Caroline Hunt

Introduction

As with other parish council committees, Planning and Highways has been meeting using video conferencing. The number of plans received during lockdown has diminished significantly. The Planning and Highways Committee reviews plans which are submitted for projects within the parish. It is Swindon Borough Council who are the final decision makers unless an applicant wants to take a decision to reject a plan to the Planning Inspectorate.

However, just to compensate, we must review and comment on plans put forward by the government to relax the planning laws further. Here are a couple of examples.

Government Planning Review

On initial reading it would appear that local authorities, whether the Borough Council or the Parish Council will be stripped of any power to influence planning decisions.

It is suggested that local authorities engage with communities to create map based local plans designating areas for growth, renewal or protection. It sounds like the much vaunted “local plan” in a new incarnation. Local authorities are finding that in many cases local plans are not worth the paper they are written on.

There appears to be no sanctions on developers who “land bank” and refuse to build on land that they hold until the value of it goes up.

The document talks of “design standards” but with little detail.  Already there appears to be a race to the bottom as developers exploit the relaxation of permitted development rights (PDR). Since 2013 PDR has allowed developers to bypass the requirement to apply for planning permission when turning office blocks into flats. In 2016 this was expanded to include shops, bookmakers and launderettes. In 2019 fast food outlets were added. Some of these flats have a floor area of as little as 160 square feet with very little natural light. According to the government planning portal the minimum size of a car parking space should be 4.8 x 2.4 metres. This equates to 124 square feet.

Right to Regenerate

The government wants to empower people to challenge the inefficient use of public sector land in their communities, and to bring it into better economic use, including to provide new homes. The government is consulting on the effectiveness of these requests as it considers reforms to make the process more efficient and more transparent.

The government believes that reforming the Right to Contest and relaunching it as a new “Right to Regenerate”’ could provide a quicker and easier route for individuals, businesses and organisations to identify, purchase and redevelop underused or empty land in their area.  The “Right to Contest” was a method whereby individuals could ask for publicly owned land or buildings to be sold if it was thought that they were vacant or underused. In turn, the government believes, a strengthened right would support greater regeneration of brownfield land, boost housing supply and empower people to turn blights and empty spaces in their areas into more beautiful developments.

Policy and Finance Committee Update – Annual Parish Meeting, March 2021

Well, what a year.  This year of Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown has brought a lot of disruption and challenges.  As a Council, we didn’t really have policies and procedures in place to handle operating in a no-contact manner, so to enable the Council to continue to provide its services to its residents, this Committee had to quickly get policies and procedures in place to address socially distanced working, approve funding for Covid-19 supplies such as PPE equipment and items required to enable team operatives and office staff to perform their function; for example mobile phones and home office equipment.

In addition, to ensure we could provide a timely service, we approved the Clerk of Council to have delegated authority to make purchases when normally these might need to go through the Committee stages before ratification involving a lengthy delay.  All this, of course, goes through our finance systems and is reviewed by this Committee before being presented to Full Council.  Once lockdown is lifted and business returns to normal, these delegated rights will be returned to their pre-covid levels.

The lockdown has also impacted other areas of finance;

1. Income through the revenue from community bus hire, room hire and advertising revenue has fallen
2. and the number of Grants budget allocations fell.

Looking at grants first, obviously most community groups also locked down for the duration meaning that grant funding for their projects this year was not required (and in fact, unused grants monies were returned).  I would anticipate that this coming year, we may see an increase in applications to help these groups get back into operation.  The awarded grants this year included helping Swindon Scrap-store with its Covid-19 support programme via the foodbank and a donation to the training of a therapy dog to be used in the Parish and to the Artists group as they come out of lockdown.

Looking at lost income, we’ve juggled allocated funding around where feasible to minimise the impact to the Council and the Clerk and the Officers investigated options to obtain funding to cover the loss of earnings and the additional spends incurred.  The biggest of these was the Discretionary grant from Swindon Borough Council of £40,000.00.

As well as providing our usual services, funding was provided to progress several projects within the parish, such as a youth worker to engage with our younger residents and the development of a Dementia Café which hopefully will be going live later this year. The Dementia Café will be a tremendous resource for our community and potentially an avenue of income if the service is developed outside the Parish when not in use.

This Committee also continued to perform is normal functions of reviewing and revising its policies and procedures and developing new ones are need.  These can be found on the Councils website.

We continue to ensure that the Parish gets value for its money by reviewing its investments and reserves.  With this in mind, you will see in the centre of this quarters Haydon Wick Living magazine details on this year’s precept.  Our priority this year was to continue to provide ongoing services, continue current programmes and projects and to delay others to minimise precept charges.  Monies from earmarked reserves were used to help cushion the cost this year to residents.

Here’s looking forward to a quieter 2021/22.

Notice of elections has been confirmed. To find out what your next steps should be, download the Notice of Election – Parish Council, the Notice of Election – Borough Council or the PCC Notice of Election.

For more guidance about how to do this please contact the Swindon Borough Council’s Elections Team.

To find out more information about Haydon Wick Parish Council and how you might be able to make a change in Haydon Wick please contact our Clerk.

#makeachange

Are you interested in becoming a Parish Councillor?

Perhaps you have been volunteering with us and observing, but you are now ready to take a seat? Or perhaps you are looking to learn something new, whilst making the area a better place for yourself and your neighbours?

What does a Parish Councillor do?

They are active and caring members of their community and they are the link between the Parish Council and the Electorates, which makes receiving information easily accessible to the whole community. Click on the National Association of Local Council video further down this page to see how you could #makeachange.

How much time will be needed?

As a minimum and depending which Committee you sit on, you could be required to attend a meeting for a couple of hours on a Tuesday evening and the Full Council meeting once every month.

There may be additional hours that you put yourself forward for projects that you will help the Officers deliver.

Benefits include:

• Engaging further with your Community and being the voice to make a change
• Further training available across each of the Council’s main functions
• Elected councillors have the option to receive an allowance currently in the region of £80 per month before tax deductions

What’s the deadline for nominations? 

The deadline for returning a completed nomination pack to Swindon Borough Council’s Elections Team is 4.00pm on Thursday, 8 April 2021.The pack must be submitted in person to The Elections Office. 

The census is coming. By taking part, you can help inform decisions on services that shape your community, such as healthcare, education and transport.

The census is a unique survey that happens every 10 years. It gives us a snapshot of all the people and households in England and Wales – the most detailed information we have about our society.

It’s important that you fill in your census questionnaire. Without the information you share, it’d be more difficult to understand your community’s needs and to plan and fund public services.

In one way or another, your information touches the lives of every single person living in England and Wales, whether it’s through using census information to plan new schools, doctors’ surgeries or bike lanes.

Because these things matter to us all, everyone needs to complete the census. Do not worry, government officials dealing with applications you’ve made or payments or services you receive cannot see it.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) runs the census in England and Wales and is independent from government. Your details are protected by law and information published is always anonymous.

Census Day is Sunday 21 March 2021. You can fill yours in online as soon as you get your access code in the post. If your household circumstances change on Census Day, you can let the ONS know.

Everyone should have the support they need to fill in the census. If you, or anyone you know, needs help, there’s a wide range of support services available.

These include a contact centre that can give you help over the phone and guidance in a range of languages and accessible formats, including paper questionnaires and large print.

If you need help or have any questions, visit www.census.gov.uk