DUNHAM-ON-TRENT WITH RAGNALL, DARLTON AND FLEDBOROUGH PARISH COUNCIL RECEIVES AWARD IN NATIONAL SCHEME

Dunham-on-Trent with Ragnall, Darlton and Fledborough Parish Council has received a prestigious award as part of the Local Council Award Scheme. This achievement recognises that the council achieves good practice in governance, community engagement and council improvement. Moreover, Dunham-on-Trent with Ragnall, Darlton and Fledborough Parish Council goes above and beyond their legal obligations, leading their communities and continuously seeking opportunities to improve and develop even further.

The Award Scheme report highlighted the council’s particular areas of strength, including its publication scheme which is comprehensive, a good volume of minutes are available on the website, the financial information relating to the budget and precept was good and a very good policy was in place for the training of staff and Councillors.

The Local Council Award Scheme is a peer assessed programme that has been designed to both provide the tools and encouragement to those councils at the beginning of their improvement journeys, as well as promoting and recognising councils that are at the cutting edge of the sector. It is through the sector working together to share best practice, drive up standards and supporting those who are committed to improving their offer to their communities that individual councils and the sector as a whole will reach its full potential.

Dunham-on-Trent with Ragnall, Darlton and Fledborough Parish Council’s own Chairman was quoted as being delighted to have achieved the Foundation Level Award: none of it would have been achieved without the professionalism of our Clerk, Caron Ballantyne.

To celebrate this achievement, the council is planning to spread the news as widely as possible with other organisations involved in local government as well as the electorate who the Parish Council represent and work so hard to support.

In terms of the future, the council is now reviewing ways in which it can keep on improving its offer to the local community and welcomes input from local people and partners on this. Dunham-on-Trent with Ragnall, Darlton and Fledborough Parish Council and other local councils like it, are at the front line of the government’s localism agenda and are doing as much as they can to delivery services whilst being efficient and cost-effective. Currently the council provides a range of services from providing benches, litterbins, play areas as well as operating a Lengthsman scheme and wants to improve its community engagement through this. The Parish Council are involved with assessing all planning applications both in the Parishes and those outside which may affect them and are now considering taking the next step and producing a Neighbourhood Plan.