North Nibley Parish Council: Community Engagement.

Discussion Paper for January 2012 Meeting: Agenda Item 8

Background.

During a recent Clerks’ event there was a very useful session on the importance of councils engaging with their communities. What I heard made me think about what this Council currently does and how we could improve the current arrangements.

An expectation of all parish councils is to represent the interests of the community they serve and improve the quality of their local services and environment. But in order to achieve this, the Council must first engage or communicate with its parishioners, to fully understand what services the parishioners require of you.

How the Council currently engages with parishioners.

1. Monthly meetings of the Council are held but rarely attended by the electorate. This is despite the fact that efforts have been made to increase public attendance.

2. Individual Councillor’s activity. Individually Councillors contact parishioners to seek out their views and opinions.

3. Parish Survey. This was carried out in 2008 with a 63% response rate. The results were widely publicised and used to construct a Parish Plan which was completed in November 2010. A copy of the Plan was distributed to all households in the Parish.

4. On The Edge. Each edition of OTE contains a report (“News from Your Parish Council”), of recent Council discussions and activities.

5. Website. Dave Palmer’s website (www.northnibley.org.uk) is used to publicise the agenda, minutes and papers of the Council Meetings.

6. Notice boards. The Council has two notice boards which are regularly updated with information about the Council, activities in the parish and agenda & minutes of Meetings.

7. Local Press. I send reports of key activities to the “Gazette” and usually follow them up with telephone calls in an effort to achieve some publicity.

8. Parish Meeting. Annually all councils are required by law to convene a Parish Meeting, during the period 1 April to 31 May. Traditionally these have been poorly attended. In the 10 years to 2008 on average 1 person per year attended. In 2009 (with 23 attendees) the Meeting was used to present and publicise the Parish Survey Results. In 2010 (with 11 attendees) we presented information about the Pavilion Project. In 2011 (with 11 attendees) we publicised the proposed purchase of land at Nibley Knoll; provided information on how the Council Budget is spent; and provided updates on the Parish Plan and the Pavilion Project. I believe that attendances have improved in part due to the content and because of better advertising of the event.

9. “Clean-Up the Parish”. In 2010 we re-introduced a “Clean-Up the Parish Day” in the Spring. In 2010 & 2011 this activity brought together around 25 to 30 people of all ages who spent a saturday morning collecting rubbish from the roadsides around the Parish.

10. Grants. Traditionally the Council has allocated some of its Budget to local community organisations. In the last two years this has amounted to 15% of the Precept. An application process was introduced in 2009 in order to improve accountability; and the results are published in OTE.

How effective are these activities?

Whilst all the above may seem a lot, I believe that a lot of what the Council currently does to engage with its parishioners could be much more effective.

The introduction of the Localism Act and the introduction of a new general power of competence, will give councils unprecedented freedom to work together to improve services and drive down costs. Councils will be free to do anything – provided they do not break other laws. But along with such freedoms will come greater responsibilities, including the expectation that the council is engaging with its people.

How can the Council improve upon what it already does?

I suggest that there are already some opportunities available to the Council which I believe will increase your engagement with the community.

1. Parish Meeting. Currently we organise the Parish Meeting to start at 7.00pm on a Council Meeting night, to be followed by the Council Meeting. I think that we end up having two less effective meetings. By changing the Parish Meeting (from 2013) to a separate date, as with nearly every other council, we could hold a Parish Meeting with a clearer purpose. We should also further explore how we reduce the amount of report presentations and create greater involvement of parishioners and other organisations.

2. Annual Report. I suggest that the Council should produce an Annual Report (one-side of A4), which we distribute at the Parish Meeting and through OTE. This will ensure that parishioners know what the Council has achieved in the previous year; help to explain how the Precept is spent; and open up a vehicle for getting more feedback.

3. Grants. This Council is relatively generous in allocating grants. But it doesn’t use the opportunity to more closely engage with those Community Organisations. I wonder how many parishioners know what Council Tax money you donate annually to these organisations and how they spend the money?

I suggest by slightly adjusting timescales, from 2013 the Council should use the opportunity presented by the Parish Meeting to present the cheques to these organisations. In return the organisation should be invited to say a few words about how they intend to use this public money. This simple change will help develop closer links between the community organisations and the Council whilst creating more transparency for the public on how the money is being spent.

4. Website. Since taking up post I have used Dave Palmer’s website. I now believe it is the time for the Parish Council to establish its own site upon which we could include a wider range of information. This can be done using the Stroud DC Community website. For an example see Kingswood Parish Council or Slimbridge Parish Council websites. Both can be found at www.community.stroud.gov.uk/, as can other parish council websites.

5. Queen’s Jubilee. (See my note on the Gloucestershire Charter Meeting). The weekend of the Queen’s Jubilee provides an opportunity for the Council to work with other community organisations to celebrate. We have “booked” a Beacon for 4 June. But to date I have had one contact offering to become involved. Do we want to make this happen?

On 3 June there will be a “Big Lunch” in the Community which consist of Picnics and Street Parties. Do we want to become involved?

You will have other ideas which I invite you to bring to the Meeting.

Decision?

I invite the Council to consider and discuss the above views and decide what actions it wants to take with the intention of increasing its Community Engagement.

Rex Symons

Clerk to the Parish Council.

19 December 2011