Dear All,
We have discovered the Parish Council Agenda for an Extraordinary meeting (excluding the public) on the 4 Feb, and Full Council on 8 Feb have now been published, which are now available as are the January minutes that give a detailed insight into how the recent Parish Council public meeting was conducted.
With regards to the comments about BOB within the minutes, we are taking this further with the PC and we have requested adopted copies of the Corporate Policy and Code of Conduct (both publically available documents).
As an update, after the 11th January PC meeting, but before the publication of the meetings minutes, BOB did have an amicable meeting with Cllrs Ian Gibson and Steve Hartree. Our meeting points were accepted except for the key issue i.e. to include BOB on the clerk's electronic information mailing list at this time, although no reason was given for not sending us these public documents. So, at the moment this still leaves us all guessing as to when it's time to find them.
There also seems to be a change of minute format, December's minutes lost the month's expenditure. The correspondence didn't show the email from BOB that was referred to in the meeting, nor did the minutes indicate what the email was about. FYI, I've already put the one I believe it refers to in the comments of the blog http://www.bleadon.org.uk/beinvolved.html?part_id=160604&post_id=22628&action=view_comments i.e. electronic receipt of agenda and previous minutes before a meeting; confirmation of document access process/procedure (the email to clerk is near bottom of blog on 10 Jan). We still haven't received an acknowledgement or response to this correspondence (apart from in December Minutes).
January's minutes seem to have lost both the expenditure and the correspondence information. Again, the minutes didn't indicate what the email was about, so I've put the one I believe it refers to in the comments of this blog below i.e. how does the PC envisage its website coexisting with community websites including Bleadon BOB? We still haven't received an acknowledgement or response to this correspondence (apart from in the January minutes). At the moment it seems that the expenditure and correspondence can only be found in the agenda which has not yet been posted for January on the BPC website.
A copy of the January minutes and agenda can be found on BOB here http://www.bleadon.org.uk/parishcouncil.html Alternatively the minutes may be found on the newly created (3rd) BPC website which is currently being updated here www.bleadonparishcouncil.gov.uk/parish-council/agendas-and-minutes
Kind regards, BOB
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Comments (3)
Please can you clarify who is going to design/build the new Freeola website which we assume will be launched in April? Can you confirm what will happen to ongoing public access to electronic information, especially as no further discussion by the council is to be had on this point?
As always we are happy to meet at a mutually convenient date/time to discuss this matter further as it fosters better communication than email. To be clear, we do not wish to compete with BPC but I would likewise hope that the heritage and role of BOB as the original Bleadon community website, set up before the original PC website, would be respected. We would be happy to share our knowledge and experience of working on national government information management projects and data standards for electronic system communication.
Kind regards,
Chris Butler & Jo Gower-Crane
email: bob@bleadon.org.uk
web: www.bleadon.org.uk
twitter: @bleadon
facebook: BleadonBOB
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From: parishclerk@bleadonparishcouncil.gov.uk
To: keith.pyke@btopenworld.com; jojonesbleadon@tiscali.co.uk; taporter11@aol.com; Elfan.ApRees@n-somerset.gov.uk; Becky.Parker@archant.co.uk; bleadon@live.co.uk
CC: carole.findlay@bleadonparishcouncil.gov.uk; gutsells@btinternet.com; igibson6@sky.com; fandidrclarke@aol.com; stevenhartree194@btinternet.com
Subject: Bleadon Parish Council website
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 2016 09:23:39 +0000
Dear all
The Council would like to let you all know that the new website for Bleadon Parish Council can be found here bleadonparishcouncil.gov.uk.
Going forwards, all of the agendas and minutes will be posted in the appropriate area of the website and I will endeavour to upload the past minutes and agendas that I have over the coming weeks as soon as time and workloads permit.
Kind regards
Hazel
Hazel Brinton
Parish Clerk
Bleadon Parish Council
07341 977 235
To: parishclerk@bleadonparishcouncil.gov.uk
CC: carole.findlay@bleadonparishcouncil.gov.uk; gutsells@btinternet.com; igibson6@sky.com; fandidrclarke@aol.com; stevenhartree194@btinternet.com
Subject: RE: Bleadon Parish Council website
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 2016 17:27:23 +0000
Dear Hazel, Ian and all,
Apologies for delay in reply but we have been away and also for this long email but we believe this is a complex issue that needs resolution for the benefit of Bleadon.
Thank you for informing us of the third BPC website rewrite. Having had a brief look at the new development, we are very pleased to see that some PC information has finally been updated, albeit at quite some considerable delay and expense. As you know, we believe that was always arguably unnecessary and has already cost thousands of pounds, but we will leave that debate for future precept setting, when the new hosting fees, ongoing maintenance charges, etc. have been clearly published.
As BPC has a website with a .gov.uk domain then, as you are aware "The applications (Web, email, etc) using a .gov.uk domain name must comply with current UK legislation" as seen here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/naming-and-registering-government-websites/local-government-naming-and-registering-websites, especially section 3.2. Additionally, regardless of the .gov.uk or other domain name I believe that "all public sector websites must comply with Digital by Default Service Standards" seen here https://www.gov.uk/service-manual.
The BPC .gov.uk website has been around for a number of years and was originally set up in order for BPC to achieve Quality Council status. So, as this is the third rewrite of the system with different companies, and that the previous/current BPC has just moved the .gov.uk website to a third different website provider and has commissioned them to rewrite it, then we're assuming that this documentation or its equivalent must exist. Please can you confirm whether it does exist and can you please send us a copy?
We are hoping that this documentation will answer many outstanding questions arising with regards to having several websites in the parish. We are concerned that BPC (potentially contrary to modernising government transparency code and openness advice) seems to have again spent more public money and replicated non-BPC related information that is (for instance) already readily available via BOB, such as businesses, clubs/societies, news/events etc.
Please can you clarify how you envisage the BPC website coexisting and working with the community website, BOB and other Bleadon websites and social media platforms to ensure that there is minimal duplication of content, maintenance effort or waste of BPC money? Can you confirm whether the future target and focus of BPC's precious limited resources will only be on the specific production and maintenance of BPC information, relating to its responsibilities, as recommended and prescribed in the Information Commissioners Office Model Publication Scheme? Or, does BPC intend to duplicate information that is already provided through existing private, social, voluntary or charitable enterprise with the associated creation and ongoing maintenance costs for the public, e.g. Bleadon's community website/BOB and others mentioned?
We feel that an explanation of how BPC envisages interaction and communication between parish groups is particularly important in relation to the recent abrupt halt in the flow of information from BPC to the public via BOB with no warning or explanation leaving the public, and hundreds of BOB users, without electronic access to documentation.
Please see http://www.bleadon.org.uk/media/other/24400/parish_council_information_guide.pdf obtained via
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-freedom-of-information/publication-scheme/definition-documents/.
For links to other related documents please see previous blog http://www.bleadon.org.uk/beinvolved.html?part_id=160604&post_id=22628&action=view_comments. Alternatively, I am sure these can easily be researched from your preferred sources.
We believe your considered response to the above would help start to create a coherent information management strategy for Bleadon which we see essential before a potential fourth rewrite of the parish council website is undertaken before the end of March 2016 as implied in November 2015 ratified minutes:
Minutes 9 November 2015 (received 6 January 2016) "Proposed and resolved that the use of the .gov.uk stop in March 2016 and a new domain name for the website be chosen. ....Proposed and resolved that freeola be used as the web hosting. Proposed and resolved that Webglu be asked to complete work on developing the full content of the new parish council website. The chairman indicated to councillors that no further discussion on this matter can now take place for another 6 months as per Standing Orders..."
Please can you.. (Cont. See Comment 2)