1 day to go till 'Clarkson's Farm'

[ordnance]

I knew he had no chance with the planning authority when i saw hairstyle on the guy with the casting vote 

[dogone]

     Educate me on your councils. Is everyone elected? For how long? Who is eligible? How much are they paid? Is it a full time position or part time. Does it run both countryside and towns/villages?

[JohnfromUK]

6 hours ago, dogone said:

     Educate me on your councils. Is everyone elected? For how long? Who is eligible? How much are they paid? Is it a full time position or part time. Does it run both countryside and towns/villages?

That is not an easy question to answer (so I may have this wrong for some as it is not exactly the same in all areas), but here goes.  (Definitive answer here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/local-government-structure-and-elections)

First towns/cities are somewhat different and I will ignore those.  Country (England anyway - not sure it is quite the same in N. Ireland, Scotland and Wales) has 3 levels;

1. The Parish Council is very local, typically one village or possibly a group of small close villages.  Councillors are unpaid voiunteers meeting evenings etc about once a month.  They are elected (in theory) but are often 'unopposed'.  Basically 'non-political.  They have a small budget and deal with things like local village halls, some grass mowing, and minor issues.  They have an advisory only role on planning, but the advice is usually taken into account.  Small budget collected with local annual property based tax (Council Tax) that covers all councils levels - Parish gets a very few percent of revenue.
2. The District Council is the next level up.  It has both paid employees (who are non elected staff) and elected councillors (who can claim some expenses/attendance allowances which varies by area I think, but typically 3-5K GBP per year).  District council has a bigger area and bigger budget (100M GBP per year upwards).  Looks after local services, roads, rubbish collections, planning, leisure centres, parks, and a lot of local facilities like car parks, some road signs, local 'bye laws, footpaths etc.  Takes a significant slice of the Council Tax - which it administers and collects.  Also has some funding 'fed down' from central Govt.  District Councillors are elected and stand on a 'party political' basis, though there are quite a lot of independent non affiliated councillors.  Political stance is quite limited.
3. The County Council is the top level of 'local government'.  It has both paid employees (who are non elected staff) and elected councillors (who can claim some expenses/attendance allowances which varies by area I think, but typically I think 10-15K GBP per year).  County council has a bigger area and bigger budget (around 1B GBP per year).  Looks after bigger roads, education, wider area 'planning', etc.  Takes a slice of the Council Tax.  Also has significant funding 'fed down' from central Govt.  County Councillors are elected and stand on a 'party political' basis, though there are some independent non affiliated councillors.  County councils typically have significant political stance on spending distribution.

Basically it is both very complex, and not consistent across the country/UK. 

[dogone]

Thank you. John from uk. Our system is quite similar. Elected, low remuneration and most doing it to help their communities. 

[JohnfromUK]

6 minutes ago, dogone said:

Elected, low remuneration and most doing it to help their communities.

Glad to help.  One of the 'peculiarities' with the system is the way they are funded.  There are 3 sources of funding;

1. Revenues from activities - which is fees from car parks, some 'fines' income from parking offences mainly, income from leisure centres etc.  (a small percentage of total - this is quite minor)
2. Money flowed down from central government  (near 50% of the total the local government spends)
3. Money raised from Council Tax.  This last is quite controversial because it is based on a notional property value, so small properties in less smart areas pay a Group A or B (about 1500 GBP per year) to large expensive 'mansions' which are in Group H (around 4200 GBP per year).  The tax does not take into account the number of occupants (though a single occupant does get a discount) so for example, a large house with say an elderly couple and no children at home (2 occupants) will pay exactly the same per year as a family with 6 children and grandparents living in (10 occupants).  The bill is nominally payable by one individual (the nominal occupier).  No others are required to actually pay the tax.  (The other near 50% of total)

[Rim Fire]

i watched the episode last night where he got turned down you got feel sorry for Clarkson he is trying to make a go of things i first thought it was all about a series just for Amazon prime but he really is trying  to learn and help out other farmers in the making of it      its a personal thing about him they are against  

 

[JohnfromUK]

For anyone interested in Clarkson's planning appeal, it is being covered 'live' here;

https://www.eveshamjournal.co.uk/news/23384303.updates-jeremy-clarkson-planning-appeals-hearing/#comments-anchor

[johnphilip]

15 minutes ago, JohnfromUK said:

For anyone interested in Clarkson's planning appeal, it is being covered 'live' here;

https://www.eveshamjournal.co.uk/news/23384303.updates-jeremy-clarkson-planning-appeals-hearing/#comments-anchor

Thanks for sharing.  

[islandgun]

Tried to watch it [the series] but that and other programmes featuring the top gear bunch  is in Spanish, dont know why

[Rewulf]

3 hours ago, islandgun said:

Tried to watch it [the series] but that and other programmes featuring the top gear bunch  is in Spanish, dont know why

If you're watching it on prime, press pause and the language and subtitles menu pops up on the bottom, you can change settings there. 

I've known it randomly change itself sometimes to a different language. 

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, I read there have been some death threats 🤔

[islandgun]

48 minutes ago, Rewulf said:

If you're watching it on prime, press pause and the language and subtitles menu pops up on the bottom, you can change settings there. 

I've known it randomly change itself sometimes to a different language. 

Cheers that worked. I had tried several times to change the language without effect, strangely it was only on the topgear/clarkson programmes, I actually changed it on the scandi one and it changed back to English on the clarkson farm automatically. cheers

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, Just to add, on passing a Hilton Hotel here this morning, There was a notice up, Diddly Squat Farm produce for sale in the Hotel, what ever next 🤔

[JohnfromUK]

In fact I believe the next series (series 3) starts on 3rd May this year.  I read the other day that filming for series 4 is currently taking place.

[scobydog]

I live a in largish village in Cheshire, loads of houses going up, yet when i applied for a single storey extension on the rear of the house every single person on the parish planning committee voted against it. It turned out that 2 of them lived at the rear of my house but didn't mention this at any meeting even though they are legally supposed to,(conflict of interest). Even neighbours on both sides of me were happy to let it go ahead.

Anyway i had the free 1/2 hour meeting with the head of planning for east Cheshire, who had the last say and was more than happy for me to go ahead with it, think comments along the lines of bloody nimby councillors was mentioned, but i may be mistaken🙂

 

S

[Whitebridges]

The missus and I are off to King's Lynn Corn Exchange to see Kaleb next month. 

What a treat and so looking forward to an anti woke point of view.

https://www.kingslynncornexchange.co.uk/theatre/whats-on/event/the-world-according-to-kaleb/

 

[Jaymo]

2 hours ago, scobydog said:

I live a in largish village in Cheshire, loads of houses going up, yet when i applied for a single storey extension on the rear of the house every single person on the parish planning committee voted against it. It turned out that 2 of them lived at the rear of my house but didn't mention this at any meeting even though they are legally supposed to,(conflict of interest). Even neighbours on both sides of me were happy to let it go ahead.

Anyway i had the free 1/2 hour meeting with the head of planning for east Cheshire, who had the last say and was more than happy for me to go ahead with it, think comments along the lines of bloody nimby councillors was mentioned, but i may be mistaken🙂

 

S

If I’m not mistaken. PC members and Parish Councils, are now no longer able to register and ‘objection’, only to submit comments. 
As to a conflict of interest, had they received individual planning notices from the Planning department? If so, then yes it would be considered a ‘conflict’. Had they not been sent a Planning application notice then they are not required to lodge a conflict of interest statement as far as I’m aware? 
 

[scobydog]

Hi Jaymo,

 

This was about 7 yrs ago, 2 houses either side of us and 4 at the rear , 2 directly behind,  where the councillors lived had the planning details sent to them. They definitely opposed as we could see this on the website for the planning application. 

One has now moved other still there, as I said luckily I could build it anyway. 

 

Atb scobydog.

[JohnfromUK]

I think the rules in our area are this;

1. At Parish Council (who are only advisory to District Council on planning matters) councillors who have an 'interest' have to declare it and don't vote.  Interest is ownership/applicant, financial stake, neighbour, friend, adjacent property owner, business connection, any other 'benefit' etc.
2. However - they can write in and 'object' or 'support' to District Council as can anyone - but as private individuals.  District Council has the actual deciding power on planning matters.
3. At District Council (who are only the Auithority on planning matters) it is similar in that councillors who have an 'interest' have to declare it and don't vote.  Interest is as far as I know same as Parish level.