Agenda item

A briefing note is attached.

Andy Thomas introduced this item. He drew attention to the working group of Parish Clerks, which it was proposed would work on the specific issues raised by ALCA under the Parish Charter.

Nick Stevens of Freshford asked whether the working group would also review the Parish Charter itself. He believed Parish Councillors should also be involved. All parishes had been sent a questionnaire about the Charter in 2009 and Freshford had submitted a very detailed response. Would the responses of parishes in 2009 be considered in the review? Andy Thomas clarified that reference to the clerks working group was due to the nature of the specific issues being raised under the Parish Charter. He agreed that there was an opportunity to review and update the Parish Charter and that Parish Liaison should be involved in this.

Nick Stevens referred to the provision of the Charter that B&NES would allow not less than 21 days for consultation with parishes and said that this timescale would often deny parish councils the opportunity to consider an issue at a formal meeting. A longer consultation period would be better for parishes.

Geoff Davies, Parish Clerk of South Stoke, suggested that now the sending of paper plans to parishes had been discontinued, a zip file containing all the documents relating to a planning application should be available from the B&NES website, as was the case in Wiltshire. Parishes generally did not have internet access in their halls, so if a presentation on an application was to be given at a parish meeting it was necessary to download every document relating to the application separately beforehand. The zip file should also be given a meaningful name, not just a number. He said that he had raised this with a planning officer at a previous meeting. Andy Thomas replied that he understood that a software change would be required before this could be implemented. He had not previously been aware of the issue about file names. Geoff Davies said that he could not see that a software change would be required. Martin Robinson, Chairman of Dunkerton and Tunley PC, was concerned that some drawings accompanying planning applications could not be viewed online because of their poor quality. He suggested that there needed to be basic quality standards for these drawings.

A delegate said that with slow broadband speeds it was difficult to examine plans, and it was impossible to see them properly on tablets. He suggested that either appropriate technology should be provided to parishes or paper plans should continue to be sent to until these problems were resolved. Andy Thomas said there was help to assist parishes with IT. Planning had said that they would continue to provide paper plans for major applications. Andrew Pate said that a paperless approach had huge advantages and suggested that the way forward was to identify the gaps that needed to be filled to make technology work for parishes.

A delegate said that he felt the response on road diversions was a bit glib. Road closures could impact severely on parishes. Diversions could add many miles to journeys. Very short notice had been given of the work at the Viaduct.  Councillor Tony Clarke said that he had already given a public apology for what had happened in relation to the Viaduct and he would give it again. It was unacceptable that notice had only been issued on 23^rd December. This was planned work, and there was no reason not to have given a month’s notice. A review of the management of road works had been launched and an attempt would be made to give proper notice in future. Instead of “Traffic Management” a specific officer would be named on notices. Work was being done on producing timelines for future highways work.

A delegate said that parishes have appreciated more detail than had been given in the briefing note. It was disappointing that no officers from Planning, were present to respond to questions from parish representatives. Andrew Pate suggested that this meeting was possibly not the best forum to discuss detailed issues relating to Highways and Planning, for example. Cllr Martin Veal suggested the Parish Clerks’ working group might be an appropriate forum; the Clerks could then report back to their parishes on issues discussed by the group. Chris Clemence of Hinton Charterhouse said that she was not sure that all Clerks were aware of the working group. Councillor Veal said that he would ensure that information was circulated to Clerks on this. Parishes could also submit issues to the working group.