Future Access to BPC Public Information

There was a long and insightful full council meeting on Monday 8 Feb 2016.

The following blog only relates to the publication of, and access to, BPC agenda and minutes. In particular the outcome of the BPC extraordinary council meeting of 4 Feb 'to consider the on-going relationship between the Council and a parishioner' i.e. the Bleadon BOB community website, which the public including us were excluded from attending.

The full council meeting on Mon 8 Feb 2016 was chaired by Cllr Hartree. He informed all attending that Chairman Ian Gibson had resigned as councillor following the extraordinary meeting, citing the council being deeply divided as a factor. The five councillors present then voted on a new Chair, and after a divided vote, Cllr Hartree used his casting vote as acting chairman and he was elected as chairman of Bleadon Parish Council.

Cllr Hartree read out the long resolution that was made at the extraordinary meeting last Thursday 4 Feb. There was no written information regarding the resolution for the councillors or public to read, and we/BOB had not received any feedback prior to the meeting, so Cllr Gutsell kindly asked for it to be read out again, assisting everyone present. In essence it relates to all of us in that,

with regards to access to minutes and agenda Bleadon BOB will be treated as any other resident and therefore will not be sent the agenda/minutes by email. These documents would be available on the BPC website.

BOB has fought for timely access to BPC public information on behalf of the Bleadon community for many years, so being treated as any other resident is not an issue. For, example this whole issue requiring an extraordinary meeting has occurred because at the end of last year BOB raised a problem with the timing of the agenda/minutes resulting from the new Clerk/BPC proposed process. The current BPC finally agreed to recontinue publishing minutes prior to meetings, just as the previous PC and Clerk did for many years. (See previous blogs and 14 Dec 2015 minutes under AOB).

What still hasn't been answered satisfactorily though is how will anyone know when they are published i.e. why can't the public, including BOB, continue to be notified when the agenda/minutes become available? For over two years, until the above problem, BPC offered everyone a service to automatically receive an email from the Clerk containing the agenda/minutes as soon as they were available. Bleadon residents, BOB, village groups, etc. as well as other organisations such as the police, NS councillors, The Mercury, etc. could request to be added or were on the email circulation list.

Who would have thought asking the current BPC to continue to deliver previous minutes before the next meeting; and to continue to automatically inform BOB when they were available could have led to these events. As Cllr Clarke indicated in her comments, all this for asking for one address to be put back on an email circulation list.

Here are some observations from the full council meeting: 

• Cllr Hartree stated concern about control of the BPC website and information.
• Cllr Findlay indicated that minutes will be available on the BPC website no later than 7 days before a meeting, possibly sooner.
• Cllr Gutsell asked how will people know if minutes were posted sooner, e.g. 10 days before meeting? Cllr Findlay replied that people would just have to keep checking the BPC website.
• Cllr Clarke referred to the email service in Class 4 of the Publication Scheme in the Corporate Policy. Cllr Hartree said his interpretation was it didn't mean an ongoing email service (as used to date).
• Cllr Gutsell and Cllr Clarke tried to support and promote a timely and communicative service for residents/BOB to receive the agenda/minutes. In the end the vote was divided and Cllr Hartree used his casting vote as Chairman. The resolution to effectively only allow residents/BOB ongoing access via the website, and not be notified via the automatic email service was passed.
• What wasn't made clear however was whether the automatic email notification service has been stopped altogether. Has a two-tiered system now been created with residents having to manually and repeatedly check the website yet the police, NS councillors, press, etc. still being automatically emailed, i.e. receiving a better, more timely and communicative level of service than that offered residents?

From the above it seems that some councillors are intent on making the communication process between BPC and residents/BOB as time consuming as possible; and with all of us supposedly being equal also making it difficult for the police, press, etc. as well.

The purpose of the Information Commissioners Office Model Publication Scheme is to assist every public authority under the Freedom of Information Act, to make the maximum amount of information readily available at minimum inconvenience and cost to the public. The current BPC adopted Publication Scheme within the BPC Corporate Policy, was/is based on this model and was set up following the Localism Act by the previous qualified Clerk and is based on this downloadable template from the ICO.

So, rather than you having to repeatedly visit the BPC website to see if the agenda or minutes have been published (as suggested by Cllr Findlay), BOB will do this for you. We will let you know when they are made available, as we currently do, thus saving you all the time and effort.

Please continue to send us your comments and feedback and let us know of anything you'd like us to raise within our community. You can also contact your parish council via the Clerk!

For background correspondence to this issue please see comment section below and these previous blogs:

• http://www.bleadon.org.uk/beinvolved.html?part_id=160604&post_id=22775&action=view_comments
• http://www.bleadon.org.uk/beinvolved.html?part_id=160604&post_id=22628&action=view_comments