Annual General Meeting of ChALC

Took place on Thursday 23rd October 2008 at Middlewich Civic Hall.  As always the attendance was superb with over 100 councillors and clerks attending, as well as Edward Timpson Member of Parliament for Crewe, Councillor Steve Wilkinson, the Chairman of Cheshire County Council (and newly elected member of Cheshire East Shadow Council) and other VIP attendees.  Cllr Paul Edwards, the Mayor of Middlewich, welcomed all to the meeting and there are a few photographs available here.

Another two additional Quality Councils

At the meeting of the County Accreditation Panel on Monday 1st September 2008, Congleton and Sandbach Town Councils were officially accredited as Quality Town Councils, ensuring that the Congleton Borough maintains its lead at the top of the Quality table, with six Quality Councils.  

Two additional Quality Councils

At the meeting of the County Accreditation Panel on Tuesday 6th November 2007, Nantwich and Northwich Town Councils received the thumbs up for their applications.  Shortly after, at the NALC Northern Conference near Skipton, the Mayor of Northwich proudly received his certificate from the National Chairman, Cllr Ken Cleary.

These awards now mean that well over half of the towns in Cheshire (County area) are now accredited as Quality Councils.

2007 AGM

The above meeting of ChALC took place on Thursday 18th October at Middlewich Civic Hall, with  over 100 representatives from 58 Councils in attendance.  The President of ChALC, the Rt. Rev Alan Chesters OBE, chaired the meeting, as over 120 people packed the hall to enjoy the pre and post AGM networking opportunities, as well as participating in the meeting where some of the highlights were as follows...

1. The Annual Report was presented by Roger Parkin, Chairman of ChALC, who spoke to the report,  including the ChALC approach to becoming "financially independent", the challenges and opportunities of Unitary Local Government and some  fundamental  changes to the Planning system.

2. Jackie Weaver, The Chief Officer of ChALC gave an entertaining presentation where she reported that membership once again increased this year, training, support and mentoring continues to expand, but the core business of ChALC has not suffered, in that the number of calls, emails and letters requesting advice has also increased.  In addition, representation on outside bodies continues to increase, hence the influence of ChALC continues to grow, allowing ChALC officers to improve the level of communications with members.

3. The Chairman of ChALC's Finance Committee, Brian Kerr, OBE, introduced the accounts and illustrated how ChALC continues to work towards achieving Financial Independence, whilst  still maintaining a healthy reserve position, as well as bringing in more external funding.

4. The election of officers saw the election of two new Vice-Presidents in Bob Armitage - who has been involved in ChALC for many years, including chairing the Chester Area meeting for over 10 years - and Frank Walton, who has been the clerk to Cranage Parish Council since 1954 and been a stalwart of the Congleton Area meeting since its formation.  In addition, a new Vice-Chairman was elected, in Stuart Hulse from Helsby Parish Council and several new representatives to the Executive from the Area Meetings.

5. Four motions were discussed and full details will be available on this site in due course.

The post meeting networking saw several members appear reluctant to leave the gathering and the buzz in the room was excellent.  Feedback forms were circulated and returned, with all of the information being collated to ensure that future meetings improve on the standard.

If you attended and have not fed back information but would like to, please email Susan Harding.  If you did NOT attend, it would be useful if you can let us know why not - unless you have already given apologies - by emailing Susan."

New Code of Conduct introduced

With effect of 03rd May 2007, the new Code of Conduct came into force and Councils will need to adopt this within 6 months or the mandatory provisions will take effect regardless!  For further information, look at our section on the Code.

Cheshire Clerk speaks at National Conference

Jonathan Williams, clerk to Middlewich Town Council, spoke at the Shaping Communities Conference held in London on Tuesday 13th February 2007.  Middlewich was recognised in 2006 by being included in the Interim Lyons Report as one of the case studies into Place Shaping.  For further information, including Jonathan's slides and speech, click here.

Another new Quality Council

On 19th September 2006, the Quality Accreditation Panel awarded Antrobus Parish Council Quality Status.  This topped off an excellent year for the community of Antrobus having also won the title of Most Vibrant Village in Cheshire (up to 5,000 population) and been nominated for the Calor Village of the Year competition.  What a tremendous result...

Neston getting closer to its own Local Council

For Full story, click here

ChALC secure IT funding for member councils

Thanks to the involvement of ChALC in the "ChangeUP" process of providing improved support to "Infrastructure organisations", Jackie Weaver secured funding to provide IT equipment to the following councils...

The total for this (including training on use of these and some of the associated software) amounts to almost £4,000.

Are you a new councillor or chairman?  Or perhaps a candidate in the elections?

As elections take place this year in some districts, you may be reading this as a candidate to become a Town or Parish councillor, or as an incoming Chairman of a council.  If so, then there are opportunities to find out how to do your job as councillor/chairman from those that know!

From the viewpoint of one Mayor, the view was that "The chairmanship session should be part of all Vice-Chairmen and Deputy Mayors planning, let alone Chairman and Mayors.  This should extend to committees as it would benefit ALL members, if their Chairmen knew how to do the job better.  I'll certainly want to come back to this session."

The Cheshire County Training Partnership (part of the National Training Strategy) provides training that is specific to the First Tier of Local Government.  Details of dates are on the training page of this site.

For a comprehensive look at the National Training Strategy, click here.

‘Well-deserved’ OBE for NALC’s former chairman

NALC was delighted to announce that its former chairman, Cllr Brian Kerr, has been appointed an OBE in the 2006 New Year’s Honours list.

Brian, who still serves NALC as vice president and chairman of the finance committee, was chairman between 2000 and 2004. During his stewardship of the parish and town council movement, first-tier councils saw their role expand. Among the initiatives introduced have been Quality Status, the National Training Strategy and increased powers over antisocial behaviour. Brian also made an enormous contribution to the internal modernisation of the sector.

Brian is still chairman of Saughall and Shotwick Park Parish Council in Chester district, and has been serving the 2,500 people of the villages as a councillor since 1975. He has also served as chairman of Cheshire Community Council and the Cheshire Association of Local Councils. He was also district councillor for 12 years, until he had to resign due to work commitments.

Well done Brian!

Two new Quality Councils

On 12th December 2005, the Quality Accreditation Panel awarded two more councils Quality Status.  These are Audlem - the first in Crewe & Nantwich District - and Tarvin, the third Quality Council in the City of Chester District.  For more information, click here.

Annual General Meeting & Charter

The ChALC AGM was held on 13th October at Middlewich Civic Hall where over 100 people attended, including several senior representatives of the County and District Councils who were there to officially confirm the three tier charter that has been so successfully negotiated by the Executive of ChALC.  This appears to be the first three tier charter in the country - although confirmation of this has not been received yet - and the County and District Councils are to be congratulated and thanked for their foresight in realising the importance of the Charter in ensuring relationships and partnerships between the three tiers of government in Cheshire continue to develop positively.

NALC Success

At the Annual Conference of the National Association of Local Councils, our own Chief Officer, Jackie Weaver and Regional Development Officer, Chalky White, presented with Chris Thomas from Cheshire County Council one of the satellite sessions entitled "Preparing for change - Keeping the baby AND the bathwater".  This session addressed the County's proposal for working with Town and Parish Councils in Cheshire, based on a number of "Areas" in the County.

Quality Continues to grow

On 31st August 2005, an extra 7 (yes, seven!) councils achieved Quality Accreditation in Cheshire.  This now brings the total in Cheshire to eleven and ensures that Cheshire retains its pole position as the leading County in the north of England (44% of all Quality Councils in the North are now in Cheshire).  For more information, check the Quality section of this site.

Another AQA Success

Frank Walton, who clerks three Parishes in the Congleton Borough area (Cranage, Somerford and Twemlow Councils) has become the latest success in the bid for Quality Status.  As a clerk of over 50 years standing, Frank is an example to all of the clerks out there that are hesitating about helping their Council achieve the Quality Status.

Well done Frank!

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