2 years on....

.... and what has changed?

Djanogly was re-elected. Despite living in London and prominent in the MP's expenses scandal, the voters of the Huntingdon constituency re-elected Djanogly therefore forgiving him for his part in this scandal. Djanogly went onto become an Under secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice. This is a third rung on the Ministerial ladder with Minister of State above him and Secretary of State at the top. Djanogly became a bit of a lightning rod scandal. There was his spying on local Conservative members and his relationship with his brother-in-law. The spying was internal. The brother-in-law was really a non-story.

Useless Town Council Planning Committee. This has carried on being useless and a sheer waste of money. The new Conservative administration on the Town Council has carried with this sheer waste of money. The only real reason for this is the Town Councillors want to pontificate on the merits of planning applications without any real training or idea of what they are doing.

Cllr Ablewhite is new District Council Leader. Despite being party to costing the District Council £5,000 over a planning decision in St Ives, the District Council Conservatives deemed Cllr Ablewhite worthy of their leadership. Cllr Ian Bates stood down at from the leadership after the abortive merger talks with East Cambridgeshire and Fenland District Councils fell down.

Cinema progresses. The idea to squeeze the cinema into a totally inappropriate site continues. Turnstone Estates were given preferred status and went ahead and ripped the Development Brief to shreds. As the land owners HDC and SNTC must have been privy to these changes yet didn't say a thing. So much for transparency.

Rough waters for the Outdoor Swimming Pool. Having done a deal with McCarthy and Stone, rumour has it the SNTC/SNSPT has reneged on this deal. Whilst selling the land and using the proceeds to build a new swimming pool on other land made sense, unless SNTC/SNSPT have found a source of money it will make no sense to rebuild the swimming pool on the old site.

HCCA. The slow downfall of this once proud Conservative Association continues with HCCA running out of money.

Council Tax. HDC has, for many years, used reserves to keep Council Tax down. Combined with the previous Labour Government who used the threat of capping to keep the District Council tax rises down. Capping is due to end with a new referendum rules to ensure any excessive Council Tax rises are voted on by the electorate beforehand.

New Homes Bonus nicked. This becomes a large amount of money for HDC. According to the Coalition Government this money is for the communities which are accepting new housing developments. HDC is supposed to consult the locals over the use of this money. Think about £8000 a property and 5000 properties. £40 million would make a difference to St Neots.

Riverside Car Park. This was a joint approach that ended up as a pantomime. As the basic decision was correct as either the user pays or the Council Tax payer (and I prefer the user pays) this now looks to be revisited. The Liberal Democrats made hay over this. The St Neots Conservatives are against but voted for the budget. This issue went back and forth until it was decided by Cabinet and then Council make this a pay car park.

Councillors. Over the two years I've looked at Councillor attendances. Some are good. Some were bad. On Town Councillor did good by resigning. Mandy Thomas just didn't turn up or only to one minor meeting in 6 months. The dearth of candidates to be Councillors was also highlighted before the last elections. On one good note, Carl Jones stood as an Independent and won the Town Council East seat.

CPALC. It looks as though CPALC gave the Town Council Quality Status to SNTC with too much trouble. Though how they passed many of the tests didn't stand up to scrutiny. Anyway SNTC paid their sub and CPALC seems happy the Quality Town Status means absolutely nothing.

The Liberal Democrats. These have been a big disappointment. With Martin Land as both Agent and Parliamentary Candidate this was going to go wrong. The Conservatives are "closet racists and homophobes" quote did damage. Also if that is how Martin thinks the Liberal Democrats are destined to lose and lose again.

Gordon Thorpe. It is a pity that Gordon has gone. Although he called me the "Most Hated Man in St Neots" I hold no grudges against him. I did warn him at the time that Harrsion and Jennings were fighting hard for Eaton Socon and Gordon needed to get out and campaign. Gordon didn't take my advice and, I was informed, turned up about a week before the campaign finished to campaign. Miles too late.

Have I given up on the blog? Well no. But there will be fewer blog entries as time goes on. Of course if SNTC decides to alter the Priory Centre.......

How did St Neots Town Council cover it own elections.

Having been bunged the Quality Town Status by CPALC I thought I would take a look at how the Town Council dealt the Town Council elections. One of the tests for being a Quality Town Council is to promote Local Democracy and Citizenship.

Every 4 years the Town Council holds an election where all Town Councillors are up for election. So what has the Town Council actually done to promote these elections? Well nothing. Unlike other Town and Parish Councils this election has really passed St Neots Town Council by.

• No notices of election were published.
• Nomination papers which should be available from the Town Council offices weren't publicised.
• Even when one candidate died there was no notice of a countermanded poll on the Town Council website.
• The website and the noticeboards dotted around the Town have been devoid of anything to do with the Town Council elections.

What standard were Steve Wilkinson and his Accreditation Committee at CPALC looking at when they bunged St Neots Town Council the Quality Status Award? Time and again the Town Council falls down on the job and having been bunged the award doesn't really care about maintaining the standards set. St Neots Town Council knows they will get the award anyway so why do the hard work for the next 3 years when it will get the Quality Status award anyway!

Another Secret Meeting of the Town Council?

Well not so secret, though you would have to go down to the Town Council offices to find out about this because it isn't on the website.  The press and public are excluded from part of the meeting as it is to discuss the proposal to tarmac over Shady Walk Open Space for a cinema car park.

So what is so secret? The terms of sale/lease of the land of course and the amount of the land which the Town Council gives away to the developer. All this will be able to be kept secret until the developer puts in the planning application. So much for transparency.

As it says on the Forward Plan version 3 on the website:

Maintain and protect green space provision is not turning any of the green space at Shady Lane into a car park!

The meeting is on Thursday 24th March at 7pm. As with all Town Council meetings the residents are given 10 minutes to have their say on any matter under the Town Council at the start of the meeting. Then the press and public are excluded from the bit that matters.


We all know the Town Council is going to give away this piece of land. So why make this secret?


Is this how a "Quality Town Council" is supposed to work? Meetings added to the noticeboard but not added to the website! Obviously those at CPALC including Ian Dewar and Steve Wilkinson and his Accreditation Committee think this is how a Quality Town Council should operate as they bunged the Town Council the Quality Status. A meeting that is virtually kept secret from the people in the hope this goes through without as much as a mutter from those affected by this decision by the Town Council. Quality Town Council indeed. CPALC should reconsider their verdict that St Neots Town Council is a Quality Council.

Town Council ups it game a bit

Not liking the constant criticism from this blog, the Town Council has slightly upped its game a bit with the publication of an Accounts and Budget section on its website. This gives details of the current budget, the final accounts and the budget for 2011/12. This is a start. Some bits are missing.

Like where is the Annual Report? This is what Steve Wilkinson and his Accreditation committee at CPALC missed. (Still no answer from Ian Dewar at CPALC). The final accounts are dated the 30th September 2010. This contains all the information which is required to be published at 30th June 2010 and wasn't. The Mandatory Test says:

To pass this Test the Town Council is required to publish an Annual Report by 30th June 2010. It simply didn't. So a thumbs up to the Town Council for getting some financial information on the website. But a thumbs down for CPALC for not getting the mandatory section correct.

CPALC and Ian Dewar fail to respond

I sent an email in reply to one from Ian Dewar, CEO, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Association of Local Councils. In the original he queried whether I was looking at the right website. I'm not too sure Ian was. The email said:

So far I have yet to receive a reply to this email. No wonder because St Neots Town Council continues to fail to put the last Annual Report on its website. Doing so would show the public that no annual report, as set out in the Mandatory Tests, was published on 30th June as required. The Town Council also fails to put other key information on its website. This council taxpayer funded trade body for local councils obviously doesn't like scrutiny of its decisions. I've asked questions and queried the nature of the decision by Steve Wilkinson and his Accreditation Committee over bunging of the Quality Status award to St Neots Town Council. The silence is deafening.

The National Association of Local Councils NALC) is also disinterested. Again this is the trade body for local councils. Not even an acknowledgement. The integrity of the Quality Status award is in question. On this basis if Dibley Parish Council (fictional parish council from the Vicar of Dibley) was a member it would also be a Quality Council.

As an aside, the longer CPALC goes without responding the longer these articles will reoccur.

Last time CPALC gave SNTC Quality Town Status

This is what happened with the Quality Town Council. It was a "Shambles". Two damning external auditors reports. A Town Council in a mess. The Eatons Community Centre was stopped because the Town Council didn't really know how much money it had. Financial reports weren't brought to Town Council. meetings didn't take place. Everything was hushed under the carpet. Even when the two damning reports were published they are not on the Town Council website and electors were charged 60 pence for the privilege of reading each of these damning reports.

Try to question these reports and questions are batted away. The Town Council doesn't want to learn from its history. CPALC gave the Town Council Quality Status and with that badge it covered lots of wrong doings. CPALC has again bunged awarded the Town Council the Quality Status label. But who is CPALC?

The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) is the national trade body for 8500 Local Councils - Parish and Town Councils - many of which are small insignificant Councils which hardly worthy of mention. NALC claims the coverage is 35% of the population of England which means 65% get on without this level of Government. When the Conservatives started Compulsory Competitive Tendering, back in the 90's, only 41 Town and Parish Councils were caught in the net. St Neots Town Council is one of the largest. NALC is designed for small councils. And so are the County Associations which are NALC representatives in the shires. The County Associations are the local trade bodies. They are their to promote Town and Parish Councils in the County and offer advice to their members.

How does NALC and CPALC get its money to operate? The main source is from subscriptions from Town and Parish Councils. CPALC charges St Neots Town Council a subscription fee. This is raised from the local council taxpayer by way of the Council Tax. So CPALC is funded by council taxpayers. It relies on members continuing to be members.

I received an email from Ian Dewar of CPALC

As I said I would publish any reply from CPALC and NALC, if I got any. I received a reply from Ian Dewar. Nothing from the NALC.

7th February 2011

Thanks for your email.

I am not sure which website you looked at but I had no problem with the St Neots Town Council website and as such find it difficult to support your critique.

I have to assume you have been in dialogue with the Town Clerk to confirm you looked at the correct site as many are listed.

Regards

Ian

Ian Dewar

CEO CPALC

Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Association of Local Councils

33 Stephenson Road, St Ives, Cambs PE27 3WJ

Tel 01480 375629 view website at www.cpalc.org.uk

Supporting Local Councils & Communities

I replied:
8th February 2011Hi
The site I'm looking at is http://www.stneots-tc.gov.uk/. Please inform me where the Annual Report is on the website. I was not the only one critical of the Town Council and its website. The External Auditor stated in the 2010 ISA 260 report that key financial information should be on their website including the Annual Accounts and the ISA 260 report. Check the website and find those documents. Neither appears.

Dave

No further reply from Ian Dewar. 

This from the CPALC website which still says St Neots Town Council is not a member!

Promoting local democracy the CPALC way

I thought I would look at this from my point of view. I don't know what the Town Council put into CPALC on this section.

I take the first line. "In order to thrive democracies need active, informed and engaged citizens". Hmmm...As a citizen I have to look at the record of St Neots Town Council and look at what it doesn't do. In order to be informed, the citizen needs information. This was demonstrated in the ISA 260 Report to the Town Council. It says:

The information is missing from the website. The approved accounts are missing. The ISA 260 Report is also missing. Other key information like payments came and went. Now I understand the Town Council isn't the District Council. But public information is key to participating in the Town Council strategies and priorities.

The reason this came as a shock was nothing was said beforehand.

There was nothing from the Town Council to say things were wrong. Meetings were cancelled and information not given. The Town Council has moved on from this. They are better with their information. Again this isn't a one way street. The Town Council itself has to proactive in publishing information even when that information shows mistakes and bad news for the Town Council.

From where I stand the Town Council can do more by publishing more. Involving the public in the affairs of the Town Council can only be a good thing. But this isn't what the Town Council wants. Rather than engaging with the public the Town Council looks to hide away on many issues. Keeping everything quiet and not saying much unless it is really good news. St Neots Town Council is one of the largest Town or Parish Councils in England. It should be doing more in engaging with residents on a number of issues that effects the Town. It simply doesn't. Now that could be down to the political leadership of the Council in not mapping out a strategy for the Town over the next 5 years. consultations costs money. But a simple form on the site or

By any measure the St Neots electorate is not active, engaged, involved or informed of what is going on in St Neots. What St Neots Town Council is the bare minimum. If CPALC feels St Neots Town Council has passed this test then we would be better off under Dibley Parish Council.

And something else CPALC missed

Test 4 is about community engagement.

This is the mandatory part.

The Town Council does have a website. It does actually provide a list of Councillors and Officers and e-mail address.What it doesn't do, up until the Quality Town Status was bunged, "was provide access to your Annual Report". How Ian Dewar, Diane Bayliss and Steve Wilkinson and his Accreditation Committee missed this one is a bit beyond  me.

That is not all. There is a problem over the newsletter the Town Council part produces with SNTCI. In the 30th June 2010 publication of the Annual Report it says:

This was revised in the 30th September 2010 version of the Annual Report to:

The Town Council went from publishing to using Priorities.
At the 2010 Annual Town Meeting I asked the following question:

The Town Mayor replied that: "Priorities Magazine is not a Town Council Publication".

With Priorities not being a Town Council publication the test is failed in that part. The alternative is to contribute to a specific section on your local council at least 4 times a year. This it does by contributing to Priorities.

Lets take Priorities dated March 2010 as an example. On the back page there is a section on the Town Councillors with pictures, addresses and contact details. On the inside page there is a message from the Town Mayor babbling on. So there are two sections not a specific section. Also what the Town Mayor is up to is not Town Council news.

Where in all of March 2010 issue is the news about the Town Council? There were live issues which the Town Council could and should have informed residents about. The impending enlargement of St Neots Town Council area taking in the annexed areas of Eynesbury Hardwicke and St Neots Rural Parish Councils. The loss of Quality Town Council status. Or even a bit about the Council Tax reduction by St Neots Town Council. Not a word. Not a single word about any of these issues.

If this is the standard which is set by CPALC and Steve Wilkinson and his accreditation committee then any Parish or Town Council can pass this test. This communicates nothing. Yet CPALC seems to feel St Neots Town Council has passed this test. A newsletter should contain news from the Town Council. By any definition, however loose, this doesn't happen!

How CPALC missed this I don't know how!

Moving onto Test 5.

St Neots Town Council did publish an Annual Report. As I have mentioned in earlier blogs the Annual Report doesn't do what is expected. It is basically the Annual Accounts with Annual Report stuck on the front. The Annual Report and Annual Accounts are supposed to be on the website. They are not!

Looking at the actual requirements. The 30th June 2010 deadline was made. The accounts are available if you go into the Town council Office during their working hours. With the District Council in the same Offices the principal authorities requirement is met. The local libraries is what hasn't been done. I visited St Neots Library, which is only round the corner from St Neots Town Council Offices. I found the old version of the Forward Plan and some old Priorities. But not the 30th June 2010 Annual Report. The library staff said: "they hadn't seen the Town Council for years". They went further to say: "all the minutes and agendas are online". The Town Council didn't deposit the Annual Report at the Library.

Then there is this section. The annual report should also include:

• a list of councillors and officers. It doesn't.
• a summary of the council's accounts. It does. - and the rest of the accounts.
• an overview by the chairman (read Town Mayor) of the council's achievements. It doesn't.

Is the word "should" giving CPALC the latitude to pass this part? If it is then it shouldn't. St Neots Town Council is one of the largest Town Councils are yet Steve Wilkinson and his Accreditation Committee seem to have ignored this part of the test. 

The Annual Report and Accounts as published is 24 pages long. This is not really in a form "suitable for wider publication". The Annual Report doesn't even appear on the website. How CPALC passed this I can't work out.

I have to wonder whether Steve Wilkinson and his Accreditation Committee saw the same evidence I, as an elector in St Neots, have actually seen. Maybe the portfolio of evidence submitted to CPALC by the Town Council should be published.

More on what CPALC missed

The discretionary part of Test 4 is an eye-opener.

I'll run through them:

Annual Report? No, this hasn't happened.

As the annual report is supposed to be a written document this hasn't happened either. The Annual Report and Accounts of 30th September 2010 didn't have a summary. Nor did the one produced on 30th June 2010. SNTC couldn't have passed this test.

The Town Council was going to have a Town Plan back in 2008/09. This was cut. The Town Council has plans for a proper Town Plan in the future. Having cut the last one I wait with baited breath. Nor can I find anything about a Market Town Action Plan. If they had any of these they would be on the website. But nothing. No Plan doesn't pass this test.

Probably. If you count what is in the Town Council offices.

Now I know the Town Council has the District Council sitting in the office. I can't find one to the County Council. What does electronically mean?

The Priorities magazine doesn't do this so they can't pass this test.

The Town Mayor Community Coffee morning must pass this test.

This has been passed by the Town Council. The test is passed. But what it is I don't know. The Town Council has yet to inform residents that it has a community engagement strategy. I would have thought it should be on the website allowing residents to see how the strategy involves them. Is it the definition of a Quality Town Council that it keeps its policies effectively secret?  Pass (unfortunately).

If a weblog is what is on the front page of the Town Council website this fails the definition. Today the weblog has two entries. I can't find an archive either.

And the comments are OFF. If this is what passes for a pass on the weblog front I'd love to see what a fail looks like! Nothing about budget or precept. Nothing about the Community Engagement Strategy. Just bits and pieces. No online forum or surveys. This is a fail.

What - surgeries. When and where are these held? Nothing in Priorities. Nothing on the website. FAIL.

Now this is a bit of a weird one. How are residents consulted over planning issues? Now the Town Council is very sharp on getting Planning Applications considered by its Planning Committee. But how does it actually consult residents. Unless they don't and all they rely on is someone reads the Agenda for the Planning Committee. 

An email to each authority should do the trick to pass this one.

I have to laugh at this one. I tried to find information on the Town Council when their website was down and I went round the corner to the St Neots library only to be told "they hadn't seen the Town Council in years". If they passed this test by using their own notice boards this isn't a pass at all. The Town Council should be doing more. FAILED. A quick nip round the corner to the library should have sorted this one out.

Yes they are. And all the squabbling that seems to go with this Town Council. PASS.

All I found was the Christmas Lights Switch on. Not much. Not many other activities are publicised in District Wide magazines over the last year.

Err...No. The charging of car parking at Riverside wasn't mentioned. The taking over the Public Toilets wasn't consulted on. The Town Council Forward Plan wasn't consulted on. When the Forward Plan was formulated until it passed there was no publication of the draft plan nor was there any way to comment either in writing or by email or via the website. This plan takes St Neots Town Council on a long journey. The public wasn't consulted as to content or the priorities it contains. FAIL.

I've never seen these. Could be around.

To tot up the scores:

1. Fail

2. Fail

3. Fail

4. Pass

5. Fail

6. Fail

7. Pass

8. Pass

9. Fail

10. Fail

11. Fail

12. Pass

13. Fail

14. Pass

15. Pass

16. Fail

17. Pass

Total: Fail = 10 - Pass = 7

Of course CPALC and Steve Wilkinson and his Accreditation Committee will disagree on some of these. But these would be minor passes at the lowest level of attainment. The Town Council doesn't have a Town Plan. It didn't consult over its own policies and strategies in the Forward Plan. The Annual Report is nowhere. St Neots Town Council is one of the largest Town Councils and yet is seems CPALC passed this section on minor passes minor attainments. If this is the standard, Dibley Parish Council could pass these tests and become a Quality Council!

What else did CPALC miss?

When St Neots Town Council applied for Quality Status, yet again, this didn't the alarm bells ring at CPALC HQ. It should have done. St Neots Town Councils previous Quality Status had lapsed. During the last 4 year period this Town Council had two damning audit reports and, at one point, stopped spending money. This from a Quality Town Council.

I know this Quality Status is given for 4 years. During the last period St Neots Town Council did not hold to the standards set. This is the main reason the Town Council let the Quality Status lapse. CPALC doesn't have the power to cut short a Quality Town Council Status. Maybe they should.

Test 3 says:

Notices of meetings are publicly displayed at least three clear days before each meeting. The evidence for this has to be notices and minutes for the 12 months prior to application. Now I can say I didn't see the meeting of 13th September 2010 displayed beforehand. It certainly wasn't on the website otherwise I would have been writing about it before 29th October 2010. This is not the first time. Nor the second time. Nor for the third time. Nor did I see it on the Noticeboard.

When I get a reply to an earlier Freedom of information request on 14th June 2010 to minutes of an Audit Committee meeting held on 20th January 2010, I have to question whether St Neots Town Council is up to Quality Status


"The minutes of the Audit Committee meeting held on 20 January will be forwarded to you after approval at the next Audit Committee meeting."

The difference between a Parish Council, which this scheme was designed for, is Town Councils are larger should have a delegated committee system. Leaving aside the 6 meetings of Town Council these delegated Committees should have their agendas and minutes published. There is a Health and Safety Committee which no one knows about or the Personnel Committee which is shaded in secrecy. These too should have their agendas published but aren't.

By the strict criteria of the test, SNTC passes most of the test. Where I challenge this is over the meeting of 13th September 2010 where no Agenda was published on a website and I certainly didn't see this Agenda posted on the notice board. SNTC therefore fails the test.

Obviously CPALC, Ian Dewar, Diane Bayliss and Steve Wilkinson and the Accreditation committee think this state of affairs for the previous 12 months is correct. This is a sign of a Quality Town Council. Yet this has demeaned the status of being a Quality Town Council.

CPALC bungs Quality Status to St Neots Town Council

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Association of Local Councils has bunged St Neots Town Council the award of Quality Town Council. Why? The Town Council has certainly come on from the days of it being a "Shambles". In my view not enough to be awarded Quality Status. One example of CPALC overlooking its own tests is Test 3. It says the Town Council should have its Annual Report accessible on its website. Up to the day this "Quality Status" was bunged or "awarded" the Annual Report was not available. Didn't CPALC check the website? If they did they missed this part of the Quality Status test. What else has CPALC over looked?

Diane Bayliss, Projects Officer informed the Town Council they had been bunged given this award at a meeting of the Town Council on 3rd February 2011. Great news for the Liberal Democrats who were silent on the Town Council losing the status in the first place.

In the event I've emailed Ian Dewar, County Officer of CPALC and I've also emailed the National Association of Local Councils over the Town Council not fulfilling the requirements in obtaining Quality Status.  Not much will happen as this is basically a club for Town and Parish Councils and the awards are self congratulatory. Any replies will be published.

How Steve Wilkinson and the Accreditation Committee of CPALC missed all this is worry. Obviously the evidence presented by the Town Council wasn't looked into in any depth or even checked.

As CPALC is seemingly able to overlook its own tests, at will, there will now be an issue of integrity of the Quality Status for Town and Parish Councils. The Quality Status brand is only as good as its councils. The tests are there for good reason and that is to ensure the brand is kept to a high standard. Time and money is expended by other Town and Parish Councils to get themselves to a high standard. What must they think when the tests are not applied properly and St Neots Town Council is bunged the status.

Presentation about Quality Town Council Status

I see that CPALC is coming to the Town Council to give a presentation about Quality Town Status. Something the Town Council had but lost. I've looked at whether the Town Council was could regain this status easily in a previous blog. The Town Council couldn't then and see no reason to change my mind. It is not even in the draft Forward Plan version 4. Probably didn't want to commit themselves to achieving what they once had.

According to the CPALC website St Neots Town Council is still a non-member. On the other hand they have Eynesbury Hardwicke Parish Council - dissolved in April 2010 - as a member council.

The demise of Priorities or a large bill for SNTC

St Neots News and Crier - 18/11/2010

In an article about the withdrawal of funding by HDC for the Town Centre Initiative there was a bit of a revelation. John Davies said The Priorities newsletter may have to go.

I know very little about the TCI but I have been informed that SNTC pays 25% of the costs of Priorities Magazine. Obviously it has been the HDC Council Taxpayer who has been funding the other 75%. This is important. It means the Council Taxpayer - one way or another - has been paying for Priorities magazine.

This poses a problem for St Neots Town Council. To regain Quality Town Council status it needs produce a newsletter 4 times a year. With the withdrawal of funding this could mean a potential bill of an extra £23,400 a year.

UPDATE: I see from the Town Council budget proposal the 25% share is £3,690. This would mean an extra £11,070 would have to be found. Much less than the £23,400 I thought the potential bill could be.

Town Council leaves CPALC in a fit of pique?

I was looking up whether St Neots Town Council was going to try an get its Quality Town Council status back. I therefore looked at the CPALC website. I was amazed to find that SNTC, having lost its Quality Town Council status, has also decided not to continue its membership of CPALC.

This is wrong! Many of the Parish/Town Councils in Huntingdonshire are members of this trade association. There are good reasons why. Membership opens up to mutual legal help amongst other things. CPALC also awards the Quality Town Council status locally.

Some Councils which are members of CPALC and are Quality Town or Parish Councils are: Huntingdon, St Ives, Godmanchester, Hail Weston and also Grafham. More here. Quality Status is not a prerequisite for continuing membership. There are many Parish Councils who are members. Being a member of CPALC is a prerequisite for being a member of the National Association of Local Councils.

It looks to me that SNTC has, in a fit of pique at not having QTC status, decided not to be a member of CPALC. Having got itself into trouble it would have been hard to carry on with this status and very hard for CPALC to award this status. Now, SNTC stands out like a sore thumb as NOT being part of the CPALC.

So the Liberal Democrats were alright with spending money because they got this status. Once the status is withdrawn they takeaway their membership!

-----------------------