TRAINING  CALENDAR

Chairmanship Course
20th May, 6.30 - 8.30pm
South Brent. £25 + VAT

New Clerks Short Course
10th June, 10.00 - 12.30
Honiton. £25 + VAT

New Councillors Course
18th June, 6.30 - 9.00pm
South Brent. £25 + VAT

Chairmanship Course
26th June, 6.30 - 8.30pm
South Molton. £25 + VAT

Chairmanship Course - NEW DATE ADDED
9th July, 6.30 - 8.30pm
Exeter. £25 + VAT

New Clerks Short Course
11th Sept, 10.00 - 12.30
South Molton. £25 + VAT

New Councillors Course
16th Sept, 6.30 - 9.00
Exeter. £25 + VAT

Budgets and Precepts
21st October, 10.00 - 12.30
Exeter. £25 + VAT

More dates are listed on the website. For more information or to book your place please visit www.devonalc.org.uk/training

COMING SOON

Local Council Finance
10th July, 10.00 - 4.00
Exeter. £55 + VAT
Details being finalised

Has anyone used the Community Rights under the Localism Act?

NALC are keen to hear from local councils who have managed to list assets of community value or bid for such assets or services (using the Right to Bid or Right to Challenge).

If anyone does have astory they can tell about using the Rights please let us know with outline details of which Right you used, and what service or asset was involved. I will pass your stories to NALC who will be in touch for further details – they may want local councils with interesting case studies to come along to the Regional conference in Bristol in September.

Email your story to lesley@devonrcc.org.uk 

DALC Newsletter

May 2014

Local councils and a new threat to green spaces

Briefing note from the Open Spaces Society on landowner statements

Town and village greens are land where local people have enjoyed informal recreation, for at least 20 years, without challenge or permission. Once the land has been registered, by the county or unitary authority (the registration authority) as a green it is protected from development.

Now landowners can submit to the registration authority a statement and map which challenge people's informal use of land and thereby threaten the public's ability to register the land as a town or village green. Once a statement has been deposited and notices posted on the land, local people have only one year in which to submit an application to register the land as a green based on 20 years' use for informal recreation.

The Open Spaces Society, the leading organisation concerned with the protection of green spaces, has asked all registration authorities to tell it of any such statements. However, it would be valuable if all local councils were to do this too. There is no guarantee that a notice will remain on the land for long, so the only way you can be sure of knowing about the threat to your local green space is by getting the council to inform you.

We recommend that you contact your county or unitary council's commons registration department and ask to be notified of any landowner statements made under section 15A of the Commons Act 2006. (These may be combined with landowner declarations relating to public rights of way, under section 31(6) of the Highways Act 1980.)

Once you know of a landowner statement, you can check the land to see whether it is eligible to register as a green. The Open Spaces Society's book Getting Greens Registered helps with this. If it is eligible as a green, local people have one year in which to gather evidence of use and submit an application. If it is not eligible you might wish to consider alternative ways of protecting the land, such as designation as Local Green Space.

Details are on the Open Spaces Society's website. You can contact the society for further information and help, although the society will ask you to join if you are not already a member.

Statutory Sick Pay refund abolished from 6 April 2014

The Government has abolished the Statutory Sick Pay Percentage Threshold Scheme ("PTS").

Under PTS, an employer could claim a refund from HMRC when total SSP exceeded a prescribed percentage of its monthly national insurance contributions (13% at the time of abolition). This benefitted smaller employers as larger employers would be less likely to hit the 13% threshold.

PTS has been abolished to help fund the new Health and Work Service ("HWS") which is due to start in late 2014. HWS aims to help employees with a health condition to stay in or return to work. There will be a tax exemption of up to £500 a year for each employee on medical treatment recommended by the HWS or by an occupational health service arranged by the employer.

Employees with four weeks of sickness absence will normally be referred by their GP (with the employees' consent) for an assessment by an occupational health professional. They will then receive a return to work plan. Employers, employees and GPs will also be able to access advice through a phone line and website.

Employers have until the end of 2015/16 to recover SSP paid for sickness absences occurring before the end of 2013/14. The associated SSP record-keeping requirements have also been abolished. Employers will still be required to maintain SSP records for PAYE purposes and to show that they are meeting their SSP obligations.