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Robinf
Senior Member
105 Posts |
 Posted - 26 Jan 2015 : 14:58:56
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SAV has been investigating the issue of why APC did not attend the referendum count which, as you will be aware, has caused some considerable consternation in the community.
We can confirm the following facts which raise questions about the statement made by APC Chair, see
http://www.angmeringvillage.co.uk/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1573
We can confirm the APC office had been sent all the relevant information and invitation documents by ADC on 15th December 2014. It is obvious that where Councillors had holidays booked they could not attend, and we know that that another Councillor has been very ill for a while.
• Did the remaining Councillors have the ability to predict that they were going to be ill therefore did not fill in a form?
• Surely, if anyone was intending to go a form would have been submitted, even if on the day they could not attend?
• Did the office fail to notify all Councillors that they could attend the count?
• Or was it that nobody at APC was interested enough or just couldn’t be bothered?
In fact:
• No applications were ever received by ADC from anyone in APC
• When ADC followed up with a reminder 6 working days before the date of the referendum, the response that came back was that no one wished to attend.
• However, there is evidence that at least 1 Councillor has said that they would have liked to attend had they known that they could.
We know that our Councillors are very busy people, juggling both private and public life. But this does not detract from our surprise at APC's response which seems less than honest in reply to the question asked. Also, were ALL the Councillors aware and did APC Clerk/Administration do everything it could to communicate the ability to attend to all its Councillors? It was also noted that it wasn’t until 11.02 on the 23 January that the result was made known on the APC website.
Was there that much lack of interest in the result of the Referendum?
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APC CLERK
Moderator
United Kingdom
1 Posts |
Posted - 28 Jan 2015 : 10:04:21
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The Public Forum was set up in 2010 in order to give the members of the public the chance to ask genuine questions about the work of the Parish Council, to which a straightforward answer would be given by the Chairman. Because it was, by its nature, anonymous, it was made clear from the outset that its existence would be in doubt if questions started to become personal or obviously aimed at individuals, either officers or councillors.
The current posting is an obvious attempt to undermine the work and attitudes of the council, most of which will not be answered. There is the possibility that, if this sort of posting continues, the Parish Council will withdraw the facility, and answer only those questions that are put to it directly and appropriately attributed to the originator.
In particular, the email requesting polling and counting observers was sent just to the Steering Group only on the best advice we had at the time, that being that councillors should be seen to be standing clear of either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ campaigns until after the vote. The fact that councillors could have attended apparently was confusing given the advice we had received just a few days earlier.
Questions may be asked of the parish council of course, but any anonymous queries will not be answered. The office is open every day, from 9 until 1, the telephone number is well known and the email address is well advertised.
It seems particularly incredible that, at a time when the Neighbourhood Plan has been voted in by such an enormous majority, criticism should be directed at staff and councillors who have been working extremely hard under difficult circumstances for not attending a count that would make no difference to the result. The important matter now is what is done with the Plan, by making sure that its polices are used for future planning applications and that the Parish Council draws up a Community Action Plan/Business Plan to ensure it looks to achieve what the community has said it wants. This is REAL work with REAL impact that will achieve something.
As readers of this forum already know, there are currently only 9 out of 13 councillor positions occupied, but this has not impacted on the work that continues to be done. If the people that insist on this criticism want to make a real difference, rather than just trying to undermine the work the council, then the application forms to join the council are available both on the Parish website and from the office. There will be elections for all of the 13 positions on 7 May, the same day as the General Election, and we will be holding an Open Day over Friday 20 & Saturday 21 March 2015 when you can find out what is involved.
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APC 'no-show' at Referendum count (1)
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