Policy, Resources & Communications

Agenda

HASSOCKS PARISH COUNCIL

To:      All Members of the Policy Resources & Communications Committee: (Kate Bailey,
Paul Shepherd, Lesley Cruickshank-Robb and Ian Weir) with copies to all other Councillors for information.

A meeting of the POLICY RESOURCES & COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE will be held on Tuesday 3 September 2024 at 7.30pm in the Parish Centre, Adastra Park, Hassocks.

Parish Clerk 27th August 2024

1. TO ACCEPT APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

2. TO ACCEPT DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

3. ELECTION OF CHAIR

4. ELECTION OF VICE CHAIR

5. MINUTES. To accept the Minutes of the Policy Resources & Communications Committee held on 16th July 2024. (Previously Circulated).

6. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

7. REMEMBRANCE DAY/PARADE. (Verbal update) To provide members with an update of ongoing discussions regarding potential future arrangements.

8. COMMUNICATIONS. Periodically Members are required to review the current Communications policy which is set out in Appendix 1 and determine whether any further amendments are required. Members requested that this policy be brought to the September meeting for consideration at its last meeting.

Member’s views are sought.

9. COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP. It is apparent at the current time that a number of Committees are vulnerable to being non-quorate, which could result in a scenario where members would not be able to undertake any business.

This has been impacted by a number of factors including Member availability and the fact that some Committees have relatively small memberships post new municipal year (May) and subsequent resignations from the Council:

Planning Committee                                       – 5 Members   (meets approx. every 3 weeks)

Neighbourhood Plan Committee                    – 4 Members   (meets infrequently)

Policy Resources & Communications            – 4 Members   (plus 1 ex-officio member) (every 6 weeks)

Grounds & Environment                                 – 12 Members (meets every 6 weeks)

The table set out in Appendix 2 sets out an analysis of % attendance rates at the respective Committees. Although Standing Orders do permit the use of substitutes in the event a member is unable to attend a meeting this option has rarely been used.

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Standing Order 48 Any Member can substitute for any other Member of the Council, with their consent, on the committee or sub-committee in question without notice and shall have the same voting rights as the member being substituted for.

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Members are requested to consider whether there are any viable options to improve the resilience of the respective Committees.

The Chair of the Council has raised the option of co-opting additional non-members of the Council onto specific Committees and in particular Planning Committee, however they would not have voting rights, therefore this would not provide additional resilience from an attendees number perspective, but may provide additional skillsets that might benefit a particular Committee. (Appendix 3).

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Standing Order 38: The Council may at its Annual Meeting appoint standing committees and may at any other time appoint such other committees as are necessary, but subject to any statutory provision in that behalf:-

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(a) Shall not appoint any member of a committee so as to hold office later than the next Annual Meeting.

(b) May appoint persons other than members of the Council to assist in any working party or any committee; and

(c) May, subject to the provisions of Standing Order 35 above, at any time dissolve or alter the membership of committee.

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The meeting would still be required to be quorate made up of Council members to enable business to be transacted.

Members’ views are sought.

10. BUSINESS PLAN. Verbal Update.

11. URGENT MATTERS at the discretion of the Chairman for noting and/or inclusion on a future agenda.

12. DATE OF NEXT MEETING. 15 October 2024.

Exclusion of Public and Press In view of the confidential nature of the business about to be transacted Councillors will be referred to the Confidential agenda. If any members of the public or press are present they will be requested to withdraw from the meeting.

CONFIDENTIAL

13. MINUTES. To accept the confidential minutes of the Policy Resources & Communications Committee held on the 16 July 2024 (previously circulated).

14. STAFFING MATTERS. (Appendix 4).

Please Note

All members of the public are welcome to attend meetings of the Parish Council and its Committees.

Item 6 – a period of 15 minutes will be set aside for the public statements and questions relating to the published non-confidential business of the Meeting.  It may be necessary to consider particular items in confidential session and where this arises, these items will be considered at the end of the agenda.

FILMING, RECORDING OF COUNCIL MEETINGS AND USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
During this meeting members of the public may film or record the Committee and officers from the public area only providing it does not disrupt the meeting. The Confidential section of the meeting may not be filmed or recorded. If a member of the public objects to being recorded, the person(s) filming must stop doing so until that member of the public has finished speaking. The use of social media is permitted but members of the public are requested to switch their mobile devices to silent for the duration of the meeting.

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APPENDIX 1

HASSOCKS PARISH COUNCIL

Policy & Resources Communications

Public Relations Policy and Procedure Policy

The aims of the Communications policy are to engage with the community, through publicising information about the work of the Parish Council, by consulting with the community on appropriate issues, to encourage the public to be involved in supporting the greater good of the community and to raise the profile of the role of the Parish Council. This policy will be implemented in consultation and collaboration with the Clerk.

ALL COMMUNICATIONS, WRITTEN OR OTHERWISE, WILL HAVE A DIRECT LINK TO THE WORK OF THE COMMITTEES, WORKING GROUPS OR EVENTS AT WHICH THE PARISH COUNCIL HAS A REPRESENTATIVE. THERE MAY ALSO BE LINKS TO INFORMATION AND ACTIVITIES OF THE DISTRICT AND COUNTY COUNCILS. ALL OF THIS WILL GIVE CLARITY AS TO WHAT SHOULD BE EXCLUDED.

WE NEED TO CLEARLY DEFINE THE PURPOSE OF EACH COMMUNICATION BECAUSE THAT WILL DETERMINE THE MEANS WE USE TO COMMUNICATE IT.

FOR EXAMPLE, THE PURPOSE OF A COMMUNICATION MAY BE TO:
• INFORM EG. HASSOCKS PARISH COUNCIL ACTIVITIES
• CONSULT FOR EXAMPLE: PARKING STRATEGY
• ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION FOR EXAMPLE: ECONOMIC GROUP, YOUTH GROUP

INCLUSIVITY

Although official minutes of all meetings are in the public domain and will be on the website, content and news items using other media will be in plain language and in accordance with good practice within the Equalities Act 2010.

For example written communication, including posters and flyers must be accessible to all. All presentations and public consultations must be accessible and inclusive.

RESPONSIBILITIES

The Clerk or Assistant Clerk will be responsible for Communications and Public Relations in collaboration with various councillors as below. S/he will be the office contact for implementation.

Final editing of the communication will be a collaboration between the Clerk and the relevant Chairperson.

Any requests for a radio, TV interview or press release should be referred immediately to the Chair of the Parish Council and the Clerk. Advice on how to respond should be sought from the Clerk. The Chair and Clerk will decide which councillor should give an interview if it is to be neither of them.

Press releases will be issued in the name of the Clerk ‘Hassocks Parish Council’ in order to maintain a consistent ‘brand’ of the Council.

In recognition of the Councillor involved in the article this can be acknowledged within the article but if so the item should be signed off ‘from the office of the Clerk to Hassocks Parish Council.’

Procedure with various types of communication

A) News and information relating to projects and specific target groups

Lead Councillors for working groups, or projects focused on various sections of the community, will provide copy for the Clerk who will agree appropriate means of communication. Responsibility for editing and oversight will be the Clerk’s. The Chair of the relevant committee should be copied in at the outset.

B) Consultation events

Public consultation with the community will require criteria to be decided by appropriate committee with the advice of the Clerk. These will include presentations, events and exhibitions.

C) Partner Organisations

Links to or information from Mid Sussex District Council or West Sussex County Council that we have been asked to publicise.

How
Information given to the public will be through the following means:

• The Council’s website and Facebook. Facebook will be used as a notice board and link to the website articles and news only and will have no capacity for responses from the Parish Council. Minutes and agendas are all parts of news updates.

• Twitter to be used as a link only to direct users to the Council’s website articles or news. There will be no capacity for responses from the Parish Council and the facility can be disabled and enabled as appropriate. Minutes and agendas are all part of news updates

• Electronic newsletters to Subscribers signed up to receive Information from the Parish Council. For example ‘Mail chimp’

• Hard copy print in local magazines and / or other literature.

Reviewed by Policy Communications & Resources Committee 15th October 2019 (PRC19/43.2) amended.

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APPENDIX 2

Committee Attendance 2024

Month	Full Council   15	Planning   7	Policy Resources & Comms. 8	Grounds & Environment   12	Neighbourhood Plan   6
January	12	6/5	5	–	3
Feb	9	4	–	10	–
March	11	3	5	9	–
April	8	4/5	5	–	–
May	10	6	7	4	–
Average % attendance	66.66%	67.35%	68.75%	63.88%	50%
Membership post May	15	7 reduced to 5	8 reduced to 7	Remains at 12	Reduced to 5
June	7	3/3	–	–	–
July	12	3	5	5	–
August	–	3	–	–	–
Average % attendance	63.33%	60%	71.42%	41.66%	–
Current membership	13	5	5	12	4

 

Current position summary.

Full Council currently has two vacancies

Planning currently reduced to 5 Members

Policy & Resources reduced to 5 Members

Grounds & Environment – unchanged

 

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APPENDIX 3

Non-councillors may be appointed to different types of committee, these being;

• Committees (and sub-committees) that are appointed to discharge the functions of a council. However, such committees (and sub-committees) must include at least one councillor (section 102(3) of the Local Government Act 1972) (‘the 1972 Act’); and
• Advisory committees (and sub- committees) that are appointed advise a council in any matter relating to the discharge of their functions (pursuant to s.102(4) of the 1972 Act). Advisory committees (and sub-committees) may be wholly comprised of persons who are not members of the council. In practice and dependent on their terms of reference, advisory committees are usually comprised of both councillors and those who are not members of the council. Councils often refer to advisory committees (and sub-committees) as working parties/groups/panels.

What is the power?

s.102(3) of the 1972 Act provides that a local council can appoint persons who are not its members to committees and sub-committees (including joint committees and sub-committees).

Does the power apply to all committees?

The power is drafted very broadly and applies to a council’s committees and subcommittees (including joint committees and sub-committees) other than:

‘A committee for regulating and controlling the finance of the local authority or of their area.’

Why appoint non-councillors?

Non-councillor members may be appointed to a committee (or sub-committee) because they can offer specialist knowledge, expertise or enthusiasm in the work of the committee (or sub-committee) or because they represent sections of the local community that are relevant to the work of the committee (or sub-committee). For example an open spaces or recreational facilities committee may include non-councillors who represent local sports clubs or schools.

Disqualification

S.102 (3) of the 1972 Act provides that a person can be appointed as a non-councillor member of a committee (or sub-committee) unless they have been disqualified pursuant to s.104 of the 1972 Act. S.104 confirms that a person is disqualified if he would be disqualified from being elected or being a member of a local authority pursuant to Part V of the 1972 Act. S. 80 of the 1972 Act sets out the circumstances in which a person is disqualified from being a member of a council. In summary, a non-councillor cannot sit on a committee if he or she:

• holds any paid office or employment (other than the office of chair, vice chair or deputy chair) to which he has been appointed by the council or any committee or sub-committee of the council, or by a paid officer of the council, or by any joint committee on which the council is represented; or
• is the subject of a bankruptcy restrictions order or interim bankruptcy order; or
• has within five years before the day of election, or since his election, been convicted in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man of any offence and has had passed on him a sentence of imprisonment of at least three months (whether suspended or not) without the option of a fine; or
• has been found guilty of corrupt or illegal practices or was responsible for incurring unlawful expenditure and the court orders his disqualification.

Voting Rights

By virtue of s.13(1) and (7) of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (‘the 1989 Act’), non-councillor members of committees and sub-committees do not have voting rights. There are 5 important exceptions to this rule.

ss.13(3) and (4)(e) of the 1989 Act confirm that non-councillors members of advisory committees and sub-committees have voting rights.

Regulation 3 of The Parish and Community Councils (Committees) Regulations 1990 (SI 1990/2476) confirms that non-councillor members of committees and subcommittees have voting rights in respect of:

• the management of land owned or occupied by the council;
• the functions of the council as a harbour authority (as defined in s. 57(1) of the Harbours Act 1964);
• any function under s. 144 of the 1972 Act relating to the promotion of tourism;
  and
• any function under s. 145 of the 1972 Act relating to the management of a festival.

The term “management” does not include making decisions about the total amount of money which may be spent by the council in a financial year in respect of land or a festival.