VPRS 12889 Reports to Council and Council Committees

Full description

This series may contain the reports of council committees or individual officers. The reports were read / presented at the meetings of Council or the meetings of Council Committees. Report books were created to hold the reports created either by a Committee or senior officers of the Council.

The Municipal Institutions Act 1863 (No. 184) introduced provisions that required councils to appoint committees and specified that minutes should be kept and signed by the chairman at the following meeting. The Local Government Act 1874 (No.506) included the requirement that, committees report to the council. Reports were read to council and the minutes of council would note which report had been read and by whom, sometimes giving a brief summary of the report. The Local Government Act 1903 (No.1893) removed the requirement that committee minutes be kept and added the requirement that committees' reports to council be included in the council minutes. From this period on reports presented to council are found in full in the council minutes. Subsequent legislation, including the Local Government Act 1958 (No.6299) has continued these requirements.

The reports of committees to council generally record the names of the councillors, which attended the committees meeting and the business and recommendation made by the committee.

Reports were also created by senior council officers such as the Town Clerk, City Engineer or the Health Officer for meetings of either the Council or its committees.

After circa 1900 the practice adopted by the Richmond Council was to incorporate a copy of the reports into the minutes of the relevant Council or Committee meeting. Accordingly, report books created after this date have not been retained. This practice does not appear to have been followed with any consistency regarding the reports created by individual officers and therefore all extant report books of this type have been retained.