Documents
Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018
New regulations coming into force over a period of time regarding websites and mobile applications.
Mon, 19 Nov 2018
Section 137 allowance for 2020/21
The amount per elector that can be spent in 2020/21
Mon, 19 Nov 2018
Section 137 and general powers of local councils LTN31
an updated legal topic note on the powers of local councils including S137 and the general power of competence.
Mon, 29 Oct 2018
Powers of Local Councils
An updated legal topic note on the general powers of local councils including S137 and the general power of competence.
Mon, 29 Oct 2018
CPRE - our partners
We campaign for a beautiful and living countryside. We work to protect, promote and enhance our towns and countryside to make them better places to live, work and enjoy, and to ensure the countryside is protected for now and future generations.
www.cpre.org.uk
Fri, 14 Sep 2018
Gloucestershire Playing Fields Association
www.glospfa.org.uk
The Gloucestershire Playing Fields Association (GPFA) is a membership-based registered charity. Founded in 1926 to protect and improve recreational land the GPFA also embodied in their aims the ideal that everyone, whatever their age, should have adequate recreational space within easy reach of their homes and be encouraged then to use these assets.
Today we offer the following services to our members:
Free advice by letter/email/telephone on most aspects of playgrounds and outdoor recreational facilities
Preference booking and reduced rates for training courses we organise (including very popular playground management seminars for councillors and clerks)
Free site visits to advise on outdoor playgrounds, playing fields and other recreational areas
Quarterly newsletter 'The Playing Field
Free assessment and report of your sport and recreation facilities
Access to grants and loan scheme
Fundraising advice for sport and recreation projects
Signposting to other organisations able to offer specialised support
Purchase and protection of playing field
Fri, 14 Sep 2018
Institute of Crematorium and Cemetery Management
www.iccm-uk.com
About the Institute
TO PROMOTE THE DEVELOPMENT, ADVANCEMENT AND WELFARE OF MEMBERS TO FACILITATE THE BETTER PROVISION, OPERATION, ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT OF CEMETERIES, CREMATORIA AND BEREAVEMENT RELATED SERVICES PRIMARY PURPOSES
1. To promote the improvement of cemeteries, crematoria and public services for the disposal of the dead.
2. To promote the advancement and welfare of people employed in the above undertakings.
3. To encourage technical and other studies in relation to the above and to improve and develop the technical and general knowledge of the profession.
4. To provide education and training, including lectures and conferences.
5. To provide library facilities
6. To distribute a journal and papers produced by the Institute.
7. To undertake investigations.
8. To engage people to act in a technical and advisory capacity.
9. To distribute trust funds
10. To promote, support or oppose initiatives (including proposed legislation) relating to burial, cremation and ancillary public services.
Fri, 14 Sep 2018
Society of Local Council Clerks - our partners
www.slcc.co.uk
The Society of Local Council Clerks (SLCC) is the professional body for local council clerks and senior council employees. Its membership is steadily growing and now represents clerks to over 4,700 councils in England and Wales.
The Society's vision statement:
"To provide training, guidance, advice and support to members so that they can develop the professional skills, knowledge and experience necessary for them to best serve their councils and communities; and through this develop the overall recognition and status of their profession."
Many councils realise the benefits of having a clerk who is properly trained, fully briefed on the issues of the day and can get fast accurate advice to problems that they may face. In fact, over 90% of members' councils willingly pay for their clerks' subscriptions to the Society as encouraged by the Local Government Act.
The Society of Local Council Clerks is developing fast and is increasingly recognised as the body which represents and promotes 'best practice' in the sector.
Membership is open to all full time, part time and deputy clerks and other senior employees of town, parish or community councils and parish meetings in England and Wales.
Fri, 14 Sep 2018
Mediation and conflict resolution service for local councils - Kim Bedford
Working with people is never easy!
We are all different, needing different things at different times, with the ability or not, of understanding those needs and being able to reasonably express or respond to them. Sometimes, the opportunity to explore the situation, reflect in a safe place, can help lead to a resolution in a fraught situation.
Kim Bedford has been involved as a manager in retail for many years and latterly in the Local Council sector as a Councillor, Clerk and County Officer at GAPTC. She understands the pressures we all cope with in our daily lives and holds the National Certificate in Workplace Mediation, and can offer this service to you.
Due to the structure of Local Councils, the nature of the relationship between volunteer, local leader, advisor, employee and line manager can be complicated and sometimes confusing. Using her experience, she will work with you to try and find a way through troubled waters.
To find out more, please contact her by email at kimbedford@btinternet.com, giving her your name, position and your email contact. She will make contact with you to seek some basic information and give details of the approach she will use, together with costs.
Mon, 10 Sep 2018
Planning Applications - How to Respond
A comprehensive guide to responding to planning applications.
Fri, 24 Aug 2018
GDPR toolkit August 2018
Revised toolkit to help councils meet GDPR requirements. This toolkit provides a number of practical tools to assist councils with GDPR compliance, in the form of a GDPR Action Plan Checklist and a Data Audit questionnaire, in addition to templates for privacy notices and consent forms.
Mon, 06 Aug 2018
Standing Orders - July Briefing on changes 2018
A briefing relating to the July version of model standing orders.
Thu, 02 Aug 2018
Standing Orders - model July 2018
The most recent version of model standing orders.
Thu, 02 Aug 2018
National Planning Policy Framework 2018
The updated NPPF to take account of the recommendations in the last housing white paper.
Thu, 26 Jul 2018
GDPR - Privacy Notice for staff and directors
Privacy notice for staff and GAPTC directors
Wed, 04 Jul 2018
GDPR - Data breach and security incident response (GAPTC internal policy)
The response GAPTC must take following a data breach.
Wed, 04 Jul 2018
GDPR - GAPTC Data Protection Policy (GAPTC internal policy)
The GAPTC Data Protection policy
Thu, 14 Jun 2018
Executive Committee meeting 24 May 2018 minutes
Executive committee meeting 24th May 2018 drat minutes
Tue, 05 Jun 2018
Executive Committee approved minutes 22nd February 2018
Approved minutes for the meeting on 22nd February 2018
Tue, 05 Jun 2018
LTN87 Procurement
The process by which local councils award contracts to third parties to provide goods, services or to undertake works.
Fri, 01 Jun 2018
Good Councillors' Guide 2018
The essential guide for parish and town councillors. This guide introduces the work of local councils and the part you play as a councillor in the tier of local government closest to the people. You will also find it a useful reference. It is divided into five parts to help you find your way as a new, or even as an experienced, councillor.
Hard copies can be purchased from GAPTC at a cost of £3.50 plus postage.
Fri, 20 Apr 2018
Executive Committee meeting 28th September 2017 Minutes
Approved minutes of meeting of 28th September 2017
Wed, 04 Apr 2018
Executive Committee meeting minutes 8 June 2017
Approved minutes of the Executive Committee meeting on 8 June 2017
Wed, 04 Apr 2018
Church - financial support for
A briefing from NALC clarifying the law regarding supporting the local church. The LGA1894 Act prohibits local councils from spending on property relating to affairs of the church or held for an ecclesiastical charity.
Mon, 19 Feb 2018
Compulsory Purchase Orders - LTN82
Updated LTN describing the circumstances in which a parish council may compulsorily purchase land and the procedure for doing so.
The Compulsory Purchase Act 1965 and the Acquisition of Land Act 1981 do not permit a local council to compulsorily purchase land. However, under s125 of the LGA 1972 Act it may request the relevant principal authority to do so on its behalf, if it is unable to acquire it by agreement and on reasonable terms.
Wed, 10 Jan 2018
Provisional settlement 2018-19 Consultation
Local government finance settlement
The relevant section from the consultation which confirms the government intends to defer the setting of referendum principles for town and parish councils for three years:-
3.4 Town and parish councils
3.4.1 Since the introduction of council tax referendums in 2012-13, no referendum principles have been set for local precepting authorities such as town and parish councils ("parishes"), although the Government has made it clear that it would keep this under review and take action if necessary.
3.4.2 Ahead of the 2017-18 round of council tax setting, the Government issued a challenge to parishes to demonstrate restraint when setting precept increases that were not a direct result of taking on additional responsibilities, and to make precept decisions more transparent to local tax-payers. The average increase set by the sector in 2017-18 was 6.3% and the Government indicated that continued deferral of referendum principles would be dependent upon it receiving clear evidence of how the sector is responding to the challenge.
3.4.3 In response, the sector provided details of a range of activities around fiscal responsibility, transparency and engagement, the promotion of good practice and use of other sources of income, county-level engagement regarding significant precept increases' and publishing the Good Councillors' Guide to Finance and Transparency.
3.4.4 Having noted this work and the sector's request for longer-term certainty to aid financial planning, the Government intends to defer the setting of referendum principles for town and parish councils for three years. However, this is conditional upon:
- the sector taking all available steps to mitigate the need for council tax increases, including the use of reserves where they are not already earmarked for other uses or for "invest to save" projects which will lower on-going costs, and;
- the Government seeing clear evidence of restraint in the increases set by the sector as a whole.
·In NALC's response to the local government finance technical consultation we said if the sector is to respond effectively and efficiently to the range of fiscal challenges and onward devolution that the same confidence and certainty afforded to principal councils should be extended to local councils, calling for a multi-year initiative within which timeframe council tax referendum principles would not be extended to the sector, this would provide not only much needed financial certainty but also sufficient breathing space needed by the sector to re-dress the imbalance caused by changes to the tax base and loss/reduction of local council tax support grant.
Thu, 28 Dec 2017
Vital Signs - Gloucestershire
This report brings together statistics from a range of national and local data sets, with the results from a survey of Gloucestershire residents. In bringing this information together, the six vital sign themes enable us to understand how Gloucestershire is performing statistically in relation to the rest of the UK, as well as sharing the view of people living in the county.
"The majority of people living in the county want to live in an area where everyone has the opportunity to flourish physically, intellectually, mentally and spiritually.
However, this reports highlights the fact that there are significant inequalities in our midst. Nor everyone, for example, has the same access to adequate housing. Fuel and food poverty exist. There are different health outcomes for people living within a few miles of one another..."
Dame Janet Trotter DBE, Lord Lieutenant for the County of Gloucestershire and President of Gloucestershire Community Foundation
Wed, 13 Dec 2017
Documents and Records - GCC Archive advice
Guidance on which documents and records should be kept and for how long.
Tue, 21 Nov 2017