A View From Our Window

Dear Clerks and Councillors

It’s been a short week and good to have some sense of normality again.  Business at BMKALC has been brisk and we have attempted to catch up with all delayed meetings and training events as quickly as we could.  This has led to a longer working week for everyone in the team and some rapid turnaround times, perhaps not all quite as smooth as we would have liked and I’m grateful for the good humour and resilience of the team in keeping each other going and producing good results despite all the hurdles.  Some hurdles were quite literal as regards getting into the building at times!

So given you only heard from me on Tuesday, not too much new to share.  A free festival is being held in the heart of Milton Keynes this October, culminating in a spectacular public event on 8 October to celebrate Milton Keynes becoming a city, which sounds quite simply, amazing.  Read the full schedule for the City of Codes and Light Festival (4 – 8 October) at http://www.mkiac.org/project/the-city-of-codes-light-festival-2022-/.

You’ll recall that there is a Boundary Review due to take place within our BC area’s and following a number of request there is now a revised timetable, dates are as follows:

Consultation on draft recommendations begins – 02/08/2022

Consultation on draft recommendations ends – 05/12/2022

Publication of final recommendations – 28/02/2023

I’m also trying to find out the arrangement for Books of Condolence, will they become part of a County Archive?  As soon as I have an answer I shall let you know.

This week I’m going to leave you all with a little piece of homework.  It’s time to reach up to that dusty, possibly digital shelf, and pull down your Standing Orders.  It would be great if you were to read them through again, possibly make a few notes, use a highlighter pen and make sure everyone has a copy.  A number of queries we receive relate to Standing Orders and whilst we love speaking to you, typically you only call us when things have become fractious and we’d like to save from getting to that stage, it’s easy in a busy life to forget that we do have a set of instructions to guide us.  We’ll save Financial Regulations for another weekend 😊.

I’m going to leave you with that this week.  We wish you all a safe and restful weekend and look forward to seeing you next week, Finance for Councillors, Clerking Essentials and CiLCA training, it’s going to be another busy one.

Kindest regards

Mel, Helen and Lorraine