County Officers Weekly Review

Dear Clerks and Councillors

Clerks : Please circulate to Councillors

The week has been ‘relatively’ quiet when compared to some where there is so much going on we hardly know which way to turn.  Still that gives us a chance to deal with our own housekeeping.

We are managing questions relating to taking over community assets and the financial implications – do we need a small seminar on this?  We’ve  had VAT questions relating to the funding utilised over the Jubilee Weekend and questions relating to a more complex employment issue with flexible hours and changes in contracts.  As is now expected on at least a weekly basis, questions over councillors use of social media and how to prevent personal opinions tainting both the reputation of individuals and the Council as a whole continue to role in.

This week we have accessed all of our member services to help secure answers.  If you read the members leaflet issued earlier in the year you may recall that we have partnered with a number of organisations to provide responses to more complex questions.  These cover financial, GDPR, FOI, Communications, HR and legal services at this time.  If you have a question which we cannot answer through our usual NALC and SLCC routes, we can use the membership benefit to send your question to our service provider.  You then receive the answer through us to assist you.  We will be reviewing these partnerships annually to ensure that as an organisation we are receiving value for money.

You’ll remember my Hold the Date message last week regarding our annual conference this year.  We are planning to promote local initiatives in our T & P members and we’d like to hear from you about your projects, these can be from circulating bee bombs to residents to converting the vehicle fleet to bio fuels.  Our ambition is provide a short video or presentation on each which will be played over screens in the Market Place, there will be an opportunity for a representative  from your council to meet delegates and describe your successes and challenges.  I hope you’ll want to get involved.

Regrettably the BC Parish Liaison scheduled for  20 July 2022 and mentioned in my update last week has been cancelled.  The meeting clashed with a whole Buckinghamshire Council meeting.  The reason for the clash has been addressed and should not occur again.  In the meantime still send me your questions and Simon and I will try an ensure we get you some answers

Next week we look forward to Code of Conduct with Paul Hoey and monitoring officers from both BC and MK, it’s a long day but well worth it!  Then just as you are recovering your energy levels we shall be plunging you into Reviewing your Neighbourhood Plans with Neil Homer.  Conduct and Planning in one week, possibly the two trickiest areas for local government, you’ll need next weekend to recover!

Well by now  your AGAR’s will have been sent off so you can relax for a few weeks, phew!  Helen is away next week, so please ensure you use the Balc@ email address so that we can ensure that Lorraine or I can receive your emails.  Have a great weekend

Mel, Helen and Lorraine