Author: Pennie Hamer

Local Access Forum are currently recruiting new members. People with a passion
for the countryside and an interest in exploring their neighbourhoods are invited to apply.

Ryedale District Council are launching the Green Dog Walkers Scheme.  Dogs are a valued part of the community in Ryedale, with many dogs living in the area. We want to make sure the good practices of many dog owners are shared and celebrated.

It is a non-confrontational and friendly way to change attitudes about dog fouling.

Green Dog Walkers are role models for responsible dog ownership and sign up to the pledge to always:

• Clean up after their dog
• Carry extra dog waste bags
• Be happy to be approached to ‘lend’ a dog poo bag to those without
• Be a friendly reminder to other dog walkers to clean up after their dogs

Dog owners who take the pledge will play a part in helping to keep their communities free from dog fouling. They will receive a free dog collar and tag.

Over 95 people have now signed up and after a successful pilot we’re officially launching the project across the district.

Residents and visitors can sign the Green Dog Walkers pledge online via the link below to the Council’s public consultation and engagement platform Commonplace.

Have Your Say Today – Sign-up – Take the Green Dog Walker pledge – Your Environment & Community (commonplace.is)

Due to the impact of Coronavirus over 5.5 million people are claiming Universal Credit. Many of them are new to claiming Universal Credit having been negatively impacted by Coronavirus.

We’re encouraging Parish Councils to share the following guide on their website and/or social media to help local people navigate claiming Universal Credit.

Here’s the Universal Credit guide https://www.jobcentrenearme.com/universal-credit/

Public Participation at Parish Council Meetings

The following may offer some guidance to members of the public on how a Council meeting works and when members of the public can participate. The guidance is based on that provided by the National Association of Local Councils and is similar to that provided by Parish Councils nationwide.

The role of the Parish Council

Parish councils are a local authority that makes all kinds of decisions on issues that affect the local community – most commonly planning matters, crime prevention, managing open spaces and working to deliver better services. Parish Councillors are unpaid volunteers who give their time and service freely to assist the local community. Westow Parish Council is made up of 9 Councillors (one of whom is elected as Chairperson) and the Clerk.

Meetings of the Parish Council (PC) are not public meetings but members of the public have a statutory right to attend meetings of the council as observers. They have no legal right to speak unless the PC Chairperson authorises them to do so. However, as part of its community engagement, Westow PC now sets out a time during the meeting agenda for public participation when members of the public are invited to speak.

Are residents allowed to speak or contribute?

A public participation session takes place following a temporary adjournment of the meeting. It is an opportunity for members of the public to:

(a) make representations,

(b) answer questions or

(c) give evidence relating to the business to be transacted.

Such sessions form part of the PC meeting in law and shall be duly minuted.

Procedure for a member of the public to speak at Parish Council meetings

Members of the PC are always willing to discuss topics put forward by the public. The following points are intended to help make the best use of the public participation session.

•  If at all possible please make a call or send an email prior to the meeting to the Clerk to let them know you wish to speak or raise an issue at a forthcoming PC meeting. This is because the Clerk can bring along to the meeting, or research before the meeting, information which may help Councillors with the query.
• Our agenda is prepared about a week before each council meeting so you will need to inform the Clerk about 10 days prior to the date of the meeting. Although this might seem a long time in advance, the PC is required by law to publicise its agenda at least 3 clear days before each meeting. (The date for the next meeting is given at the end of the Minutes of the previous meeting which can be found on the Westow PC website and are also posted on the Westow village noticeboard.)
• When the meeting reaches the agenda item of ‘public participation’, the Chairperson will suspend the meeting and members of the public will be allowed to speak. At this point Parish Councillors should not interrupt or debate issues with the public, but sometimes, if it is counter-productive not to, they may respond.
• The time for the public participation session is limited to 10 minutes. Please study the agenda carefully so that when the opportunity arises you can make the best use of your time. If more than one member of the public wishes to speak on the same topic then they should nominate one person to speak on their behalf. This will avoid duplication and make the best use of the public participation period. Ideally someone should try and speak for no more than 3 minutes especially if there are others waiting to speak.
• The Chairperson has the right to say that any question or statement is inappropriate and will not be accepted.
• Neither Parish Councillors nor the Clerk should be put under pressure to respond immediately to comments made during the public participation session. Members of the public do not have a right to force items onto the agenda nor to insist on how matters are recorded in the minutes.
• When all the members of the public who wish to speak have done so the Chairperson will resume the PC meeting. A decision binding in law (this is particularly relevant to financial decisions) cannot be made unless a specific item is included on the agenda. Thus, after the public participation session the PC will consider the   items raised and decide:

a) if the issue raised is on the current meeting agenda then it will be discussed under the appropriate item

b) if it is a matter which can be referred by the Clerk to another authority, or;

c) if the item is not on the agenda, and may need a PC decision or expenditure, it would need to go onto a   future agenda.

• After the public participation session, members of the public are welcome to stay for the remainder of the PC meeting as observers, but will not be able to join in discussion unless invited to do so by the Chairperson.

What about ‘bad behaviour’ at a Parish Council meeting

All persons present will act respectfully towards every other person present and will not act in a manner that demeans, insults, threatens or intimidates him or her. All statements, questions and responses must be related to the facts of the matter and not personal in nature. Members of the public disturbing a PC meeting will be asked by the Chairperson to desist in any behaviour considered to be disrupting the meeting. If the behaviour continues the PC can resolve, without discussion, that the person(s) withdraw from the meeting.

September 2020

YORKSHIRE LOCAL COUNCILS ASSOCIATIONS

We like to use photographs of the Yorkshire area in our annual review.
If you have some good photos of features of your parish, please send
them to us in j.peg format, telling us the name of the parish and
details of what is in the photo. Please send these to:
admin@yorkshirelca.gov.uk

THE NORTH YORKSHIRE STRATEGY FOR TACKLING LONELINESS – A CONSULTATION

The draft Loneliness Strategy for North Yorkshire is now available for consultation.

Councils and parish meetings are invited to review and feedback on this strategic framework for preventing and tackling loneliness in North Yorkshire.  They are also invited to forward the details of this consultation to voluntary groups, charities and other organisations in their parish.

This is a county-wide framework which has been developed as part of The Loneliness Campaign, a project funded through the National Lottery Community Fund, North Yorkshire County Council and Defra to help support and inspire more local action to ‘turbo charge’ the county’s response to tackling loneliness.

The framework can be viewed and commented on by clicking the links below:

TLC County-Wide Strategic Framework Consultation

The consultation for this strategy is open until midnight on Sunday 1 December 2019.

If you have any questions about The Loneliness Campaign or experience any problems accessing the survey please email tlc@communityfirstyorkshire.org.uk.

If anyone would like a nesting box for swifts there are two available. They need to be assembled (which is quite straightforward) and advice is available. Just email info@westow.org.uk.