CHRISTMAS GREETINGS

Part 1Matters affecting parish and town councils directly (including principal authority consultations etc.)

Your Community Needs You!

National Association of Local Councils (NALC) calls for new faces to stand for 2015 Election.

NALC has kicked off its campaign to get more people to stand for election as councillors for town and parish councils in May 2015, urging a new generation of neighbourhood leaders to step forward and make a difference to towns and villages across the country.
Tens of thousands of seats on England's most local level of Government – parish, town and community councils – are up for grabs on the same day as the General Election on 7 May 2015, and NALC wants parishes to improve democratic mandate with an increase in the number of contested elections.
Cllr Ken Browse, Chairman of NALC said: "People care about where they live. Whether it's facilities and activities for young people, the state of local parks or open spaces, support to local groups, protecting community assets like buildings or pubs, or events that bring people together.
"Whatever needs tackling or improving locally, becoming a parish or town councillor gives people the opportunity to change things.
"As one of 80,000 parish and town councillors myself, I'm lucky to be able to make such a huge difference to the quality of life for people in my area. But the great work councillors do often isn't reported by the media, so it's no surprise people aren't queuing up to get involved.
"This needs to change and next year's parish elections are a golden opportunity to encourage more people, especially younger people, to become councillors."
NALC has set up an online Elections Hub for direct access councils and the county associations across the country to access information and resources to run their own election campaigns.

In Dorset, we will be working with Area Committees to organise our own campaign across the County. The DAPTC office will be in touch with Towns and Parishes to organise local events.

Parish Polls

Consultation on the Government’s intentions to modernise parish poll regulations

DCLG launched a consultation on 4 December 2014 about the future of Parish Polls. The consultation can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/parish-polls
The consultation closes on30 January 2015.

Part 2Government and other statements, consultations, etc. which might have an impact on parish and town councils.

Pillars of the Community

English Heritage has produced a guide aimed for both local government and community groups on when and how to transfer heritage assets to local (parish and town) councils and community ownership.

The need for local government to make savings is resulting in many taking a close look at the property they own and looking for opportunities to rationalise. At the same time, there are increasing opportunities, provided in part by legislative change, for communities to take a more active role in their local area. These two principles are brought together in the transfer of assets from local authorities to community ownership. The updated guidance provides practical advice on when to do this, and on how best to do this - of the week

NALC will be featuring a 'Council of the Week' on the Homepage of the new NALC website – to recognise and encourage best practice within the sector.
Uppingham Town Council is the first to be featured, and can be viewed using the following link-
http://www.nalc.gov.uk/news?view=entry&id=81
NALC is asking County Associations to nominate member councils on the basis that they are exemplary of good practice - representing their community and delivering local services.

They are looking for councils with recent examples of good work in action, and ask that if your council would like to be nominated, you should let us have the following details to forward to the NALC office:

  1. The name and contact details of the council being nominated and an explanation of why;
  2. Provide 400-500 words with clear examples of good practice;
  3. Provide a photograph that is representative of the town / village in some way – such as of the town hall or an iconic location

NALC wish to receive nominations by COP on Wednesdays, for consideration for the following week's Council of the Week slot. This will be updated weekly on a Monday.

There are lots of examples of good practice in Dorset, so I’m looking forward to receiving your applications to forward to NALC !

Parishes Encouraged to Make Direct Proposals to DCLG Under Sustainable Communities Act, 2007

As you know, the legal order allowing parishes to formally make direct proposals to the DCLG Secretary of State under the Second Round Invitation of the Sustainable Communities Act, 2007 – formally commenced on Monday 14 October 2013.

There is a detailed paper about the Sustainable Communities Act on the DAPTC website. Also the NALC webpage can be found here.

The Urban and Rural Community Energy Funds

The Urban Community Energy Fund (UCEF) is a £10m fund to kick-start renewable energy generation projects in urban communities across England. Community groups will be able to access grants and loans to support renewable energy developments.

Grants of up to £20,000 are available for the more speculative, early stages of your project’s development, such as public consultation and preliminary viability studies.

UCEF will also provide loans of up to £130,000 to develop planning applications and a robust business case to attract further investment. This will help your project become ‘investment ready’, that is, at the right stage to secure a bank loan or another form of investment.

Who can apply?

Any of the following groups are eligible to apply for the fund:

  • Registered Company (including CICs)
  • Charitable Incorporated Organisation
  • Registered Societies (formerly known as IPS)
  • Parish and Town Councils

Your community group will need to be incorporated to apply to UCEF. This helps to protect both your group as individuals and your group’s project (and therefore UCEF’s investment). Incorporation is relatively simple, and can be quick and inexpensive. See the introduction to incorporation:

Introduction to incorporation (PDF, 338KB, 3 pages)

What technologies are eligible?

The technologies that will be considered under UCEF include the following:

  • wind turbines
  • hydropower
  • solar photo voltaic
  • solar thermal
  • ground, water and air source heat pumps
  • anaerobic digestion
  • biomass
  • low carbon/renewable heat networks
  • gas combined heat and power (CHP) units

Application deadlines

The first deadline for applications is the 22 December 2014. This deadline is for groups that have already done some preparatory work and are ready to submit a comprehensive application. You should get in touch with us to discuss your application if you wish to submit to this early call.

Don’t worry if you are not ready to apply on the first deadline. There will be further application deadlines at the end of January, February and March 2015. From April 2015, the application deadline is likely to be every second month. The same deadlines apply whether you are applying for a grant or a loan.

UCEF is a revolving fund, which means that money that is provided to applicants who receive a loan will be recycled back into the fund upon repayment. This should enable the fund to be self-sustaining.

How can my group apply?

The Urban Community Energy Fund is now open for applications. To make sure you can apply, have a look at the eligibility checker:

Urban Community Energy Fund: eligibility checker (PDF, 380KB, 2 pages)

The eligibility checker asks simple questions about your group and the project you have in mind. It will let you know if your group is, in principle, eligible or not to apply to the fund.

If you think you are eligible to apply you can email the fund administrator to request an application form or to seek further advice on how to apply.

Rural Community Energy Fund

UCEF is the counterpart to the Rural Community Energy Fund, which funds renewable energy projects in rural communities. UCEF can potentially fund all projects that are not considered to be in a rural area. To see which fund you are eligible to apply for, see Is my project urban or rural?

For further information on the Rural Community Energy Fund, see the WRAP website.

Part 3Training, job opportunities, marketplace offers, funding sources etc,potentially of interest to parish and town councils – Note:- commercial advertisements passed on via this element of

the circular do not imply that the organisations are recommended or preferred by DAPTC.

Hinton St Mary Parish Council

New Parish Clerk wanted.

A vacancy has arisen for a Parish Clerk for Hinton St Mary Parish Council. This role is home based with an evening meeting every couple of months. The position is for two hours approximately per week and involves administration, accounting, minute taking and the general running of the Parish Council.

Please email in the first instance to

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