Tag Archives: town and parish councils

Mark Valladares

News from the first tier of local government

By Mark Valladares | Mon 30th March 2026 - 3:53 pm

As some of our readers will know, I’m a Parish councillor in deepest Mid Suffolk, chairing my council as I have for most of the past eight years. Creeting St Peter is a “micro council”, as defined by the National Association of Local Councils (NALC), with a precept of just over £6,000 a year, and a professional staff of approximately 0.05 full-time equivalent. We don’t do “big stuff”, like providing services, but what we do is represent our residents and lobby principal authorities on their behalf. I like to think that we’re quite good at it, in our own modest …

Continue reading »
Posted in Local government | Also tagged and | 1 Comment
Mark Valladares

The ALDC Liberal Democrat Town and Parish Councillors Conference – at the coal face of local democracy

By Mark Valladares | Mon 20th October 2025 - 8:31 am

4 parallel white vertical lines on orange background ALDC logoSaturday saw the third annual ALDC online Conference for Town and Parish Councillors, an event which has developed as an opportunity to reach out to the Cinderella tier of local government, although we’re more likely to have the budget for a glass slipper than our principal authority colleagues do these days.

Opened by Sarah Green MP, Town and Parish Councillors from across England, including some pretty heavy hitters at the National Association of Local Councils (NALC), came together to discuss some of the big issues that face the sector – Local Government Reform, the accelerating devolution of valued local services to the sector – and how to use the opportunities of local power to promote the Party, build campaign teams and win elections at principal authority and Parliamentary levels.

Sarah spoke passionately about how success in elections for Amersham Town Council just before her famous by-election win laid the platform for the campaign that followed, establishing the Liberal Democrats as the best option to defeat the Conservatives, and how town and parish councillors across her constituency act as an “early warning system” for issues that affect residents.

The Conference then broke out into three sessions;

  • the impact of national change on town and parish councillors, with Justin Griggs from NALC;
  • social media best practice for town and parish councils, with Dan Purchese from parish consultants Breakthrough Communications; and
  • building the Lib Dems at a town and parish level, with Councillor Hannah Perkin (ALDC) and Councillor Sam Potts

Conference was fortunate enough to have Justin Griggs, NALC’s Head of Policy and Communications, to take delegates through both the key aspects of Local Government Reform but also to explain how NALC was responding to the various strands of current proposals.

After a critical break for refreshment, delegates came together for a roundtable on how Liberal Democrat Town Councillors have used the platform of their councils to make real change in their communities, chaired by Baroness Ros Scott in her usual ebullient manner. Ros has been NALC’s President for three years, having been a former President of ALDC, so she knows the sector well.

Continue reading »
Posted in Conference and Local government | Also tagged | 10 Comments
Mark Valladares

English Devolution White Paper: a view from the hyper-local sector

By Mark Valladares | Thu 19th December 2024 - 12:17 pm

Mark Hofman’s interesting critique of the recent English Devolution White Paper is, effectively, a plea to retain decision making closer to communities. And, of course, devolving powers to a body further removed from the people it serves is in danger of resembling an oxymoron – larger councils, covering relatively vast geographic areas, are less likely to understand the needs of less homogeneous, less visible communities.

From the perspective of a Parish Council Chair though, what is most depressing about the White Paper is the way in which it completely disregards an entire tier of local government, the Town and Parish Councils of England. 10,000 councils and parish meetings, 100,000 councillors, all dismissed as an apparent irrelevance. And yet, the Government were so close to getting it.

The White Paper states:

“For hyper-local issues, communities should be empowered to make change happen – such as taking over ownership of treasured community assets, and working with civic society organisations to drive community improvements”

but in communities across the country, Town and Parish Councils are already doing just that. And, as principal authorities grapple with financial crises, our tier is increasingly taking on those facets of local provision which enhance our communities. From youth services in Yate, to community festivals in Hereford, and parks and public toilets in Taunton, local councils are stepping in where the Counties, Unitaries and Districts can’t or won’t. Even a council as small as my village of Creeting St Peter provides essential street lighting and a Speed Indicator Device. We develop Neighbourhood Plans which help to drive house building in our communities, something that this Government is particularly keen on. Does Angela Rayner recognise that? Like heck she does.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 2 Comments
Mark Valladares

Is Angela Rayner talking about a revolution… in hyper-local government?

By Mark Valladares | Thu 31st October 2024 - 2:25 pm

There are times, few and far between perhaps, when you suddenly find that you might get a bunch of things that you’ve been campaigning for a long time to get. You lobby Ministers and opposition politicians and you keep at it, even if the responses aren’t at all positive. And then, something changes…

Angela Rayner’s speech to the Local Government Association Conference last week was, perhaps unexpectedly, one of those moments for the sector I now hold a leadership role in, the National Association of Local Councils (NALC). In her speech, she announced a plethora of changes which, if genuine, will give powers back to local government that have been grabbed by the centre over nearly a decade of Conservative administrations.

Multi-year funding settlements, better support for local authorities in financial difficulties, it all sounds very promising, even if the proof of the pudding might have to wait until Wednesday’s Budget.

Continue reading »
Posted in Local government | Also tagged | 2 Comments
Mark Valladares

Support your local Parish Council, Minister…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 11th December 2023 - 10:51 am

Recently, the “great and the good” of the Town and Parish Council sector gathered in London for the Star Council Awards, our annual celebration of the work done across England in our sector, and an opportunity to lobby MPs, Peers and, probably most importantly, the Minister, for our key “asks”.

I was there in my capacity as a member of the National Assembly of the National Association of Local Councils (NALC), and I took the opportunity to ask the new Minister, Simon Hoare, for £1,000,000. Not for me, you understand, although I’d happily carry out some study visits to see how equivalent bodies work in, say, St Lucia. But, unlike the “trade body” for principal authorities, the Local Government Association, NALC receives no funding to support its work. I am of the view that, as unitary authorities are formed across England, replacing Districts and Counties, there’s a need to upskill those Town and Parish Councils who are taking on, or might want to take on, services that the principal authorities can no longer afford.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 5 Comments
Mark Valladares

Welcome to my day: 2 October 2023 – autumn has come…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 2nd October 2023 - 7:41 am

It’s October already, and despite the rather pleasant September that we’ve had, today offered a sense that the seasons are turning. And whilst the Conservatives are still in Manchester, engaged in what the Economist described as “magical thinking” (paywall, I’m afraid), the rest of us have moved on to what will happen in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, Tamworth and, of most interest to Liberal Democrats, Mid Bedfordshire.

If the polls are accurate, Labour should win in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, but Tamworth is supposedly neck and neck, despite Labour’s recent performance in local elections there, and Mid Bedfordshire is being claimed by all three major parties. Should the Conservatives hold either or both, it will be a confidence boost for them, even if it persuades them to keep going as they are – in the face of the national polling data. Thus, it’s important that we keep pushing in Mid Bedfordshire, and I’m perpetually impressed by the reports of activists converging on the area from across the country.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 1 Comment
Mark Valladares

Your Parish and Town Councils need you!

By Mark Valladares | Fri 28th October 2022 - 12:30 pm

ALDC are often reminding us that we should run candidates everywhere in local elections, and far be it for me to disagree. But it isn’t always easy – not everyone wants to be a councillor, and in years like 2023 with the prospect of a Conservative collapse in the Districts, there is a risk that even supposedly paper candidates may get elected.

But let me introduce you to a world where elections are usually uncontested, and where not every seat is filled.

The National Association of Local Councils has published its review of the 2022 elections at Town and Parish Council level and, whilst it was a relatively “off year” for the tier, with just 10% of local councils holding elections, just 11% of those elections were contested, representing 888 of the 8,068 council seats up for grabs. Worse still, 1,639 seats remained vacant after the elections, or 20% of the available places.

As liberals, that tends to offend, especially given our general view that citizens should be engaged and consulted by those who represent them. Indeed, the laws that determine how local councils are elected permit co-options within thirty days of an election where vacancies remain unfilled, a recipe for affirming undemocratic local cliques.

For many small Parish Councils, the lack of power is a contributory factor – how can you entice people to sit in meetings every two months where most of the issues are dealt with at higher tiers of local government? – but even towns with five figure populations and significant budgets struggle to find sufficient candidates.

Continue reading »
Posted in Local government and Op-eds | Also tagged | 7 Comments
The Voice

NALC appoints new cross-party President and Vice-Presidents

By The Voice | Tue 26th October 2021 - 6:55 pm

The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) has appointed a cross-party group of parliamentarians in its presidential roles at its Annual General Meeting today.

Baroness Ros Scott of Needham Market has become the new President of NALC. The Liberal Democrat peer took up the role, which became vacant when Conservative peer Baroness Jane Scott stood down after becoming a government whip.

NALC has also changed its rules to introduce the new position of Parliamentary Vice-President. Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green), Andrew Gwynne MP (Labour), Lord O’Shaughnessy (Conservative) and Lord Lytton (cross-bencher) were appointed to this role.

Continue reading »
Posted in News and Press releases | Also tagged and | Leave a comment
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Peter Martin
    @ David, "Starmer brought himself down by appointing the multi-resignated and very risky Mandelson" Mandelson may well claim that he appointed ...
  • John Armah
    If we are going to discuss wealth taxes we need to begin by discussing our part as Liberal Democrats in the acceleration of wealth accumulation post the 2008 fi...
  • John Kelly
    Good and thoughtful article. I would also link tax to citizenship as the US does and make paying tax a condition of retaining it. It could be phased in gradu...
  • Nonconformistradical
    @Expats "In today’s UK, for a major section of the population, the ‘ethnicity’ of the criminal is far more important than the crime.. Using social media,...
  • John Reed
    The French system certainly looks interesting and it’s being tested so most problems will have would be wary of just calling a new system ‘wealth tax’ bec...