What Next for Localism

Community of Practice for Local Councils

WNFL — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:01:49 +0000

To enable the sharing of good practice, knowledge and solutions to common issues across the sector, an online community of practice should be established and run by the sector.

Webchat – local councils and social media

WNFL — Mon, 06 May 2013 13:28:07 +0000

We are running another webchat, on Thursday 9th May at 12 noon. We will be discussing the use of social media by local councils.

Bookmark this page and come back then to join in, or sign up for a reminder below!

Local councils and social media

Break clauses for Borough & Unitary contracts

WNFL — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:37:10 +0000

We know we can do a better and possibly cheaper job than our Borough’s contractors at looking after our Town Centre and our market but we are told that their contracts with SERCO are 16 – 20 years long so that’s the end of the discussion. Please let our interest allow for a break clause (or similar) in their contracts so we can bid for that part of the contract we want to take on.

Modernising service of Agenda and saving costs

WNFL — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:14:50 +0000

Para 10(2) of Schedule 12 of the 1972 Act requires summons for meetings to be posted to or left at the usual place of residence of councillors. Electronic delivery is not lawful.
I spend about £2500 pa posting summons. This includes costs of printing, paper, collating, posting etc but not for preparing agenda and reports. Councillors have tablets and want papers sent electronically. They throw the paper copies away and use their tablets, but I still have to post hard copies!
By adding ‘or where a member of the Council requests by electronic means to that member’ to 10 (2) would solve the problem.
Of 9500 local councils, 875 are deemed ‘large’. If only the larger Councils saved £2000 each the total saving would be nearly £2m pa!

New Homes Bonus

WNFL — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:04:00 +0000

New Homes Bonus Intentions
Briefly the NHB is payment by the Government to principal councils for every new home built. It’s a big figure £1.4b will have been distributed by the end of this financial year. It was estimated that this would increase housing growth by between 8 and 13%, although doubt has now been thrown on these figures by the National Audit Office.
I am sure we are all a little confused about the intention of the NHB.
Is it a way of
• replace top down figures for new housebuilding,
• incentivising local communities to embrace new development or
• redistributing council funding, there are losers and winners in this game.
The three may be incompatible. Mixed messages are being received from central government.
T

Duty of care to planning by utilities and statutory bodies

WNFL — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 07:08:25 +0000

On developments over a certain size, say 2 hectares, Local Planning Authorities should have a legal right to demand a risk report from Highways Agencies, water companies, utilities, and the Environment Agency. The body concerned should have a legal liability to the eventual users of the land concerned, for failure to exercise due diligence in their report. The number of such applications is relatively small, and such a requirement should drastically reduce building on flood plain, overloading infrastructure etc.

Webchat on localism and finance

WNFL — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 20:22:31 +0000

We held a webchat on Wednesday 24th at 11am for one hour about localism and finance.

Read about what we all said below! The next webchat will be on 9th May at 12pm on the topic of social media and use of digital technology in the sector.

Localism debate – finance

Allow local objections to influence planning decisions

WNFL — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 21:35:03 +0000

It seems, especially on planning issues, that the District Councils planning officers take no notice of the parish council’s stance or the local resident’s objections, which makes objecting to planning issues a waste of time, if they are not even going to listen to objections and even pass applications when even members of the District Planning Committee aren’t even informed. Either you have localism where the needs and requirements are taken notice of, or admit that it’s only a way of passing over costs without passing over the responsibilities and local choices that go with it.

Localising budgets made easietr

WNFL — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:28:41 +0000

There is frustration in the distribution of resources by other public sector organisations within the town. Money spent on some significant services is mis-directed with some specific examples to evidence this.

Budgets by larger organisations are aggregated by larger areas [such as whole County], so it is difficult to forensically determine what resources are available for local redirection or challenge.

There should be a presumption by all public sectors to localise their budget lines to local level of between 6-10k residents. It would then be possible for those residents to engage with the budget prioritisation process to advocate alternatives and options – or even to deliver them themselves.

Appeal procedure

WNFL — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:28:07 +0000

One of several weaknesses of the Community RIght to Bid is the absence of an appeal procure of any kind. One is needed that is external to the interests of principle authorities as currently – as we know to our cost = they can refuse a nomination of a asset of community value with neither explanation or challenge. The refusal of our first nomination is simply incredible given the proposals for future use and previous uses. The County Council is determined to sell the building in question and won’t allow the mere matter of the Localism Act to get in the way!