Northants CALC Update
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NORTHAMPTONSHIRE COUNTY ASSOCIATION OF LOCAL COUNCILS ISSUE 1/21 January - February 2021 CONTENTS • THE CHIEF’S BRIEF • SAVING CARBON AND CASH • ELECTIONS 2021 • HAVE FUN WITH FUNDING • LOCAL GOVERNMENT REORGANISATION ROUND-UP • TWO MONTHS TO GO! • SECTION 137 LIMIT 2021/22 • CENSUS 2021 – 21 MARCH 2021 • OVERHANGING VEGETATION • THE ROLE OF PARISH & TOWN COUNCILS IN HEALTH & WELLBEING • A CAUTIONARY TALE • SITUATIONS VACANT • ANNUAL PARISH MEETINGS • TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT FOR LOCAL COUNCILS • NORTHANTS CALC CONTACTS 1 THE CHIEF’S BRIEF By Danny Moody, Chief Executive, Northants CALC What a difficult and challenging time it is for everyone. I hope that you are managing to plot your own way through it in the best way you can. The escalating Coronavirus infection rates in December and early January were devastating and Northamptonshire quickly went from Tier 2, to 3, to 4 and then national lockdown. There are some who have lost loved ones, and many others who have been separated from family and friends just at a time when they needed them most. All one can do is to try to maintain a positive mental attitude, hunker down, and hope and pray for better times ahead. KBO, as Churchill said. It is a time of huge change and uncertainty, both in the wider world and in our own tiny sphere of local government in Northamptonshire, and it is easy to feel overwhelmed and powerless. Uncertainty is stressful, but you don’t need to know all the answers. Just breathe deeply and take small steps. 2021 is going to be epic. At the time of writing it is 61 days to 1 April 2021, when the “We will have new new unitary authorities take over legal councils, new responsibility for principal local government councillors, and in Northamptonshire and we say a sad goodbye to the district, borough and county refreshed democracy councils that have served residents since and local the early 1970s. I wonder if the new representation” structure will survive fifty years. It is 96 days until 6 May 2021; polling day for local elections across England. So, in 100 days we will be in a new place: God willing the pandemic will be abating, with infection rates in sharp decline and all the most vulnerable people vaccinated, we will have new councils, new councillors, and refreshed democracy and local representation. The weather will be better, we will be reconnecting with each other and the future will look bright. 100 days! January has been extremely busy at Northants CALC. The new local councils in the borough of Northampton are beginning to get established, with Kingsthorpe Parish Council (KPC) and Far Cotton and Delapre Community Council (FC&DCC) holding their inaugural meetings in early January, with councillors from the borough council appointed to them until the councils can hold elections. They 2 have appointed an Interim Clerk and have set budgets and precepts for 2021/22. And Northampton Town Council (NTC), the largest parish council in England, appointed its first permanent Town Clerk after a two-day assessment centre facilitated by Northants CALC in mid-January. Marion Goodman, currently Director of Customers and Communities and Interim Assistant Chief Executive at Northampton Borough Council, was the preferred candidate and her appointment was ratified at a meeting of the town council held on 27 January. Wellingborough Town Council (WTC) is underway too and will shortly be publishing a vacancy notice for its first permanent Town Clerk. The appointed councillors for all these new councils have an onerous task: they are parachuted in, often with vast knowledge and experience of being a borough councillor but none of being a parish or town councillor, and they have to predict what the new councils might like to do in their first year and make financial provision for it in the budget. They have to make difficult and important decisions, particularly on recruitment and precept, with scant data and no history to rely on. I think it is fitting therefore that the first few sets of minutes for these councils record the names of the interim officers and appointed councillors, without whom it would not have been possible to get the new councils up and running, and I thank them for their contribution and forbearance during what would have been a difficult task even at the best of times, let alone in the midst of Brexit, Local Government Reorganisation and a global pandemic! On 13 and 14 January 2021 we held the most recent in our popular series of “LGR Q&A” events. We were really pleased to have the unitary council Chief Executives, Anna Earnshaw and Rob Bridge, with us and there were many excellent questions submitted by delegates. Notes were sent out after the meetings, and there is a summary report in an article below. If parish and town council clerks and councillors allowed themselves a few days off over Christmas, they certainly cracked back on in the New Year. Our office reopened on 4 January and we were immediately inundated with enquiries. January is always busy because parish and town councils are setting their budgets and precepts and starting to look ahead to the end of year, annual meetings, and elections. There is more on those things below including what impact the pandemic will or might have on timing and logistics. And finally, please do continue to get in touch with your questions and queries; that is what we are here for! 3 SAVING CARBON AND CASH An article from Benjamin Gunn, Director, Clear Utility Solutions Local council Clerks in Northamptonshire have been hard at work reviewing their current energy contracts for council properties and streetlights within their respective parishes these past few months. Whilst it can be an easily overlooked area of responsibility for busy council clerks, making sure that the energy consumed by streetlights and other assets is competitive and responsibly sourced can reap rewards for both the environment and the council’s purse. As a non-domestic entity, it can be daunting for the clerks of smaller councils to wade into the difficult waters of arranging a commercial energy contract which, by definition, comes without the assurances and protections of similar domestic arrangements. Often the inherited incumbent supplier is chosen as a safe bet against the myriad of small and large energy companies that now operate in the UK energy market; fears also abound over collapsed energy companies and rogue energy salespeople. 4 Many Clerks opt to carry out their own independent market reviews to find the right deal for them, however many suppliers do not offer suitable tariffs for unmetered supplies, making finding a good deal both time consuming and difficult. As a result, some Clerks have turned to the services of energy consultants and brokers who guide them to suitable deals and suppliers who are able to service their respective needs. Our consultancy, Clear utility Solutions, has recently partnered with Northants CALC and has succeeded in bringing greener and more cost-effective energy tariffs to CALC members countywide. The scheme has focussed on ensuring local clerks have access to an easy and convenient energy comparison service which, with minimal time and effort, has been successful in helping them to secure more suitable contracts for their energy needs. With a firm focus on renewable energy and cost reduction, the scheme has enabled local clerks to purchase tailored energy contracts from reputable energy suppliers in a way that was previously not possible. To date the scheme has helped parish and town councils save £27,426 for their respective precepts and the scheme goal of supplying wholly renewable power where possible has meant that a total of 86,719 kg of carbon emissions have been prevented. Many suppliers are still billing councils on standard or variable tariffs that can be as much as 40% more than comparable fixed deals. As such, councils that are on these standard tariffs with their respective suppliers may well be missing out on potential savings for their precepts. With energy prices set to rise and uncertainty over how Brexit will affect the cost of the approximately 12% of gas and 5% of electricity the UK currently imports from the EU, making sure you have the right deal for your energy has never been more important! Editor’s Note: Northants CALC and Clear Utility Solutions partnered to set up an energy buying group for member parish and town councils in Northamptonshire. The scheme was launched in September 2020 and has been a great success so far. Even councils that are on long-term fixed contracts should get in touch with CUS, who will take a note of the contract end date and send you a helpful reminder when it is time to start looking at renewal rates. For further details please see https://www.clearutilitysolutions.com/ncalc-partnership. 5 ELECTIONS 2021 Local elections are scheduled for 6 May 2021. In Northamptonshire there are three elections: for unitary councils, for parish and town councils, and for the Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner. There has been a lot of speculation as to whether the elections can go ahead safely on 6 May 2021, but as things stand, that is the plan. In a letter dated 22 January 2021, Chloe Smith MP, minister of state for the constitution and devolution, said “The date of the elections is set in primary legislation, and will remain so unless Parliament determines otherwise. I recognise that there has been speculation about any change of date but there is rightly a high bar for any further postponement, considering that polls have been postponed for a year already, and that voters deserve to have their voices heard.