updated 28/11/2007

These pages are divided up as follows:
2003 Election Timetable
2003 Outline of the Council structure
2003 A Candidate's Diary of Procedures
2003 Election Forms
2003 The Aftermath—what happens now?

2003 May 1st LOCAL ELECTIONS COMMENTARY
A General Introduction to the Different Types of Council and an Outline of the Way They Work

On the election time table 25 days before the election date at the latest (Monday 24th March) the 'Notice of Election' will be published. This will detail the seats for which elections are due.

Berkhamsted Town Council
On Berkhamsted Town Council this means all 15 council seats are up for election having ended their four-year term since the last election. All seats at Borough are also up for election. This means COUNCILLORS, who are also referred to as the 'members' of the council. These elected people are responsible for directing council policy and their decisions, by majority vote, determine the matters the council officers carry out and the way the council conducts its business.

Composition of Council
The OFFICERS are employees of the council, their appointment approved by councillors under 'normal' contracts of employment. Officers continue in office regardless of changes in COUNCILLORS, unless during a succeeding council (or during the term of an appointing council) it is determined that a different arrangement of officers is required, or the council wishes to change their duties etc. Then the normal negotiations would take place with the staff and their union representatives regarding terms and conditions of severance or revised duties, as would be the case in any company wishing to change the direction of its business and reassessing the number and type of employees it requires.

The OFFICERS are non-political. This means that in all interactions they have with councillors and the public, on behalf of the council, their personal political views should never be known. It also means that they themselves are unable to stand as councillors within the jurisdiction of the council they serve, to avoid conflicts of interest.

Procedures and Principles
What are 'conflicts of interest'? Essentially these situations arise when a councillor or officer may owe allegiance to more than one view-point, or may have a secondary interest in a matter upon which council has to make a decision. A simple example would be in planning. An officer may work in the planning department and wish to have an extension built onto his house. It is therefore important that he ensures he is in no way involved in the council's procedures for presenting the required information to council for an acceptance of his ideas.

Likewise, were a councillor to be doing the same thing it is important that he does not take part in any discussion that the council may have regarding his planning application. It is his duty to declare before any debate that he has a pecuniary or non-pecuniary interest in the matter. He should also offer to withdraw completely from the council chamber while the debate takes place so his presence does not unintentionally (or otherwise!) appear to have any effect on the members voting and that he may have no idea as to who has voted for or against his proposals.

A more subtle form of personal interest might be where the individual may be a member of a society likewise seeking planning permission and neither officers nor councillors may be aware that he is a member. It is the duty of both councillors and officers to be aware of a possible conflict of interest and to declare it.

What are 'pecuniary' and 'non-pecuniary' interests? A 'pecuniary' interest is where the individual concerned may gain a reward dependent upon the outcome of the debate. This need not be money. An example would be where a councillor is employed by an estate agent and the value of land to be sold depends upon whether or not planning permission is acquired. The decision might affect the commission he is paid on the ultimate sale of the property (money or shares) or his standing in the company which could mean promotion, enhanced status or even provision of a company car.

An example of a non-pecuniary advantage or interest would be where a councillor is a trustee of an organisation which is seeking planning permission. Here, the councillor may not personally acquire any benefit from the decision but his interest in the society of which he is a trustee clearly indicates the potential for a conflict of interest.  A conflict of interest between the needs of the society and the public's view as to whether the proposals are appropriate for that area.

One of the reasons councillors have to publish their particular interests (such as their occupation and major financial interests) is to ensure that such circumstances are clearly in the public eye from the beginning and are not left solely to councillors to remember to declare them at an appropriate time.

Matters that can be Screened from the Public, Confidential Issues
It is not always a question of 'doing the right thing' but always being clearly seen to do the right thing so there is no danger of misinterpretation. Nearly all aspects of the council's work are open to public scrutiny [see 'Publication Scheme']. There are occasions when matters are permitted to be kept from the public scrutiny (for a period). These matters are known as 'Part II' items when the chairman proposes a motion that the matter to be debated falls within the legal definition of 'Part II' and the meeting votes to exclude the press and the general public.

To avoid inconveniencing people, Part II items are usually scheduled together as the last items on the Agenda. Such items would include contracts of employment, personnel disciplinary proceedings and the nature of contracts of work and comparison of prices. Once the matters have been resolved a limited announcement would be formulated, usually in a council meeting or by an officer as directed by a council meeting, to the effect that 'so-and-so has been appointed to the post of . . . ', or 'the contract for installing a new skateboard park has been awarded to  . . ' and the details published so that other contenders can see the basis upon which the competing firm was awarded the contract.

Regulating Council Procedures and Types of Council
Council affairs are regulated by Agendas (lists of items to be discussed) and Minutes, being the record of the matters discussed and the resolutions (decisions) made. Minutes are formally approved and accepted as the legally binding record of the meeting at the subsequent meeting where any inaccuracies can be corrected. Agenda's (at Berkhamsted Town Council) are posted (that is literally in the post to councillors) and also on public notice-boards after noon the Wednesday preceding the meeting date, but related research papers or items for background reading are only posted to councillors. Agendas and minutes are also now posted on the Town Council's web site at www.berkhamsted.gov.uk but at present, while the posting by mail and on notice-boards is a legal requirement, posting and running a web site is by choice only, although there is increasing encouragement from a variety of government departments and pressure groups for councils at Parish level to run web sites. Nearly all county and unitary authorities run them and for councils of such size they are a major means of communication.

County councils are usually ancient in origin and derive from their county towns. In Hertfordshire this means Hertford is where the county council sits. Elections for this council are every four years, midway between the terms of office of the borough and parish councils. in Buckinghamshire, the county town is Buckingham but the county council's offices were moved to Aylesbury many years ago.

Berkhamsted is part of a three-tier system of local government. That is it is one of several parish councils which relate to Dacorum, the borough council. Each parish or town council has a varying range of responsibilities depending upon its individual circumstances. The chief role of town and parish councils is to act as advisors to the borough council, as these councils are closest to the electorate  and have the intimate, detailed knowledge of the area that might otherwise be missed in the broader scale on which the borough council operates.

Parish councils are run by a 'Chairman' of council. Town councils may be run by a chairman but usually, by being designated a 'Town' council it means the structure is of sufficient substance as to warrant the chairman of council being titled 'Mayor'. County, Borough and Unitary authorities may be run by a Chairman, or a Mayor. The way councils are set up and the frequency of their meetings depend upon the amount of work created by their responsibilities. A small rural parish council might meet but once a month or every two months and the entire council will handle all business. At Berkhamsted, the amount of business is both diverse and extensive, requiring several specialist 'permanent' committees which may create other sub-committees or working groups for very specialist purposes.

The Committee Structure
In smaller town and particularly parish councils business may be sufficiently light as to enable the full council to debate everything as little as quarterly or just once a month, with the ability to call a special meeting if urgent matters arise. Correspondence during the interim is usually handled by the parish clerk who liaises with the chairman as necessary.

The Meeting Cycle
In Berkhamsted, the council meets on a six-weekly cycle as a full council with weekly meetings of different committees in between. The nature and remit of these committees will be decided at the Council's annual meeting and will depend upon the amount of what type of business is handled. Committee membership reflects the proportion of political influence of the whole council (see below). Not all councillors will be on all committees. Committees can likewise create sub-committees or working parties to investigate the detail of complicated or specialist projects.

Committee Membership
Membership of committees will depend upon the balance of power of the majority party and councillors will usually be elected (or nominated) by themselves or their party leader according to their experience. This would be to ensure a mix of councillors with experience to ensure the committee works and less-experienced councillors to 'learn the ropes'.

Law, Legal and Professional Advice
Committees and full council are chaired by councillors elected by the members of those committees, usually holding office for a year and the Clerk to the Council acts as an adviser on matters of law and procedure as well as taking the Minutes. At borough and county level, council will always have a qualified solicitor or barrister to advise them. Berkhamsted has its own 'official solicitor' who is called upon as necessary (but rarely). Berkhamsted Town Council can also gain legal and other procedural advice from HALC, the Hertfordshire Association of Local Councils. Membership is voluntary by annual fee. HALC in its turn can refer back to NALC, the National Association.

About Dacorum and Borough Councils
Dacorum acts with a greater range of direct powers over the area covered by many parishes and also the remaining areas that are referred to as 'unparished'. This means they do not have a population of sufficient size or interest to warrant having their own local parish council. In its turn, Dacorum acts as adviser to county (and sometimes to central government) and also acts as sub-contractor for many of the county council's responsibilities. Dacorum is one of several boroughs in the county which relate to the county council.

The County Council
The county council is responsible for major policies, such as education, the libraries and works with and on behalf of central government on national strategies, including emergency planning.

Unitary Authorities
Unitary authorities are fairly recent creations in which, effectively, all civic matters are 'under the one authority'—except that they aren't necessarily so! Essentially, a unitary authority should be viewed as a combination of county and borough levels of local government but may still have parish or town councils as advisory councils. In which cases such an arrangement becomes known as a two-tier system. Another version of a two-tier arrangement is when the only representation in an area is between borough and county and there are no parish or town councils.

About Officers
It was stated earlier that officers are non-political, whereas councillors most obviously are. That is that many would-be councillors stand for election by declaring themselves a member of a particular party or group, which may not necessarily be nationally known. For instance, a group of people may feel sufficiently strongly about a particular local issue, such as retaining their local cinema, or recommending the council should buy it and run it for the community. In which case they might register themselves as the 'cinema party' and stand on this one issue. It has actually happened elsewhere! Other candidates do not wish to be allied to a particularly recognisable national party and stand as Independents. That is, they stand upon a series of issues which they declare in their election manifesto as to what they will try to achieve if they are elected. More obviously recognisable parties do exactly the same: declare what they seek to achieve for the town while also promoting their general philosophy on wider issues.

The first stage in any election is to 'declare yourself'', get yourself nominated. This is done as soon as the election itself is declared open. See Election Timetable.

All commentary and linking material on these pages is © Peter Such 2003