Newsletter March 2025

SALC is moving to the city of Wells

After almost 8 years, SALC is leaving its offices in Somerton and moving to England’s smallest city.

From 1st March our new postal address is:
Somerset Association of Local Councils
Town Hall,
Market Place
Wells BA5 2RB

The SALC office will have a base in Wells Town Hall, but please note that we do not work from the Hall on a daily basis. If you would like to meet with any of the team, please contact that person direct to make an arrangement.

Congratulations to this year’s Star Councils Awards finalists.

SALC Chair, Loretta Whetlor, Vice Chair, Stuart Haskins, and Chief Executive, Ewan Jones, joined representatives from our fellow county associations at last Tuesday’s NALC Star Council Awards ceremony and reception, in the Cholmondeley Room and Terrace, at the House of Lords, Westminster.

Loretta, Stuart, and Ewan met with new Taunton and Wellington MP, Gideon Amos, and several peers of the House of Lords, to raise the importance of strengthening the standards of city, town, and parish councils, and the key role that parish sector must play in delivering the most local services, owing to its focused understanding of residents’ needs and wants.

Loretta had earlier that morning represented Somerset’s local councils at NALC’s National Assembly, which considered issues including the English Devolution White Paper, and heard the Government’s perspective from Lizzy Hawkins, Deputy Director of Communities Policy at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Despite the fact that West Monkton Parish Council did not win the award for Climate Response of the Year, it remains that it put in place excellent work on active travel, high energy efficiency in buildings, and electric vehicle charging infrastructure, among other things, and the thoroughness with which this Somerset parish council has integrated climate change considerations throughout its planning and strategies is an example to all in the sector.

The spirit of the Star Council Awards was genuinely one where all councils nominated were already stars.

Photos: Ewan, Loretta, and Stuart with Baroness Jenny Jones, and Gideon Amos MP

Taunton Town Council is a Quality Council

Congratulations to Taunton Town Council for achieving the Local Council Award Scheme Quality Award.

Since its creation on 1st April 2023, Taunton Town Council has wasted no time in demonstrating how it achieves achieves good practices in governance, community engagement, and council improvement. It shows that the council has gone above and beyond the legal obligations; leading the community and continuously seeking opportunities to improve and develop even further.

If your council has what it takes to be recognised by the Local Council Award Scheme, you can find out more information and apply via the NALC website, here.

Changes to the CiLCA qualification

The CiLCA qualification is undergoing review and the existing portfolio will close to all new registrations on 1st August this year.

Candidates who have already registered with the SLCC, and those who begin the support course with SALC in March will still have time to complete their submissions and qualify under the existing portfolio.

CiLCA 2026 will be ready for the first registration intake on 2nd February 2026. The dates for the next SALC support course will be announced on the website training page towards the end of 2025.

The new portfolio will aim to reflect the current aspects of a clerk’s role, which is designed to be future proofed until the next scheduled review takes place in 2031.

Please contact sam@somerset-alc.org.uk with any questions.

Opportunity for councils to work with the Hills to Levels project

The Somerset Rivers Authority is funding two Natural Flood Management Community Advisers, Tom Shopland and Hugo van Dorssen, who have recently been appointed by The Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group South West (FWAG South West) to revive their Hills to Levels holistic catchment management approach. Tom and Hugo are getting out-and-about among Somerset’s towns and parishes, and are keen to meet representatives of councils who may have experienced flooding recently, and feel that there could be local opportunities for natural flood management to ’slow the flow’ and mitigate these risks.

On 10 December, the Somerset Rivers Authority launched its Community Flood Action Fund for Somerset, offering Small grants for works to reduce flooding are now being offered directly to Somerset communities by Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA). Tom and Hugo can help town and parish councils, and local charities, social enterprises and community benefit societies to develop projects to access this grant fund. For examples:

Hugo has been working with Pitcombe and Shepton Montague parishes, where an emergency was declared on 9 May 2023, triggering the recent investigation by Somerset Council as the lead local flood authority (LLFA), under 19 Section 19 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010;
Tom is considering proposals for natural flood management improvements that could help reduce the risks of flash-flooding down two tributaries of the Brue that flow into Bruton town centre.

To contact FWAG SW about Hills to Levels, please email info@fwagsw.org.uk quoting ‘Hills to Levels’ in the email title, or call 01823 660684.

Date set for SALC chairs’ forum

We announced in our January newsletter that Ewan, SALC’s CEO, is launching a Chair’s Forum to facilitate support, networking, and sharing of good ideas across our c.270 city, town, and parish council chairs.

Chairs of member councils are welcome to attend the first meeting (subject to space), which will take place on 6pm on Monday 31st March.

Please let Ewan know at ceo @somerset-alc.org.uk if you are a chair who would like to join this monthly Teams call and WhatsApp group.

Strengthening Standards

On behalf of SALC’s board, Sam and Ewan submitted the Somerset city, town, and parish council perspective to the Government’s consultation on “Strengthening the standards and conduct framework for local authorities in England”.

This SALC response closely aligned with the NALC response submitted on Monday 24th, with some additional Somerset context. It is positive that our newly unitarised Somerset Council already has a Standards Committee, as recommended by the Government, which Ewan, as SALC chief executive, is a member of.

Ewan, Sam, and Simon led a workshop on SALC’s development and training offer ahead of the Somerset Standards Committee’s January meeting, and Ewan is working through its Priority 1 Group to improve understanding of the parish sector among officers in Somerset Council’s Democratic Services, including some councillors who may have little prior experience of its requirements.

Parish Council Domains Helper Service: Guidance now available on GOV.UK

Parish councils wishing to move over to a .gov.uk domain can now access guidance on the GOV.UK website. It’s laid out in a step-by-step format, taking the reader all the way through the process, from getting council approval all the way through to choosing your Approved Registrar and what to do when you’re set up.

Hosting the guidance on GOV.UK means that parish councils can access up-to-date information at any time. You don’t have to attend a virtual session with the Parish Council Domains Helper Service team unless you want or need to, even the contact list for the Approved Registrars can be found there. It’s a one-stop-shop for everything .gov.uk domain.

Any questions regarding the new GOV.UK guidance can be sent to parish-helper@domains.gov.uk.

Surrey’s Association of Local Councils would like your help.

The Surrey Association is undertaking some work looking into the formation of unitary councils and the impact on the parish sector.

If a representative of your small to medium sized council is willing to join a call with councils in another county and share learnings about moving to unitary, then please drop Ewan an email and he will put you in touch with the Surrey ALC, ceo@somerset-alc.org.uk

This request is made to councils that have clustered with neighbouring councils to form a larger council, as well as those that have expanded into a new area.

Armed Forces Day Grants 2025

Grants up to £10,000 are available to groups including city, town, and parish councils for events that show support for UK servicemen and women, past and present, on or around Armed Forces Day on Saturday 28th June 2025 (events between Saturday 14th June and Saturday 12th July 2025).

Application deadline: MONDAY 31st MARCH 2025.
Funder: The Ministry of Defence
Who can apply: UK registered charities, voluntary and community organisations, schools, local authorities, ex-service organisations, and individuals.

Organisations should initially register their event on the Armed Forces Day website. Following registration of the event, applicants will receive a confirmation email within 3 working days with a link to the application form.

Further information about Armed Forces Day 2025 is available on the Armed Forces Day website.
Contact details for the fund are: ARMEDFORCESDAY-Events@mod.gov.uk

Legal advice on asset & service devolution

As first reported in our September 2024 newsletter, SALC has identified two sector-specialist firms of solicitors that can support city, town, and parish councils with the devolution of assets & services from Somerset Council.

It is important that local councils obtain their own independent advice during these negotiations, so please do get in touch at info@somerset-alc.org.uk if you would value introductions to solicitors with experience of devolution in Somerset and other counties.

APCM -v- APM, what’s the difference?

The end of the financial and civic year is fast approaching and by the end of May every city, town, and parish council should have held the Annual Parish Council Meeting (APCM). In addition, the chair of the council should call the Annual Parish Meeting (APM), which must take place between 1st March and 1^st June each year.

SALC has received enquires seeking guidance on the notices, agenda, and minutes of these two meetings and we have compiled some key points:

There is no such thing as an AGM in the world of parish councils/parish meetings. An annual general meeting applies to companies only. Our annual meetings are the Annual Parish Council Meeting and the Annual Parish Meeting
The Annual Parish Meeting is NOT a meeting of the parish council but is a meeting of the electors in the parish where they get to set the agenda and discuss “parish affairs”. These meetings also take place in parishes that have no council, but where a council exists, it’s the chair who convenes the parish meeting (the chair signs the public notice).
The public notice for the meeting usually requires 7 clear days and it must be displayed in a conspicuous place in the parish, as well as on the council’s website or other location.
Anyone can attend the parish meeting, but only those on the electoral register can vote. Somerset Council’s electoral services will supply the council with a free copy of the electoral register to enable checking.
The parish meeting quorum is 2 electors.
Decisions of the parish meeting do not usually bind the council, and this is also the case in the event of a poll.
The minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting are held over for a year and presented for approval at the subsequent Annual Parish Meeting.
Some councils hold an Annual Parish Council Meeting and the Annual Parish Meeting on the same evening. This is not encouraged, but we understand that there might be some pessimism about the lack of elector participation and therefore a lack of business to discuss at the parish meeting. We suggest that this is a reason to rise to the challenge for you community and try to make the parish event more engaging.
The Annual Parish Council Meeting is probably the most important meeting of the council and the business to be discussed is set out in the council’s standing orders. This can be a busy meeting, but, if there is time and unless your standing orders state otherwise, it is still permissible to include ordinary (perhaps urgent) business on the agenda.
The Annual Parish Council Meeting must by law be held in May. This is a statutory requirement.
The VERY FIRST business of the Annual Parish Council Meeting must be the election of the chair for the coming year. This is a statutory requirement, which means that if no chair is elected, the meeting cannot continue beyond this very first agenda item and the council cannot act because it is not properly constituted.
A clerk can never take the chair in a council meeting. If there is no chair or vice chair at the start of the meeting, any councillor can undertake the chairing function for that meeting (or just for the first item to elect a new chair).
A councillor can be elected chair in their absence, but it’s always best to first check that they are at least willing to take the role.
The current chair must by law use their casting vote to break a tie in the election of a new chair.
The newly elected chair must sign a declaration of acceptance of office for that special role, this is in addition to the declaration for office they signed after they were elected councillor.
There is no statutory requirement to elect a vice chair, but it might be required in your council’s standing orders.
The minutes of the Annual Parish Council Meeting are NOT held over for a year and are presented for approval at the next ordinary council meeting.

If any member council would like guidance in organising the two annual meetings, please email the office on info@somerset-alc.org.uk and we will be pleased to help.