Parish councils
Why not open up better channels with your parish colleagues in 2024?
The parish and principal council sectors need to work much better together to ensure the best possible outcomes for residents, writes Mark Smith.
Thinking big and delivering locally
Chippenham Town Council may be a parish council, but is structured as and acts like a district or borough council – and that was always the plan, says Mark Smith.
The city of dreams
‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.’
A mixed bag in Yorkshire
Considering his face is always covered, it’s one of life’s ironies that Count Binface is perhaps one of the most recognisable figures in British politics.
It is time to recognise clerks
Local Council Clerk Week is taking place from 10 to 14 July. Rob Smith says clerks are truly at the heart of everything their councils do and it’s time we celebrated their achievements.
Parish poll sparks fresh modernisation call
Ministers have been urged to ‘modernise the archaic 40-year-old system’ of parish polls after what is thought to be the first on a tax rise.
Local Councils have stepped up
Rob Smith sets out the main conclusions of a landmark report based on the Society of Local Council Clerks’ survey of town, parish and community councils.
Whitehall urged to engage more with towns and parishes
Parish councils and principal authorities should agree a ‘duty to consult’ across tiers of local government to boost the levelling up agenda, a report has found.
Call for professionalisation of councillors
The role of councillor should become a full-time profession as part of further devolution, it has been argued.
Setting high standards
West Parley Parish Council’s colourful planters are the pride of the village every summer.
The unusual suspects
You may have heard of The Usual Suspects, the 1995 Hollywood blockbuster.
No flower power here
Unlikely as it may be, St Blaise Town Council has found itself at the centre of a media storm.
A way of doing politics differently
Can we do politics in new ways that engage people rather than being alienating, adversarial and fraught? Ann McGauran listened to the views of a Stronger Things panel.
Jackie Weaver did not have the ‘authority’ to mute and eject councillors
Jackie Weaver did not have the ‘authority’ to mute and eject councillors from the online parish council meeting that went viral, an investigation has concluded.
District warning over parish push
Making it easier to establish town and parish councils could be a ‘recipe for confusion, higher costs and slowing down the transformation of public services,’ the District Councils’ Network (DCN) has warned.
A good shout
In one of the least convincing rebrands of the last few years, notorious Handforth Parish Council has been rebranded as (*checks notes*) Handforth Town Council.
Jackie weaves her magic
It seems everyone has a podcast these days.
Parishes issue vote of no confidence in Hartlepool
Four parish councils have asked to leave Hartlepool BC following ‘several years of increasing frustration’.
The case for virtual meetings
Jackie Weaver – star of Handforth Parish Council’s viral meeting – argues the case for stepping out of the dark ages and allowing councils to hold their meetings online.
Making Counties Count: Don’t they Already?
Steve Leach and Colin Copus argue a move to county-based unitaries would ‘draw local government away from recognisable communities and increase the drift to meaningless conglomerates’.