Northants CALC

Renowned author JK Rowling announced yesterday that the title of her new book, to be published in September 2012, will be “The Casual Vacancy” and it will be about the events surrounding an election to an English parish council.

It is very exciting that such a respected author has written about the parish and town council sector and it will undoubtedly lead to some interesting press coverage and will raise the profile of English local government. Probably more people than ever before read the words “parish council” yesterday in all the Facebook, Twitter and blog coverage the announcement had. After all, anything to do with JK Rowling has a global audience of millions.

Some press coverage asserted that the new genre would be a complete departure from the author’s past works, but those in the sector will know that it is full of mystery, dark arts, and megalomaniac Lords! And, yes, at times, it can be magic.

Technical Accuracy

One of the intriguing things will be how technically accurate the book is. Of course, it won’t be the first time parish councils have been portrayed in fiction; The Archers, Vicar of Dibley and Midsommer Murders have all featured parish councils although often the portrayal is technically flawed and the scenes could never have occurred (lawfully) in real life. One wonders how JK Rowling conjured up the scenario in her mind and why she chose the particular title. Certainly “casual vacancy” is a technically correct description of a vacancy occurring on a parish council following the death of one of its members, but whether we shall see played out the exact statutory process that would necessarily follow such a vacancy we don’t yet know. Yesterday’s announcement implies that there will be an election (technically a bye-election), which would only occur if, in response to the statutory notice of vacancy, ten (or more) electors in the parish demand a poll. It will be fascinating to discover who, if anyone, JK Rowling used as “Technical Advisor”!

The book is set in Pagford, which is described as a “small town”. One would assume then that the local authority in question would be called “Pagford Town Council” but the announcement describes it as a “parish council”. To all intents and purposes, a parish council and a town council are the exact same thing; “town council” is simply a style that is available to any parish council under section 245, paragraph 6 of the Local Government Act 1972. However, “A Casual Vacancy” needs to make clear which it is, since the chairman of a town council may call themselves “Mayor”, which the chairman of a parish council may not.

Those of us that are sad enough will no doubt pore through the book looking for technical inaccuracies and continuity errors!

Good Publicity?

The saying goes that any publicity is good publicity and JK Rowling’s book certainly has the potential to put parish councils on the global map. Much will depend on the light in which the council of Pagford is shown. The book could of course do long term damage to the sector if, through it, the image of parish and town councils is one of in-fighting, petty-politics and back-stabbing. Certainly the sector fights hard to throw off the “Dibley” image, although despite its confusion between a parish council (civil) and a parochial church council (ecclesiastical) Dibley would surely not be a bad place to live!

On the other hand, in an age when parish and town councils are absolutely at the heart of the Localism and Big Society agendas, JK Rowling may, yet again, be firing the imagination of a generation to become intrigued, excited and engaged with a world about which at the moment they probably know very little.

JK Rowling’s “A Casual Vacancy” will be published on 27 September 2012 by www.littlebrown.co.uk.

Stoke Bruerne is in South Northamptonshire just east of Towcester and has an electorate of 350. Stoke Bruerne Parish Council has a vacancy for Clerk to the Council with a September start, or earlier by agreement.

Please download the full vacancy notice here.

Welcome to the latest eUpdate from Northants CALC.  This edition includes all the latest news and developments in the parish and town council sector including a guest article on the latest thinking to do with Neighbourhood Planning.  There are details of the new Public Sector Mapping Agreement, tips on employment issues and mileage allowances, and an update on rural broadband.  There is news of a brand new member enquiry service and details of all our latest training courses.  Combine all that with the usual features including The Chief’s Brief, A Cautionary Tale and Situations Vacant and you can be sure that you will be up to date with all that’s going on with parish and town councils in Northamptonshire!

Click here to download your copy now!

Perhaps one of the biggest policy objectives of the coalition Government, when they came to power over a year and a half ago, was the localism agenda. This was the attempt to give real power to communities and to strip away the centralising bureaucratic tendencies of government. It set up the tools for neighbourhood planning.

While significant progress has been made on the legislative front with the passing into law of the Localism Act last November there has yet, in my opinion, to be a similar degree of progress in providing the resources to implement these new powers at the local level.

Parish Councils up and down the country will be well aware of the opportunities that now exist, when regulations come into force later this year, to create a plan for their local area. The government has made it clear that this can’t just be a ‘nimby’s charter’ and the needs of the community in terms of housing, jobs and facilities has to be planned for. However, it now allows communities to be the authors of their own destiny.

Having provided the tools to start the job it seems there isn’t sufficient or skilled labour in place to get the job completed. Producing plans is a complex business especially when they need to be robust enough to stand up to potential developer and landowner challenge. Local councils have been downsizing their planning departments due to the squeeze on public sector finances and parish/town councils have not historically had the resources or need to employ planners. The government did set aside £50m to support the fledgling neighbourhood planning process and several waves of vanguard areas have been supported by a £20,000 grant. Four national organisations; the Prince’s Foundation, Royal Town Planning Institute, Locality and National Association of Local Councils (NALC) in partnerships with Campaign for Rural England (CPRE) were also funded to provide wider assistance and disseminate best practice and some excellent work has been achieved like CPRE/NALC’s booklet How to Shape Where You Live: A Guide to Neighbourhood Planning. Unfortunately this funding is coming to an end and the government has not decided whether to extend this support or if any further grants will be provided for individual localities through the vanguard scheme. Money still exists theoretically from the initial £50m but the government is, as yet, still silent on what support might follow.

Another problem that has faced the frontrunner areas has been the fact that the grant is paid to the Local Planning Authorities (District, Borough or Unitary Councils) and many have not passed these resources on to Parishes or Community Forums to do the work. They are retaining the majority to cover expenditure further down the line which will be incurred by the independent examination and referendum.

Colin Buchanan, national planning consultants, recently surveyed the frontrunners and found the biggest barrier to delivering the plans was the lack of resources generally, and specifically, the lack of detailed planning advice to guide areas through the process. It is fine for the government to expect a ‘big society’ response with volunteers popping out the woodwork to get the community engaged. However, in reality, a small amount of resource will be needed to properly project manage the process and to provide the necessary planning inputs at the appropriate time. Community engagement, even if done with a majority of voluntary support, can be a costly and time consuming endeavour.

For those areas that are now considering a Neighbourhood Plan and haven’t got funding through the vanguard scheme or don’t have a benevolent local authority willing to provide some resources it may be time to be proactive!

The Government is hoping to incentivise local areas to accept a degree of housing and commercial growth through the trickle down of some resources to the local level. In theory an element of the New Homes Bonus, a grant payable to the Borough/District Council for every new market and affordable home delivered as well as those brought back into use, could be made available to third tier authorities. It is also not clear what ‘meaningful proportion’ of funds should be returned to the Parish or community council in which receipts are generated for the Community Infrastructure Levy.

If greater responsibility and control is being passed to local communities to plan their areas then some of the resources to enable this should follow. Many councils will be using these resources to support existing services as the money is not ring-fenced and they are getting less general funding from Government. CIL funding won’t be available until schemes are approved within the North and West of the County which might take until 2013. In the meantime, parish councils undertaking plans need to start a dialogue with their Local Planning Authorities to identify what resources could be made available and how they can support the process moving forward.

Neighbourhood Plans are now a part of the planning landscape but in order for local communities to make them a reality, they will need to go out and get the resources to make this happen.

James Wilson Associates, a local planning and development consultancy, can provide a tailored service to assist in delivering Neighbourhood Plans. The government has placed Neighbourhood Planning at the heart of the planning system and the planning profession and local communities need to respond to this new challenge if local areas are going to proactively shape and change their environments for the future. James Wilson has been involved in planning within Northamptonshire for nearly 20 years and is working with a number of organisations to support Neighbourhood Planning. If you require further details or a non-committal chat please contact James on 07832 753197, jwa1@hotmail.co.uk or www.jameswilsonassociates.co.uk.

Boughton Parish Council and Brington Parish Council have vacancies for Clerk to the Council.

Boughton is just to the north of Northampton. It has 938 electors. The vacancy is for 10 hours per week. The closing date is 31 March 2012. Click here to download the vacancy notice.

The Bringtons are just to the north east of Northampton. There are 391 electors. The vacancy is for 6 hours per week. The closing date is 9 March 2012. Click here to download the vacancy notice.

Representatives from Helmdon carrying off the Best Village 2011 trophies.

In January the search for Northamptonshire’s Best Village will begin when application forms for the 2012 Competition will be sent to every Parish in the County. The Competition is open to all villages with a population of less than 6,000 people and is organized through Northamptonshire ACRE which is a countywide rural charity.

As Robert Herring, the organizer of the County Competition, said “In 2012 we are looking forward to a wide coverage of entries from Northamptonshire’s rural communities. Last year we were pleasantly surprised by the high quality of the villages submissions but somewhat disappointed by the limited number of entries from the north of the County. We know from previous years that there are many vibrant communities enjoying a high quality of village life across the whole of Northamptonshire”

The Northamptonshire Best Village Competition celebrates the community spirit and quality of life in our villages. It is run entirely by local volunteers and is based at Northamptonshire ACRE’s Hunsbury Hill Centre. The Competition looks at all aspects of village life: community and social activities, local businesses, sustainability, information technology, the provision for the younger and more senior residents as well as tidiness and the welcome visitors receive. The competition, now in the third year of its current format, is funded through the generous sponsorship of B. Hollowell & Son Funeral Plans. David Scudamore, Chair of the Best Village Competition , said “To encourage more new entrants in 2012 we will again be awarding the Newcomers Cup, giving an incentive to those villages who enter the Competition for the first time since 2005. The judges are always amazed by how much goes on in all our villages, and find it very difficult to decide on the best villages which reflects the varied nature and the quality of life in our villages. Lets hope Northamptonshire’s rural communities can make the judges decisions even more difficult in 2012”

Entry forms for the 2012 Competition were emailed or posted to every Parish Clerk in the county at the end of January. The closing date for the Competition is 28 March 2012, and the results will be announced at the annual Presentation Evening on 24 July at the Hunsbury Hill Centre, Harksome Hill, Northampton.

For further information regarding the competition in Northamptonshire, please contact Robert Herring on 01604 825884 or via email at Robert.herring@northantsacre.co.uk.

Welcome to the latest edition of eUpdate from Northants CALC. This issue is packed full of all the news and information that will help you keep up to date with the issues currently of interest to parish and town councils. There’s the latest updates on the Code of Conduct, Neighbourhood Planning, and the Localism Act. There’s news from around Northamptonshire on allotments, play areas, affordable housing and rural broadband. And of course there’s details on all the events, courses and training sessions aimed at keeping clerks and councillors informed, updated and effective.

Click here to download your copy now!

A review of County Councils wards is underway. The purpose of the Electoral Review is to reduce electoral variance across Northamptonshire. The review aims to ensure each county councillor represents approximately the same number of electors and that there are an appropriate number of councillors to allow Northamptonshire County Council (NCC) to carry out all its functions. The review presents an opportunity to bring consistency to the numbers of electors councillors represent as well looking at where improvements could be made to the efficiency and effectiveness of the current system. Currently 37% of Northamptonshire’s divisions have an electoral variance of more than 10%.

The review has been instigated by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE), an independent body set up to review electoral arrangements. It has been classified as a “Type C” review which means a significant change to the county council. The review officially started in October 2011 and could take between 52-62 weeks.

For more about the review and the impact on parish councils please download the County Council’s Parish Briefing Note.

Our new Spring/Summer 2012 schedule of Training Opportunities can be found here on the County Training Partnership page.  The courses  will be of interest to both Clerks and Councillors alike.

If you wish to make a booking for any of the courses, please complete the booking form.  A separate booking form should be used for each course.  Please provide an e mail address for  each delegate where possible.

Completed booking forms should be returned to Anne Kirkland, either via e mail at akirkland@northantscalc.gov.uk or by post.