OXFORDSHIRE ASSOCIATION OF LOCAL COUNCILS
ANNUAL REPORT
2013- 2014
SODC
Benson Lane
Crowmarsh Gifford
Wallingford,
Oxfordshire
OX10 8HQ
01491 823118
www.oalc.org.uk
info@oalc.org.uk
OXFORDSHIRE ASSOCIATION OF LOCAL COUNCILS
ANNUAL REPORT 2013- 2014
This report covers the fortieth year of the Association since local government reorganisation in 1974.
CONTENTS
Page
Officers and Committee:
Honorary Officers
Executive Committee
Representatives on outside bodies
3
3
4
Introduction
6
Issues
7
Information, advice and training
9
Loan Sanction
12
The Association
13
2
HONORARY OFFICERS
President:
Cllr M J Leeding
Vice-Presidents:
Mr L R Angel IPFA
Cllr P Biggs
Mr R E Everitt
Mr J F Faulkner
Cllr. K George CBE
Mr J J Grantham
Mr B E Lane
Mr P MacGregor BEM
Chairman (Executive Committee)
Cllr T White
Vice-Chairman (Executive Committee)
Cllr Angela Lawrence
Hon Treasurer
Mr L R Angel IPFA
Representatives on the National
Association of Local Councils:
NALC Council and AGM
NALC AGM only
NALC Council (deputy) & AGM
NALC Larger Local Councils Committee
NALC Smaller Councils Committee
NALC Policy Committee
Cllr M J Leeding
Cllr I Charlton, Cllr A Lawrence
Cllr Charlton
Cllr A Lawrence
Cllr M J Leeding
Cllr M J Leeding
County Officer
Asst County Officer
Ms Christine Lalley
Mrs Jan Gosset
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
1. The Honorary Officers
President, Vice-Presidents and Hon Treasurer, as above
2. Parish Council Representatives
Cherwell District:
Cllr Stan Hearne
Cllr John Coley
(3 vacancies)
3
Oxford City:
(1 vacancy)
South Oxfordshire District:
Mr. R. Beattie
Cllr D B Fletcher BEM
Cllr K Hall
Cllr M J Leeding
Cllr W Partridge
Vale of White Horse District:
Cllr P Biggs
Cllr R I H Charlton
Cllr Angela Lawrence
Cllr A White
(1 vacancy)
West Oxfordshire District:
Mrs C Hitchens
Cllr Dr F W Wright
Cllr P Loftus
(2 vacancies)
3. Co-opted
(None)
4. Representatives of County and District Councils
Oxfordshire County Council:
Cllr. Patrick Greene
Cherwell District Council:
Cllr Ken Atack
South Oxfordshire District Council:
Cllr. Mrs. P. Dawe
Vale of White Horse District Council:
Cllr E Batts
West Oxfordshire District Council:
Cllr D Cotterill
4
REPRESENTATIVES ON OUTSIDE BODIES
Organisation
Representative
Cotswold Conservation Board, Annual Forum
Mrs C Hitchens
Oxfordshire Partnership
Mrs C Hitchens
Cllr M Leeding
Cllr Lawrence
Cllr I Charlton
Oxfordshire Play Partnership
Mr R Beattie
Oxfordshire Playing Fields Association
Mr R Beattie
Oxfordshire Rural Community Council,
Village Halls Advisory Group
Cllr R Charlton
Oxfordshire Rural Transport Partnership
Cllr M J Leeding
Oxfordshire Stronger Communities Alliance and
Transforming Local Infrastructure
Mrs C Hitchens
Oxfordshire Transport Forum and
Oxfordshire Community Transport Strategy
Cllr M J Leeding
River Thames Alliance
Cllr D Fletcher
Rural Services Network
Cllr M J Leeding
South East Region County Associations Forum
Cllr T White
Cllr M Leeding
West Oxfordshire Community Forum
Mrs C Hitchens
Digital Champion
Cllr D Cotterill
Oxfordshire Local Nature Partnership
Cllr A White
5
INTRODUCTION
We continue to respond on behalf of our members to the changes and initiatives
taking place nationally and locally. Primary and secondary legislation and
consultations are still affecting our sector on an almost daily basis. Some of it is
welcome – electronic banking, some is more concerned with principle and betrays a
lack of understanding of how parish councils function.
We actively participate in the affairs of our national body, the National Association of
Local Councils (NALC), this enables us to keep abreast of changes and protect the
interests of the Association, as well as raising concerns of our member councils.
We participate in county and district partnerships where they still exist. The District
Local Strategic Partnerships have generally been replaced by more informal
meetings. The County Council is contracting out an increasing range of services to
voluntary and third sector bodies so the landscape of service provision is changing.
OALC continue to liaise with the County Council to try and ensure the parish
perspective is fed into their policy making where ever possible. The list of bodies on
which OALC has representation is set out on page 5.
This report covers the third year of office of the Committee elected for the years 2011 to 2015. We would like to thank all those who have served and continue to
support the work of the Executive Committee. Les Angel, our Hon. Treasurer has
efficiently managed our financial affairs.
Finally, we would like to thank the staff at our county office as well as those in the
National Association.
We commend this report to our member councils.
Malcolm Leeding
President
Tony White
Chairman
June 2014
6
ISSUES
Representing the interests of member parishes is a key role of our Association, at
national and local levels.
National Issues
Through our representation on the National Council of NALC we have been kept upto-date on the legislative developments that do, or could impact on local councils,
particularly those arising from the Localism Act, Local Audit and Accountability Act
2014 and other legislation.
The long awaited Legislative Regulation Order enabling electronic banking for town
and parish councils was finally laid before Parliament on 11th November 2013 and
passed through it legislative stages by February 2014. NALC has issued new Model
Financial Regulations and has revised Appendix 11, Governance and Accountability
for Local Councils.
Continued spending cuts have affected central government funding of principal
authorities. Changes to the basis of Council Tax and the reduction in central funding
by 10% of it, together with capping of district councils have had direct consequences
for parishes. Some district councils have withheld the intended Council Tax Support
Grant from their parish councils. NALC lobbied hard with government ministers, in
particular Brandon Lewis MP, to ensure that the message was conveyed to districts
that they should be passing on the funding to their town and parish councils.
John Findlay, NALC CEO retired in March 2013 and a new Chief Executive Officer
Dr Jonathan Owen has been appointed.
As discussed below, issues raised by members which cannot be resolved locally are
taken to the national level through NALC.
Local Issues
Local issues raised by members taken to the national level through NALC are
described below:

Gosford and Water Eaton Parish Council continue to lobby against the
requirement for councils to register for RTI for the pay of the clerk
The Association is represented on county and district-level partnerships where they
still exist. Oxfordshire County Council has adopted greater partnership working as a
response to spending cuts and to the thrust of government policy as expressed
through the Localism Act, the introduction of Clinical Commissioning Groups, TLI
and adult social care coming under their remit. OALC welcomes closer working with
Oxfordshire County Council through our new liaison officer, Sarah Jelley. We feel
that the County Council may increasingly appreciate the importance and benefit of
working more closely with town and parish councils. OALC despite not being a third
7
sector voluntary or community organisation is represented on the Oxfordshire
Stronger Communities Alliance (OSCA) by councillors from the Executive
Committee. OSCA is now serviced by OCVA rather than the County Council.
The Association continues to participate in wider rural development activities in
Oxfordshire, e.g. the Parish Transport Representative Network, meeting with ORCC.
The Association also participates in County & District Parish Liaison events in
particular contributing to the panel discussion for the South Oxfordshire District –
Parish Forums in November 2013.
8
INFORMATION, ADVICE AND TRAINING
Information and Publications
We circulate material in a timely manner as soon as it becomes available via email;
it is posted on our website (www.oalc.org.uk ) and via the publication of a regular
monthly Update for Members. This covers national and local news, including
information from Oxfordshire County Council; consultations; funding; training &
development; NALC briefings; events and vacancies. Many key NALC and OALC
guidance documents and publications are available to download from the Members’
Area of our website, on a typical month our website receives 350+ visits, each visit
being 6 minutes on average. OALC has a Twitter account
https://twitter.com/oalc_info with a small but growing number of followers. NALC
regularly retweets OALC Tweets. The Twitter account can be found on the OALC
home page. Items of news relevant to Oxfordshire local councils are posted weekly.
The members update and the website are our main contact with member councils
outside general meetings and training events. They also lead to requests for other
publications covering a wide range of issues – finance, meetings and decisions,
Members’ issues, powers, employment conditions of clerks, etc.
Two NALC publications, the 4th edition of The good councillor’s guide (£2 + £1.20
p&p) and Local Councils Explained (£49.99) are available via OALC.
Advice
The demand for advice continues to run at a high level, with enquiries from members
running at around 80 per month. Many of these are dealt with as they come in by
telephone or email. Others may require further research or the opinion of NALC’s
legal service.
Thirteen parish and town councils that meet NALC’s definition of a ‘larger local
council’, which is a council with an electorate over 6,000, are given direct access to
NALC for legal advice:


Abingdon
Banbury
9











Bicester
Blackbird Leys
Didcot
Faringdon
Grove
Henley on Thames
Kidlington
Thame
Wallingford
Wantage
Witney
We hold twice yearly meetings specifically for these Larger Councils. Chris Borg,
NALC Policy and Development Manager comes to speak at our Larger Councils
Committee to keep them informed of developments at national level.
Training and Development Programme
The Association, with its partners in the Oxfordshire Partnership for Local Councils,
provides a wide range of training and development activities for councillors and
clerks. A number of successful OALC-led training events were held in the past year.
We organised 6 well attended training sessions, with over 200 councillors and clerks
attending. We also organised two other bespoke training events, one for Bloxham
and surrounding parish councils and one for ORCC.
Training
trainer
date
location
VAT
Steve
Parkinson
Keith Butler
30th April
2013
25th June
2013
Civic Hall
Didcot
Civic Hall
Didcot
10th July
2013
Civic Hall,
Didcot
38
21st
September
2013
24th
September
2013
22nd October
2013
5th February
2014
Bloxham
28
Civic Hall
Didcot
36
Civic Hall
Didcot
ORCC,
Yarnton
37
Minutes and Meetings
Planning
Roles and
Responsibilities
Data Protection,
Freedom of Information
and Data transparency
Getting to grips with
finance
What are parish
councils and what do
they do?
Jon
Westerman
and Dawn
Brodey
Liz Howlett
Liz Howlett
Steve
Parkinson
Jan Gosset
and Christine
Lalley
10
number of
attendees
22
32
10
Roles and
Responsibilities
Liz Howlett
8th March
2014
Civic Hall
Didcot
42
OALC also worked with South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils
for the second year running on a series of briefings on changes to the Council Tax
and the effect it would have on precepts. Four briefing session (two lunchtime, two
evening) were held in October 2013.
In June 2013 we hosted a delegation of high ranking officials from Hunan Province,
China. The group of six officials led by Zhang Renfu, Counsel of the Standing
Committee of Hunan Provincial People’s Congress, were on a short four day visit to
the England. They were interested in finding out more about local democracy, in
particular the sort of people who wanted to be local councillors, how they were
elected and how councils regulated their expenditure.
Oxfordshire Association of
Local Councils
Oxfordshire Association of
Local Councils
Local Government in
England
我們歡迎湖南省代表團
•
•
•
•
21st June 2013
Christine Lalley, County Officer
County Councils - Oxfordshire
Metropolitan boroughs
Unitary Councils
London Boroughs
Members of the delegation were interested to learn what motivated councillors when
they didn’t receive any financial recompense from their work. They were impressed
by the fact that Cllr Malcolm Leeding, our President, had been a councillor for over
30 years.
The delegation presented Cllr Leeding with an embroidered wall hanging from
Hunan and Cllr Leeding presented to them a copy of his history of the Oxfordshire
Association of Local Councils.
Quality Status and General Power of Competence
The Quality Parish and Town Council Scheme was originally launched in 2003
following the Government's Rural White Paper. The aim of the Scheme was to
provide benchmark minimum standards for parish and town councils. The Scheme is
supported by a national stakeholder body comprising the Department for
Communities and Local Government, the Department for the Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs, the Local Government Association, the National Association of Local
Councils and the Society of Local Council Clerks.
The Scheme was reviewed in 2008 to better reflect the increased professionalism of
councils. Nationally, there are 402 Quality Councils.
11
There are three local councils in Oxfordshire with Quality status: Little Milton Parish
Council, Carterton and Didcot Town Councils.
Council
Little Milton
Carterton Town Council
Didcot Town Council
Date of Accreditation (valid for four
years)
December 2012 expires Dec 2016
January 2009 expires January 2013
July 2009 expires July 2013
The Quality Council scheme is currently frozen while a national review is done.
Extensive consultation was undertaken in summer 2013 on a proposed three tier
scheme. The feedback on the tiered proposal was mixed. Since then due to
personnel changes at NALC the scheme has stagnated. Critically, Quality Status
was not made one of the criteria necessary for attaining the General Power of
Competence available under the Localism Act 2011. Quality Status remains a useful
reflective tool for councils to examine processes, procedures and working methods.
However, reaccreditations are falling and until there are clear financial rewards or
greater powers resulting from attainment of Quality Status it will remain an
underused tool. We continue to await the outcome of the national review.
The General Power of Competence was introduced in the Localism Act 2011 and
replaces the Power of Well-Being. For eligible councils – those with a qualified clerk
and two thirds of councillors having stood for election, it enables them to act in the
same way as an individual person. It will free councils from having to find the
legislative power for each item of expenditure and it will be a power of first not last
resort. This is potentially revolutionary although the number of eligible councils is
currently probably less than 20 in the county. We are aware of only five councils that
have resolved to use the Power.
LOAN SANCTION
We process applications for loan sanction – permission to borrow money from any
source, bank or district council– from all parish and town councils in Oxfordshire.
Once checked by the Association, applications are forwarded directly to the
Department of Communities and Local Government to be granted sanction to borrow
the money. New questions have been introduced into the borrowing process on
whether there is demonstrable community support for the application and whether it
will increase the precept which applicant councils need to complete.
In 2013/14 four councils in Oxfordshire borrowed £723,081 in total, compared with
six councils borrowing £890,000 in the previous year.
12
THE ASSOCIATION
Membership
The total number of parish councils (225) in membership has remained unchanged.
There are 249 local councils in the County. Membership of Parish Meetings has
decreased from 22 to 21.
Membership levels have remained consistent in Vale of White Horse and Oxford City.
There has been an increase in West Oxfordshire (by 6%). There have been
decreases in Cherwell (2%) and South Oxfordshire (1%).
Overall county membership has remained at a high level (90%). Three new
parishes are in membership for 2013/14 – Nuneham Courtenay, Spelsbury and
Churchill & Sarsden.
Office Services
Our website (www.oalc.org.uk ), is an important means of keeping members up to
date with the latest news, consultations, etc., and supplements our regular Update
for Members. To provide this information to members, we access many resources
and information services. In addition to the National Association, these include the
South East Employers organisation and the Rural Services Network, which as well
as providing an intelligence service on rural issues, lobbies to promote the interests
of predominately rural counties.
County Association Meetings
At the Annual General Meeting in July 2013, we had a presentation from Lisa
Michelson and Graham Shaw, officers of Oxfordshire County Council on the
“Delivering Better Broadband” programme
The Executive and Policy Committee meets quarterly timed to coincide with
meetings of NALC Policy Committee; Cllr Leeding takes any decisions from OALC
directly to NALC.
We continue with our twice yearly meetings with Larger Local Councils, attended by
Chris Borg, NALC’s Larger Councils' Policy and Development Manager.
Regional Issues
Cllrs Leeding and White are the Association’s representatives on the South East
Region County Associations Forum (SERCAF). SERCAF’s role has become
increasingly important as a regional forum since the demise of the regional tier of
government.
.
13
Cllr Don Fletcher took over the role of representative on the River Thames Alliance
from July 2011. This organisation brings together local government, the Environment
Agency, tourism interests, river users, etc. to improve planning, investment and
facilities along the river.
We are still represented on the Oxfordshire Partnership. However, Local Strategic
Partnerships are no longer a requirement and each District Council has approached
their demise differently. We are also represented on play issues by Mr. Beattie on
the Oxfordshire Play Partnership and the Oxfordshire Playing Fields Association.
Mrs Catherine Hitchens represents OALC on the Cotswold Conservation Board.
National Association
Cllr Leeding represented our County Association at meetings of the National Council
of the National Association. He is also a member of the Policy Committee and was
re-elected to the Smaller Councils Committee. Cllr Angela Lawrence is a member of
the NALC Larger Councils Committee although nominated by Abingdon Town
Council and elected but not by the OALC Executive Committee.
14