, and these minutes can only be approved by the next Annual Parish Meeting which will, of course, not be held until the following year.
The Annual Parish Meeting is usually held in the Village Hall in April.
Sometimes a speaker is invited to speak on a subject of current interest to the village. As this is a meeting of a body separate from the Parish Council the date is not affected by the Parish Council election cycle, though practical considerations may mean that it is arranged on a different date in an election year.
