Issue - meetings

Councillor Myers will update the meeting on

(a)  the Parish Charter

(b)  the Parish Sweeper scheme

(c)  the Community Empowerment Fund

Parish Charter

Cllr Myers thanked everyone who had participated in the Parish Charter consultation. 43 out of the 51 towns and parishes (84%) had given feedback. The majority of parishes supported the new Charter. There had been many helpful proposed amendments and improvements. An amended draft would be circulated to towns and parishes before the new Charter went to Council for approval in March 2018. The main concerns raised during the consultation were:

·  communications and the lack of feedback from the Council: Cllr Myers said this had been taken on board. Concerns about failure to give feedback to parish comments on planning applications would be addressed under tonight’s Planning update.

·  Council staff’s awareness of the role and nature of the parishes: Cllr Myers said this was a very strong message, and evidently there was work to be done in educating Council staff about the parishes.

·  whether parishes have the capacity to take on more responsibilities

He referred to issues raised at the latest ALCA meeting which had been fed through as suggestions for tonight’s agenda. He said that he had telephoned a number of those who had raised issues to discuss them. The clarification they had provided had been very useful. However, it was not possible to run the Parish Liaison Meeting on an individual case review basis. Therefore, he would attend an hour before the start of each meeting, so that parish representatives could raise specific issues with him. In addition, the Council had locality managers:

Dave Dixon  The Hollies  01225 396532

Sara Dixon  The Hollies  01225 396594

In the first instance parishes should contact Council Connect, and if Council Connect were not able to provide the required information, the locality managers could be contacted. He had gathered from feedback that parishes would rather receive ‘no’ for an answer than receive no answer at all. If parishes felt they were getting nowhere, he would be happy for them to email him. He would follow issues through and, if necessary, take them to Cabinet or talk to officers. He recognised that two-way communication was the essential foundation for effective partnership working between parishes and the Council.

Parish Sweeper Scheme

Cllr Myers reminded delegates that this scheme had commenced in April 2003 and was now due for a review. There were 18 participating parishes. Street cleaning functions had been delegated to these parishes and funding based on an initial lengthy of highway. Additional funding had not been given to cover increases in cost, such as uprating of the Living Wage, or for additional parishes to participate. Parishes in the scheme decided how to spend the money. Most employ staff, 5 have contracted out street cleaning, and one has contracted out a twice-yearly mechanical sweep. The review would look at what has been achieved by the scheme and at employment and health and safety issues. Additionally, the fact that the most parishes were not in the scheme raised the issue of fairness. There would be a short dedicated meeting about the sweeper  ...  view the full minutes text for item 93