MARCHING ON, MARCHING FORWARD

As the Parish Council starts to look forward to 2025, and with the election, or co-option, of three new councillors on the horizon, it decided that the time was also probably right for a new look to its on-line presence.

Taking advantage of a grant to adopt the government recommended web domain and email addressing schema, councillors took the opportunity to completely change the Council's website, moving to a more modern and vibrant look-click. The old website will be maintained until the end of the year to ensure the migration is working efficiently and effectively, but that site is no longer being updated. A link on the old domain takes you through automatically to the new site.

As well as a new website address, councillors will now have government emails which will take the following format: first.secondname@bishopmonkton-pc.gov.uk. The clerk can be emailed at Clerk@bishopmonkton-pc.gov.uk.

Included on the site will be the agenda and minutes of the council's meetings. There will be various news items including, currently, articles about the recent visit from the M.P., Sir Alec Shelbrooke and details of councillor vacancies, click. The role of the Council is described, services provided for residents are listed, as well as signposts to local groups, societies and local events. Details of general policies are available as are the Council accounts from the last four financial years well as the current agreed budget. click

Visitors to this new website will learn not only about the Council's work within the village, but also how it is responding to the more far reaching and topical issues of society today. Its resilience plan details plans to protect individuals and businesses in the area from a range of environmental, health and economic risks, while its climate plan sets out ways to tackle the climate emergency, including decarbonisation of human activity and protecting flora and fauna for future generations.

This website is still very much a work in progress and the Council is always pleased to receive any comments, not just about the website, but also about anything appertaining to life in the village.

The Parish Council works on behalf of the parish and the more village residents can know about what goes on, the better informed they can be. This new website sound very much like the place to start.