Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973

First meetings of new councils

4 (1) The first meeting of each new council shall be held within twenty-one days immediately following the day of election.

(2) The first meeting shall be convened by a person designated—

(a) in a case where there is a committee for the area established under section 230 of this Act, by the committee ; and

(b) in any other case, by the Secretary of State ;

and shall be held at such place as the said person may appoint.

(3) The notice of the meeting required by paragraph 2(1) of Schedule 7 to this Act shall, in the case of the first meeting, be published at the place where the meeting is to be held, and the summons to attend the meeting required by that paragraph shall be signed by the person designated as mentioned in sub-paragraph (2) above.

5 (1) Until the completion of the election of a chairman at the first meeting of a new council, the returning officer appointed as mentioned in paragraph 2 above, or failing him any such councillor as may be selected by the councillors meeting together, shall exercise any functions falling to be exercised by the chairman of the council, but the person so acting as chairman shall not be entitled to vote unless he is a councillor for the new area.

(2) At the first meeting of a new council the person designated as mentioned in paragraph 4(2) above shall exercise any functions falling to be exercised by the proper officer of the new council in relation to the meeting.

(3) The standing orders for the regulation of the proceedings and business of an existing authority, designated in the manner indicated in heads (a) and (b) of paragraph 4(2) above, shall apply at the first meeting of a new council.