Mini eUpdate from Northants CALC
To Member Councils in Northamptonshire: [Please circulate to all councillors]
Whether you’ve been tanning or tobogganing, I hope you’ve had a good week in this very strange weather. Here’s a round up of the parish and town council news this week…
HRH Prince Philip
We send The Queen and the Royal Family our condolences on the death of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Parish and town councils with flagpoles should lower flags to half mast. The National Association of Civic Officers says “Lowering flags to half-mast is a simple and immediate gesture of respect, as is adding a message of sympathy to your website.” but adds “On hearing about the death of [a senior Royal] we first need to determine what level of response is appropriate. The key point to keep in mind is that it is not necessary to rush into implementing plans… Plans exist so that we are able to make a timely, appropriate and dignified response when the need arises, in a broadly consistent way nationwide. It is not a case of which Council can do everything first.” The unitary councils will lead on such things as books of condolence. Parish and town councils should otherwise continue with business as usual, for example, there is no requirement to cancel meetings scheduled for next week.
Election 2021
Nominations for the elections closed yesterday, and today the unitary councils have been busy publishing the Statements of Persons Nominated for those councils with contested elections, and the Notices of Uncontested Elections for those councils where the number of candidates is equal to or fewer than the number of seats available. You will find links to all the notices at https://www.northantscalc.com/elections. Well done to all the parish and town councils that ran good campaigns and encouraged people to come forward as candidates to have a voice. We are crunching the numbers and will report next Friday on the number of contested and uncontested elections across the county.
Remote Meetings
In a somewhat bizarre twist, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick MP, added his weight to the legal battle against… the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick MP! The legal action, which hopes to see provision for remote meetings extended beyond 7 May 2021, is being brought by Hertfordshire County Council and a group of national bodies, including the Association of Democratic Services Officers (ADSO), Lawyers in local Government (LLG), and the National Association of Local Councils (NALC). The hearing is expected to take place during the week commencing 19 April 2021, and a judgement is expected within 7 days of the hearing.
That’s all for this week. I hope you have a good weekend.
Best regards,
Danny.
—
Danny Moody
Chief Executive
Northamptonshire County Association of Local Councils
Tel: (Office) 01327 831482
Email: dmoody@northantscalc.com