local councils

Somerset council declares cost of living emergency

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After climate crisis, now cost of living. A good example of local action or just a bit of rhetoric? The issue either way is undoubtedly important…

A West Country council has become the second in England to declare a cost of living emergency.

Mendip District Councillors voted through the motion on Monday evening.

It means the Liberal Democrat-run authority will write to the government asking for more action and organise a conference with support organisations.

Eastbourne in East Sussex became the first council in the country to declare a cost of living emergency earlier in the month.

Mendip is the first district council in the UK to adopt the stance, which is designed to acknowledge and address rural poverty due to rising food and fuel prices.

BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine wades into Bromyard backwards D row

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We have hundreds of small towns across England, by my count almost 40 in Lincolnshire alone. I would be really interested apart from the “Elephant test” ie if its got flappy ears and a trunk its probably an elephant! How you would define a rural town? This article reflects a specific campaign, of which I have personal experience, to keep such often overlooked places on the agenda and I like the back to front “D”!

BBC Radio 2 host Jeremy Vine has waded into the row over a Herefordshire town’s rebranding, suggesting the town could remove its vowels to take it into the 21st century.

The lunchtime host was joined by architect Bob Ghosh and local resident Chris Barltrop to discuss the controversial Bromyard rebranding project, which includes a backwards ‘D’ on national radio.

There has been widespread local criticism online after the rebranding, part of a £90,000 project aimed at sprucing the town up and enticing tourists was made public.

Host Jeremy Vine said there has been a big move in music to remove vowels from names, and suggested that perhaps the town could remove its vowels to bring it into line with the 21st century.

The group behind the designs say the response to the project, which also includes signage and bringing life to historic town alleyways and the bypass subway with artwork, has been ‘overwhelmingly positive’.

K4 Architects said they had been encouraged by the response to the public exhibition held at the Conquest Theatre in Tenbury Road, followed by another four days at its town centre office.

Designs will be finalised in due course.

Jackie Weaver pleads for return of online council meetings

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More power to your elbow Jackie, much easier to turn objectionable meeting goers off on line! And easier (broadband allowing) for rural dwellers to get to meetings and for that matter look in on them. This story tells us:

The government’s failure to enable local politicians to meet virtually is hampering councils, worrying older councillors and shutting out new participants, according to Jackie Weaver, who shot to fame thanks to a video clip of an ill-tempered council meeting 10 months ago.

Weaver, who became one of the most unlikely breakout stars of 2021 after footage from the Handforth parish council meeting she was attending went viral, has issued the rallying cry amid fears that current high infection rates could hit participation in local politics hard.

In April the high court ruled that from May council meetings in England must take place in person – after coronavirus restrictions which allowed virtual meetings lapsed.

“It is completely unreasonable that we are having to cancel council meetings or hold them only in emergencies for goodness knows how long. Where is democracy?” said Weaver in an interview conducted, inevitably, over Zoom.

This week Lawyers in Local Government the Association of Democratic Services Officers (ADSO) launched a petition calling for councils to be allowed to meet remotely because “they know best” what type of meetings work in their area.

After a tumultuous 10 months in which Weaver, the chief officer of the Cheshire Association of Local Councils, has played herself in the Archers, opened the Brit awards as “Weaver the Cleaver” and featured on Celebrity Mastermind, she is also calling for legislation that will, once again, allow council meetings to be held online.

The public can only hope that it will lead to more filmed exchanges like the Handforth meeting that gripped the nation in the dark days of last February’s lockdown, when Weaver was commanded by Aled’s iPad to: “Read the standing orders, read them and understand them!”

Jeremy Clarkson Diddly Squat Farm restaurant refused permission

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Money and celebrity can be a curse in some places. I am sure there is more to this story than those two issues but I never fail to be fascinated by the way planning decisions play out in localities.

A planned new restaurant for TV personality Jeremy Clarkson’s Oxfordshire farm has been refused permission.

Diddly Squat Farm, in Chadlington, is the site of the former Top Gear host’s Amazon Studios series, Clarkson’s Farm.

A West Oxfordshire District Council (WODC) planning sub-committee declined the plan on Monday.

Clarkson said it would enhance farming and tourism in the area and the refusal meant a “very bad day for farming”.

When asked how frustrated he was, he said: “Very, and so will all the local farmers.”

Planning officers said the proposal to renovate a lambing shed into a restaurant was out of keeping with the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

The shed was built in 2020 after a new flock of sheep was bought to diversify the farm business.

It has now been merged with another local farmer’s flock, the council said.

But council officers said the building has since been used, without planning permission, as a cafe and a bar area.

Councils in England facing funding gaps plan to cut special needs support

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Many of the most significantly affected authorities and therefore communities referenced here are rural. This story tells us:

Councils in England, facing a funding shortfall of more than half a billion pounds for educating children with special needs, are planning spending cuts and service reviews, according to figures compiled by the Observer.

Campaigners fear children could lose some of their support as local authorities try to clear yawning historical deficits, with government rules stopping them using other reserves to help to fund the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) system.

Figures covering 131 of England’s 151 “upper tier” local authorities show the combined forecast “overspend” on high needs budgets comes to £503m for the 2020-21 financial year.

The figures were obtained from freedom of information requests and council documents, and show forecasts made late in the financial year.

Surrey council confirmed it overspent its high needs budget by £35m in 2020-21, and is forecasting a further overspend of £24m in 2021-22. Kent forecast an overspend of £35.8m in 2020-21, and 14 other councils forecast overspends of £10m to £18m.

Cambridgeshire has a forecast deficit of £13.7m in 2020-21. It is planning to reduce top-up funding for Send children in mainstream schools, as well as launching a variety of reviews covering individual support packages. A council spokesperson said: “In addition to the continuing rise in the number of education, health and care plans (EHCPs) being allocated to those in need, we are seeing an increase in the complexity of need among our children and young people. Our funding allocation is not sufficient to adequately match the increase in demand.”

Councils crack down on trail-hunting as police investigation into hunt masters’ meetings continues

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The return of an old friend for Christmas as we move closer to Boxing Day. This story tells us:

Two councils have launched crackdowns on trail-hunting on their land, two weeks after landowners banned the activity in response to a criminal investigation into how it is organised.

The news comes as a third local authority is due to consider a motion suspending hunts from its land.

Councillors at Cheshire West and Chester Council on Thursday evening backed a motion that paves the way for a ban, voting to devise a new policy reflecting the “damage” caused by trail-hunting.  

Cleve Hill Solar Park judicial review bid by Kent council fails

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Stories like this make me wonder what the point of local democracy is…

A council has been told it cannot challenge plans to build the UK’s largest solar farm on the north Kent coast.

The Cleve Hill Solar Park will consist of 800,000 panels built on 890 acres (360 hectares) of farmland at Graveney.

Swale Borough Council was told there is no legal basis on which they can challenge the government’s decision to approve the plan.

The council had argued for a judicial review to protect wildlife habitats.

The consent for the development was granted to Cleve Hill Solar Park Ltd by the government, on 28 May.

Coronavirus: UK councils fear bankruptcy amid Covid-19 costs

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The challenges inherent in this story speak for themselves – with a number of particularly rural first tier authorities potentially high on the list.

Nearly 150 authorities have forecast a combined budget shortfall of at least £3.2bn, the BBC found.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said the government “has got to recognise” the financial situation facing councils.

The government said it was working on a “comprehensive plan” for councils.

A BBC investigation found across the UK:

  • At least five English councils warned they may meet the criteria to issue a section 114 notice at some point without more government support, declaring themselves effectively bankrupt
  • They include some of the UK’s largest unitary authorities – Leeds, Wiltshire, Trafford, Tameside and Barnet
  • Of 173 local authorities who responded to the BBC’s questions, 148 predicted a budget shortfall

At least 20 local authorities plan to hold an emergency or in-year budget

Lost business rates, council tax holidays and emergency payments for families whose incomes have disappeared have all hit upper tier councils’ income, at the same time as rising costs of adult care and providing protective equipment (PPE) for carers.

Some of those councils would also typically depend on tourism for large chunks of income, such as dividends from airports they own or parking fees from visitors.

Rural councils join forces to tackle climate change

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In all this doom and gloom a positive storyline with local authorities leading from the front. This story tells us:

A coalition of 21 rural councils, in partnership with UK100, have launched the Countryside Climate Network this week.

The Network aims to ensure rural communities play an active role in helping meet the ambition of net zero by 2050.

Chair of the Countryside Climate Network and leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, cllr Steve Count, said: ‘Cambridgeshire may be low-lying and vulnerable to sea level rise, yet far from a rural backwater, it has the highest ratio of entrepreneurs nationally, many focussed on advanced cleantech.

‘It can be hard to meet our sustainable ambitions when unlike urban areas we have additional pressures of needing to fund essential bus services to remote communities or invest in broadband because the market doesn’t reach isolated areas. These examples of typical rural disadvantage combined with a funding gap in rural areas twice that of our urban counterparts, diminshes our stretched resources further.’

Hand health powers to elected mayors, says report

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In view of some of the major challenges arising from the last four months I’m not sure local council leaders will want a number of the powers proposed here, particularly those areas with limited appetite (mainly rural) for elected mayors. This article tells us:

Health powers should be handed to elected mayors as part of a ‘rejuvenated and fortified wave of devolution,’ a think-tank report has suggested.

The report by Respublica said the move would provide ‘regional democratic legitimacy’ to devolved health and care systems.

Respublica previously proposed a ‘path to reform’ involving ‘transformative devolution to the counties’ and ‘complete reorganisation in the form of single-tier unitary councils’.

It also suggested that adult and children’s social care departments of local authorities should be merged as part of a plan to integrate health and social care into one unitary system as a ‘first step towards full devolution’.

The report said ‘full place-based devolution of power and authority for health delivery from Whitehall and Westminster to local health and care economies’ was key.

The report read: ‘Devolution to the locality is an inspirational ambition that will mobilise the health and care workforce, reversing its increasingly dispirited outlook.

‘It will replace the current jumble of confused jurisdictions and unclear responsibilities, both within the NHS and between the NHS and local authorities.’ On Devo Manc, the report said it had ‘not lived up to initial aspirations,’ adding:

‘Devolution that looked good on paper has not been followed through with the type of delegated executive authority, driven by competent management, over the still-disordered patchwork of local authorities, commissioners, primary care, community-based care and hospital providers.

‘In conclusion, a rejuvenated and fortified wave of devolution needs to be launched.’

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