Each year on 17th October local government draws attention to itself and to the hundreds of interesting stories and unsung heroes in councils across the country. This co-incides with Local Democracy Week.
Go to #OurDay on Twitter and read some of the stories. This years event reached 3 million people. Next year why not get your town or parish council to plan an event for Local Democracy Week? Take your mace into your local school, invite everyone to your council meeting, write a day in the life of a councillor for your parish magazine.
See the infographic on the LGA website
The Department of Communities and Local Government has collected and published, for the first time, data about parishes and the amount of council tax collected on their behalf by their billing authorities for the financial year 2013-2014.
The information is collected from the 326 billing authorities; and the local data section of the Council Tax Requirement forms submitted by 241 parished billing authorities.
The key points are:
- in England there are over 10,000 local parishes, 16 charter trustees and 2 Temples of London
- of these, 8,805 parishes, charter trustees and Temples (local precepting authorities) instructed their billing authority to collect Council Tax on their behalf in 2013 to 2014, with a collective tax base of 7.3 million band D equivalent properties
- 241 of the 326 billing authorities have parishes; the number of parishes that require the collection of Council Tax within a local authority ranges from 1 to 238
- the total Council Tax collected on behalf of parishes and charter trustees, and apportioned to Temples in 2013 to 2014 is £367 million, representing only 1.6% of the total Council Tax requirement for England of £23.4 billion
The data can be seen here.
Census consultation: future provision of population statistics
A three month public consultation by Office for National Statistics (ONS) on the Census and future provision of population statistics in England and Wales is underway.After each census, ONS reviews the future needs for information about the population and housing in England and Wales, and how these needs might be met.
The 2011 Census successfully provided population statistics that will be used for the next decade by planners, policy makers and researchers across the public and private sectors. Our population is changing rapidly, and the need to understand these changes will continue. The Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) Beyond 2011 programme is currently reviewing these needs, and how they might best be met in future.
Improvements in technology and in government data sources offer opportunities to either modernise the existing census process, or to develop an alternative census method that reuses existing data already held within government.
Our research has resulted in two approaches for taking the census in future.
- A census once a decade, like that conducted in 2011, but primarily online.
- A census using existing government data and compulsory annual surveys.
Both approaches would provide annual statistics about the size of the population, nationally and for local authorities. A census using existing data and surveys would provide more statistics about the characteristics of the population every year. An online census would provide more detailed statistics once a decade.
The consultation runs from 23 September to 13 December. ONS will publish their findings in 2014.
Read the consultation document via the ONS website and take part in the consultation.
Find out about our consultation events in London and Manchester in November
The 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War is next year.
During World War One the total number of military and civilian casualties was over 37 million. To commemorate this huge sacrifice the Real Poppy Campaign would like to see the UK covered in real poppies.
Seeds are available to buy via the Real Poppy Campaign
Please consider carefully where the seeds are scattered seeking landowners permission where necessary and being aware of crops and anilmals.
Locality - An Introduction to the Right to Bid
1pm-2pm, Weds 30 October 2013
Find out what the Community Right to Bid can do for you. Join our free webinar with Locality’s Development Manager Stephen Rolph.
With around 500 assets of community value listed, and over 97% of nominations being listed by the local authority, there are lots of opportunities for communities to use the Right to Bid.
It will ‘pause’ the sale of buildings or land you care about such as your local pub, shop, library or football ground giving your community time to develop a bid to buy it.
Find out more about the process, opportunities and challenges, examples of groups doing this well, and how to access free support as well as grants and access to capital funding.
Click here to register on the Introduction to the Right to Bid webinar.
The Electoral Commission has launched a consultation on standing for election in the UK.
This is an opportunity for the sector to comment on how the rules around standing for election can be better standardized wherever possible and the impact this could have on simplifying the system. The consultation covers a broad range of issues, including:
• The appropriateness of current qualifications and disqualifications criteria (pp13-15)
• The number of subscribers necessary for each tier or category of election, including parish and town councils (pp20-21)
• Candidate descriptions, including the current exemption for parish and town council elections which allows all candidates to provide a short description, even if they do not stand for a political party (p29)
• Using photographs on ballot papers (p45) and
• The objections procedure in relation to nominations (p46)
The full consultation documents can be downloaded from the Electoral Commission website
NALC would welcome your responses by 28th November 2013. Please send them to Victoria.pymm@nalc.gov.uk
This consultation ends on 18 December 2013 and the National Association will formally respond on behalf of member councils.
DCLG New Councils programme
NALC welcomed the ministerial announcement on 9th September 2013 of the new DCLG ‘New Councils’ Programme, with funding of just under £1 million over 18 months and starting in October this year, with the possibility of increased funding and/or extension of the Programme if it is a success.
This programme derived from the Prime Minister’s launch in 2011 of the Open Public Services White Paper, which emphasised the developing role of our sector and the need to create new local councils, especially in urban areas.
The Programme will provide:
- A national programme of support to encourage communities to set up new councils
- Grants of up to £10,000 for every community campaign set up
- Grants of up to £25,000 for every new council set up within the duration of the programme
The ministerial statement also included the Government’s response to the consultation on how to make it easier to set up a town or parish council. While Government was not willing to introduce a right of appeal, ministers would be introducing new measures to:
- Reduce to 7.5% the number of electors required for a petition to establish a new local council
- Impose a time limit of 12 months for a Community Governance Review by a principal authority from receipt of a petition to completion
- Make it easier for neighbourhood forums to become local councils, by removing the requirement for them to raise a petition if they have completed a neighbourhood plan.
More information on the .gov website
Village green regime change
In April, the Government took the first step in reducing village
green abuse, by closing a loophole that made it possible to submit a
village green application on land which had already been earmarked for
development.
These reforms form part of the Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013, following the 2010 Penfold Review.
Changes to the village green designation regime have come into force in October,
which ministers hope will reduce the likelihood of people abusing the
system by making spurious applications to block development.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
acknowledged that village green status protects land that is regularly
used for recreation but said that “loopholes in the system have
increasingly been abused by people looking to stop local development”.
“As well as having a negative effect on the rural economy and
reducing the value of land – often by over 90 per cent – this reduces
the availability of rural homes, facilities and hospitals across the
country,” it said.
“While legitimate applications will remain well-protected, changes to
the system will also save local authorities £1.3 million a year, as
applications often lead to expensive and time-consuming public enquiries
and court cases.”
From now on, applications relating to land which is regularly used
for local recreation will have to be made within a year of the land’s
use, rather than two. Similarly, landowners will be encouraged to allow
local communities to make use of their land, as they will be able to
protect it being registered as a village green through new landowner
statements.
Rural Affairs Minister Richard Benyon said: “Towns across the country
have been held back from getting the developments they want through
misuse of the village green system.”
More details on the .gov.uk website
DCLG are keen for everyone to know about the community rights brought in through the Localism Act 2011. See the simple guide here
People around the country value and love the places they live in. They want great local public services, to protect the things that make their neighbourhood special and to help their community grow and develop in the right way. To help build the communities they aspire to, government has given legal powers and new opportunities to preserve what they like and change what they don't like about the city, town or village they live in. Whether they want to stop the local shop closing, get more homes built, or improve local public services, this quick and simple guide will point you in the right direction. It also gives just a few examples of the thousands of people, in hundreds of communities, who are already using their rights to make changes for the better where they live.
With over a thousand uses in their first year, it's clear that people value their new powers and are using the support available until March 2015. Your organisation and members can make use of and benefit from these new powers too - don't miss out, please share this message as widely as you can.
