Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from:

Councillor McKean

Brenda Stanojevic, Clerk to Eye Parish Council

Dick Talbot, Clerk to Maxey Parish Council

Councillor Martin Witherington, Thornhaugh Parish Council

Helen Edwards, Solicitor to the Council

Kim Sawyer, Head of Legal Services

Mark Emson, Electoral Services Officer

The minutes of the meeting held on 30 August 2012 were agreed as a true and accurate record.

- Looking at planning in villages differently
- Phillip Blond's offer to broker a DCLG pilot
- PR and marketing campaign for parishes
- Next steps

Adrian Chapman, Head of Neighbourhood Services gave a presentation on the outcomes from the 2012 Parish Conference.  The key points raised were:

• This was the inaugural conference and was attended by around 75% of the parish councils.
• The conference was the beginning of a new relationship between the council and parish councils, including the relaunch of this meeting.
• Philip Blond had offered to broker with the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) a pilot project involving an end to end review of parish council operations.
• The future of the Rural North Neighbourhood Committee was currently being discussed.
• The conference planning group would continue to act as an agenda setting group for this meeting.

Feedback from each of the sessions was:

Session 1: Localism

• Delivery of local services
• Management and/or ownership of community assets
• Potential role in providing care and social support services
• Community engagement and involvement
• Supporting the skills agenda e.g. apprenticeships
• Building volunteering opportunities
• Greater understanding needed of what potential exists through Localism
• Greater co-operation between councils
• Greater co-operation with wider partner networks – business, faith, voluntary sector
• Need to ensure the right skills are in place
• Training and technical support facilitated by and provided through PCC
• Campaign to raise the profile of councils
• Need to map services and facilities in parishes

Session 2: Planning

• Shapers as well as consultees
• Too many ‘plans’ – not enough clarity
• Rural plan or strategy needed
• More feedback needed from planning officers
• Two tiers – local (feel of the parish), citywide (deliver the vision)
• Real choice needs to be offered

Session 3: Shared Services

• Bigger and better things can come from it
• Could support local services to remain
• Intra and inter boundary working
• Community assets, timebanking, volunteering
• Parish clustering – sharing employment, liabilities
• Larger parishes supporting smaller parishes
• Need ideas and options from PCC
• Need data and intelligence
• Need to understand liabilities, legislation, time commitments etc
• Need to overcome barriers – health and safety, insurance, cashflow

Session 4: Open Discussions

• Lots of ideas for owning, building or managing assets
• ‘Youth’ parish councillors or local youth councils
• All parishes to have we sites, use social media etc
• Direct access to relevant expertise – central support hub?
• End to end review of parish council operations
• Welfare role within parished areas
• Co-ordination of local groups
• Working with schools to develop volunteering, work experience and apprenticeships
• Greater use of technology to communicate – including webcasting meetings
• Local currency

Actions were now being developed to move this work forward.  Phase 1 actions were:

• Planning pilot

Simon Machen, Head of Planning, Transport and Engineering gave an update on the planning pilot.  Four of the parish councils had formed a working group and were currently looking at neighbourhood planning.  The forthcoming Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) would entail 15% of CIL income going to parished areas and where there was a neighbourhood plan in place that figure would be 25%

• Knowledge and skills hub

Two officers had been allocated to work on this area.

• Potential for parishing in other  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Adrian Chapman advised that the council wanted to hear what parish councils wanted from this meeting.  The council saw it as being regular, open, honest and strategic, supported by a long term agenda plan.  Terms for Reference for the meeting would be developed detailing everybody’s responsibilities.

Councillor Hiller stated that he wanted to encourage more parish councillors to attend this meeting.  This meeting would be far more effective in a strategic way and would react to issues the parish councils had. 

Councillor Dobson advised that he believed that the neighbourhood committees were undemocratic with decisions only taken by city councillors.  It would be important to ensure that parish councillors attended this meeting equally with officers as it was a two way process.

Adrian Chapman advised that the working group would develop an agenda planning role.  The council’s Governance Team had experience around deadlines and submission of items.  Task and Finish groups could be used when necessary to look at particular items in depth.  A possible agenda plan could include consultation on the council’s budget, bringing plans and strategies at a formative stage to ensure early involvement and holding open forums.  Other items suggested included Peterborough’s energy policy and strategy; and flood prevention and disaster management – how do parishes fit in with disaster management.

Councillor Kavanagh highlighted an issue with discrepancies in recent planning consultations.  Councillor Hiller asked for examples to be given to Simon Machen outside of the meeting and he would take them back and provide full feedback.

Ian Dewar advised that how to respond better to planning would be helpful as not all parishes fully understood the planning system.  Simon Machen advised that planning officers did often visit parish councils to deliver some bespoke training.  Ian advised that CPALC did put on training but it would be helpful to link up with someone from planning.

Carrie Denness, Senior Solicitor advised that a high level of queries were being submitted from parish councillors around Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPI).  Councillors were reminded that any queries about the Code of Conduct and DPIs should be referred to the relevant parish clerk in the first instance for advice.