News

AUTHOR: AMY COBBETT, BUSINESS AND RURAL AFFAIRS ADVISER AT THE NATIONAL FARMERS' UNION

With the outbreak of COVID-19, we are in an unprecedented time of change and challenges. In order for rural communities and businesses to successfully navigate the difficulties presented by COVID-19, it is important to work together to best support these areas during this trying time. This piece briefly outlines some ways that local (parish and town) councils can work alongside the National Farmers' Union (NFU) and farmers to ensure the best possible outcome for rural businesses.

AUTHOR: THE REVEREND DR MARK BETSON, NATIONAL RURAL OFFICER AT THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND

One of the very positive things to come out of the current global crisis is the resilience of local communities. I work as the National Rural Officer for the Church of England and part of my role is to keep in to try to keep in touch with the 10,000 of our 16,000 churches that inhabit the countryside. The story from them has largely been the same across the country with village communities developing locally based schemes to support the vulnerable and encourage everyone.

AUTHORS: VARIOUS STAFF AT NALC

Like so many organisations, NALC moved quickly to homeworking for all staff due to the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, as part of NALC's business continuity planning most staff began working from home prior to the government advice to stop unnecessary travel and to work from home where possible. NALC staff reflect on the last few months, swapping the NALC office to their home office.

AUTHOR: GARETH ELLIOT, HEAD OF POLICY AND COMMUNICATIONS AT MOBILE UK

Patchy mobile coverage is one of today’s real concerns as the world becomes ever more connected. In the UK, many of the rural areas currently get only partial coverage or none at all. Ofcom’s most recent data states that 91% of the country receives 4G coverage from at least one operator and 66% from all four. Having good mobile coverage is widely recognised as being essential for the future prosperity of the rural economy and rural communities. People increasingly want the flexibility to work from home, and many sectors such as farming, tourism and transport are using mobile connectivity to increase productivity and improve services. Happily, the industry and the Government agreed on an unprecedented deal on 9th March 2020 that will extend coverage and eliminate the vast majority of partial not-spots coverage by all four operators.

AUTHOR: STUART WILBUR, MICROSHADE VSM

Microshade VSM works in close co-operation with cybersecurity experts to ensure the safety of local (parish and town) councils' data. We wish to share this information with the sector that has given to us.

AUTHOR: ANGE JONES, AGE-FRIENDLY COMMUNITIES MANAGER AT THE CENTRE FOR AGEING BETTER

An Age-friendly Community is a place where people of all ages are able to live healthy and active later lives. It involves local groups, councils, businesses and residents all working together to identify and make changes in both the physical and social environments. This could be anything from transport and outdoor spaces to volunteering and employment or leisure and community services.

AUTHOR: ANDREW TUBB, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF CIRENCESTER TOWN COUNCIL

Having received over 500 positive and constructive responses to a public consultation on Cirencester Town Council’s budget proposal and always seeking to raise the bar even higher, I was interested to learn about innovative democracy at a conference in Manchester, part of International Week for Democratic Innovation.

AUTHOR: CLLR LILLIAN BURNS, PRESTBURY PARISH COUNCIL

Citizens’ Assemblies were very much to the fore at the Innovating Local Democracy Conference which took place in Manchester in January. Earnest local authority officers and others spent much time examining different models and how to make them work most effectively and learning best practice from each other. All good stuff.

AUTHOR: PROFESSOR JANE WILLS, CENTRE FOR GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

There has been little to celebrate in the world of local government in recent years. Severe budget cuts have hit local authorities very hard and the associated headlines have been all about service cuts, job losses and even bankruptcy.

AUTHOR: LORD GARY PORTER, FORMER CHAIRMAN OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION

As my time as chairman comes to its close, I can reflect on the importance of the relationship that has developed between the Local Government Association (LGA) and NALC for the sector. 

AUTHOR: DANNY MOODY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE COUNTY ASSOCIATION OF LCOAL COUNCILS

Over the past two years Northants CALC (the membership organisation for parish and town councils in Northamptonshire) has been heavily engaged in the Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) programme in the county. LGR will see the existing borough, district and county councils replaced with two new unitary councils, West Northamptonshire Council and North Northamptonshire Council, from 1 April 2021.

AUTHOR: HELEN WILDSMITH, STEWARDSHIP DIRECTOR (CLIMATE CHANGE) AT THE CCLA

Increasing attention is being paid to the impact that climate change will have on the economy.

AUTHOR: JAMES BEVAN, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER AT THE CCLA

Planning ahead for costs and revenues or profits and losses requires assumptions to be set on the what will happen to economies, the environment and markets. Climate change can affect all three.

AUTHOR: CLLR BARONESS SCOTT OF BYBROOK OBE, WILTSHIRE COUNCIL

Retiring as leader of Wiltshire Council this year has offered me the opportunity to reflect on all that has been achieved, and how local government has changed over the last ten years. For me, chief among these was the creation of Wiltshire Council in 2009. As the leader of Wiltshire County Council at the time, applying for unitary status seemed like a golden opportunity to improve the delivery and efficiency of services for 470,000 people.

AUTHOR: ANDREW TUBB, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF CIRENCESTER TOWN COUNCIL

It was great to be asked to chair the making communities healthier workshops at the NALC annual conference, with a strong focus on loneliness; during the sessions I had a strong sense that whilst loneliness is on-trend, the most important message to take away was the impact we can all have where we live and work.

AUTHOR: JONATHAN OWEN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LOCAL COUNCILS

Amidst all the current manifesto talk there is a frisson of excitement in the world of think tanks which is highly relevant to our movement, especially our largest ‘super’ local (parish and town) councils, about the concept of ‘community power’.

AUTHOR: DANIELLE FROST, HEALTH AND WELLBEING OFFICER AT THE ESSEX ASSOCIATION OF LOCAL COUNCILS

The health and wellbeing movement is fundamental to Essex County Council’s strategic plan and they understand that to be successful, they need the local council sector to engage with it. Local (parish and town) councils are the closest layer of government to residents and can have the greatest impact on residents’ lives, from beginning to end.

CRISPIN TRUMAN OBE, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND

Standing in the High Weald in Kent recently, I’d been hearing about the multitude of problems the local area faces, with the pressures of development, degradation of nature, the finances of farming and the decline in traditional forms of community and participation.

NALC has taken the opportunity to use the challenges of Brexit and local government funding reductions to undertake a stocktake of where the sector is now, how it sees itself and its future, and how others perceive it and view its potential. NALC want this big conversation to help develop a new vision for the role of local (parish and town) councils and the support and change needed to achieve this.

Organised by the Local Government Association, #OurDay is an annual tweetathon that gives everyone who works or volunteers in public services the chance to share their stories of how they improve the quality of life of their residents. And it’s really easy to get involved – simply tweet us @NALC using the #OurDay hashtag with your local council’s top achievements from 2017. NALC want to know anything you have done to benefit your community. Remember, images and videos help tell your story so make sure you tweet them out too! Do also sign up to the #OurDay thunderclap which will help get the hashtag trending. NALC be playing our part by tweeting out case studies from throughout the year. If you’ve already decided to get involved please let NALC know at: . If you’re not on Twitter yet, here are some simple tips to help signing up, so you can get involved!

Find out more about #OurDay

NALC's A prospectus for ultra-localism sets out our positive offer to the  government. It outlines how we can help the next government realise its ambitions for community empowerment, localism and devolution. It also arms the next government with a range of policy ideas to unlock the power and potential of communities by helping local councils flourish.

Next week marks the beginning of Volunteers’ Week 2017, an annual event from 1-7 June which celebrates the difference volunteers make to communities across the country.

NALC supports and welcomes the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) new toolkit that can help local councils make sure they are meeting data protection rules.

 NALC continues to promote onward devolution with the recent publication of its new Devo Plus toolkit

The main finding from a recent NALC survey of parish meetings across England was that most parish meetings want access to...

The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) recently responded to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) Business Rate Appeals...

NALC has launched a survey of parish councils to support its campaign to give parishes greater community led housing powers.

NALC's Policy Committee met on 26 July 2016 and agreed that parishes in all Devolution Deal areas should push for a seat at the devolution table in their areas, especially in those areas represented by a Combined Authority.

The NALC Larger Councils’ Committee met for its annual good practice visit in Dunstable on 19 July, 2016 and re-iterated its call on the new government to make good on exempting parish councils from payment of business rates on public buildings they own or manage – before 2018.

NALC's Policy Committee met on 10 May 2016 and formally agreed to adopt a position for parish councils to become statutory consultees on all aspects of Temporary Events Notice applications.

The NALC Larger Councils Committee met on 26 April 2016 and called for larger local councils in England to make good quality proposals to solve national policy problems they are facing – using the Sustainable Communities Act 2007.

The NALC Larger Councils’ Committee called again for an exemption from business rate payment on public conveniences owned and managed by parish councils, at its recent meeting on 20 October 2015.

NALC has welcomed proposals to reform the rules governing parish polls but has called for additional measures to ensure costs are kept down.

The Chancellor's recent Budget announced in Clause 2.125 that 'the government will allow local authorities in England to use their discretionary relief powers to support publicly owned public lavatories from 1 April 2018', which at a time of austerity and devolution is seen as a triumph by both local (parish and town) councils and national bodies.

NALC's Policy Committee met on 9 February 2016 and formally agreed to adopt a position seeking exclusion from the proposed Right To Buy extension – of housing in rural areas, particularly where the land has been originally provided to meet local housing need.

NALC have been lobbying the Government to undertake more research and analysis of the parish sector for everyone to get better understanding of these communities and neighbourhoods.

The National Association of Local Councils' (NALC) Larger Councils’ Committee met on 26 January 2016 and following intelligence that high street bank closure in many market towns of south west England is a major problem.

NALC's Sustainable Communities Advisory Board met on 11 December 2015 and agreed to write again to Government reiterating the position that parishes should be statutory consultees in all aspects of the planning system including large cross border housing applications.

The National Association of Local Council's All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Local Democracy met on 18 November 2015 and held an evidence session on devolution where it agreed that far more power, services and assets should be devolved to parishes as part of the government’s devolution agenda.

Currently the post office network is undergoing its biggest restructuring in decades. The aim of this transformation programme is to maintain the size of a network of approximately 11,500 branches and ensure it is financially sustainable for the future by converting around three quarters of the network to new operating models.

NALC Policy Committee met on 3 November 2015 and urged the Chancellor to continue to exempt parish councils from referendum principles in his Autumn Statement and Spending Review on 25 November 2015.

The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) has demanded that Government’s devolution plans must include communities, neighbourhoods and parishes through the publication of its Devo Local paper.

DCLG has recently published a short, informative paper promoting the involvement of parish councils in Devolution Deals.

The NALC Sustainable Communities Board met on 11 September and Cllr Derek Liddell was re-elected as Board Chairman for 2015-16. The Board agreed to re-submit the Burton on the Wolds (Leics.) Parish Council proposal to DCLG on asking for non-councillors to have voting rights on Neighbourhood Planning Committees (as they currently do for tourism, land, festival and harbour management committees) – under the Parish and Community Councils (Committees) Regulations, 1990.

We need stronger and more robust local community media to scrutinise local councils. If this does not happen then local democracy will be weaker for it.

The National Rural Crime Network (NRCN) has received Home Office funding to undertake a rural crime and policing survey. The online survey will run for about five weeks and it is hoped that the findings will help shape and inform more on:

From the very beginning stages of the Our Place programme, also known as the Neighbourhood Community Budget pilot, the parish sector has been involved in this new approach to bringing the community together to join up public service delivery.

As we look back over five years of a coalition Government and ask ourselves what it has done for planning, NALC, CPRE and Civic Voice demonstrate why a community right of appeal should be on the new Government's agenda – and soon.

Kidderminster residents voted 80% in favour of the creation of a new town council on 7 May 2015 in a referendum held at the same time as national and local elections.