Members of the public may submit a written question to the Leader, Portfolio Holder, or Chairman of the Shadow Council or committee. Questions must have been submitted to the Interim Monitoring Officer by 10.00 am on 11th March. Written statements must be submitted to the Interim Monitoring Officer by midday on 13th March.
Minutes:
The following questions and statements were received:
“Wimborne Minster Town Council supports the premise embodied within the
Notice of Motion submitted by Cllr Bartlett that the new Dorset Council should robustly
engage with Town and Parish Councils at the earliest opportunity so that the
impact on those councils of the future services provided by Dorset Council can
be properly assessed and planned for”.
Read out by the Clerk to the meeting on behalf of Wimborne Minster Town
Council.
Question from Iain Houston on behalf of Bradford
Abbas Parish Council:
“Can you assure each Parish Council that it will be
informed in a timely manner of each planning application in its parish and
that, if required by that Parish, contentious applications will come
before the Planning Committee.”
In response to the question Cllr T Ferrari reported
that there were no plans for parish councils to have increased
responsibilities. The working relationship between parish councils and Dorset
Council would remain unchanged and as there would be no change to operational
arrangements there would be no change to financial arrangements.
Question from Iain Houston on behalf of Bradford
Abbas Parish Council:
“Dilation of County Councillors’ local
knowledge:
The three Councillors that attend our Ordinary Parish Council Meetings will be
replaced by a single County Councillor. Up until now, our two District
Councillors and one County Councillor together have a wealth of knowledge
of our local geography and history.
What steps will the new council take to ensure that a County
Councillor covering a larger area will be able to work with each
Parish Council to acquire as deep local knowledge as she requires.”
Question from Iain Houston on behalf of Bradford
Abbas Parish Council:
How will the County Council involve each Parish
Council in sharing out Business Rates to support Parish Councils’ increasing
responsibilities?
“At the Blandford Forum Town Council meeting held
on Monday 11th March 2019, councillors agreed unanimously to support
the motion put forward by Cllr Shane Bartlett.” Read out by the Clerk to the
meeting on behalf of Blandford Forum Town Council.
Cllr D Rickard read out the following statement on
behalf of Bridport Town Council:
“Bridport
Town Council appreciates the complexity of LGR and the focus on ‘safe and
legal’, but this has left town and parish councils marginalised from the
process. This perception is exacerbated by the Shadow Executive decision
which prevented the devolution of services. We have the powers and the
will to help the new Council face the twin pressures of funding and LGR.
In the interests of our community, we call on the Shadow Council to establish a
two-way mechanism for our direct engagement in the development of Dorset
Council’s services and committee structure, in particular the proposed Area
Boards.”
“Worth Matravers
Parish Council (WMPC) does not consider that as promised the Shadow Council and
its Executive have involved or engaged adequately with Town and Parish Councils
regarding their future contribution to Dorset Council or any potential impact
of establishing the new council on the services they provide
It considers that
the Executive have failed to ensure full T&PC’s involvement and
consultation. It is essential that the new local authority supply all
relevant material information to T&PC’s on all planning and licensing
issues in their local areas .In the light of the removal of one tier of local
government in this area of Purbeck the views of T&PC’s as
the remaining elected tier below the new Dorset County Unitary should
undertake to give both prominence and appropriate weight to the views of
T&PC's in all future officer reports and decisions by this new
local authority for the county area .As a matter of policy the new
authority should ensure that where possible and practical delegation to
T&PC’s should be promoted.” Read out by the Clerk to the
meeting on behalf of Wimborne Minster Town Council.
Cllr S Jackson read out the following
statement on behalf of West Lulworth Parish Council:
“Your constitution limits our voice tonight, and at
every meeting, with a word limit of 100 words which is unreasonable, and given
that the allotted time is 3 minutes, it serves to be a further restriction within
an existing restriction. This council
has already excluded the Parishes but you appear to be going out of your way to
exclude meaningful communication with the public.
One accepts the need for a time limit but to impose
a word count can only be construed as deliberately undermining the principle of
the public participation period thus making the purpose of this meeting
laughable”.
The following statement was read out by Mr N Hill:
“The Dorset Council can either be the
servants or the masters of the people of Dorset. A partnership would be a non-sequitur. The lack of information from the Shadow
Cabinet indicates it will be the Masters.
Dorset Council’s members will have been elected to represent the people
of Dorset. I strongly recommend, therefore, that Dorset Council choses the path
of service to Dorset and actively consults with and informs the people of
Dorset, and its councils, unlike its Shadow.”
The following statement was read out by Cllr
J Parish on behalf of Corfe Castel Parish Council:
“Corfe Castle Parish Council seek that
the Dorset Council commit to work closely with Town and Parish Councils.
When topic groups are established Parish Council’s
should be automatically represented and consulted.
We have been lucky in Purbeck to have regular
liaison meetings between Clerks and Chairs of Parish and Town Councils and the
District Council. Can this format please continue with the Dorset Council.”
In response to all of the governance related questions
and statements Cllr S Flower referred to Part 2 of Article 10 of the Dorset
Council Constitution which stated:
“The Council is
committed to ensuring effective and efficient engagement with its
community and
citizens. The Council will develop
systems and structures which generate community involvement, including in
particular through engagement with Town and Parish Councils in its area,
helping to identify and introduce solutions to empower communities to do things
for themselves and to engage with the Council.
The Council recognises
that differing aspects of local government may require
more than one
mechanism for consultation and delivery. The Council will
therefore create
appropriate systems which will include provision for Area
Forums and other
arrangements. To the extent that
community engagement mechanisms developed for the purposes of this Article
involve the creation of any Committee and/or the referral/delegation of any
powers then arrangements will be put in place to maintain a list of such
mechanisms and that list shall be deemed to form part of the Constitution.”
Cllr S Flower emphasised
that there was a very clear commitment from Dorset Council to engage with town
and parish councils. In respect of the question
regarding the planning process members had had a lengthy debate regarding this
matter at the Dorset Shadow Council meeting in February and had agreed to
retain the process which ensured that parish councils would continue to be
involved with the planning process.
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