In the Council Chamber, Shirehall Shrewsbury, 4pm - 7pm
01743 252744
In the Council Chamber, Shirehall Shrewsbury, 4pm - 7pm
At the Sylvester Horn Institute, Church Stretton - 10am - 4pm. You will need to book your place using the link within the Programme.
The National Association of Local councils (NALC) held a climate event on 26 June 2024 that discussed how local (parish and town) councils can fight against climate change and biodiversity loss.
The expert panel featured regional lead external affairs officer at The Woodland Trust, Richard O'Callaghan, environmental projects officer at Corsham Town Council, Garry Ford, and chair and vice-chair of Save our Shropshire, Allan Wilson and Richard Watkins.
Richard O’Callaghan explained how The Woodland Trust could support local councils in their efforts against climate change by providing model wording and suggesting ideas for neighbourhood plans, through their developing tree planting sites finder, funding, and free tree packs scheme. He emphasised the importance of the tree packs, which contain 30- 420 trees from hedges to orchids, by stating “If you go away and do anything today, I would urge you to apply for one of our free tree packs”.
Garry Ford showcased how Corsham Town Council in Wiltshire uses environmental task groups and project groups to help the council to achieve net zero by 2030. He explained that the council has four environmental project groups: the bus action group, promoting public transport; the active travel group, encouraging walking and cycling; the plastic waste group, seeking plastic-free accreditation and organising recycling efforts; and the biodiversity activity group, creating wildflower areas and nature reserves.
Allan Wilson and Richard Watkins stressed the need for carbon literacy and have collaboration with the Society of Local Council Clerks to deliver the Carbon Literacy qualification. They highlighted their upcoming climate change sessions 9 and 16 July 2024. Allan Wilson emphasised that “education is the key to all influencing of people's behaviours. The more that people get to know the knowledge that's readily available about tackling climate change the better for our communities as a whole”.
D Day 80 is being organised throughout the United Kingdom, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, UK Overseas Territories and at the British Normandy Memorial on Gold Beach, Normandy, France, the Anniversary Guide includes a message from the Prime Minister encouraging local communities to take part, event logo and the Certificate of Grateful Recognition being given to those participating.
Guidance to support local councils in negotiations with prospective developers /sites/default/files/uploads/community-benefit-from-solar-farms-in-shropshire-final.pdf
NALC's publication Reaching Out is receiving national attention and was flagged up at a Breaking Barriers Innovations (BBI) and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) roundtable on Laying the Foundations for Change, attended by NALC policy adviser, Andrew Tubb (who is on part-time secondment with us from Cirencester Town Council). The focus was on how to address issues such as loneliness, health and well-being by creating 'prosocial' communities through housing and social infrastructure – you can see the slides from the event here. It’s interesting to note that loneliness costs the economy something like £32 billion a year! Don’t forget to let NALC have feedback on the guide and do send NALC case study examples on what you're doing to counteract loneliness to andrew.tubb@nalc.gov.uk.
Leicester and Rutland Association of Local Councils have been alarmed to discover that there are still local councils who believe that pension auto-enrolment does not impact on them as they have no employees for whom they have a duty to auto-enrol (e.g. because employee earnings are too low or because the employee is of pensionable age).
Some duties apply to ALL employers, even if your staff aren't eligible to be automatically enrolled into a scheme. Complete the Pensions Regulator Duties Checker (here) to ensure you understand what you need to do.
Employers (even small and micro employers, which many local councils will be classed as) ARE being fined (over 3,000 so far) for simply not submitting the required Declaration of Compliance (i.e., formally notifying the Pensions Regulator that they have no employees for whom they have a duty to auto-enrol) within 5 months of their staging date.
Of particular interest is a recent ruling upholding a fine which said "that it was the employer's legal responsibility to ensure that they comply with the law – including the submission of the declaration of compliance by the deadline". The judge "also confirmed that the fact that a junior member of staff had failed to do this on the employer's behalf did not amount to a reasonable excuse". In other words, parish councils themselves must assure themselves as the employer that they have done what they are required to by law.
The Pensions Regulator's advice on the case amounts to "make sure you know who is doing what"; i.e. don't assume someone has done it, they may not have.
Any council that is not compliant stands the very real chance of ending up with a fine.
See below for the press release from the Pensions Regulator covering this topic:
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