On 17th February SALC hosted a large meeting of officers and councillors from larger councils who are part of devolution and local government re-organisation proposals announced in December 2024. Over 200 delegates were registered from across the UK and although we had some technical issues at the start, and the first of its kind, this well-attended workshop received positive feedback.
Watch the presentation by Cllr. Desna Allen, Leader of Chippenham Town Council.
The session also had county-based breakout rooms and feedback from them, the chat and following the event is being used to help Suffolk ALC and others identify ways to effectively make representations and views heard.
LINK TO PRESENTATION SLIDES
LINK TO CHAT FILES a. during presentation and b. after breakout rooms
Summary headlines of issues identified for larger councils:
how is Chippenham Town Council structured - LINK TO WEBSITE INFORMATION
when assets/services were transferred no one was TUPED over
asset/service transfer is an opportunity but also a risk
precept was increased by 37.5%
A good guide to this topic is available here - LINK TO GUIDE
Impressed with the ambitions of Chippenham, although note they are large
Opportunity for councils to work together in collaboration - form working groups, sharing who we need to speak to, links to the right people, on message etc.
Concern about capacity/resources/volunteers/timeframe. In particular concern about costs and averages shared for Band D properties
Interest in the devolution policy at Chippenham, keen to find out if there was anything extra that they didn't have the legal authority to do, despite them wanting to
Chippenham did no formal consultation, members are elected to make decisions and no negative feedback on that
More to be added here as we review all the notes and summarise.