Agenda item

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 google document that officers produced that contained queries from parish and town councils which officers would complete with responses to those queries;

·  A similar document could be used for the Waste Collection meetings;

·  It would be a good idea to come up with ideas for supporting newly elected parish and town councillor as part of the induction process;

·  Officers could identify top ten transactions that take place between TDC and the parishes and develop notes for sign posting parishes and residents;

·  A circulation similar to The Loop but trimmed down could be produced for parishes. However in the meantime parishes could subscribe to The Wave.

·  There used to be PACT meetings with parishes that TDC officers would attend.

The Chair thanked officers and Members for attending the meeting and said that a report drafting session was now scheduled for 24 November.