Lydford Parish Council and communication
Councils and communications
Before mentioning the problems with Lydford Parish Council it is worth considering why good communication is important. It really depends on your point of view. If one is talking about a private members club which exists primarily for the benefit of its members and their cronies then it really does not matter. New members will be invited to put themselves forward based upon suitability as judged by the existing members so good communications with the public is just not necessary.
If on the other hand one is talking about a modern democratic body that exists for the benefit of the community as a whole and where the aim is to involve members of the public and to try to develop a cohesive and inclusive society based on mutual trust, then good communication is vital.
Communication with a council should fall into the latter category and is, of course, a two way process. It should be possible for ordinary members of the public to express concerns to councillors as well as simply hearing or reading those councillors views.
Written communications
If one feels strongly about a local issue then it is possible to write to Lydford Parish Council. If you are lucky you might even get a reply although do not expect it to be particularly helpful or even to address the issues raised. Based on previous experience the best plan would seem to be to write to the Clerk and let them circulate as required.
So far as the council getting its views across there is a slot in the Parish Magazine that is used by the Chairman. Sometimes that is helpful. The agendas and draft minutes of meetings are available on the council's website. At the October 2009 parish council meeting there was a move to restrict access so that approved minutes would be published on the website and notice board rather than draft ones. This would have delayed publication but fortunately does not seem to have been implemented. At one stage financial information was being appended to the minutes but with the change of Clerk this practice seems to have been abandoned.
Up until early 2009 requests to improve the parish council website were met by much opposition and it was clear that certain councillors knew next to nothing about the Internet or web based communications, although that did not stop them expressing opinions! This changed somewhat when a councillor (sadly now an ex-councillor) developed the parish office website. This was developed at no cost to the council as the web space was provided free and the councillor volunteered his time. It was a vast improvement on the old parish council site and had potential for further development. It is really sad that updates ceased and the parish office site is now way out of date. It is still mentioned in the LPC Chairman's section of the Parish Magazine but that simply shows how out of touch this council is.
Return to top of pageAttendance at meetings
Another way of communicating is to attend council meetings. In theory it is possible for parishioners to speak for up to five minutes each for a maximum of fifteen minutes before the meeting starts. This is far from ideal as not everyone is comfortable speaking in public. In addition not everyone can attend evening meetings. Members of the public are not permitted to speak during the meeting itself but this seems to depend on who you are. It has been the practice for the Chairman to allow certain members of the public to speak outside of the 'parishioners' time'.
Perhaps the worst aspect of attending meetings is the possibility of saying something that the councillors disagree with and incurring their wrath (see section 'Misinformation' for example). This can be a distressing experience.
Return to top of pageVerbal communications
Which brings us to verbal communications and as we all know "it's good to talk". Well it would be but unfortunately not everyone agrees with this. One councillor made a questionable remark to a parishioner at the April 2009 meeting of Lydford Parish Council. Four written communications and an invite to meet to discuss what was said were met with silence from this councillor. Eventually a reply was received almost fourteen weeks later, not from the councillor concerned but from the Chairman. It included a quite remarkable statement:-
"... individual councillors cannot respond on council matters ..."
To say they cannot respond really is completely wrong. There might be a legitimate reason for councillors not wanting to discuss issues that have yet to be subject to a policy decision by the council. Where it is a matter of council policy that has already been decided or, as in this case, where it is a personal opinion expressed by a councillor, it is ridiculous to say that a councillor cannot respond to an ordinary parishioner. Indeed this is completely out of step with the Ten Principles of Public Life which state that those in public office should be open and accountable.
One only has to look at the November 2008 issue of the parish magazine to see the Council has itself recognised that ordinary parishioners may talk to their councillors:-
"Any parishioner who would like the council to consider an item can put it forward in one of the following ways … by talking to one of the members."
The Ten Principles of Public Life have already been mentioned and there is nothing there that would suggest that councillors cannot talk to parishioners, quite the opposite in fact! Perhaps the council's own Standing Orders will throw some light on the chairman's extraordinary claim.
The Lydford Parish Council Standing Orders, Section 67, deals with “Unauthorised Activities”. It prohibits members from issuing “orders, instructions or directions” on behalf of the council unless they have been authorised to do so. This is specific and quite different from a blanket ban on talking to parishioners. It should be fairly obvious that the prohibition would cover such things as "orders, instructions or directions" to contractors, unless the council had agreed to it in advance. This makes sense as one would not want individual councillors committing to expenditure unless agreed by the council. It makes no sense to try to apply this to any contact between individual councillors and parishioners.
The Standing Orders are there to protect councillors and the public. It is certainly better to have a framework than allow councillors to make up rules as they go along. If there is some other rule or regulation that prevents councillors speaking to ordinary parishioners then they should explain what that is.
It is good to talk and discussion in a calm, controlled environment can resolve differences, or at least give the parties concerned a chance to agree to differ without animosity. As the Directgov website says:-
"Sometimes making your case directly to those who have made decisions with which you disagree can be more effective than protesting"
Not, it seems, if one is dealing with Lydford Parish Council (see also section Misinformation).
It is a strange kind of democracy where those 'elected' (using the word in a technical sense here) will not speak to those they purport to represent.
Return to top of pageA new low
Section 8 (a) of the parish council November 2010 minutes mentions a proposal put to Devon County Council to change the status of paths from footpath to bridleway. This is a contentious issue with strong views on either side. Whatever happens will upset someone. The parish council seems to have found it necessary to express an opinion to Devon County Council and the purpose of the discussion at the November meeting was to ratify the response.
Anyone reading the minutes hoping to find out the view of our council may well be disapointed. The wording of Section 8 (a) could have been specifically designed to obscure the intention of the council.
Rather than just state their agreed position there is reference to paragraph 2,3,5,6 & 7 of page 4 of report EEC/07/312/HQ. How on earth are ordinary parishioners supposed to find out what those paragraphs say? For those sufficiently determined it is possible to obtain a copy of report EEC/07/312/HQ but even this is of little help as it does not deal with footpaths 41, 49 & 10 at all.
Even by LPC's standards this has to be a new low in communication.
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