To think the parish council shouldn't be able to do this?

[GothDetective]

I reckon there's something dodgy about our village parish council and not sure if this is misappropriation of funds/tax or something?

I live in a village about 3000 people, same old blokes have been on the council for over 20 years.

About two years ago the village sports bar was struggling financially and was going to close. It was a members only bar linked to the sports association. The parish council took over the running of it.

I guess they have to pay rent, they certainly have to pay staff. It has a full time cook, a bar manager and several bar staff. The bar continues to lose money hand over fist. They pay for bands to come on when no one is interested so more wasted money. They've refurbished it, relaunched it several times.

I just feel our council tax is propping it up.

Also is it normal for a village this size to have a full time, salaried "village manager". And two full time groundsmen employed by the parish council?

[frumpet]

gothdetective , speak to who is left on the parish council and see if you can be co-opted onto it , more than likely they are desperate for fresh blood !

[LadyMud]

If there is a vacancy, it HAS to be advertised. Residents can, if they wish, call for an election (within 14 working days). If not, the current council MAY choose to co-opt someone - or they MAY choose to leave the seat vacant.

If an election is called, then any resident, whether independent or a party member, can stand as a candidate. The nomination forms will need to be signed by a couple of other residents who are on the Electoral Roll.

If there's only one candidate (for each vacant seat) then they'll be elected unopposed - with no vote taking place. If there's two or more, then an election will be held.

Hope that helps!

[IamRechargingthankYou]

Look - you're perfectly entitled to attend any meeting of the Parish Council by law. Most Parish Councils completely welcome this as so few people get involved in this (I agree badly-named) layer of local government. Most Parish Councils include a part of each meeting for members of the public to talk to the council. All of the Minutes and Agenda are public documents (as are the accounts) which should be readily available for you to look at if there are offices (a lot of Clerks have all the Parish Council 'stuff' in their homes so a good idea to call and check). The Accounts need to follow a strict format, which is regularly audited and checked (used to be annually) so fraud is pretty difficult. Some Parish Councils work really hard for their local communities and some don't - some can be really hilarious and some can be dour and completely boring.

The Agenda for Meetings should be published and put on a Notice Board about a week ahead of the Meeting.

If your Parish Council really are as bad as you think they are - there is always the Annual Parish Meeting (not to be confused with the AGM where the council elects its Chair, etc) in which any Elector of the Parish may speak to those present on any subject they choose. In fact those present can choose/vote to elect their own Chair for the Meeting. There's always a way round.

[FayeKorgasm]

My god that is a lot of money. I am a parish councillor. Our precept is under £10k. Every year since I was elected, we have voted to either reduce our precept or keep it the same.

Your Parish councillors should be re elected every 4 years. If however, you only have as many candidates as council posts, then the election wont happen and all candidates will be appointed. Why not stand yourself? It is not a political role - I'm the least political person ever, but it gives you a say in the running of your community.

[LadyMud]

"My god that is a lot of money"
It all depends, Faye, on how it is spent. There's a huge variety of parish councils - some are just a talking shop for retired white middle-class men and offer no additional services to the community. Others manage sporting and social facilities on behalf of residents.

Our parish council employs around ten staff, which is obviously expensive. But they are able to bring lots of additional services and funding to the area, by working in partnership with the unitary council, neighbourhood board, police, local business, etc.

However, there's one factor which most parish councils share: the difficulty in persuading residents to stand as candidates. Go for it, Goth - you are exactly what your parish council needs!

[ChunkyPickle]

My MIL is a part-time parish clerk, and you could not pay me enough to go through the nonsense and hassle she has to go through - both from councillors, villagers, contractors and all the powers that be she has to deal with.

In the past she's been a kind of one-woman hit squad, sorting out nearby parish clerks who've got in a pickle (intentionally or not), and from her tales, finding one that's run properly is much less likely than one with shenanigans!

Beware that people get very, very het up about all this, so if you cause waves, you'll want to keep an eye out for people getting miffed with you and planning repercussions.

[ChunkyPickle]

I should mention, she's very hot on rules/regs, data protection etc (won't even take a laptop to meetings because the rules could be read that anything there should be available for public inspection), so I've not been privy to anything I shouldn't, or anything that isn't public record.