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e-news update 2nd March 2021
Do you have news to share?
@LincsALC Contact john.kilcoyne@lalc.co.uk
www.lalc.co.uk LALC will provide links but is not responsible for the content of external websites.
Welcome
We are delighted to let you know that Hallie Rose arrived at
10:57 on Thursday 25th February, weighing 6lb 8oz. Amy, her
baby and the rest of her family are all doing well and thank
you for your good wishes.
Funding
Funding opportunity from Lincolnshire Community Foundation:
Not for profit groups, charities, social enterprises etc can apply
for up to £5,000.00 towards the costs of planning for the future
sustainability of the organisation. Contact Sue Fortune for
more details.
Member’s survey
Thank you to the many clerks and councillors who completed our survey. We’ve had approximately 160
responses which we are now slowly working our way through. We’ll let you know when we’ve had chance
to analyse them all.
LALC news
We’re hoping to have the latest quarterly magazine published and distributed by the end of this month.
There’s still time to include some of your good news stories. If you have something to share, please let us
have it by 12th March. Photos will be a bonus if you can manage it as well.
Consultations
1. National Planning Policy Framework and National Model Design Code. NALC’s guidance is available
on our website. Comments to help inform NALC’s response to comments to
chris.borg@nalc.gov.uk by 12 March. Otherwise respond directly to MHCLG by 27th March.
2. Right to Regenerate: reform of the Right to Contest. Closing date 13th March.
Training events planned for March – all held remotely via Zoom
CiLCA units 1,2 and 3
Burials 9th and 10th March - FULL
New clerk’s training 18th, 23rd and 25th March
Reminder from Lindsey: Could I please remind all clerks to confirm whether their council wish to join the
Annual Training Scheme 21/22? The fee is based on the amount of electorate – please email me should you
need to clarify this figure. Thank you to the councils who have already notified me and paid the fee.
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The full list of courses available and booking arrangements and application form for the Annual Training
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Scheme can be found here.e-news update 2nd March 2021
Do you have news to share?
@LincsALC Contact john.kilcoyne@lalc.co.uk
www.lalc.co.uk LALC will provide links but is not responsible for the content of external websites.
Online training
All e-learning courses cost £22.50 per person plus VAT and are additional to the Annual Training Scheme.
The following courses are available:
❖ LALC Councillor e-learning
❖ NIMBLE e-learning
• Display Screen Equipment Assessment
• Managing and Reducing Stress
• Personal Safety Essentials
• Time Management Essentials
• Equality and Diversity Essentials
• Fire Safety Essentials
• Health and Safety Essentials
• Leadership Essentials
• Data Protection Essentials
• Introduction to Planning for Parish Councils
More details and how to book can be found here.
꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰꙰꙰ ꙰꙰꙰꙰ ꙰꙰꙰꙰
Join the final FREE Virtual Big Energy Saving Network Coffee Chat on Monday 22nd March 2021, from
11.00am to 12.30pm. BESN delivers an extensive free programme of support to households focused on
helping to reduce energy costs on tariffs, switching and the take up of energy efficiency offers.
More information from janet.clark@lincsymca.co.uk or 01529 301962 or register at
https://besncoffeechatmarch.eventbrite.co.uk
A Good Neighbour Scheme for your Community?
Community Lincs can help set up a local scheme. More information
from 01529 302466 or gns@lincsymca.co.uk
Safeguarding Children and Adults in your village and community hall
The FREE training available from Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Partnership and Adults Board
continues to be available for voluntary committees and their volunteers. For more information, please
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contact Samantha Smith 01429 301960 or samantha.smith@lincsymca.co.uk
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꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰꙰꙰ ꙰꙰꙰꙰ ꙰꙰꙰꙰e-news update 2nd March 2021
Do you have news to share?
@LincsALC Contact john.kilcoyne@lalc.co.uk
www.lalc.co.uk LALC will provide links but is not responsible for the content of external websites.
NALC’s Chief Executive, Jonathan Owen, sends out a weekly bulletin. Sign up here.
Star council awards
NALC is once again running its awards programme. The Star Council Awards are
the only awards in England to recognise and celebrate the local council sector’s brilliant contribution to its
communities. The awards are an excellent opportunity for councils, councillors, clerks, and county
associations to showcase how they have made a real difference locally.
Following an unprecedented 2020, the theme for this year’s awards will be projects that have positively
impacted communities in the context of COVID-19:
• Clerk of the Year
• County Association Project of the Year
• Young Councillor of the Year
• Councillor of the Year
• Council of the Year
Winners will be announced at an online ceremony in September. Closing date for entries is 25th May.
Full details can be found here.
Local government 2021 pay claim
Unions representing local government workers have submitted a pay claim including an overall 10% pay
increase. Employer organisations met last week and agreed they would not be able to respond to this until
after the local elections in May and are unable to give a timescale at this stage for any final decision. I will
of course keep you updated, do also check out the LGA workforce webpage.
Roadmap to lifting the lockdown
The Prime Minister announced on 22 February the Government’s 4-step roadmap to lifting lockdown
restrictions in England. There will be a five-week interval between each step of the roadmap, allowing for
the four weeks it takes to see the impact of any easing of restrictions in the data, plus an extra week’s
notice for any changes announced. Measures will be introduced nationally, rather than through the
previous tiered approach with the strategy being informed by “data not dates”, and subjected to four
tests. NALC's dedicated Coronavirus webpage will continue to be updated as more guidance and
information becomes available. At present lockdown restrictions mean that local (parish and town)
councils should not be meeting in person, however, we have produced guidance on preparing to return to
face-to-face meetings to help planning and ensure minimum disruption and risk.
COVID-secure election campaigning
New guidance has been published by the government to provide clarity on COVID-19 secure campaigning
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activity for the May 21 polls.
Pagee-news update 2nd March 2021
Do you have news to share?
@LincsALC Contact john.kilcoyne@lalc.co.uk
www.lalc.co.uk LALC will provide links but is not responsible for the content of external websites.
Preparing for the possible return of face-to-face meetings
The regulations that allow local authorities to hold meetings remotely apply to local authority meetings
that are required to be held, or held, before 7 May 2021. This means that, without any further action from the
government, all local authorities including local councils must return to face-to-face meetings from 7 May. NALC is
working with a number of national bodies to press the government to extend these regulations beyond this date and
will continue to stress the urgency and importance of this issue. However, at this time government has no plans to
extend these regulations and so councils should start preparing for the real possibility of face-to-face meetings from
May.
NALC’s position remains that all local councils should continue to meet remotely while the regulations are in force.
The guidance below has been written to help local councils prepare for the scenario that remote council meetings
cannot lawfully take place from 7 May 2021. There is still much uncertainty around how legislation or COVID-19 risks
may change over the coming weeks and months. NALC will update this guidance as the situation evolves. Each council
will have to decide which course of action will best fit their needs and manage risks.
To help local councils prepare for this possibility some advice and suggestions are below:
• Consider what council business can be conducted before May so that the council can dedicate time to those issues
in remote meetings. The more discussion and decisions you can conduct in remote meetings means the council can
aim to hold fewer and shorter face to face meetings after May.
• This may require more meeting time than is currently planned, so the council should look at the meeting schedule in
the run-up to May and see if more time or more meetings are required. Where possible, consider holding the annual
council meeting and the parish meeting while the current Regulations permit for them to be held remotely (see also
NALC’s Legal Briefing L01-20).
• Consider when the council does need to meet face to face, and whether meetings can be delayed to later in the year
when the potential COVID-19 risk may be further reduced.
• The council might consider holding a remote meeting as late as possible in April so that councillors who are unable
to attend face-to-face meetings will have as much time as possible before disqualification by virtue of s.85 of the
Local Government Act 1972 becomes an issue.
• It may help the council’s business continuity to implement (or review) a scheme of delegation. This would allow the
clerk to make certain decisions for the council, which would be especially important if the council were unable to
hold meetings due to COVID-19 risks. In reviewing/adopting a scheme of delegation the council should ensure there
is clarity around which decisions are delegated and which are not, for how long the scheme of delegation is in place,
and when the scheme of the delegation will end or be reviewed.
Some tips that may help manage well-attended remote meetings are:
• keeping the meeting short with limited business/votes
• using electronic voting tools (many platforms have built-in tools for voting)
• if you plan to vote by a show of hands or calling a register then budget significant extra time for this
• building in public engagement through online tools, that you could use to ask the public to feedback or express
views that you would usually discuss in a meeting. You could do also do this before or after the meeting as a way
of ensuring ongoing public engagement (there are a number of free tools available online)
• build in time to practice and prepare with the Clerk and Chairman in advance of the meeting
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• Further guidance on holding effective remote meetings available from NALC
Pagee-news update 2nd March 2021
Do you have news to share?
@LincsALC Contact john.kilcoyne@lalc.co.uk
www.lalc.co.uk LALC will provide links but is not responsible for the content of external websites.
From May 2021, as face-to-face council meetings resume there will still be the risk to attendees of
COVID-19 exposure. Councils should conduct a risk assessment in advance of a face-to-face meeting
which should give consideration to what the council can do to reduce risk to councillors, staff and public including:
• Providing hand sanitiser to those entering the meeting room and making sure hand sanitiser is readily available in
the room itself
• Staggering arrival and exit times for staff, councillors and members of the public
• Placing seating at least 2-metres apart
• Ensuring everyone wears face masks
• Holding paperless meetings
• If papers are provided, people should be discouraged from sharing with others and asked to take the papers with
them at the end of the meeting to minimise how many people handle the papers
• Arranging seating so people are not facing each other directly
• Choosing a venue with good ventilation, including opening windows and doors where possible
• Choosing a large enough venue to allow distancing – this may mean choosing a different venue to what the council
used before.
• The council (or venue owner/operator) will need to identify the venue’s maximum capacity in their risk assessment,
taking into account the need for social distancing. Consider how the council will ensure this capacity is not exceeded
and how it will manage the situation if more people wish to attend than capacity allows. For example, could meetings
be live-streamed or could members of the public submit questions via email?
• If the venue has an NHS QR code to support test and trace then all attendees should register using that app, for those
without access to the app they should register attendance in line with the venue’s test and trace procedure. NB all
venues in hospitality, the tourism and leisure industry, close contact services, community centres and village halls
must have a test and trace procedure
• Venues must conform with the government guidance for multi-purpose community facilities and for council
buildings. If the venue is run by the council then the council must take responsibility for this, otherwise, the council
can ask the venue to provide confirmation that they do conform to this guidance
• The council must understand and ensure it is acting in compliance with the latest government safer workplaces
guidance
Managing staff:
• It would be advisable to inform the clerk and any other staff whose role involves supporting or attending council
meetings, as soon as possible that the council will need to prepare to return to face to face meetings from May
onwards. This will allow them to make the necessary preparations as described above, and also to allow time to
engage with staff to alleviate any concerns they may have related to attending physical meetings again.
• Councils should consult with staff (ask for and consider their views to try and reach an agreement) about returning
to work as part of their preparations for face-to-face meetings.
• The council must make the workplace (including council meetings) as safe as possible for staff, this includes
undertaking a risk assessment, taking reasonable steps to reduce risks identified in the risk assessment, and ensure
it is acting in compliance with the latest Government safer workplaces guidance
• ACAS have produced useful guidance for employers and employees related to COVID-19, including advice on how
to support staff to return to the workplace and how to manage situations where staff may be worried or not wish
to return.
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꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰ ꙰꙰꙰꙰ ꙰꙰꙰꙰ ꙰꙰꙰꙰e-news update 2nd March 2021
Do you have news to share?
@LincsALC Contact john.kilcoyne@lalc.co.uk
www.lalc.co.uk LALC will provide links but is not responsible for the content of external websites.
A word about … County Associations
I see LALC from lots of different angles: Councillor, Clerk, Acting Communication Officer, County Committee, Executive.
This is a personal view. John Kilcoyne
We’re all very familiar with the furore involving Handforth Parish Council and the subsequent elevation of
Jackie Weaver to unexpected national stardom. I’m not sure how I would have coped if it had involved one
of my councils. We can all take some reassurance from the fact that it wasn’t us. However, I don’t think
anyone at Handforth expected that anything like this would arise. You do have to feel for everyone involved
because despite all the public attention, they are just trying to run a parish council the same as the rest of
us. They just appear to have local difficulties and clashes between individuals. Which is where Jackie Weaver
comes into the story in an attempt to bring people back together.
Jackie is Chief Executive of Cheshire Association of Local Councils (ChALC). One thing that probably hadn’t
occurred to the majority of the viewing public was that an organisation such as ChALC exists. ChALC and LALC
are among 40 similar associations providing support to the town and parish council sector across counties in
England. One Voice Wales provides a similar service there. For those of you interested to find out more,
NALC have links to them all. Each of these county associations (CALCs) provides a very similar service, offering
training, advice, representing the member councils and helping the whole of our sector operate legally and
effectively. For an idea of the wide range of services that LALC offers, see our latest leaflet. Every other CALC
offers something similar.
LALC also contributes to national and regional discussion at the National Association of Local Councils (NALC)
and the Federation of East Midlands Associations of Local Councils (FEMALC), working with our partners in
Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire. For every town and parish
council, there is a wide network operating in the background to help us all carry out our role.
So, what would happen if the Handforth experience was repeated in your council? OK, you’re ahead of me -
it may already have happened to you or another council that you know. I would hope that LALC would be
able to support you in the same way that Jackie Weaver got involved. What would have happened if
Handforth PC weren’t actually members? We can all hope that life in that council has settled down with
support from ChALC.
Jackie herself seems to be appearing everywhere I look at the moment, contributing to discussions about
remote meetings, engaging with young people and publicising the work of local councils generally. Which
just leaves me one question for Katrina; what if you turned out to be the next Jackie Weaver? How would
you cope with the sudden stardom? I’m sure you wouldn’t let it change you, but I’m also sure you’d never
considered the possibility that it might happen before!
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