Signed a few cheques? is that all

You will have received the recent Parish Council Newsletter, I suggest you get it out and read it again, because it actually tells you so much more about this council that would appear on the surface.

Title article COPS 30 Miler - interesting but says nothing about what the council has been doing over the last 4 months.

Community Choir, Community Lunch - Again I love the fact that OTHER PEOPLE have set these things up and I would like to see both initiatives expanded, but again nothing really to do with the Parish Council.

Driving - Again a Council member and Community Volunteers have done this and well done for that, but again nothing new here and it is not the Council Administration who have done anything here at all.

Website - yet another relaunch of this much lauded non local website which we were told would allow the Parish Administration to post news and allow the council to become more open and accountable. Sadly not a bit of it, its just a new look, with just the same old stuff, often posted late and hardly ever in a timely way. Another expensive lost opportunity. In this newsletter however it is yet another re-launch as many people find it almost unnavigable, so nothing new there.

Chairman's Report - Footpaths, done by the county council, Lengthsmen advertised for months now, no new news, defibrillators, ditto been on the cards for nearly 4 years and provided not by the Parish Council. memorial Hall Car Park well done the Memorial Hall committee they did all the work, the council just signed a cheque. Burial Space, years pass and still no resolution despite one being on the table, one they refuse to consider. BKV information a great committee doing a fab job but nothing to do with the Parish Council. Iron Man, again nothing to do with the Parish Council.

So what has the Parish Council been doing for the last 4 months? full time staff in the office, part time staff in the office every day, yet the council itself has nothing to say about what it is achieving itself.

Worth remembering the £175,981 annual cost every year, so we have given £44K so far to the council this year in 2017 and all we seem to be getting is the Parish Council and its administration taking part credit for other peoples dynamism, creativity, and hard work.

I ask all of the members of the Parish Council simple this, What has the "Council Administration" and the "Council Management" achieved this year so far. Ask them to list it, better still publish it. I can't think of anything at all.

Still not open and accountable and transparent in their workings, still taking months and years to achieve the simplest of tasks. It is time for a change, time to listen closely to the reality of the pressures the administration is under, as the parish grows, it may be time for a new way of doing things. Details of this are being formulated for you all to see.

Its time for a change, its time to bring the Parish Council into the 21st Century, it really is not a difficult thing to do, it is simple, but productivity MUST be the watchword over the next few years. Our community is paying top dollar for this service we are very far short yet of receiving a top dollar service. Being a sleepy Parish Council in todays digital age, is not the way forward.  

LAUGH OUT LOUD - Humphrey Applebys Back

what are they trying to hide now

I dropped a quick email to the Parish Council the other day, simply asking what progress had been made on the matter of the burial ground. A simple question, nothing complicated, it was over 12 months ago that the matter had been last discussed.

Now a simple yes we have done something or no we haven't as yet but intend to would have sufficed.

I completely understand that some aspects are commercially sensitive, but this was just laughable

Unbelievably this was the response to a simple enquiry. Humphrey Appelby eat your hear out this is too comical to be believed, this must be a joke it must be.

1.                  I have considered your first request and claim the exemption detailed in regulation 12(5)(e) of the EIR. There are four test which need to be addressed when considering this exemption:

 Is the information commercial or industrial in nature?

The activity of the Council is the initial investigation of possible land within the parish boundary to create a municipal burial ground. Should any such land be identified then the Council would need to seek a valuation for this land ahead of opening negotiations with the current landowner for its sale and purchase. This is clearly a commercial activity.

Is the information subject to confidentiality provided by law?

Any landowners with whom the Council may have opened discussions would expect their commercial and economic interests to remain confidential so as not to alert others that they are considering selling their land. They have no urgent desire or need to sell their land but are prepared to talk to the Council, once a valuation has been received, as a good will gesture to the residents of Colwich. They have asked that this matter not be made public in exchange for allowing the Council to obtain a valuation. I am satisfied that both the Council’s and the landowners’ commercial interests would prejudiced by the requested disclosure. In such regard I am satisfied that the information is subject to confidentiality provided by law.

Is the confidentiality required to protect a legitimate economic interest?

The council is unaware of any land within the parish boundary, and close to the urbanised area, which is currently on the market. Consequently, it is in the Council’s interests not to disclose the names of landowners with whom it is in early discussions as to do so would alert housing developers to the possibility that the land is for sale. Their interest would increase the value of the land and put it beyond the reach of the Parish Council. Consequently, I am satisfied that the Council should claim the exemption on the grounds of protecting its, and by extension the local residents who fund the Council via a charge on the Council Tax, legitimate economic interest.

Would the confidentiality be adversely affected by disclosure?

I am satisfied that, as the first three tests have been established, that disclosure into the public domain of the information you have requested would adversely affect the confidential nature of that information by making it publicly available and would consequently harm the legitimate economic interests of the Council and the landowners.

2.                  Regulation 12(4)(d) of the EIR states that a public authority may refuse to disclose information to the extent that the request relates to material which is still in the course of completion, to unfinished documents or to incomplete data. I am satisfied that this test is met in that the Parish Council has contacted the District Valuation Office and the Planning Department at Stafford Borough Council and awaits their reports.

3.                  See 2 above.

4.                  See 2 above.

With regard to your opening sentence, the Burial Committee, with the agreement of Colwich Union of Remembrance and Burial (CURB), was subsumed into the Environment and Leisure Committee and is a standing item on its agenda. The Environment and Leisure Committee last met on 10^th November 2016 and is due to meet next on 9^th March 2017 at which time it will receive a report from CURB following its meeting on 31^st January 2017.

The funds raised by villagers, to which you refer, are a matter for CURB and the Parish Council, quite rightly, has no control or jurisdiction over the Charity’s funds. The Parish Council has decided that it wishes to earmark £10,000 from the 2017/18 precept to compliment the funds held by CURB. These monies will not be received by the Council until the new financial year. I am sure you would agree that it is prudent financial management on the part of the Council to earmark funds in the expectation that the matter proceeds. To do otherwise would either result in having to move funds from another priority mid-year or delay the programme until the 2018/19 financial year when funds can then be earmark from that year’s precept.

Now you know............oh you dont know

All this means NO we haven't done anything about it yet.

One odd thing, the Parish Clerk says he is not aware of any land within the Parish that is for sale yet he mentions possible owners he may or may not have had contact with, and the land at crossheads EVERYONE knows is available, it doesn't have to be in a shop window now does it. Well this just has to be a lie, I know and you know what land was being proposed for the site. The Reverend Simon Davis said when he visited the site, that it was the best potential site he had seen in over 10 years.

all this flummery just to cover the fact that they have done nothing for over 12 months, well the site is still for sale.......the same site that was available 12 months ago........lets wait another 12 months and see what happens...........(starts holding breath)................. ..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. lol

I suppose this is what you can expect from a UKIP led council, great at getting their hands on public funds not very good at letting it go.

nighty night

hope the bed bugs dont bite😀

BUSY BUSY BUSY - Really?

Parish Council consider plans for new offices and take advice from London Office

I would like to see if the Citizen of the year award is truly a peoples award or is it just a pat on the back for the great and the good in the community, by the great and good in the community for the great and good in the community.

SO PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL TO THE PARISH CLERK NOMINATING ME FOR THE AWARD

lets see if I win....lol I will not hold my breath....ho ho ho

Ah the winter newsletter arrives on the doorstep, and just for once it does not have a veiled or direct attack on democracy in the form of slagging off anyone who does not agree with them, so sherries all round, mince pies and a happy xmas to all....but to drown their collective sorrows they decided to vote to give themselves a slap up meal at the Swan at Stafford as a consolation prize. I would have thought a donation to "House of Bread" this Christmas would have been more appropriate but that why they put up the precept by 125%.......so what next

Ah Yes



The new website.............. Sorry but I can't see what the difference is? apart from it looking different, it is still not up to date, its still not accountable or transparent or accessible.

Oh it does cost double the amount of the last one, or so I am led to believe

Oh yes and if I am right it is being done by a firm in Exeter Devon, whereas businesses in Staffordshire would have done it at half the cost and probably done it better. This new website was supposed to be an opportunity to improve communications with the public. They even set up a new committee to oversee communications. This site has all the imagination of a "dead donkey" apart I may say for the inclusion of the excellent photos from Dawn Lockett.

The Home Page just a bit of text with links to other parts of the website, the photos are bog standard stock photos and say nothing about the actual council, this page has LESS information on it than the previous site.

Council Information - Nothing new

Meetings and Minutes - Nothing new

Community Information - Nothing New

Members Area !!!!! great something NEW.......sadly only the great and the good have access...

The rest is just a hash of EXACTLY THE SAME INFORMATION that was on the old website. Not much of a launch for the community to see a step up in communication to match the 125% increase in precept this year. Yes they have spend a large wad of cash but for what purpose, NOTHING IS DIFFERENT its a joke, please tell me this is a Joke!

Oh well I am sure they enjoyed their slap up meal

Now we are told that the parish council will be employing directly two part time "lengths men" to do the odd jobs in the villages rather than using local businesses. This to me looks like empire building, instead of tax payers cash going on facilitating improvements in the community it will all be sucked up by wages. Remember earlier this year a 1% increase in wages led to a massive increase in wages cost? this is the last thing we need more increases in the cost of running the council in pensions and benefits and with the way they run things in general the cost of tribunals when things go horribly wrong.

Then we are told that despite a 125% increase last year in the precept they will be increasing the precept this year ANOTHER 1.9%. Now I really dont understand this at all. Next year the council will have access to hundreds of new homes in the villages who all will pay extra money in the pot for the precept at the NEW HIGHER RATE. Other councils in this situation have actually cut their local tax by around 11% to take into account the growth in the villages. Remember 2% on top of the increased 125% is massively more of a cash rise than it would have been without the tax rises this year. That's why they have put it in % terms as it will now be a large lump of cash to increase next year, I will ask them to give out the cash amount for you to see in the new year. Remember this is YOUR cash coming out of YOUR purse and wallet, you have been given no say, no consultation, and no justification has been given.

Fracking - at last its on the agenda just like the hedge at mill lane in 8 years time a formal policy might be in place but only after the whole village is surrounded by wells and the water under Essex bridge is poisoned will they do anything about it. I asked the County Council via our County Councillor Len "Useless" Bloomer, who said there are no "Fracking" sites in Staffordshire. He was right, however there are 3 "deep coalbed methane extraction" sites, one just up the road from us in Stafford at Bramwell.

HS2 - this is a laugh, the HS2 denier in chief Adam Billingsley the vice chair, has had a meeting with HS2....lol anyone can have a meeting with HS2 I have had a dozen or so. This was back in OCTOBER things have moved on!! this figleaf of representation is just that, just to say if anyone asks that they have done something. Nothing of substance was discussed, nothing of substance came from the meeting.


We are constantly told how busy the Parish Council are, lets see shall we, I have been looking through the mins of the meetings for the myriad of committees that sat this year.

1. The allotment committee last sat in January......
2. The Burial Ground Committee last sat in February.....
3. The Leisure and Environment Committee last sat in June.....
4. The Policy Committee last sat in March.....
5. The Young People Committee last sat in June.......
6. The Newsletter Committee last sat in June.......
7. The Planning Committee last sat in November but before that in June.....
8. The full council meets one a month for a couple of hours at the time of publishing this the December final mins have still not been posted 2 weeks after the meeting was held.

Now I may be missing something here, but why then is it that it costs so much to run? and why does it take so long to do stuff???

Many of these committees only sit once a year twice at most

Remember we have 2 clerks one full time and one part time, yet they cant publish a set of mins for a meeting until just days before the next one, what are they doing all day? your guess is as good as mine.

Now I am compiling a list of all the things the Parish Council "Resolved to do" in 2016 and so far have not completed.......I promise you its a long list. I want to keep it ongoing and current to keep and eye on exactly how long it takes to get some basic simple things done. Productivity is a big issue within the Parish Council, this is the fault of the Management of the council not individual councillors. 2017 needs to be the year this is sorted out.

Parish Council Discover HS2 - Unbelievable!!

LOL it seems the parish Council have discovered HS2? who would have thought!

Members of the council were aghast to discover that underneath all the reports on grit bins and pay rises they have found a report which concerns the Parish Council greatly.

It appears the government are planning a new High Speed rail route which will at some cost to local residents come close to the villages. The Parish Council have decided to form a sub committee to look into the matter and to help those who may be affected by the proposal.

I know that the project was announced some 5 years ago now, but it seems that the Parish Council have only just decided to help the local residents get "The best deal" from HS2.

This is completely laughable, and also completely outrageous too. Under the wise council of The "Save the Haywoods" group, during the years of the last Parish Council, they completely ignored the HS2 issue, being told regularly by Cllr Adam Billingsley and Cllr Andy Cooper and others that it would not come near the villages at all. How do I know this, well I sadly had to sit and listen to them tell me that I was a scare monger, that I didn't know what I was talking about. I was told in no uncertain terms to "go away" and to stop going on about it.

The Parish Council did nothing to prevent the Shires development in Great Haywood, opposite Roseacre Nursery, whose homes are likely to be severely blighted, and devalued, not only by the Railway itself but from the 5-8 years of heavy construction.

The Parish Council did nothing to help shape the compensation package

The Parish Council did nothing to help local residents sort out the mess of the emergency compensation scheme. I could go on and on, but it would serve no purpose

This is more than too little too late, its an insult to those residents effected by the route, it is an insult to those residents who had to help fight for support without the Parish Council being by the side of locals suffering just because of the announcement. EVERYTHING THEY ARE DOING NOW IS JUST TOO LATE!

Nothing on the Environmental impact of construction
Nothing on the Disruption to traffic in the area
Nothing on the impact of soil spoil dumps outside the village
Nothing on the local worker camps
Nothing on the construction impact whatever.

As ever we receive a one star service while paying for a 5 star facility.

Not to worry, the Council have paid for a "Facilitator" to run a "Management Think day" to help the council decide what they want to do with all the time they have, and the wads of cash they now have in their coffers. Well that's Ok then.

Actually its isn't, I remember having a similar meeting where the councillors listed all the different things they consider should be on the agenda of a "to do list". lost of time was taken placing all the items on a nice spreadsheet, and then like everything else it just got lost in the quagmire of administration.

What is the answer to this? MORE STORAGE, lets pay for better heaters and more storage, nothing about scanning documents and digitalising the parish into the 21st century, no lets buy more paper storage facilities. I tell you, you could not make it up.

Oh well as long as their priorities are right, sod the community lets have better heaters for us!! 

Oh just to let you know we had out "Annual" visit from County Councillor Len "Useless" Bloomer, that's nice, heres to another £9000 in his pocket for next year!!

Oh yes it took a whole month to write the minutes from the last Full Council meeting, not exactly a "Timely" response to the community, and none of the Agendas were posted on line at all.

Powdered wigs and quill pens all round!!!

What is actually Happening? God Knows!

Thursday 06th October is the date of the Latest Full Parish Council Meeting........

"So what" I hear you say

Whats on the agenda? god knows it could be anything, so why does the Parish Council who have recently raised the cost of running the council by over £6000 still insist on the barest minimum when it comes to communicating with the public, I will never understand.

Now under the Local Government act 1972, the barest minimum to remain legally correct is to post the agenda 3 days prior to the meeting on the Parish Noticeboard.

For those of us who have a diary, that is not exactly helpful to anyone trying to plan their week. A young mum who maybe want to attend may have to arrange child care. A small businessman would have diarise their time to make sure they leave work on time to get things done.

So this means you will have no idea whatever what the dates of future meetings are, unless that is you look at the parish notice boards to find out. However the meeting that you may want to go to may not be on the board. So you will have to go down to the notice board every day until the notice is placed.

Now we are told that a large lump sum of cash is going to be spent on the delivery of a new "Parish Website", well all I can say is that currently minutes of meetings and agendas are routinely not posted for months after a meeting has taken place ensuring that only the clerk and the councillors have any idea of what is going on.

A change in standing orders will be required to establish the following new rules which should become standard practice.

1. Draft Minutes of meetings will be posted within 2 days of the meeting closing
2. Draft agendas for all meetings should also be posted online 3 days prior to the meeting taking place.
3. All meeting notices should be routinely placed on the social media pages for the villages ensuring that over 3000 local people get direct access to the agendas and minutes directly in their email boxes.

I also propose that the limited nature of the Parish noticeboards mean that many of the notices have to be truncated to make room for them all. All the noticeboards should be replaced by much larger boards capable of homing a more detailed set of notices.

The only way the local people have assessing what is being achieved on any subject at the moment is being in the meeting and listening to the section called "Clerks Report". This section outlines what progress has been made on many subjects. However on the minutes of the meeting it merely says "The clerks report was noted" but ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING about what was in it.

It is currently deemed that the report is confidential.....absolute fiddlesticks!!

Many of the "Gold Standard" Parish Councils who pay much less for their services regularly every month publish what progress has been made by the council on various issues. It is just this council and the management who feel that it is not a good idea for local people to know what's going on.

If they really believe the "Save the Haywoods" ideology is dead then they would embrace open accountable transparent working, I'm not holding my breath.

So I am suggesting to the council this month that they consider a "White Paper" system of working. When a new piece of activity is proposed it is put in the form of a white paper, with a clear narrative explaining the reasons why the activity is required, with no jargon, what it will cost, how long the task will take etc. and importantly who is owning the project. This means that there will be a document produced which is titled and everyone will know what is required. As progress is made the document is added to, if the borough council or county council is contacted etc this is evidenced in full. The key thing here is that the documents are published for everyone to see. Then everyone can see progress, everyone can see the latest activity. The file then becomes a working document which is electronic, which does not require a paper file. Access to everyone and the councillors means they can keep abreast of progress as soon as it happens not having to wait for months for the next potential meeting.

This is what the Parish Council could deliver if they wanted to, we will have to wait and see if they do.  

Not on this months agenda

Burial Ground
Results of the Employment meeting for potential new staff
Explanation of how a 1% pay rise results in a 17% cash increase in costs
106 Cash none being spent in the Haywoods
The Legal Case - no update or how much more cash this is costing
5 years too late.....a position on HS2.......probably head up collective arse.

Watch this space

AT LAST - and about time!

Lets give credit where it is due, I have been asking for over 5 years now for the Parish Council to deliver for the community a more open and accountable set of accounts which are not designed to just mean something to the accountant, and the people who produced them.

Well I can now announce that they have taken the very first step in this, the Parish Council have taken my advice and started to produce a set of accounts that is more open and readable to the average person on the street.

However as ever there is still the matter of "projects spend" if you look at these accounts it clearly sets out what has been spent on say the JPF Equipment, something they want you to know about because they are proud of that.

Sadly nowhere does it set out that they have spent over £13,000 on legal fees over the last few years, something they are not so proud about. A lot of the terminology is still "jargon" like "Concurrent Function" It is also a little confusing as to the matter of if all expenditure or if all income sits in brackets. Finally it sets out a massive move of funds from the reserve not just to pay for the JPF equipment but to pay for overheads and wages and maintenance. This cash withdrawal is only possible because of the previous councils ability to save cash.

This is a good start and should be commended, as being immeasurably more open and accountable than previous poor efforts. It has to be said, nobody knows why it has taken over 5 years to this September for this information to be produced, but now it has, it needs refining and opening up more so ordinary non accounting people can understand the "Narrative" of the document and the decisions that the council has made.

Also worth noting the massive increase in projected income from £86K this year to a projected £175K next year. Remember this in the main is a local TAX, everyone in our community is putting their hard earned cash into this pot, you have a right to be consulted on how it is spent, and a right to have an input into what projects it is spent on. The day of the great and the good and the staff having their pet projects delivered with other peoples cash is over.

Wages UP! Latest Update, up by another £6692

Now I can see why they Parish Council has been so reluctant to release the information about the increase in administration costs to the community. In the blog below you will see that in the Annual Accounts of 2015, which are on the Parish Website the cost of wages overall for the Parish Council was

 £38,194

This is now due to be increased in one year with all allied costs included to....

£44,886     an increase of £6692

The letter I received quoted this as an explanation....

"Staffing costs for 2016/17 as agreed in the budget set in December 2015 is £44,8860.00. This figure includes costs for Salaries, PAYE, National Insurance, Pension Fund, Payroll, Training and Seminars. Any variation of this figure will be need to be discussed at the Finance Committee in November and passed to the Full Council for conformation.

The recommendation from NALC/SLCC was to follow the Local Government pay award of 1% increase in salaries in each of the years 2016/17 and 2017/18. The Parish Council accepted this recommendation at its meeting in June 2016."

End Quote.

So I may be wrong but it seems that a 1% increase in pay award, in cash terms results in a 17% to the tax payer. Now I may be wrong here but the facts are plain, the old rate was £38,194, the increase is £6692, which is a 17.5% increase by my reckoning.

The wages cost in 2009 was £18,886, and now it is £44,886, an Annual increase of £26,000 over the period of Austerity.

Now again let me state clearly, I have no problem in principle with good wages for a job. However this increase on the wages cost for the running of the Parish Council, I would expect a commensurate increase in performance and efficiency as well as a significant upgrade in the way the Parish Council communicates with the public. The bare minimum of posting notices on the notice boards is no longer good enough, the smoke and mirrors of administration is no longer acceptable. Our community is paying an extra 125% in local tax, with an extra 500+ new people moving into the community, all paying the local tax, delivered by the poor "Save the Haywoods" campaigns which never saved the Haywoods from anything at all.

I say to everyone in Colwich and the Haywoods, this is your cash, your council, it is time for a change, a change of leadership, a change of style of administration, we should all be demanding open accountable accessible communication. I will set out on this blog over the coming months exactly how this can easily be achieved. We are paying for it, as a community we deserve the best, we should not be settling for the lowest bar possible within the legal framework, we should be not just aiming but achieving the HIGHEST levels of communication with the community the Parish Council serves.

I believe our Parish Council CAN be awarded the GOLD standard for Parish Councils and when and IF I am re-elected at the next elections I will make it my business to ensure that Colwich parish Council becomes a Gold standard council.

Quality Gold Status 

The Quality Gold Award demonstrates that a council is at the forefront of best practice and achieves excellence in governance, community leadership and council development. Quality Gold councils provide leadership for their communities, bring people together, and have excellent business planning processes, ensuring value for money as well as constantly seeking new innovations and opportunities to improve. 






This is the story that just runs and runs, I have now received a reply from the Parish Council regarding my freedom of information request and I can now tell you how much the pay rise will be to the tax payer in the next couple of years..............

Oh if it were only that simple......this next bit is priceless!!!

They are sending the information in the POST!!, the extra cost of a stamp, envelope, paper and the time it has taken to write the letter.

Now that in itself is just designed to frustrate me getting hold of the information quicker, BUT THERE IS MORE!!!

Now I have been banned from sending my requests addressed to MR CLERK, as this person "In the Authority" does not exist!! and failure to send the request to a specific person could result in a delay in any responses to a legal request for information.

You just could not make it up, they are the only people in the office!!

They sit in the office each day, they are the Clerks to the Parish Council, they are as I believe both men, so the preface of MR is entirely right, they are Clerks to the council so using their title is not unusual, especially as I have no idea who will receive the request........it is just priceless, and this is what we are paying for.

The response in full set out below was authorised by the Chairman and the Vice Chairman of the Parish Council Andy Cooper and Adam Billingsley, it will be interesting to see the draft agenda which will be issued soon to see what other important issues they have prioritised for this months meeting.

Dear Mr Pearce,

A hard copy of the response sent on 19th August has been sent by post.

For future reference: there is no-one in the Authority known as 'Mr Clerk'. Should you wish to submit future Freedom Of Information, or any other, requests then might I suggest you address these requests to a known member of the Authority's staff i.e. to either my 'Rev Mr Lennon' as the Parish Clerk or to my deputy 'Mr Egan'. Failure to do so might result in a delay in answering your request(s).

Rev Mr Michael Lennon, MILCM
Clerk to Colwich Parish Council
The Parish Centre,
St Mary's Road
Little Haywood
ST18 0TX

01889 882665

clerk@Colwich.staffslc.gov.uk

www.colwich.info

If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify Colwich Parish Council and then delete the e-mail and all attachments immediately. This e-mail and its attachments are confidential and may contain privileged information, if you are not the intended recipient any disclosure, copying, distribution or other use of this e-mail or attachments is strictly prohibited. Whilst all reasonable care has been taken, no guarantee is given that it is free from any virus and Colwich Parish Council accepts no liability or responsibility for such viruses. This e--mail is not intended nor should it be taken to create any legal relations, contractual or otherwise.



Well here we go again, I asked a simple question of the Parish Council who, as set out in the Blog below have already recently raised the cost of wages to the local public purse by a whopping 50% during a recession. They have just voted through a further 2 years of increases to this, I have no idea what this further percentage this is, or how much the total is. So I sent a simple Freedom of Information request to find out so everyone is aware of the extra planned cost. I received an email with an attachment, the attachment would not open. I asked for the information to be re-sent, nothing not an acknowledgement of my request, nothing, and this perfectly sets out what we are paying for, this is what the pay rise is for, for the administration to send another email I have had to ask twice and still no answer. with the 125% increase in local taxes, the over 50% increase in total wages cost with more planned, our community deserves better administration and better open accountable communication. So I am no further in letting you know what they are spending because they are refusing to re-send the information. I have already had to wait over the 20 days for a FOI request, this is YOUR cash they are spending, YOUR money that remains un accounted for, YOUR council refusing to open their accounts to simple local scrutiny, YOUR council that needs to become routinely more open and accountable. IF you are reading this and you are ON THE COUNCIL, then all you have to do is to send a quick email to the clerk and ask them why they are not communicating with the public, why they are ignoring legitimate requests for information. I will post an update as soon as I receive one.......not holding my breath, so I will re-send a formal Freedom of information request, it seems the only way to get the information out of this shady council.

I will over the coming months and years be looking into and revealing facts about how the communities money has been spent over the years. It would be nice if all I had to do was to email the council and ask, but sadly this information has to be asked for as a freedom of information request as much of what happens in the council runs through a filter of smoke and mirrors.

Now there are those who will say that this type of scrutiny is bullying and offensive and that I am picking on the parish council. I say this is democracy in action, the people keeping the executive accountable to the community or constituency they serve. The answer to shutting me up is simple, change the council to be more open accountable visible and transparent, if this is done I will have nothing to chat about with you, will I. So those who attack me for saying these things, I say get behind the closed doors of the council and start changing it, spend your time resolving the issues, rather than supporting the status quo which isn't good enough any more.

Lets look at a simple example, how much it costs to run the council, now we are told it is £93,000 quite a sum really. Lets think for a while.........do we get value for money for that sum?

This cash comes directly from our local community collective wallets

Do you feel that the community has changed in the last 5 years?

Do you think that the burdens on the Parish Council have vastly increased in the last 5 years?

Do you look around you and see the massive added value in the community of spending that £93,000?, do you know what the cash is spent on? do you have any idea how it came to be such a large amount?

If you look on the Parish Website you will see under the section Marked "Other Documents" a long list of documents mostly historical.

If you look at the Annual Report of 2009, you will see that the cost of "wages pensions etc." was £18,886, if you then open the Annual Report for this year 2015 you will see this jump to a massive...


£38,194 that is an ongoing annual increase of £19,308 a 50.5% increase in salary costs. During a recession, and at a time of austerity. All other councils have been forced into cutting services and reducing staffing during this time. 

If you read the recent full council minutes you will see that this cost has just been agreed to be increased again this year and next. I am waiting for confirmation from the council of what exactly the uplift is in cash terms.

Let me also be clear, there is nothing inherently wrong in wages going up, I will leave you to judge if this raise is acceptable, but any business or organisation must be able to point to how that added cost has benefited the community it needs to be seen and visible. This is not a rant, this is just right. When people accuse me of having a chip on my shoulder it is because I keep uncovering facts like these. So lets be clear I am not having ago at the recipients of the wages they are employees of the council they just receive what they are given. Here are the wages cost of a number of other local parish councils, with councils of a comparable size with comparable work to do.

Hixon total cost for this year £9,159
Haughton total costs for this year. £5,082
Eccleshall total costs this year £28,555
Barlaston £15,580

So it is right to ask the question with a £19,308 a Year increase in just 5 years what value add is the community getting for that significant investment of local tax, remember those wages are funded ONLY from us here in the community. Ask yourself want has radically changed in just 5 years in our community that warrants this need for extra expense. This is not an issue for the Clerk he is just doing his job, this is an issue quite clearly and directly for the Management and Organisation of the Parish Council, Directly the Chairman and the Vice Chairman who are directly responsible for the operational management of the council.

I started asking for better efficiency, better up to date communication, better administration, and I was blocked at every turn

So when I am asking the council why are the minutes of the meetings are not on the website, and I get the answer they are in the window come and look, I get more than a little frustrated that for this increase we are receiving a minimum standard of communication from the council.

All entirely within the "Quoted Rules" of "Arnold Baker" but all entirely the minimum that is required by law. To me that shows a contempt for the community and the people who pay for those increases. Our community is not some backwater, yes we have a few of the older generation not on the internet or facebook but in general the community is well connected.

In previous Parish councils the level of communication was much better. The website was always updated promptly, what was going on in the village advertised accordingly, minutes from meetings published within days of the meeting not months.

Am I really asking for too much? asking for the website that WE pay for to be regularly updated, for the minutes of meetings to be set out in clear English, agendas to be published with background notes for those not attending to read. Is it too much for the Clerks report to be published so we can see what has been achieved. Is it really too much to have the meetings recorded so we can all see how decisions are made. Is it too much to ask how tenders are done, who is on the tender process and why. I think not, we are entitled to know what is being done in our name and with our cash.

 Its all about open accountable transparent leadership. The Clerks office will do what the council tells it to, so this is not an issue for the clerks office it is the clear "Choice" of the leadership of the council.

I will over time be scrutinising the accounts and looking at what the spending criteria has been over the last 5 years and making sure that a NEW method of accounting is developed that will allow the public easy access to the accounts in a meaningful way. It is a simple process not complicated at all.

Anyone in business will know that to manage the finances of the business you have a detailed spreadsheet of income and costs. Where regular costs are incurred they are called fixed costs and where spot purchases are required or where cost vary they are called variable costs. Each cost to the business has a named line item with a short explanation at the front to identify it, with a cost code attached. The cost code is the way you allocate various costs to a single project, thus producing a simple end of project cost for all the projects in the year. The cost of every project should be published, and a comprehensive breakdown of expenditure should be published to allow the public to see what their cash is being spent on.

An example, and to be fair I would go much further, can be found on the Hixon website http://hixon.gov.uk/Finance/spreadsheet This set out clearly what has been spent and where.

So in the age of Austerity I have asked the Parish Council as a start to tell me how much cash has been spent on Legal Fees for ANY projects in this council and the last, specifically asking what project the legal fee was for and a breakdown of fees per project, I will publish the results here on this blog. This is a freedom of information request, so I have to wait until mid august for the information to be sent. I hope it will be in a form that will be easy for you to digest.

Remember this is YOUR cash this is the money YOU PAY OUT OF YOUR PURSE's and WALLETS EVERY YEAR.