Mini eUpdate from Northants CALC
To Member Councils in Northamptonshire:
[Please read and circulate to all councillors]
Happy Birthday Us!
On Monday we were 74 years old! The Association began at a meeting held at County Hall in Northampton on 20 September 1947 when it was felt that having a collective voice for parish and town councils and parish meetings in the county might be a good idea! Never was that more true than today, so we thank our predecessors for their wisdom and foresight. Here’s to the next 74 years too!
Bus Consultation
Two consultations have come along at once. Both unitary councils are consulting on theirBus Services Improvement Plan (BSIP) (seehttps://northnorthants.citizenspace.com/travel-choices/bus-service-improvement/). The consultation is being carried out jointly but the responses will be collated separately for each authority to inform their individual BSIPs. Graeme Kane, Assistant Director Highways and Waste at North Northamptonshire Council told us “We are keen to receive as many responses as possible so please promote this to your members, residents and communities. I know from experience that Parish and Town Councils understandably have well-informed views on this matter and we would like to hear from them”. The consultation closes on 10 October 2021, which is very short but apparently it is to fit in with deadlines imposed by the Department for Transport. Parish and town councils may not have an opportunity to debate it at a meeting, but responses can be submitted by individual clerks and councillors, and if the consultation is advertised on web sites and social media, then members of the public may have chance to contribute too.
Ministry Name Change
As reported in last week’s mini eUpdate, Michael Gove is known for shaking things up, and the first evidence is that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has changed it’s name this week to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). What’s in a name, and does it matter? Well the inclusion of “Levelling Up” in the title shows clear intent, but what about the loss of the words “Local Government”? Colin Copus, Emeritus Professor of Local Politics at De Montfort University said “The journey to the DLUHC is a journey of priorities signalled in acronyms and when local government appears on the office name-plate, its importance to policy thinking is signalled.” Maybe it will be up to national sector bodies, such as the Local Government Association (LGA) and the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) to make sure that Mr Gove doesn’t get so carried away with levelling things up that he forgets the screws that hold the shelf up.
74th Conference & AGM
The countdown is on with just eight days to go until our annual conference and AGM (2 October 2021, 10:00 a.m. Northampton). Information has gone out to all registered delegates today and the programme and associated papers are atwww.northantscalc.com/agm. The closing date for booking is 5:00 p.m. on Monday (27 September 2021), so if you haven’t yet booked you’ve got just a few days left to do so. We are looking forward to seeing everyone; it should be a very lively event!
I hope you have a good weekend.
Best regards,
Danny.
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Danny Moody
Chief Executive
Northamptonshire County Association of Local Councils
Tel: (Office) 01327 831482
Email: dmoody@northantscalc.com