BALC - Buckinghamshire Association of Local Councils

BALC Notices

Borrowing Approval - this is an important topic and has a page of its own.
Allotments
CiLCA
Conduct Of Councillors
Direct Access
Probity Of Planning
Travellers

Allotments
The government has ordered a national audit to monitor the use of allotments to prepare for a shake up of laws governing their use. The current laws date back to 1908 and they dictate that people who rent allotments from a local authority or private landlord must use the land to grow fruit and vegetables for the family, so tenants cannot grow food for commercial sale. However, as interest in locally-grown food has increased, campaigners have wanted the laws changed to allow allotment-holders to sell surplus food to markets.
Trevor Oakley is compiling an historical database of allotment sites.

Please log on to www.allotmentregister.co.uk, add the details for your parish and help to create a valuable piece of historical information.

CiLCA
To register for the CiLCA qualification, contact your local training partnership (Bucks & Berks County Training Partnership - BBCTP) for application details and information about our new fast track programme.

When this is completed and returned (with a cheque for £55) you will be sent a copy of the Portfolio Guide and Assessment Criteria. This document contains the syllabus and also the criteria by which the markers will be marking your portfolio. It is very important. It shows candidates exactly what is required as evidence in the portfolio.

Candidates must take a photocopy of their portfolio. Portfolios will not be returned after marking.
Candidates must send their portfolio direct to lead marker’s address (CTPs will provide address details)
Portfolio pages must be either bound by treasury tags or in a soft-backed folder to aid postage and to fit through a letter box. The use of lever arch files is to be avoided.
Contrary to earlier guidance, please do not post via registered post as this has to be signed for and may cause extra inconvenience for the Lead Marker. Ordinary first class post will be sufficient.
Candidate should enclose a stamped addressed envelope if they want confirmation of receipt by the Lead Marker.
At this stage, no portfolios will be accepted electronically.

When you sit down to compile your portfolio: Attention to instructions and detail is imperative. A pass will not be awarded if you fail even just one of the 25 criteria in the portfolio. The Assessment Criteria contains both distinction and pass criteria. These state clearly what you must avoid doing and you must submit exactly what is asked for.

To maintain the credibility of the qualification, the Lead Markers will mark to exacting standards and will not pass a criterion if it has not met the standard. Portfolios that are submitted with pages in the wrong order, with poor presentation, will not pass. You will not get credit for ‘doing your best’.

You will only pass if you meet the standards set and maintained by the Chief Verifier.

You are advised to check through your portfolio very carefully prior to it being submitted as the appeals or re-sit process will be time-consuming and disheartening for everyone.

Read the question carefully and then answer the question!
In criteria where a word limit is specified, stick to it.
Everything submitted for the portfolio must be as ‘best practice’ as possible.
Style must be formal and appropriate.
You are encouraged to remove anything illegal or dubious from the documents you submit.
You are encouraged to annotate documents to explain why a potentially illegal/dubious point or statement has remained and make suggestions for re-phrasing/re-drafting.
If you/ your council does not already possess the exact material required for the portfolio, you must draft and submit a brand new suitable example.
If you are not responsible for the production of any submitted material, annotations to show understanding and explanation are essential.

Conduct Of Councillors
In May 2002, the Government held a consultation exercise, seeking views on how allegations of councillor misconduct should be handled at local level (section 66 regulations). More than 1,000 responses to the consultation were received.

The Government has now made regulations on the procedures to be followed by standards committees when considering allegations of misconduct. In addition, amendments to the Local Government Act 2000 have been proposed and are included in the Local Government Bill currently before Parliament. If those amendments are passed, the Government intends to make further regulations on the procedures to be followed when allegations of misconduct are investigated locally.

In total 1,081 responses were received, with 695 from parish and town councils.

A large number of responses were received from parish councils and individual parish councillors. Many of these contained comments on the wider issues of the application of the code of conduct and the operation of the Standards Board.

These comments, though not immediately relevant to the specific consultation exercise, have been carefully considered. In addition, as noted above, many parish councils are concerned about the proposal that standards committees pf principal authorities should have a role in determining allegations about parish councils.

While recognising these concerns, the Government nevertheless believes it is important to have a local mechanism for considering misconduct allegations relating to parish councillors. It is not reasonable to expect that every parish council should have a standards committee.

Provision has been made in the Local Government Act 2000 for parish members to be appointed to standards committees, and to require that a parish member is present when parish members are considered. With these safeguards, the Government believes that the proposals for handling allegations relating to parish councillors should be workable and fair.

Direct Access
If you would like your council to take advantage of this scheme, Please read the protocols below and if you think your council would qualify, contact the BALC office.

The direct access scheme is open to all larger councils, especially town councils, designated by county associations.

Direct access applies in relation to all services provided at national level by the National Association (with the exception of publications).

Designated councils should still approach the county secretary where it is appropriate to do so and only direct their enquires to national level where necessary.

Designated councils are required to keep county associations advised of any approach to the National Association and the outcome. The National Association will also provide a copy to county associations of any legal advice given to member councils in the scheme.

Failure to keep your County Association informed may result in the removal of your council from the direct access scheme.

Requests for advice or information should be sent direct to the relevant officers or department at national level.

Direct access councils will be advised of the direct line telephone numbers of all NALC Staff, including the staff structure. This will assist councils in directing their enquiry to the best possible source.

All written requests for advice at national level should be accompanied by a pro forma to be completed by the member council. This applies to all written, including email, requests for advice under the scheme. This will make it clear that the request is from a direct access council and will include the declaration that the member council has sent a copy of the request to the relevant County Association.

One of the benefits of the scheme is the direct receipt of weekly NALC Updates, which are issued on a whole range of issues including Policy, Training, Development and other matters. This is implemented electronically by email in the majority of cases, but by hard copy where a council does not have email access.

Publications should still be ordered from BALC.

Probity In Planning
The Code of Conduct positively identifies the fact that members may represent a community in more than one way.

Thus in the Code itself, membership of other bodies and appointments to other bodies are expressly excluded as being prejudicial interests and NALC has consistently advised along those lines.

Having said that the planning process necessitates other considerations. The planning process must be seen to be fair and unbiased.

With an application and a committee ultimately sitting in judgment of that application, it is a quasi-judicial process.

Members involved must therefore be careful not to reach a decision until they have heard all the evidence and argument from all sides involved (known as having an "unfettered discretion").

Thus whilst membership of another body does not automatically constitute a prejudicial interest, if the member has indicated earlier in the process that his/her mind was made up (i.e. at town council consultation level), then he or she may be excluded from later involvement because of this i.e. their discretion is fettered.

In NALC’s opinion, this does not prevent them from taking part in the discussion at local level. Indeed, it could be viewed as being a useful information seeking exercise. However, if they want to fully participate at the later decision making level, whilst maybe predisposed in favour of a proposal they should not vote.

In short it is NALC's view that the Code of Conduct does not prevent a member representing a community in more than one-way one. Instead, it is for each individual councillor to decide whether they have a prejudicial interest and then stand accountable on the basis of that decision.

Travellers
The law safeguards the rights of travellers to their own culture and to travel as a way of life. They have rights to health and social services and to have their children educated.

The length of stay depends on the ownership and type of land. On private land it is only for as long as the owner permits. A private landowner can seek a county or high court action for trespass, ask the local authority to act, (subject to agreeing to meet costs), and/or seek police advice.

The Bucks CC telephone number for this subject is 01296 383774.

On local authority land (including the highway) accommodation at one of the designated sites will be offered if available. Otherwise the authority has to judge whether the travellers’ rights would be prejudiced by an immediate eviction. Subject to this, they will be directed to leave on a specified day, usually about a fortnight hence.

The encampment will only be tolerated subject to good behaviour e.g. no litter or nuisance.