Comment reply, Are you a solicitor?

Reply to comment, Are you a solicitor.

Written for the Blog by a Preston resident

No I am not a solicitor in fact I’m probably the furthest thing you could find from that Profession. I’m sure there are many good councillors both in our region and in the country who are also not solicitors.

Local Government is not something you can get involved in and then simply do things just as you would like, that could only lead to chaos. Councils are a product of law and are regulated by those laws (to avoid chaos). In order to function councils are required to abide by those laws of which there are many. It goes without saying that people who are involved with Local Government need by necessity to at least have an awareness and some level of understanding when it comes to those laws.

As does anyone who wishes to take an interest in the activities of a council, without that awareness a person would not be able to make reasonable sense of why councils do certain things or why they do them in a in a particular way. I’m sure the vast majority of councillors, parish clerks and council officers are also not solicitors but it would be almost impossible for them to do their jobs without a reasonable understanding of what the law requires of them. There has to be one caveat to that, if a councillor has no interest in attempting to understand his or her role or the role of their council and so relies fully on the advice (interpretation) of another person there is the risk that they will fall foul of that persons own misinterpretation and that will be reflected in the services received by residents.

When it comes to you or I making an attempt at interpreting the law as laypersons, the government makes available approved documents and guidance notes so we are able to make a reasonable attempt at that interpretation.

I was fortunate enough to be able to successfully sit a legal exam as part of the qualifications I needed to do my job of work, that qualification was a HND in Law. It specialized in Liability Law and it took me three years to achieve, I taught Liability Law and Risk Management at Laceby Road College, Grimsby (which was at the time an annex of Hull College) for a couple of years.

Over the last couple of years I have spoken to a number of qualified Parish Clerks who’s overriding advice was to obtain a copy of their ‘bible’ Local Council Administration by Charles Arnold-Baker, which I have purchased a while ago and am currently reading my way through it.

I intended to enroll to study for the CiLCA Parish Clerks qualification, the National Association of Local Councils informed me that I would be able to enroll and sit the qualification ‘All you need is access to a helpful Parish Council and information’ , sadly that’s a failure on both counts in Preston.

I would suggest that I am no more or no less qualified to interpret laws governing parish council administration than any councillor currently sitting on Preston Parish Council but I would consider myself as qualified as any of them to reach a view.

The second part of your question was 'how do you know what you are saying is right', the simple answer is 'I don't know I'm right', the difficulty arises when a considered view differs from that of the parish council, without a conversation it's impossible to resolve that difference and I cannot reach a resolution by having a conversation with myself, whilst the council’s response is invariably ‘matter closed’, even prior to any conversation, we are destined to forever have those differences or at least until the council is changed for a more engaging one.

I do not harbour any secret desires to become a councillor or clerk, my outside interest lies in music but if I believe, as I do, the council are acting illegally and not in the best interests of residents I accept the need to understand the requirements placed upon them.

I do hope this answers your query, thank you for your comment and for reading our Blog.