Minutes of the proceedings of a meeting of a local authority shall, subject to sub-paragraph (2) below, be drawn up and entered in a book kept for that purpose and shall be signed at the same or next F1suitable meeting of the authority by the person presiding thereat, and any minute purporting to be so signed shall be received in evidence without further proof.

Notwithstanding anything in any enactment or rule of law to the contrary, the minutes of the proceedings of meetings of a local authority may be recorded on loose leaves consecutively numbered, the minutes of the proceedings of any meeting being signed, and each leaf comprising those minutes being initialled, at the same or next F1suitable meeting of the authority, by the person presiding thereat, and any minute purporting to be so signed shall be received in evidence without further proof.

Until the contrary is proved, a meeting of a local authority a minute of whose proceedings has been made and signed in accordance with this paragraph shall be deemed to have been duly convened and held, and all the members present at the meeting shall be deemed to have been duly qualified.

For the purposes of sub-paragraphs (1) and (2) above the next suitable meeting of a local authority is their next following meeting or, where standing orders made by the authority in accordance with regulations under section 20 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 provide for another meeting of the authority to be regarded as suitable, either the next following meeting or that other meeting.