Agenda item

To receive a report on the Town and Parish Charter.

The Cabinet had before it, a report * from the Chief Executive Officer on the Town and Parish Charter report.

This was the latest step of the Councils renewed and energised approach to engage with our local councils on the basis of mutual appreciation and a shared understanding of each other’s strengths.

The Town and Parish Charter was a partnership between Mid Devon District Council and the Towns and Parishes within its district and had been in existence since 2012.

The Charter had not been reviewed for some years, and grateful that so many local Councils felt able to input to this document.

The Charter and associated planning document would be used to improve how the Council and its Towns and Parishes work together, for the benefit of our collective communities.

The Community PDG considered the Charter and the process for renewing it, at the meeting in January 2024, and approved a decision to send the Charter to the Towns and Parishes for review. It was then shared with local councils across Mid Devon who were given three months in which to respond in order that it would fit into their respective meeting cycles.

The Council received 24 responses (out of 50 Towns and Parishes), with the majority accepting the proposed changes and only one not accepting the revised document. Consulted with Devon Association of Local Councils (DALC), who represent the interest of local councils across Devon. Many of the suggestions that the Councils had made, have now been incorporated into the revised Charter documents. The Charter has also been reformatted to show that the District Council and the Towns and Parishes have mutual responsibility to recognise, understand and respect the role that the other plays in delivering for our communities.

The Council had listened and worked with every parish and town that was prepared to respond, and would continue to work to understand and promote better communication and engagement. If the Cabinet member were here she would be giving her absolute commitment to continuing to strengthen these relationships, alongside moving the recommendation to adopt the Charter, which she had asked the Leader to do on her behalf when the time comes.

The Leader recommended the following amendments to be made:

1.    At paragraph 1, to add the following words to the end of the final sentence: “masts and infrastructure”.

2.    At paragraph 2, change “Parish and Town Clerks” to “Town and Parish Clerks” this was a small change which provided continuity with the rest of the document - Towns are followed by Parishes in all the other wording.

It was also an example of where that as part of the engagement and had picked up and incorporated suggestions around continuity and made amendments suggested by Towns and Parishes.

3.    The second paragraph of paragraph 6 needs its own number which would mean that the remaining paragraph numbers (7 to 21) would all increase by 1.

This was just a small edit, the numbering of that paragraph had been overlooked, and on review it was picked up and amended.

That Cabinet ADOPTED the Town and Parish Charter.

(Proposed by the Leader of the Council)

Note: * Report previously circulated.