Parish of Dundry

Dundry Parish Council

 

 

About the Parish Council

 

The Parish Council is the level of local government nearest to the people it serves. It is made up of local residents, who work voluntarily, with the help of a paid Parish Clerk who makes sure their decisions are carried out and does the administration, financial and otherwise. Larger councils will also have other employees. The Parish Council is not connected to the Church, which has a Parochial Church Council.

 

There are laws which govern how the Parish Council is run and what it may (or must) do. This is why the proceedings of the council may seem very formal, although in Dundry we do try to keep it as relaxed as we can while keeping within the law.

 

The Parish Council is funded mainly by the Precept. This is a part of your council tax that is set by the Parish Council in December or January of each year after Councillors have agreed a budget for the following financial year.

 

Who can be a Councillor?

 

Dundry Parish Council consists of a maximum of ten councillors including the Chairman. There are elections for the Parish Council every four years and, with some exceptions, anyone can stand for election who is a British subject, or a citizen of the Republic of Ireland or the EU, and has connections of various sorts with the community. If a vacancy arises between elections the council may co-opt someone to fill it, provided there has not been a call for an election.

 

Meetings

 

Your Parish Council meets every month (apart from August) on the second Monday of the month, usually in the Village Hall. The Agenda is publicised at the end of the previous week on the village noticeboards and on the village website.

 

Members of the public are welcome to attend meetings of the Parish Council but generally may not take part unless invited to do so by the Council or in the Public Forum part of the meeting.

 

How to have your say

 

The Agenda - Councillors may only discuss and make decisions on items that appear on the Agenda, so if you want something discussed by the Parish Council you need to contact the Clerk or one of the Councillors at least a week (and preferably ten days) before the meeting.

 

The Public Forum - You are welcome to come and raise questions or put a point of view in the Public Forum part of the meeting. This may be on a subject already on the agenda or something different. While councillors will sometimes answer questions there and then you may find that your query is put down for discussion at the next meeting. This may be to allow for information to be gathered, or just to give time for councillors to think about the subject.

 

More Informally - If you feel that the public forum is a bit formal the Village Hall is open from 7pm when there is a meeting and you are welcome to come to talk to councillors before the meeting. In addition you can always contact Councillors or the Clerk between meetings if there is something you want to talk about.

 

Transparency for Smaller Authorities

 

Under the Transparency Code, smaller authorities with a turnover of less than £25,000 p.a. (such as Dundry Parish Council) must publish certain information on their websites, including: In order to meet and exceed these requirements, Dundry Parish Council makes a number of documents available in its Public File System, where they are sorted in annual order.

 

Code of Conduct

 

When acting in their official capacity parish councillors must abide by a code of conduct and declare any interests which might affect their decision making. As required by the Localism Act 2011 Dundry Parish Council adopted a new code of conduct on September 5th 2012 and completed new declarations of interest.
For the code of conduct of Dundry Parish Council click here and for the register of members’ interests click here.

 

Not happy with something the Parish Council has done?

 

The Parish Council strives to carry out its work fairly and as required by law, and to spend your money wisely. However, if you are unhappy with anything done by the Council, we hope that in the first instance you will contact the Clerk (Robin Moss, email: parishclerk@dundry.org.uk  tel: 01761 432224) or the Chair (Cllr Holger Laux, email: holger@99computing.co.uk tel: 07740191772) to discuss any problems informally. In most cases this will be sufficient to sort matters out.

 

If, after all, you feel that you want to make a formal complaint you can find the Council’s Complaints Procedure here.

 

Contact the Parish Council

 

If you have any questions about the Parish Council or want to raise something contact the Clerk, Robin Moss, on 01761 432224 or email parishclerk@dundry.org.uk 

 

 

North Somerset CouncilCPRE Avonside