Agenda item

Members to receive a report which provides details of the responsibilities of the two NYC Parish Liaison teams.

Christine Phillipson, Principal Democratic Services Officer and Mark Codman, Parish Liaison and Local Devolution Manager delivered a presentation to provide Members with an overview of the roles and responsibilities of the Parish Liaison, Local Devolution and Community Rights team, and the Local Area Support team.

Members heard that North Yorkshire was unique in that the area had 664 parish sector organisations, which was double that of any other Council in England; and in terms of the Selby and Ainsty area, there were a higher percentage of parish and town councils which raised a higher precept income than the North Yorkshire average.

Members noted that there were three members of the Parish Liaison, Local Devolution and Community Rights team based within the Localities team, who had responsibility for the Parish Charter, local devolution, parish liaison generally, and supporting any developments regarding the Parish Portal and community rights legislation.  As part of this work a review of the Parish Charter was currently being undertaken and Parish Liaison meetings with Parish Councils were being held.  A drop-in session was planned at Hambleton Village Hall on the 6 January 2025, and a formal Parish Liaison meeting on 30 January 2025 at Selby Town Hall, where there would be speakers to address particular issues that had been raised for the area.  In addition, there was now a dedicated single point of contact email address – parishliaison@northyorks.gov.uk for general Parish Council queries.

In terms of the Local Area Support team, there were three officer’s part of whose role it was to offer support to the individual parish and town councils on general parish queries, the recording of Councillor Register of Interests, temporary appointments, NYC website accuracy: working alongside both the Localities and Elections teams.  As North Yorkshire covered such a large area, Democratic Services had been split into three smaller areas, Central, West and East.  Selby and Ainsty sat within the Central area and had a dedicated officer who was also available to deal with any general parish queries.     

It was explained that North Yorkshire Council, as the principal authority for the parish and town councils within North Yorkshire, was responsible for recording members register of interests and receiving and handling complaints that a parish or town councillor may have breached that authorities Member Code of Conduct, and since vesting day on 1 April 2023 to 6 June 2024, a total of 223 such complaints had been received by NYC.  That was where NYC’s jurisdiction ended and any complaints on the day to day operation of a parish council should be referred to the clerk or chairman of the parish council, in the first instance.

Members were informed that online training sessions had been offered to all of the parish and town council clerks and Councillors in the North Yorkshire area during the month of September, to improve the understanding around declarations of interest and the Member Code of Conduct, however it was noted that very few people had attended the sessions.  It was noted that a recording of the training session was available to those that would like to view the session retrospectively.

It was brought to the officer’s attention that a number of parishes in the area were having difficulty using the Parish Portal, particularly where an individual parish Councillor registered to use the Portal, the parish Clerk was then unable to register.  The officer requested a list of the parish councils who were experiencing these difficulties so that they could be approached to resolve the issue and explained that parish councils were being encouraged to engage with the Parish Portal and also to have their own email address. 

In response to a query regarding the types of things a parish council could spend the parishes money on, officers stated that if it wasn’t clear where a particular query should be sent for clarification, then it should be emailed through to the dedicated liaison email address, where the query would be assessed and forwarded to the best contact for a response.

In terms of the recent standards training on the Member’s Code of Conduct, one Member commented that not many parish councils within the Central area had been informed of the training, and that parish councils, in the main, only tended to liaise with NYC Highway’s department; and that he could not see a benefit from the introduction of the Parish Liaison teams.

The Chair stated that she felt that the Parish Liaison teams were important and that she would like to see them become more established, and to open a channel of communication with the parish and town councils to encourage them to attend the AC’s, as this was the correct forum to raise local issues.

One Member commented that the demographic of people joining parish councils had changed over the years, younger people were busier and didn’t have the time to join parish councils, who he felt generally did a wonderful job, and were extremely busy in their respective villages.  In addition, he defended the Parish Portal and felt that it could make a huge difference if it were to work correctly; the Chair concurred with this.  

Members were informed that the Parish Portal would be changing, and that there would be significant communications, advice and support during the process and requested that should Members have any views on how the relationship with parish and town councils could be improved to let the officers know.

Finally, one Member added that there was a resource of 90 NYC Councillors, who visited their parishes, and suggested that Members be provided with training to enable them to disseminate information in their individual areas.

The Chair thanked the officers for their attendance.

Resolved:

That the presentation be noted.