As you are probably aware, the current Parish Council’s term is coming to an end and nominations are needed for the new Council – Fulking Parish Council has five councillor positions. The nomination period will run from 30th March until 4pm on Thursday 9th April.
If anyone is interested in having an input in what happens in our community and wants to help to protect (and improve) what Fulking already has, please do feel free to contact any of the councillors for a chat – contact details are available from our clerk Derek Blackhall andreadickson@gmail.com
Full information and nomination papers can be found on the MSDC website or by clicking the links below:
local-elections-england-and-wales and Nomination pack”
Completed nomination papers must be delivered in person to MSDC offices. If more than five people stand, there will be an election and this will be advertised in due course. Once elected, parish councillors sit on the Council for a term of four years, after which they may stand for re-election.
Is it frustrating? Yes, at times.
Is it rewarding? Yes, very – you will learn a lot about the community, meet many people and also discover issues you didn’t even know existed! And yes, these do outweigh the occasional frustration. Protecting the community and seeing it change for the better is something that can give a huge sense of achievement and pride.
Most importantly, if nobody stands for election, control of our village will pass back to MSDC, so it really is vital that people come forward if we want to continue to have a say in what happens.
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Some background:
A Parish Council is a local authority that makes decisions on behalf of the people in the parish. It is the level of government closest to the community, with the district authority (Mid Sussex) and county council (West Sussex) above it in the hierarchy. The Council’s main task is to represent the views of the community – this is sometimes very difficult as the meetings can be poorly attended.
A Parish Council is there to support the community in any matters which may affect it and will try to influence decisions by reflecting the feelings of the people in the community. Parish Councils make all kinds of decisions on issues that affect the community, the most common in our situation probably being planning matters (we are statutory consultees) and campaigning for better services and facilities (ie road conditions, flooding, broadband etc).
In this respect Parish Councils do have some powers – organisations that make the final decisions know that a Parish Council gives the best reflection of how a community feels about something, and therefore its views should be taken seriously.
Residents can bring to the attention of the Parish Council anything that concerns them. If matters raised are not the responsibility of the Council, the clerk can direct them to the proper authority or correct point of contact.
Fulking Parish Council meets once a quarter for the ordinary Council meeting, to which members of the public are invited, and annually in May for the Annual Parish Meeting, which is combined with the Annual Meeting of the Parish Council, when the Chairman and Vice Chairman are elected. The ordinary meetings generally last one and a half hours, depending on the agenda, and there is a forum at the end of the meeting when members of the public can raise concerns and ask questions. In addition to this, occasional planning meetings are held on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Wednesday of the month as required and these generally last 15 – 20 minutes, again depending on the applications.
So please do think seriously about standing to keep decision making within our village and not at district level.
Recently, villagers have become concerned about a number of incidents between residents and the cattle grazing on Fulking escarpment. In July 2015 the Parish Council invited the National Trust to a meeting to discuss the situation. One of the suggestions was to use the website to exchange information on the cattle.
