Measures of success

Measures of success?

Written for the Blog by a Preston resident

Graham.

Do we actually achieve anything?

Yes I think we do,

1.  If we go back nearly 3 years there were a number of residents that had great problems with the previous council administration. A number of residents got together to stand as nominees in the Local Elections of 2011 and managed to get six new councillors elected, this meant that the surviving members of the old administration had their cozy arrangements of co-opting new councillors of their own choice fly out of the window and they have had to contend with the new councillors the residents of Preston elected, which I’m also sure has caused great disruption to their medium term plans. This must have been tiresome for them but they were responsible for  the mismanagement of Preston for about 15 years without challenge or interference, so the outcome was good as far as we were concerned.

2. Since the mid 90’s (at least) there had never been a by-election to fill a casual vacancy on Preston Parish Council, all casual vacancies were filled by co-option (council members deciding who they prefer). The latest vacancy following a resignation was to be filled once again by co-option, the old methods were to continue without interruption. Following hard and to the point representations             to the council on the subject of co-option and predicting who would be co-opted (an unsuccessful candidate from the old administration), it transpired the only expression of interest was from the person who we predicted would be co-opted! That would very certainly have been a closed deal had we not had our say, the council declined to co-opt given the circumstances and sought other interested parties, and it took another few of months to settle the issue.

Under normal circumstances following a resignation I’m sure a suitable (to the council) candidate would have been put forward and co-opted on the next council meeting, all very well for the council but not so well for residents.

I’m also sure the council would insist that they have now co-opted a neutral candidate from a list of one, we would not agree but it would not be fair to the new councillor to go into those reasons at this time. My understanding is that only a month before there were three candidates expressing an interest, they suddenly all disappeared, we don’t know what happened.

3. The council had never developed any written policies, procedures or working practices. I was assured by the council in writing via email in 2010 that the document reproduced below (STANDING ORDERS) was the entirety of the council procedures that regulated and controlled council activity in all areas and circumstances that the council would reasonably expect to encounter. Anyone          running a private organisation with a dozen managers I’m sure would agree that a list of rules containing five short sentences to guide personnel would be criminally inadequate to manage that organisation and that disaster would always be waiting around the next corner.

Such a position could only result in serious inconsistency, contradiction and conflict in the decision making process. It would also mean that the organisation would inevitably be managed on an ad-hoc basis with personnel interpreting those rules according to the situation they found themselves in at any one time and consistency would not be possible.

During 2012 we persistently challenged the council and suggested they develop the systems required to manage the Parish in a more successful manner. I believe it was the August council meeting that the council voted to adopt the NALC Parish Council procedures. From that very moment to the present there has been no further mention of those Policies and Procedures that we are aware of.

It may be the vote was taken, the policies adopted, job done and we can now forget about it, as far as we are concerned if those procedures have been received and simply put aside somewhere, the whole process has been a complete waste of time and we are continuing on the path to almost certain             chaos.

Any private organisation that appointed a group of managers who knew nothing about their sector or business model to manage their business and then left them entirely to their own devices without any rules, scrutiny or guidance from the word go, they would not I’m sure expect to end up with any degree of success fifteen or twenty years later, I would suggest the only realistic expectation would be closure of the business at some point along the way.

4. Councillor training, when members of the public are first elected to a Parish Council it must be bewildering and new councillors must be left wondering, ‘what am I supposed to do now’. Without guidance and some level of training they may well remain in that state of mind just following the lead of anyone who will provide it. Obviously not what a councillors role is about so we suggested to the Parish Council a level of training for new councillors was essential and persisted in that view.

Again we had to push the issue because it is an issue that the council has never had to consider or pursue before now, when co-opted members were simply put into place and then expected to follow the lead of the chairman.

I believe most councillor’s, particularly new councillors have now attended a training course for Parish Councillors, that can only be helpful.

5. We have persistently criticized the council for it sheer lack of procedural control during council meetings for some time now and if you read the post headed ‘Preston Parish Council meeting 09/01/13, I acknowledged a vast improvement during that meeting, have we contributed to that improvement in some small way?

I do sincerely believe that without our dogged persistence none of the above would ever have happened and we would be much further from the straight and narrow than we are now.

It must be remembered that none of the above have ever been considered by the council until we sought to press them on the issues.

So, can we make a difference? Absolutely we can and we do!

How much more of a difference we could make as a larger group, it should not be residents leading the council, it should be the council leading residents!

As there is no specific mention in the ‘Standing Orders’ below relating to any financial items I presume the council does have separate procedures in place for all financial matters.

STANDING ORDERS

1.     Pecuniary interest/non pecuniary interest Members having such interest should declare the same at the meeting at which the matter is to be considered as soon as is practicable after the meeting commences, and should not speak or vote thereon.  (Minute 1657 10/11/99)

2.     Any other business Any other business will no longer be allowed. All matters to be raised shall be submitted to the clerk in writing for inclusion on the agenda.

3.     Tenders Three quotations shall be obtained for the supply of goods or specific work if it is envisaged that the cost will be more than £500.00. To exclude recurring items of expenditure, eg ongoing contracts, salaries, etc. which should be subject to such periodic review as the council considers appropriate, subject to other considerations such as continuity, standard of work etc.

4.     Resolutions No decision made by the council shall be raised for change for six months when the item must be placed on the agenda for the following meeting.

5.     Meetings All meetings must be concluded by 9.30pm and all remarks to be made through the chair with the correct protocol being used.

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Clerk to Preston Parish Council