Understanding substantive motions in Bodmin.

I attended a training session led by Sarah Mason, County Executive Officer of the Cornwall Association of Local Councils (CALC), in Bodmin on 17th July. It was about chairmanship skills for parish council meetings - the role, the preparation, rules and standing orders, and the skills required.

Shire House, Bodmin

It was a lot more useful than I had anticipated. Although quite a dry subject - and the PowerPoint wasn't working - the subjects covered were very relevant to our meetings. Even though we have a relatively small budget and population in Grampound with Creed we need to strive to make clear decisions that are legal and, hopefully, sensible. Also it was useful to talk to other chairs, vice-chairs and even a deputy mayor about shared challenges; lengths of meetings, understanding the precise rules of debate, getting an efficient agenda, and knowing the difference between an amendment and a substantive motion. [A substantive motion is the one that is finally voted on - after all the amendments have been dealt with].

Finally there were a couple of points which may be useful to bring up at future parish council meetings to see what council thought:

• Many councils have a statement in their standing orders to restrict the time a particular chair may expect to stay in post. Although the law states that an election is undertaken each year there is often the practice that the person in post tends to get re-elected. The feeling at the session was that restricting this expectation was generally a good thing allowing diversity of opinion within councils and sharing of the workload. It is worded in a way that says something like 'a chair would not normally be elected for more than 2 consecutive years'.
• Bigger, busier, councils tend to have more sub-committees to delegate work and decision making to.
• Some councils have a 'staffing sub-committee' to allow for two tiers of decision making in the unlikely event of an appeal.
• Some councils have their public participation session (public forum) after the members' declarations of interest.

Planning training

There was planning training at Cornwall Council County Hall earlier this week. The presenters said that it was the largest audience they could remember and that's why they had to reconvene to the main chamber to accommodate all the parish councillors. They were happy with the interest it showed in their particular area of expertise but it reflects the importance of planning issues in Cornwall.

They covered the national perspectives and discussed the National Planning Policy Framework which came into effect last year. The Cornwall Council resources such as the online planning register were mentioned and a great deal of the regulations. They were quite careful in how they covered what was and was not a 'material consideration' for planning and rightly so since there is a wealth of regulations and case law to consider for each planning application. In practice it is the Government of the day's planning policy that is the most important material consideration.

The tone was, overall, quite honest about the complexities of planning but a little too academic perhaps for the audience. It could have benefited from some more of the basics such as the roles contained in the information on the planning website for parish councils.

There was some humour with a quiz of 'would you give this planning permission'. There was a slide of the (apparently) famous Headington Shark which would cause heated debate I'm sure if it presented itself to (the newly trained) Grampound with Creed's planning sub-committee.

Three Parish Councillors - Peter Wootton, Mark Taylor and myself attended .

Code of Conduct training

There was a Cornwall Council Code of Conduct training session at St Columb Major Town Hall on June 4th delivered by Helen Ollett-Nash of Cornwall Council and members of the Standards Committee.

The Code of Conduct replaced the previous code last year with the introduction of The Localism Act 2011 and the subsequent regulations (The Relevant Authority (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012). All councillors agree to the code of conduct when they are undertaking their role as a councillor and it is their individual responsibility to apply it. Should they breach the code they can be reported to the Monitoring Officer, may be investigated, and even found guilty of a criminal offence. There is a convenient online form for registering complaints under the code of conduct. All the members of a nearby Parish Council were at the training session because they had received a complaint under the code of conduct after their first meeting in May.

To new councillors - and previous councillors familiar with the old code - the array of terms - disclosable pecuniary interests, non-registerable interests, paragraph 3.5A, proximity and dispensations - can be challenging.

However, the training was very useful and covered areas where our Parish Council has had debate in the last few years. The training covered the role of councillors who have been appointed to other committees in a village, represent external organisations, are debating an item concerning council (i.e. public) property, or may be perceived to have proximity (be close) to particular planning issues. The main discussions were around when a councillor was able to speak and / or vote on a particular issue. The training also covered the balance that must be struck between effectively representing the public and judging whether you comply with the code of conduct - or could defend your position if challenged.

A particular issue for our council was covered. Even though a councillor, being a representative of an external organisation, could apply (to the Parish Council) for dispensation to have full voting rights on a matter concerning that organisation, it is best that the individual 'speaks and leaves' the meeting before debate and voting. Should the meeting be not 'quorate' if they leave (i.e. at least three councillors able to vote) then it is best to defer the decision to a later or extraordinary meeting. Reassuringly. this is the exact practice that our council has agreed in the recent past.

Councillor Kay Chapman and myself attended.