· The Mayor, her Escort and the NALC President Lord Lytton Cllr Brian Kerr, Cllr Kenneth Whetlor and the Mayor’s escort
On 5–7 October 2007
NALC hosted its annual conference and exhibition at the Bournemouth International Centre on 5th to 7th October. This was the largest event in the UK local community calendar. This high profile event brought together over 500 local council clerks, councillors and county officers over the three days of conference, to share experiences and learn about new developments in the sector.
The theme of this year’s conference was “Building the Future of Local Communities“. With the Local Government Bill progressing through Parliament, town and parish councils need to ensure that they are ready to take on the challenges and opportunities which this may provide. Delegates had the opportunity to question key speakers from organisations involved in the sector, as well as getting perspectives from councils on the ground.
There were sessions held on markets, parish planning, partnership working, sustainable communities and climate change, as well as the opportunity to learn from the experience of other councils in formal best practice sharing sessions, and networking throughout the weekend. Delegates also had the chance to speak to experts who provide training in the sector with drop-in sessions for CiLCA and councillor training.
Alongside the conference was the largest exhibition of its kind, which continues to attract a wide variety of commercial companies as well as public sector organisations and charities. Throughout the three days of conference, delegates had numerous opportunities to meet face to face with exhibitors, to see how they can help address the needs of local councils.
After registration at 9.30am on Friday there was ample time to a take look at the Conference Hall and all the exhibits and trade stands. They were of the usual high standard and variety.
My first stop was to visit the Larger Council meeting and meet members at a NALC drop-in session at the exhibition.
The time had come to go and hear the welcome from NALC Chairman, Cllr Ken Cleary. Also by this time the Mayor of Bournemouth, Cllr Anne Filer, had arrived to address the delegates. She welcomed us to Bournemouth and wished us all a successful conference
Chief Executive of NALC, John Findlay, gave his address to Conference laying out what NALC hoped to achieve in the next few days and be carried forward by the Association .We must not stand still but progress for the betterment of our members.
Larger Councils session ‘Partnership Working’ - Lesley Hughes, Ivybridge Town Council and Karen Bridgford, Devon County Council, gave interesting views of PW citing examples from various councils.
Smaller Councils session ‘Clustering’
David Webb DAPTC CE, David Jenkins CE, Dorset County Council
The main theme of this session was ‘Groups & Clusters - The View from Dorset.’
This idea evolved rather than as a result of planning and raised the question “Is the
current structure fit for the purpose?”
Can we make what we have in Dorset better? How does this work and can we
improve on this model? We have gone from manors and churches to parishes under
the 1894 Act.
1972 LGA established the basis of the current structure. Can we make it work better?
Dorset has 252 villages/hamlets grouped into 40 grouped councils & 98 sole parishes,
19 towns and 36 parish meetings plus some unparished.
Approx 120 villages are now in 40 groups. This works extremely well. Can we
improve? Of course we can. We should group more meetings and even consider cross
border issues.
The question and answer session was very worthwhile.
Saturday 6 October 2007
LARGER LOCAL COUNCILS VOTING. This year I was not up for election as I am automatically co-opted to the LC Committee by virtue of being Chairman of NALC Policy Committee this being my third year. Cllr Haydn White of Blandford was elected to the Larger Councils committee, which gives Dorset strong representation at NALC.
Keynote speech - ‘Code of Conduct’ Cllr Shirley Flint and David Prince, The Standards Board for England. The lady was an excellent speaker with a good question and answer session.
‘Grants and funding’ Chris Butcher, Big Lottery Fund and Beverley Davies, Beaver Business Solutions Ltd. An interesting talk by Chris Butcher who is the Senior Advisor to the Lottery Fund responsible for giving up to 50% funding to good causes. The mission of the Big lottery funding is to bring real improvement to the life of people in need. To help health, education and environmental and charitable purposes and £100 million had been available in 2006/7. This was an opportunity for all to hear from the Lottery first hand and worth it. Beverly Davies spoke about the importance of putting in a good bid and warned that many had failed because of poor applications. The funds discussed included: Awards for All, Reaching Communities (England) People and Places (Wales), Community Buildings (closed)
Neighbourhood Policing Marion Boyes, National Policing Improvement Agency
I attended this talk about the core element of neighbourhood policing PCSOs etc.
NALC Policy & Communications Drop-in Session
‘Cybercommunities’ Graham Harrop, Director of Government Microsoft Public Sector, gave an interesting talk on websites and email. This had my full attention because of my belief in this technology.
‘Councillor Training’ Lynne Lodge, Suffolk CTP Elisabeth Skinner, University
Of Gloucestershire both stressing the importance of training for councillors.
Sharing Best Practice
Winners of the Community Empowerment Awards were split into two sessions to share their experiences in working with old people, young people, gypsies, travellers and migrant workers.
Delegates had the opportunity to attend the following sessions:
Housing Andrew Smith, English Rural Housing Association
Older People Chris Bain, Age Concern
Travellers and Migrant Workers Chris Whitwell, Friends, Families & Travellers
Young People Becky Sharp Dave Phillips, National Youth Agency
Civic Reception (open to all delegates) I was part of the reception committee to welcome the Mayor and her escort before meeting the delegates. The escort had been Mayor ten years before so the roles were reversed this time. Three of the reception committee had been Mayors but this was somewhat special with me coming from Dorset. At this dinner the NALC awards are given out .
Sunday 7 October 2007
Topical motions for debate:-
Motions from Marchwood PC, Yeovil Town Council, DAPTC (2) were all carried with an amendment to one of the DAPTC motions.
Lawley & Overdale PC, Hardwick-in-Partnership PC and Madeley PC motions all failed to gain support.
Chairman Cllr Ken Cleary wished all a safe journey home and thanked everyone for making this conference very successful and he looked forward to taking on board all the suggestions that have been made during the Conference.
All details of the Conference speeches and power point presentations are on the NALC web site for your viewing, including the award winners. I have put some pictures on my website of some events http://kenwhetlor.blogspot.com
Cllr Kenneth Whetlor Lyme Regis Larger Council Representative NALC.
