Hello everyone. This week has been all about people and relationships. One of the best things about being on the Parish Council is that it gives opportunities to meet lots of interesting people that I might otherwise not have come into contact with.
Monday 28 September
Tuesday 29 September
On Thursday evening, we all logged in to a Teams call with the Monitoring Officer from Braintree District Council. (A Monitoring Officer is a statutory role responsible for ensuring local government legality, ethical standards, and constitutional governance). The topic was the Code of Conduct. All local government officers and councillors must abide by a Code of Conduct and we must all have training in what it means in practice. This was our chance. I had read our Code of Conduct beforehand and was reminded that we are working on the most up to date version that we reviewed and approved at a full Parish Council Meeting in June this year. Of course most of us understand what it means to behave ethically, with integrity and respect to all, as a councillor amongst ourselves, the wider public, and importantly these days, on social media. Nevertheless, it doesn’t do any harm to have it reinforced that the Code of Conduct is there to protect us and the public from any risk of impropriety. Of particular importance was updating on the disclosure of interests, so that the public can be reassured that no Councillor is taking part in discussions or votes (as a Councillor) where their interests, pecuniary or otherwise are affected. Our up-to-date Code of Conduct is on the Parish Council website.
There’s less in my diary over the next week (so far) for Parish Council activity. Watch this space for my next update in a fortnight or so, and please let us know if you’re finding this interesting.