Councils of despair
From Mr Bernard Cowley Sir: Shelagh Shepherd (Parish slump', 3 August) has put her finger on the button when she describes New Labour's attack on parish councils as evidence of its determination to destroy them.
I am one of three councillors on my parish council peremptorily to be disqualified for our refusal to complete the Register of Interests. We are not alone; this has
been the fate of hundreds of others. Many more have resigned and most of the rest can't wait until their tenure is up next April, when they won't bother to stand again. When parish-council aspirants realise the extent of financial and personal disclosure they must make, they simply won't bother. Within two or three years parish councils will be a thing of the past.
Needless to say, it is impossible to engage government ministers in a debate on the subject — they simply ignore any approach either from individuals or through Members of Parliament. If the destruction of parish councils is not the aim, then it is difficult to work out the purpose of the code of practice. It has obviously been written by people with no idea of how parish councils function and what they are for.
They are oblivious of the fact that parish councillors have no authority to make any decisions other than to spend a few pounds of petty cash and decide which railings to paint next, which hedge to trim or verge to cut, and generally to keep the place neat and tidy. They don't understand that councillors are elected to manage, not control, parish affairs. This is done freely and altruistically because we care about our towns and villages. The idea that parish councils are hotbeds of vice and corruption which must be curbed is ridiculous — in the years I have been a parish councillor I have never seen any information that could be described as confidential or sensitive. Where is the scope for depravity on a parish council?
Some of us activists believe that the code infringes the Human Rights Act (Article 8: proportionality); we know the Data Protection Act is daily being breached through the publication of the Register of Interests, and the government seems to have thrown away the 1688 Bill of Rights. It is all very depressing.
Bernard Cowley
Blakeney, Norfolk
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