It is important not to just become a constant voice of dissent, without providing a comprehensive set of solutions to enable the Parish Council to start operating in the 21st Century.
On this page I will over time outline specifically and with detail what changes I believe would usher in a dynamic open accountable Parish Council, what steps need to be taken.
1. Office Accessibility: Currently it is a bit of pot luck, if you turn up at the parish office if it is manned or the door is open, or even if the door is answered at all.
Solution: The office should be open at all times if any of the Clerks are present, the door should always remain open, and all queries should be answered promptly. In addition all queries taken from either the office or from the phone should be entered into a log of queries, detailing what the query was, what the answer was, if more work is required then which councillor will own the query until it is complete. The queries will be owned by Councillors in turn, and listed until the councillor has signed it off as resolved.
2. Transparency - Tender Process Currently the tender process is shrouded in "confidentiality" smoke and mirrors. No policy is published and no open accountable process is worked to.
Solution: Tenders are not secret especially when the council is spending public money. ALL tenders should be published, offering the public to be able to scrutinise the reason for the tender, the criteria the tender is being run within, and the tender should be open to all suppliers to be able to assess value for money ability to deliver and a priority for local businesses to tender for the business. Businesses bidding for the tender should accept that like many government tenders their bids will not AFTER the tender process is complete remain confidential, it is crucial that the council is held accountable for its tender choice to stop cronyism and jobs for the boys. The tender document should be published, the assessment criteria published, and a report on to why the winning bid was accepted published. This will ensure that the business selected will know that the whole community will know what is expected of the winning business and what they have signed up to.
Over the coming months I will be putting together a manifesto of changes that can easily be achieved to improve the management of the Parish Council. Its TIME FOR CHANGE
If you have suggestions about how the Parish Council can improve then please post comments here and I will add them to the list.
ReplyDeletehow do we know your ideas are any good?
ReplyDeleteSimple I will be studying the way those Parish Councils around the country run who have the "Gold Standard" award for running a parish council. I will be looking at their policies and procedures and suggesting changes which have already been approved as being "Best Practice" for the community, not the bare minimum we are getting today.
ReplyDelete