South Downs Society walk

South Downs Society walk
Thursday June 12th, 2014, led by Brenda Mann and Shirley Murrell. Six miles, some steep hills but taken at an easy pace. Meet at 10:30am at Newtimber Church, for coffee or tea. Walk up Wolstonbury Hill and then on to The Plough at Pyecombe for lunch, or bring a picnic lunch. Afterwards walk to Saddlescombe and return to Newtimber by 3:00pm.

The Queen’s Speech

Running to keep in the same place

Governance of National Parks Draft Bill

The purpose of the Bill is to enable the composition of National Parks’ authorities to be broadened in the future. The main purpose of the draft Bill would be to provide for the holding of local elections to the authorities.

1 Direct elections

Enable eligible residents of the National Parks to directly elect some of the Authority members responsible for running their Park and taking planning decisions.

2 Amending the political balance requirement on local authority appointees

Allow local authorities to depart from the political balance rule if they appoint three or more members to the Park Authority where doing so would allow them to appoint a representative of a ward within the Park.

3 Allowing a wider range of parish representation

Allow parish councils to select their representatives to a Park Authority more widely. Currently they must select a parish councillor or chairman. They would be enabled to include anyone eligible to stand as a parish councillor.