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Parish end of Year Accounts

We are now in the period when the annual accounts for Betley Parish Council can be examined.  Last year (223/24) the Internal and External Auditors noted 'significant weaknesses' in the AGAR forms submitted - ie in the accounting and governance procedures, which appear not to have been followed correctly or as prescribed by the financial rules and regulations advocated by JPAG for local councils. Although requests for expenditure should be placed on the agenda to be discussed and approved by the council (good practice), they seem to appear, instead, under Chair's Reports or in Expenditure to be approved (as if they had been discussed already).  Under this item councillors are asked to approve items which have no figure beside them.  And then there is Urgent Business.   Numerous requests have been made for the monthly accounts to be more clearly expressed so that expenditure against budget can be more clearly noted, especially when there is an overspend in a budg...
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Amendments to the Betley Balterly and Wrinehill Parish Council Publication Scheme

  When I first became a Parish Councillor in 2022 the first thing noted was that this council had few if any policies to work to.   This gave the impression it was working on a whim rather than to agreed and statutory rules. It was a step in the right direction when a list of policies for adoption were placed on the Agenda.   However, many of these were borrowed ‘model’ or ‘standard’ policies.   It was suggested that these at least be tailored to this PC.   Unfortunately,   This was not taken with a good grace, and neither was it clear how they could and should be applied. One of the most important policies relates to freedom of information and its accessibility to the public. The last political regime (Conservative) softened some of the rules making information less accessible, namely by suggesting payment.   However this was left to the discretion of any council, which could price the request out of reach.   Hopefully only an unscrupulou...
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Freedom of Information

  Whilst a Parish Councillor, I asked many times for information concerning funding and accuracy issues.  The style in which the Minutes were written after May 2022 when I was appointed, were also a cause for concern. Since this information had not been forthcoming I made a Freedom of Information request to the Clerk, first regarding past minutes.  It seems that there are no Minutes for Betley available in the public domain (and Minutes are public property) before 1959.  I found this extraordinary for such an ancient Parish as Betley.  It appeared that no Minutes had been deposited with the Staffordshire Record Office, ever.  In a Minute (25/10) the then Clerk recorded that he had found Minutes from 1925 to 1958 and that these were now in his safekeeping.  If this was the case then it would be useful to know where these Minutes are now.  There were also gaps in the 1970s and some even more recent Minutes were incomplete.   When the Clerk...
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Habemus Maiorem

  The NBC is of the view that the ‘earliest records show that there has been a mayor in Newcastle since 1318’. Although records from the 1300s are sparse, there is documentary evidence that Newcastle-under-Lyme had a functioning civic government structure with a mayor-like figure or chief burgess during the medieval period. In 1590 Elizabeth I granted the first governing Charter to Newcastle-under-Lyme ‘with the power of hanging and gibbeting and independence of the county court; along with the right of the burgesses to elect a Mayor’.    We are also told that this privilege ‘was …usurped by the members of the Corporation and confined to their own body … finding their attempts to recover their privileges ineffectual that determined to cast an odium upon the ceremony of election, yet in some measure retain the semblance of their rights by electing a ‘Mock Mayor.   At this ceremony every act was a burlesque on the Corporate election’.    Joseph Mayer...
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the Draft Local Plan

 The draft of the Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council will be examined by the Government Inspector beginning on 30 May 2025. The Matters Issues and Questions to be raised are now available from n-u-l@iposolutions.online.  Any further comments that residents might want to raise need to be submitted by 5.00 pm on Thursday 1 May 2025.     Since the issue of the local plan has been live since around 2013 and the process has not come close to fruition until now, much has happened.  Not least a change to the planning rules and NPPF of 2023 and 2024.  One rule which probably has remained is the NPPF rule whereby if any of the plans do not address the needs and 'estimates' set down by national government, they will be overruled.   The current issue of devolution might also have an impact on these draft plans.    An additional issue which has arisen is that of Grey Land.  It will be interesting to see how this is addressed, particularl...
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Removal

  I recently received  a notice from the Clerk of Betley Parish Council (see below) but, 'Tell it not in Gath, proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the sons of the uncircumcised triumph. with an apology to (2 Samuel v19). I would like to thank everyone who gave support over the past three years, much appreciated, and to say that it was a pleasure and privilege to have been a Councillor for WrinehilI.  Given the set up of the Parish Council and the state of play it was impossible to represent you in the way that I would have wished or that Wrinehill deserved.  The odds of  12 - 1 was not conducive to  turning things around to ensure fair play, equitable distribution of resources, accountability and transparency.   Under the grimmest of  circumstances that I have ever encountered, I did what I could.  I had every intention and determination to remain until 2026 until fate interve...
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George Orwell Part Two: Censorship and Silencing

  In September 2024 Betley Parish Council considered several policies which it did not have but should have and updated the few that it did.  Councillors were invited to look at these policies and submit any amendments/changes/ improvements etc.  Only one Councillor did so and few if any of those recommendations (all 20 pages) were considered or accepted.  Local Councils had produced a template, which some councils amended to meet their particular needs.   Betley Parish Council has included in this a clause wishing to regulate not only its own social media but to include all other and private social media platforms.  This could mean giving itself the power to close down platforms with which it might not agree or did not like.  Although the PC was cautioned with regard to the impact of this it went ahead anyway, ignoring perhaps the view of  Bruce Coville  who informed that 'w ithholding information is the essence of tyranny, control of ...
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