Council of the Week: Stone Parish Council

This week’s Council of the Week, the last of 2014, was nominated by the Kent Association of Local Councils (KALC) and has been chosen in recognition of its many and recent achievements.

Stone Parish Council has an excellent track record of success, which has been sustained on the foundation of sound management and a genuine vision for its community in an area that certainly does not lack demanding challenges due to economic pressures.

In particular KALC has highlighted its excellent communication channels; a quarterly e-newsletter, which is exemplary and available to download from the website; we recommend taking a look at the last one. The council also has an impressive website, which is brilliantly designed and easy to access: possibly the best communication combination in Kent.

The Clerk in particular has continued to invest her significant professional knowledge, time and effort into to ensuring that the Council maximises its strong profile. This is a Council that not only has huge ambitions; but also delivers and then ensures that its electors and others know about its excellent achievements.

Stone Parish Council continues to develop a large number of projects and initiatives from land management to tackling anti-social behaviour and is making real strides in all of these areas. This is a Council that is fully in touch with its electors and any analysis of one of its newsletters emphasizes that it is at the centre of its community: from entertainment, to sport to transport. This is a Local Council that invests, develops and celebrates the wealth of its community in an inclusive way that supports youth, workers and retired electors. The result is that the Council is fully involved and engaged and this confidence clearly supports the Council in its wider mission.

However, communication is not just about singing its praises for Stone Parish Council. In fact, both the newsletter and website are predicated on being accessible and professional so any elector in the community served by this Council has a huge advantage with information on local services and members: this is very much a hub of information approach and it works extremely well.

Finally, this is a Council that also has a professional Clerk who is dedicated to our tier of Local Government.

Terry Martin, KALC County Secretary said: "We recently recently called on Jennie Thomas to share her expertise and achievements in the field of recording and filming meetings and Jenny kindly provided an excellent presentation within a workshop to members across Kent. The resulting session was predictably excellent and much valued by all those delegates who attended."

NALC would like to congratulate Stone Parish Council on the high profile the council has achieved by consulting with and successfully delivering services to its electors. This is a model council that is active, imaginative and communicates well with its electors. The community as a result has genuine leadership and can look to the Local Council to protect and raise the quality of life in the parish.

The next Council of the Week will be featured on 12 January 2015 and any nominations for 2015 should be no longer than 500 words combined with an image to Kate Groves.