Congratulations to NALC Star Council of the Year — Great Linford Parish Council, Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes! BC Planning Portal Changes, May Elections 2025, Resolving Conflict through Mediation Knowledge Bites session
Dear Colleagues
What a week! We were delighted to attend the NALC Star Councils Award with Gt Linford Parish Council. Combined, we had been nominated in three categories, Eirwen Tagg for Clerk of the Year, BMKALC for CALC of the Year and Great Linford Parish Council for Council of the Year. We enjoyed a champagne reception at the House of Lords and four of our local MP’s came along to wish us luck. I’m so pleased that Great Linford carried off the accolade of Council of the Year 2024. Putting Milton Keynes firmly on the map again, for excellence in Local Councils.
There is so little opportunity for us to celebrate the things we do well and yet, when we receive nominations for awards like this, and your nominations for the Annual Garden Parties I am overwhelmed by the fantastic work that is taking place daily in our communities. I can only encourage you to actively look around and celebrate both your and each others achievements. As for Lorraine and me, thank you, for your encouragement, support and faith in nominating us last year.
Well now to other news.
The BC Planning Portal (known as Public Access) is to undergo some changes in April/May, and you have an opportunity to learn more. The Programme Manager Si Khan and Samantha Stubbs the Customer Experience Officer would like to invite you to a short briefing on Wednesday 12th March 2025 anticipate45 minutes of your time, that is factoring in time for your questions and comments. They will be running two sessions, please attend whichever one is more convenient to you:
Session 1 – 10 am 12/3/25 Join the meeting now
Session 2 – 2pm 12/3/25 Microsoft Teams Meeting Join the meeting now
May Elections 2025 – Candidate & Agent Briefings
Two online briefings will take place on the following dates to provide information about the 1 May election delivery, including submitting nominations and the verification and count. Colleagues from the Electoral Commission and Thames Valley Police will also provide information on: Code of Conduct, postal vote handing, spending rules, security, and election offences. The briefings are for both unitary and parish candidates.
Candidate & Agent Briefing #1 Tuesday 4 March, 6pm, Teams Live Link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_OWFkM2FjNjAtY2VkYy00NDEzLWI1N2YtNDZiOTg3ZmM2ZDg0%40thread.v2/0?context=%7B%22Tid%22%3A%227fb976b9-9e28-48e1-8086-1ddabecf82a0%22%2C%22Oid%22%3A%22dd7f2b87-e244-429e-9ad6-9a1306e81e59%22%2C%22IsBroadcastMeeting%22%3Atrue%2C%22role%22%3A%22a%22%7D&btype=a&role=a
Candidate & Agent Briefing #2 Thursday 6 March, 6pm, Teams Live link:
BC Planning Forum
The Town and Parish Planning Forum will take place on Monday 3rd March 2025, from 10.15-11.45am. The meeting will be held via MS Teams. Please use the following link – Link to Join T&P Planning Forum
Coming up over the next couple of weeks we have the lunchtime special on great for those Clerks who want make sure all the t’s are crossed before the May Elections! Then Knowledge Bites – Resolving Conflict through Mediation – March 11th at 1pm Online – Members Only and AI For Local Councils – February 25th, March 12th and March 26th at 11am Online. We hope to see you soon at one of our events.
We wish you a lovely weekend, I believe the forecast for the weekend is to get out into the open air, so that’s what we will be doing, returning ready to receive your calls next week.
Kind regards
Mel and Lorraine