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Apologies for Absence Minutes: There were no apologies received at the meeting. |
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Declaration of Interests To receive any declarations of interest. Members are advised to consider the advice contained within the Declaration of Interest advice attached to this Agenda. If a Member declares an interest, they should complete the Declaration of Interest Form Minutes: There were no declarations of interest made at the meeting. |
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TDC and Parish/Town Councils Collaboration WP Questionnaire - TDC Officer Responses Additional documents: Minutes: The Chair invited Members to comment and seek clarifications on the questionnaire responses.
Members made comments and asked questions as follows:
· It was important for information to be provide to residents so that they understand the different responsibilities between TDC and the parish and town councils; particularly that extra services would be given to parishes that paid for those extra services; · Clarity on what the precept was used for; · The district Council comms team could provide that level of support for putting together information to share with residents; · A skills audit could be done for all parish and town councils and then identify where the support could be provided to parishes; · Asset transfer processes seem to be taking too long; · There was also a suggestion at one of the sessions for a return of the Parish Forum; · It had been suggested that a strictly controlled and controlled agenda could be established for a new Parish Forum if it was to be set up; · A developmental role for a middle level TDC officer(s) could be established for Corporate Director’s representative(s) and that role would be interacting with parish and town councils;
· There was a suggestion for more generic circulation similar to The Loop that could be produced for parishes; · After every Local Government election, the district council could identify areas where newly parish and town councils could take part in induction training, for example planning training; · Opening up to parish and town councils to what is already available would be a positive way forward; · For collaborative working to work well, there is a need for buy in by the parishes and the district council needed to be clear about what it wanted out of this collaborative arrangement; · It was important for TDC to listen to the feedback coning form the parishes and building a transparent relationship between the two tiers.
Officers responded to Member comments and questions as follows:
· The annual residents survey is usually used to explain the various services being provided by the council; · Residents have largely shown interest in getting their bins collected and keeping their areas safe; · The parishes that asked for the extra precept could also take the lead in explaining to residents what they were using that for; · Having a dedicated officer as the contact between TDC and parishes was in principle a good idea, but the big issue was resourcing such a role; · The Waste Collection department held weekly meetings with town councils and the main areas of interest for these councils were waste collection and open spaces; · These sessions could be extended to other parish councils if they wished to take part in such an arrangement; · Town and Parish Clerks could attend and discuss other areas of interest to the parishes; · Enforcement and Open Spaces teams were also represented at these meetings;
· Town Clerks could request representatives from other TDC services to attend on an ad hoc basis; · During covid, TDC hosted weekly meetings with parishes (Parish Conference Calls) and there was a ... view the full minutes text for item 10. |