The Government has turned down a proposal for a share of business rates to go to parish and town councils, suggesting they do not see local economic development as part of their localism role.
The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) said it was ‘bitterly disappointed’ but ‘not entirely surprised’ by news that the Department for Communities and Local Government has not supported a proposal made under the Sustainable Communities Act to give local councils a percentage of business rates to help fund their work on measures to support local economic growth.
In his letter responding to the proposal from Sevenoaks Town Council, DCLG minister Stephen Williams MP said “Government understands the wish of parish and town councils to secure a share of the business rates collected by billing authorities. However, all of this funding is required to help deliver the services for which the principal local authorities and major precepting authorities are responsible”.
Chairman of NALC, Councillor Ken Browse said: “I’m bitterly disappointed in this decision from the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition Government, which took over six months to reach, although I’m not entirely surprised. They’ve failed to take advantage of a golden opportunity to recognise and boost the economic development role of grassroots councils, and of town councils in particular. Our important part of local government has long argued for more radical reform of business rates, including during the resource review in 2011 and 2012, when the current Government again said no.
“While the minister says parish and town councils ‘have a key role to play in our vision for localism’, this obviously does not include local economic development. Our councils will feel let down as this is increasingly the kind of activity they are supporting and funding from their resident levy, the precept, measures welcomed by local businesses. The Government needs to think again.”
The proposal from Sevenoaks Town Council received support from over 400 local and national bodies, and was made under legislation championed by Government to help remove barriers and red tape.
Sevenoaks Town Council can challenge the Government’s decision by referring it to the Selector who can request the Secretary of State to reconsider his decision.
NALC have updated two more legal topic notes - LTN 3 - The Powers of a Parish Meeting in a Parish without a separate Parish Council and LTN 6 - Meetings of Parish Meetings.
Where appropriate, statutory references have been updated. The revised LTN 6 includes references to the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 as amended by the Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 on 6 August 2014.
As a member you can access all 85+ Legal Topic Notes on the NALC website in the Members Area, your clerk will have a Username and Password to access this area. Please remember to check that you are using the most up to date LTN because legislation is changing all the time.
BALC is now offering its member
councils access to Bethan Osborne, an experienced HR and employment
advisor. As part of that service Bethan will write a monthly article on
relevant employment legislation changes that could affect your council.
The full article will be placed in the Documents section of our website,
under the BALC documents tab. This months article is about pensions, this is important, please read it and act upon it if appropriate for your council. The briefing comes in two parts and also covers shared parental leave:
- What is auto-enrolment all about?
- When is it being implemented?
- What are the minimum criteria for pensions under auto-enrolment?
- Will it affect my council?
- When will it affect us?
- Will it affect all employees?
- What if employees don’t want a pension?
- What if we are already in LGPS?
- What if we offer a private pension already?
- What if we do not have a pension provider?
- Can we opt for NEST instead of our existing plan?
- What if our Clerk has a Retirement Gratuity in his/her contract of employment?
- What do we need to do to be prepared?
- Do we need to talk to our staff about this?
- Where can I find out more?
Shared Parental Leave – five minute briefing
- What is happening to rights for expectant and new parents?
- Why do we need to know about it so soon?
- Can anyone take time off like this?
- How much notice do the parties need to give their employers?
- What will Mums and Dads on Shared Parental Leave earn?.
- Can parents return to their original jobs after Shared Parental Leave?
- What do we need to do next?
Mark Harper, Minister of State for Disabled People launched The Accessible Britain Challenge on Thursday 4 September.
The vision of the Accessible Britain Challenge is for communities to become more inclusive and accessible by engaging and working with disabled people to remove barriers that get in the way of them being full and active contributors in their community.
The Department for Work and Pensions are keen to get all communities looking at ways to make all aspects of life more accessible for those with disabilities. While much of this attention is focused on principal authorities it is pertinent for parish councils to look at those areas they have responsibility for - play areas. allotments, burial grounds, particularly the premises in which you hold your council meetings and your website.
More information and good practice case studies are here on the .gov.uk website
Important! Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 – this means filming, blogging and tweeting of your council meeting
The Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has issued a Plain English Guide to the Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 to coincide with the implementation of these Regulations in the first week in August. DCLG has sought to regularise what it sees as an anomaly in that reporting was allowed in the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Access to Information) (England) Regulations of 2012 for local authorities with executive arrangements which excluded town and parish councils. DCLG view this as a logical extension of open and transparent democracy.
These Regulations introduce two important requirements:
- Allowing people to film, blog, tweet or use other types of social media to report on council meetings; and the
- Recording of delegated decisions made by officers under instruction of the council.
BALC and Oxfordshire Association of Local Councils have taken the initiative and organised a morning briefing from Liz Howlett, solicitor on Thursday 2nd October. This will be at Didcot, Civic Hall, 9.30-12.30pm cost £35 + VAT per member council delegate.
Please send bookings to Oxfordshire, all the details are on the form which has been sent to all clerks of member councils.
More details from christine.lalley@ccberks.org.uk 0118 9612200 or info@oalc.org.uk 01491 823118
The National Federation of Parks and Green Spaces (NFPGS) have an online petition and questionnaire that is hoping to reach as many different community organisations and parks people as possible.
The petition follows the Heritage Lottery Fund report ‘State of UK Public Parks’ – available here
. The report published in June 2014 documented what the NFPGS felt to be an
alarming slide into long-term crisis being caused by the underfunding
of the UK's parks. It is hoped that this important and timely document
will inform and influence all decision-making on the future of our green
spaces.
The NFPGS released the following statement:
“This report on the alarming long-term crisis being caused by the underfunding of the UK's parks, so vital to every local community, is a shocking wake-up call which clearly necessitates immediate and effective national action.
The inspirational rise of the Friends Groups movement over the last 15 years has demonstrated the commitment of the public. We are now demanding an equivalent commitment from the Government to ensure adequate public resources for all green spaces, a statutory duty to manage these spaces to decent (Green Flag Awards) standards, and a national inquiry into these matters.
We will be responding to the report by launching a UK-wide public petition, and are also calling on all park users to back Love Parks Week at the end of July to demonstrate our love for our vital local green spaces."
- Sarah Royal and Dave Morris, National Federation of Parks and Green Spaces
The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has published several new proposals to make practical improvements on earlier planning reforms.
These are available here
These proposals are in six main sections :
• Section 1 focuses on making it easier for residents and businesses to produce a neighbourhood plan;
• Section 2 seeks to expand permitted development rights to reduce bureaucracy and encourage growth;
• Section 3 looks to improve the use of planning conditions and to facilitate a quicker start to development;
• Section 4 addresses engagement with statutory consultees to ensure they are consulted appropriately on development plans
• Section 5 raises the environmental impact assessment screening thresholds for industrial estate and urban development buildings;
• Section 6 sets out improvements to the nationally significant infrastructure planning regime.
In order to help shape the NALC submission they would welcome your responses by 17:00 on Friday, 19th September 2014 to ilina.sen@nalc.gov.uk .
