I believe that the Parish Council has an important role to play. They are our local "voice". They are fighting on behalf of us to protect and improve our village. And they are all volunteers - they are only paid a small allowance of around £75 per month to cover expenses and attendance at meetings. Without the Parish Council, the money would go to Rochford, and the question you have to ask is whether Rochford would hold our village in the same high regard as our Parish Councillors.
Make no mistake, there are some VERY good councillors on the Parish Council. However there are some problems. Personally, I believe that there has been too much politics within the Parish Council recently. And they seem to be unnecessarily bound by rules and regulations... having to ask permission from the Clerk to speak to people; not being able to act without authority; being repremanded for not sticking rigidly to their remit etc.
A Parish Councillor should be free from unnecessary shackles and I pesonally think that the rules are being over-enforced.
I also believe that the Parish Council as an entity are not very good at communication. If elected, I will be building them a new modern website and encouraging the use of more modern communication tools, such as email lists, social media and news feeds. Communication is NOT just about sticking posters on notice boards. We shouldn't have to go searching for information, it should be delivered to us if we so choose.
And communication is a two-way thing. There should be far better mechanisms in place for the public to approach them. Very few people in the village know how to report a broken street light, a pot hole, or a blocked footpath. The Parish Council should be making this a lot easier for us.
And Parish Council meetings should involve the public a lot more. They seem surprised when no one turns up, but the council never advertise them very well. And they only let parishioners talk for a few minutes, at the end of the meeting after the votes, and only on subjects in the agenda. There should be a mechanism whereby the public can ask for an update in the council meeting, or request that a pre-arranged question can be asked. If we want to hear an update on a particular topic we shouldn't have to wait for months until it comes up in their meeting agenda.
