Village SOS campaign

C Gel J Saddleback Farm ShopBrightwalton

Rural residents that want to improve their local community are being urged to sign up for the ACRE Village SOS campaign.

The campaign is funded by £1.4m Big Lottery grant to encourage flourishing rural community enterprises - from car sharing to community cafes. It offers volunteers advice and support matching them with other communities that have 'been there, done that', and will offer expert mentoring through a local support organisation.

From the NALC website

“The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) has secured a multi-million pound package of funding from Government to help smaller parish councils meet new audit and transparency rules.

As one of several important decisions this week affecting town and parish councils, the Government has confirmed a £4.7m Transparency Fund to support small parish councils and other smaller authorities to become web-enabled and compliant with the Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities. This funding programme will be delivered through NALC and is planned to be available from April 2015 for a three-year period, delivered on a county basis by county associations of local councils and targeting local needs.

Support, training and guidance will be made available to assist parish councils, internal drainage boards, charter trustees and port health authorities who spend less than £25,000 a year to move to online publishing of financial and other information, ensuring these bodies are transparent and accountable to their local communities and up-to-speed in the digital age……”

The full article is here. When we have more details from NALC we will let you know.

NALC and SLCC hold joint talks

The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) and Society of Local Council Clerks (SLCC) held their first meeting on 20 March 2015 following the agreement of a new protocol between the two key national bodies representing local council staff and councillors.

In discussion, there was agreement that this was a period of huge opportunity for the sector, which would only be seized if there was close working between the two national bodies, councils, staff and councillors. The sector needed to work together now even more than ever before because of the challenges of localism, austerity and devolution.

The full article is on the NALC website

Greater devolution to parishes?

From the NALC website, 1st April:

"The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) has backed two tier local government in its latest contribution to the UK devolution debate, calling for the creation of unitary principal authorities coupled with the establishment of new parish councils.

A national gathering of parish leaders in Westminster yesterday demanded all political parties should realise the potential of parish councils as a vehicle for decentralising power to local communities as part of a new constitutional settlement for the UK.

NALC feels that real progress to devolution to grassroots councils and communities would happen more efficiently and effectively by the creation of unitary principal authorities, provided they are coupled with more empowered parish councils with devolved functions and services.

Chairman of NALC, Cllr Ken Browse said: "NALC's Manifesto calls for communities to be in more control of their areas; devolution to local government, especially parish councils, can help do just that.

"I am urging all political parties to seize this once in a generation opportunity and ensure the answer to the 'English question' goes much wider than Westminster, with power being driven down into the hands of local people and their democratically elected representatives.

"The next government should set out a new settlement for England including devolving more power and decision making down to communities through parish councils."

Although not commenting on NALC's call for the creation of more unitary principal authorities, Cllr Marianne Overton, vice-chair of the Local Government Association (LGA) also spoke at the meeting of NALC's National Council and said: "Genuine devolution for England, Scotland and Wales will give us the freedom and flexibility to be able to tackle these big issues and only constitutional and secure financial independence for local government will deliver this.

"We support NALC's call for the future settlement on devolution in England to involve all tiers of local government and parish councils must be at the heart of this."

Three Legal Topic Notes revised

Please note:

LTN 15 - Legal Proceedings has been revised

LTN 31 – Section 137 of the Local Government Act 1971 and LTN 79 – Staff Pensions have been revised to reflect the changes in monetary figures relevant for 2015/2016 .

Transparency Code - helping councils to fulfill the requirements

From the NALC website:

“The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) has secured a multi-million pound package of funding from Government to help smaller parish councils meet new audit and transparency rules.

As one of several important decisions this week affecting town and parish councils, the Government has confirmed a £4.7m Transparency Fund to support small parish councils and other smaller authorities to become web-enabled and compliant with the Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities. This funding programme will be delivered through NALC and is planned to be available from April 2015 for a three-year period, delivered on a county basis by county associations of local councils and targeting local needs.

Support, training and guidance will be made available to assist parish councils, internal drainage boards, charter trustees and port health authorities who spend less than £25,000 a year to move to online publishing of financial and other information, ensuring these bodies are transparent and accountable to their local communities and up-to-speed in the digital age……”

The full article is here. When we have more details we will let you know.

Important Consultation - Extending the remit of the Local Government Ombudsman to larger local councils

DCLG have issued a consultation on whether individuals should be able to refer larger parish councils to the Local Government Ombudsman when they feel let down by that council’s corporate governance. 

NALC has a longstanding position supporting the extension of the remit of the Local Government Ombudsman to all parish and town councils. 

The consultation seeks answers to 5 questions:
Q1. Should the Local Government Ombudsman’s jurisdiction be extended to larger parish and town councils?
Q2. Should a large parish or town council be defined by having a population the same as or greater than 35,000 people, or should the population threshold be set at a different limit?
Q3. Should a large parish or town council be defined by having an annual precept of £1m or more?
Q4. Should a larger parish or town council be defined by both population and budget?
Q5. Once subject to the Local Government Ombudsman’s jurisdiction, should the parish or town council remain so for a fixed time period?

The full consultation is here and it closes on 30th June. 

Please send your responses to these questions to either chris.borg@nalc.gov.uk or DCLG parishconsult@communities.gsi.gov.uk