Parish Council Agenda and Minutes

UPDATE - 10 January 2016

BOB would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have taken the time to give us positive feedback over the last year, encouraging us to continue to make information available to you all. We gratefully receive your comments thanking BOB for the work we do, and telling us that you especially look forward to the updates and blogs. We would also like to thank those of you who pass information onto your neighbours, in their preferred format.

For all of you interested in the access to electronic documentation issue, the good news is I've discovered that draft versions of minutes will be available again in the future, thank you to those parish councillors that made this happen. This shows the importance of expressing our views to BPC, of them listening and subsequently publishing informative and timely minutes. I've also finally received both the November and December documentation on 6 January. These are now posted on BOB community website for reference as usual. Another success for us all and a great start to the new year, although some questions still remain unanswered as indicated below.

BPC intermittently updated its website until 2014 when it stopped completely whilst still continuing to pay for a website on a monthly basis. Since May 2013 BOB received electronic documentation via the previous clerk and published it on behalf of the parish council on the BOB community website.

In the absence of a maintained parish website I have, in good faith posted BPC/public electronic documentation on BOB for all to access and I have directly informed hundreds of BOB readers enabling them to link to and read as soon as they were posted. I have delivered this service free of charge for BPC, saving BPC/public website update costs and associated technical support costs, it has also reduced access for electronic documentation requests to the clerk thereby saving BPC/public the cost of answering numerous enquiries. The BOB community website has also helped Bleadon residents to receive timely best practice access to electronic information.

Despite BPC knowing the above, and knowing that the electors of Bleadon would be affected by the halt in the delivery of electronic documentation process in October, it didn't have the courtesy to let me/us/public know that they were going to change the process or what benefit the change would bring. It also has not told BOB/us/public what the new process for public access to electronic documentation will be. Although the December minutes, just received, go part way to explaining:

• Minutes 14 December 2015 (received 6 January 2016): 279.15.3 "Cllr Gutsell – concern expressed that draft minutes are not being supplied to Bleadon BOB prior to the meeting. The Chairman expressed concern at the content of an email sent to the clerk by “Bleadon BOB” and read the email out to the Council. It was noted by the Chair that once the parish website is operational, the minutes will be published thereon. Some councillors expressed support for the Clerk and others for the publication of draft minutes as soon as possible. It was proposed that the draft minutes first go to the Chair of the respective committee and Council as soon as possible; then a week prior to the next Council meeting the minutes will sent to councillors and made available to parishioners on the parish website. A majority agreed with this decision."

(nb: see posted comments below this blog for a copy of email that BOB sent)

Thank you councillor Claire Gutsell for raising this very important public communication issue under 'Any Other Business', and thanks to supporting councillors, for bringing it to some form of resolution, especially with regards to the draft documentation and its timely publication. It should be noted that at the time these minutes were written and distributed there was no maintained parish website.

• Minutes 14 December 2015 (received 6 January 16). The Clerk has been in touch with Webglu and the site should be up and running soon.

So the questions remaining are:

- How will BOB/public will be informed that electronic documentation has been posted to read prior to each monthly/annual/etc. meeting? If no informative mechanism is in place then every person will have to work out a date, try the website, if the documentation is there great, if not they'd have to keep trying until such time it is posted. A less effective system than the previous system of being informed by the clerk. There are various mechanisms that can be used, so when BPC tell me the process, or I find out, I'll let you know.

- How will BPC work with the community website/BOB to ensure that there is minimal duplication of website content, maintenance effort or BPC money?

- How was a long-standing public facing process stopped by one person (or more?) without without full council approval, and without warning or explanation to the public or the service provider (BOB)? i.e. the flow of electronic documentation from BPC to its electors, via BOB, in October. Hopefully this type of process/procedural situation won't arise again.

- Why have subsequent email requests for electronic documentation, and confirmation of the new BPC process for access to information, not have been responded to by either the clerk or councillors? Obviously BOB correspondence was read and some queries raised at a meeting and resolved, thank you, but they have not been communicated back to me/BOB, a member of the public. and a service provider, only minimally via late publication of minutes.

- Why was it verbally agreed at meeting, although not minuted or communicated to BOB, that BPC had set up a delayed, less efficient system for BOB/public instead of instructing the clerk to send them directly to BOB? (Thank you councillor ID Clarke for sending me the November and December minutes). It's my understanding that the police, North Somerset council, press, etc. still receive the faster documentation process via the clerk, a distribution list that we/BOB were part of previously. I would like to think that as Bleadon electors pay for a clerk, and the associated costly IT equipment used to deliver documentation, that we would be the priority with regards to communicating what is being undertaken on our behalf. Hopefully when the new access to electronic documentation process is declared this will resolved will all having equal status..

BOB will keep you posted as to if/when we receive explanations to the above.

A great start to the New Year. BOB looks forward to receiving your continued suggestions, comments and support for the coming year.

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3rd January 2016

According to CPALC (Communities, Parish and Local Councils) 

"There is however an absolute right to access, view and copy the minutes whether UNAPPROVED or APPROVED. It is a criminal offence to prevent these rights from being exercised."

So without publication on BOB (or the costly PC website...still waiting update 2 years on) everyone will now potentially need to make separate and individual requests to read documentation (costly and time consuming for all)......

Alternatively, since 2014 the public are now legally allowed to attend meetings and video them for broadcast.....!

Here are some links to relevant 'Modernising Government' documents:

Local Government Transparency Code - House of Commons - see 2.2

Openness Guide - Department for Communities and Local Govenment (DCLG) - see part 4

Model Publication Scheme - Information Commisioners Office (ICO)

The Essential Clerk Booklet - Society of Local Council Clerks (SLCC)

Quality Council Scheme Review - National Association of Local Councils (NALC)

Councillors Guide 2015/16 - Local Government Association (LGA)

Good Councillors Guide - NALC and Addendum

Localism in Practice (case studies) - NALC

What are Local Councils - NALC

CPALC - It's your Parish Council and Meetings and The Parish Clerk

1972 Local Government Act - see part 228

Naming and registering websites - see 3.2

Code of Practice on Local Authority Publicity - DCLG

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Happy New Year

For those unable to get to see the village notice boards.

Please find attached (above) a photo from village notice board of the agenda for Bleadon Parish Council Finance and Personnel meeting to be held Monday January 4th 2016 at 7.30pm? In Bleadon Youth Club. Apologies for the quality, but in the absence of having agenda/minutes sent to me I had to take a photo of the notice board and it was raining!

In a current change of regular practice of the last three years, the new clerk has decided not to routinely send BOB a copy of meeting agenda or minutes for publication and only post agenda on village notice boards within the minimum legal time period i.e. three days. This gives little time to no time for the public to interact with the process hence why BOB lobbied the previous clerk to create the previous more open and accessible system that has now been changed.

BOB has been asking since October the reason for the change and has raised concerns to the clerk and council about the departure from officially recommended clerk and council best practice, and it's reduction in communication transparency and openness, but has not received a full explanation for this change of policy and how it benefits Bleadon. FYI, BOB is still awaiting November and December minutes of the main council meeting to make available/circulate to you all.

No longer a 'quality council' BPC seems to have returned to following procedures enshrined in the dated 1972 Local Govenment Act instead of following and supporting the various modernising government initiatives.

Link to BeInvolved Home Page

 Link to BOB Parish Council page

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BOB Response to comments made by Ian Findlay on this blog post (3-4 January 2016)

[Ian Findlay] Your opening remark and quote from CPALC implies that Bleadon Parish Council have committed an absolute offence in not publishing minutes on your web site. Having read the act and looked at the circumstances I can find no evidence to substantiate any such allegation. I will of course stand corrected but can find nothing in the act that suggests any local council minutes or agendas MUST be published on

privately owned web sites by the Clerk or Bleadon Parish Council (BPC)

[BOB reply] Firstly, this is not a case of BPC publishing minutes on my website, it is a legal access to information, transparency and openness issue. I will try to respond to your points in each paragraph below.

[BOB reply] There are legal requirements that members of the public have access to agendas, minutes, etc. which I, as a member of the public and on behalf of BOB readers, request and then subsequently publish on my website. The 1972 Act was written before accessible public electronic information systems were developed. Therefore it is current recommended legal and/or best practice by government and other professional bodies for PCs to publish this information on a website (see modernising government documents on the blog post above, especially the ICO document and transparency code). Bleadon.org.uk was the original village website, taken on from Bob McKay. I believe it was created before BPC decided to create their own website(s) as part of their Quality Council status bid. I independently publish public information and send it to BOB readers. In the absence of BPC being able to update their own website for nearly two years I have continued to deliver this public service, free of charge despite BPC paying a web company to host their out of date pages during this time. 

[Ian Findlay] I am aware that you do have access to an electronic set of agendas and you only have to ask your contacts and would be furnished with them something that was confirmed during the last BPC meeting. However this would be on a private sharing and would not commit BPC to showing any favouritism to any particular private web site. I can only conclude that the manner in which you have gone about this, ie taking a

photo of the agenda and posting it with such comments, is intended to create mischief and distrust of the Bleadon Parish Council (BPC), a course of action I personally find extremely unhelpful distasteful and

unjustified for this village.

[BOB reply] My access to PC electronic information is via the proper officer, i.e. the clerk, which I have requested. This is not a matter of favouritism it is a matter of legal access to public information as and when it is produced by the council (see ICO Model Publication scheme). This can be obtained directly by being sent the document by the clerk, or by being informed that the information is available to download from the PC website via social media, or other means. As always I'm happy to attend a meeting to discuss how this could most efficiently happen.

[BOB reply] The last couple of months I have not always been sent copies of electronic agendas/minutes by the current clerk, even when requested, as the clerk has changed the established process, which is why I'm still asking for them and having to guess future meetings or find notices on the notice board. Bruce Poole sent out the agenda and minutes in a timely manner (to various members of the public including me) to enable greater public interaction.

[BOB reply] With regards confirmation at the last BPC meeting, under the current clerk system until the minutes have been drafted and ratified, over one month after the meeting, they will not be sent out to the public (I am still waiting for Novembers minutes). So the clerk and councillors have not officially communicated this new information to me, or the public, at this point in time. My official public point of contact is, and rightly always has been the clerk, who has now changed the process and not sent me a copy of the recent agenda/minutes requested. I was only aware of Mondays 4/1/2016 finance meeting having looked at the notice board today and so the photo was the most expedient way to inform the wider Bleadon public as the meeting is tomorrow (especially given it's importance for budget and precept setting).

[BOB reply] There is no favouritism with regards a private web site, I'm a member of the public requesting public information to be communicated to the public as is every public persons legal right. I am still awaiting conformation as to whether I (and other individuals) will now have to repeatedly and randomly ask for documentation for each meeting until they are provided, at some point each month, or if I will be automatically notified as was the previous clerk process. FYI, I am sure given your role and experience that if there are meetings due to take place for which an appropriate notice has not yet been legally posted it will potentially invalidate any resolutions made at those meetings. Surely it also makes sense to encourage greater public participation through transparency and openness to post Notice of Meetings and Agenda as far and widely as possible and not restrict it to minimum 3 days before.

[Ian Findlay] The BPC have been decimated by the resignation of the Clerk and so many Councillors in the last election. The new Councillors and Clerk are finding their feet at a rapid rate of knots but they are being hindered by inherited problems that need to be rectified before they can move forward as an effective open council. I have sat at the meetings and listened to the concerns of the Council and how eager they are to get it right, perhaps if you attended meetings you would have a greater understanding. One such issue as we are aware is the BPC website which has been an issue of contention for some time. The council is working

hard to turn this round and be able to publish all village communications on this site, this will enable you and the village to view the correspondence and download and publish it on their own web sites. Not forgetting that there is nothing to stop anyone else opening another village web site that I know of but I doubt would be as comprehensive as yours. It is important however that BPC retain ownership of the initial documentation something that can only be assured of by having publishing rights on its own website.

[BOB reply] I do agree it was a great pity that many outgoing councillors chose to leave without offering to hand over their knowledge and training, especially after committing BPC to a new significant website development expenditure. You may be correct that the current BPC is attempting to publish council information on its website (again see ICO document), as it did several years ago, but the fact is it is still struggling to deliver and the ongoing question of maintenance will also need to be publicly answered. The current minutes on the BPC website are dated 2014, it still has all the old councillors, clerk and associated information on it. It should also be noted that if a PC has a website with a .gov.uk domain (not essential) that is not suitably maintained then the domain name may be removed from them by the authorities.

[BOB reply] I'm still offering my expertise and support and despite me agreeing with the previous council to attend website meetings in 2013, no meeting date/time was ever offered. I did have a productive informal meeting last October with a current councillor and received informal feedback but as the minutes are yet to be published, nearly two months on, I'm still officially none the wiser as to what the council is trying to achieve, when or by whom, nor is the general public. I'm trying to continue to deliver the service that I did via Bruce Poole on behalf of BPC, but the new clerk has stated, via her previous email correspondence, that she has decided not to continue this process, consequently offering a severely restricted and potentially non-compliant information service to the public.

[BOB reply] I'm still awaiting confirmation from the clerk and/or councillors as to whether this change has been agreed by councillors or whether we can resume where Bruce Poole left off. I must state again, this is not a website issue, it is an access to public information issue highlighting legal and transparency issues. BPC may produce the documents but at the end of the day these are public documents that any member of the public can legally request and copy, which I have done via the clerk.

[Ian Findlay] Your web site and the information on it is very good and I applaud you for it. I use it, as do other villagers and visitors, however it is your web site. It does not mean your web site is the official voice of Bleadon. It does allow residents to express opinions but publication is subject to your editing rights. The proper way to express opinions and have a say in BPC matters is to attend the meetings and hear first hand the deliberations of the council. Of course you can video the proceedings and publish it but as the average public attendance at meetings is about 8 residents out of over 1000 I doubt this would create much interest.

[BOB reply] Thank you for your compliments. Many people, like myself, may be unable to attend meetings on the specific date and time that the council chooses. Also, just because eight people attend doesn't mean that only eight people are interested in what the council are doing (E.g. the public meetings for planning/housing development(s), bus service and public request for election in 2013). With informative and timely agendas/minutes, etc. the main points and decisions can be disseminated quickly to many people to read when their schedules allow (see ICO Model Publication Scheme). Although technically unnecessary with the production of informative and timely minutes, video coverage may remove any ambiguity about what and why issues were resolved in a more prompt fashion than waiting for minutes to be produced over a month later, or over a year in the case of annual meetings. (Please read the Openness document from DCLG).

[Ian Findlay] You have shown much interest in the BPC and been hyper critical from a distance. I cannot understand if you feel so strongly why you are not standing to be cooped onto the council. With your knowledge and expertise I am sure you would be an asset to it. It would also give you a far better opportunity to express your views and a better understanding of the constraints and operating procedures encountered by BPC. Of course it is voluntary and is often a thankless task. There are, as you know, current vacancies.

[BOB reply] I make no apology for my continued public scrutiny and support of PC matters or indeed other public bodies, especially as all current best practice advice is encouraging openness and transparency in delivering increased localism. (see Localism in Practice by NALC). I attend PC meetings when able and have always willingly offered my professional information management knowledge, experience and services within both local and national government freely to BPC, and support them where I can as a member of the public. The fact that I agreed a timely process with Bruce Poole for electronically publishing the BPC agenda/minutes and other information free of charge for many years shows my support, especially as the PC website has not been updated for two plus years. A person doesn't have to be a parish councillor to perform a community service which is of benefit to the public as many other local volunteers prove, especially if there is demand for professional skills outside of those of the councillors. I believe that the PC needs a more open engagement with the community to be able to utilise their skill sets, of which I am sure there are many untapped resources within our parish. (Refer to the incomplete 2005 Parish Plan process, only briefly revisited by PC in 2009 for QC re-accreditation).

[Ian Findlay] I am not a Parish Councillor but am an employee, I have in the past been on the BPC so understand all the frustrations, all my comments are based on experience and knowledge gained by attending the BPC meetings in person as a member of the public.

[BOB reply] My current frustrations, and those of some BOB readers, is that somehow, during the notice period handover/exit strategy from Bruce to the new clerk (an employee) all electronic notice of meeting/agenda/minute processes seem to have been stopped with no explanation other than the new clerk has decided that there should be a new process. Legal, best practice and professional bodies all publish information on the web that is easily accessible and support the previous working process. Surely the newly suggested restrictive process by the clerk is not in the public's best interest.

[Ian Findlay] I hope Bleadon residents and yourself find my comments useful and informative

[BOB reply] I am sure you agree that this written exchange, although informative, is very time consuming for both of us. If you, or indeed any councillors have any further queries following my response, please feel free to give me a ring so that we can discuss more easily and to avoid any miscommunication.