In message ,
Peter Crosland replied to my statement

Parish councils operate outside the law and beyond the reach of any
ombudsman.

They certainly do not! Report to the standards board.
http://www.standardsboard.co.uk/ for details. They do investigate, and if
you have a case will pursue it.

Many thanks for that link which does seem to compliment the Local
Government Ombudsman rather well and allow redress in areas where the
Government Ombudsman is unable to venture. I will give them a try.

Not on the quoted example which was, of course, just an amusing anecdote
and quite above board.

On the general question I have found that Parish Councils, District
Councils and Borough Councils welcome all members of the public.
They usually have a Website where minutes of meetings are available.
I currently attend and speak at Planning Meetings and you only have to
declare your name beforehand if you intend to speak. All my local Civic
Centre meetings will shortly be transmitted by live Webcast so the whole
world will be able to get involved in planning.

--
Geoff Wearmouth

"Peter Crosland" wrote:

Report to the standards board.
http://www.standardsboard.co.uk/ for details. They do investigate, and if
you have a case will pursue it.

Interesting - I haven't heard of them; I have heard of the Ombudsman.
I'll pass it on to my father where the council has consistently been
late with and failed to produce accounts and it has been recently
discovered that the chairman has quietly done a change of land use to
his benefit, all records of which appear to have been lost because the
council 'moved premises' ?!

Daytona

In message , Steve Firth
writes

The village plan has no legal status, it's an expression of the wished
of local people and is at best used as guidance. However largely the
planners ignore village plans, which TBH I think is a shame. Do you have
evidence that the person in question drafted that section of the plan?

I have never met the guy but this is a friendly place and I will ask him
when our paths cross. I am sure he spoke as eloquently in favour of
garage conversion as he did in his letters to me. As would have some
other members of the Parish Plan Committee as they pioneered existing
garage to cottage conversions. In fact the only remaining suitable
premises belong to me.

I know that they are suitable as last year the Official Receiver,
mistaking me for a bankrupt, changed the locks on my home and proceeded
to enquire at the local Planning Office if they would approve conversion
of my garage to a cottage. The man from the Civic Centre said Yes and
the receiver's agents posted a mailshot widely in the Parish enclosing
the Council's upbeat planning statement and valuing my unconverted
garage at eighty times what I had paid for it as a home for my car.

It was at this point that I started receiving partnership proposals from
one of the chairmen of the Parish council. The Receiver refused to give
me back the keys to my home and I had to take legal action. When I
caught up with the Official Receiver he explained that he was empowered
to obtain the maximum value for seized assets hence his approach to the
District Council planners.

All this is above board but as a taxpayer I am annoyed that the
grant-funded Parish Plan should treat with such high priority opposition
to a garage conversion where the owner has never remotely expressed any
desire to convert. There are more important issues in the Parish.

As a Council tax payer, whose home like all others in the country is
being revalued, I am concerned that the value placed on my home, and its
new banding, may be based on what some incompetent City Slicker, with
the right connections could get for it and not its real world value.

--
Geoff Wearmouth

In message , Geoff Wearmouth
writes

grant-funded Parish Plan


They are not grant-funded. They levy a precept on your council tax.

--
John Boyle

In message , john boyle
writes
In message , Geoff Wearmouth
writes

grant-funded Parish Plan


They are not grant-funded. They levy a precept on your council tax.

Many thanks John.

This one also has a grant from the Countryside Agency's Vital Villages
initiative. I don't know how much though. I think most of the money ends
up in Capita's coffers anyway.

Cheers,

--
Geoff Wearmouth

In message , Geoff Wearmouth
writes
In message , john boyle
writes
In message , Geoff Wearmouth
writes

grant-funded Parish Plan


They are not grant-funded. They levy a precept on your council tax.

Many thanks John.

This one also has a grant from the Countryside Agency's Vital Villages
initiative. I don't know how much though.

I take your point. Its likely to be to fund a specific project and I
dont think there is a council of any status (i.e. borough, district
etc.,) that doesnt receive some form of 'grant funding'

I think most of the money ends
up in Capita's coffers anyway.

Quite!!!

--
John Boyle

Chris Street posted

Last time I had one of these it only got stopped when the local fire
dept said they wouldn't be able to make their response times if they were
put in - that stopped it stone dead!

The emergency services always make that objection to speed humps. If it
always succeeded, no speed humps would ever be installed.

In fact it's only one of the inputs to the process and has to be weighed
against the benefits of slower traffic.

--
PeteM