Lake Parish Council and Sandown Town Council are embarking on an innovative initiative to share back office support, whilst maintaining their individual and independent statuses.
The idea behind the initiative is to reduce future cost pressures and support a shared commitment to a Bay Place Plan and joint projects such as youth service provision.
Like other councils both on and off the Island, Lake and Sandown are facing increased costs in providing community services, such as public toilets and grounds maintenance, which are likely to result in increases in the local precept.
Lake Parish Chair Paul Brading has said:
“Like Sandown, Lake have consulted with residents and we know improved services, such as new public toilets at Lake Cliff Gardens and New Road are priorities, as is investment in Youth provision, and we need to ensure this investment is affordable now and in the longer term”.
Sandown Mayor Paddy Lightfoot adds:
“We want to balance the need to properly fund services, to meet the expectations of residents and visitors, and this back office initiative is part of that process and we have already secured external funding to support Warm Spaces in Lake and Sandown, as well as the Youth Initiative and Place Plan Project with Shanklin”.
The shared back office will enable a shared Clerk, Responsible Financial Officer, as well as IT support, maintenance contracts and other efficiencies.
Paul and Paddy concluded:
“Whilst maintaining our separate identities, we recognise we will have stronger voice together and make a bigger difference to our communities, just as we did jointly during the Covid Lockdown with out joint support network, and we are working to ensure this initiative keeps the forthcoming precepts as low as possible whilst delivering the improvements prioritised by the parishioners of Lake and Sandown”.
If this is considered innovative by local councillors then we are in worse trouble than I thought, firstly, justify having a parish council with no powers but the ability to raise precepts from residents, and why can all your back office functions not be undertaken by the IOW council,
The IOW Council Is a Local Authority and nothing to do with Parish Councils. Parish Councils have many powers. I suggest you do a bit of reading up or attend some meetings of your local council to see what they do. BTW your local councillors are all volunteers unlike IOW Councillors.
No they are just a talking shop for people who cannot get elected on the IOW council or have vested interests in the area or in the case of lake a group of elderly very nosy people, they perform no function other than extending bureacracy
The shared back office will enable a shared Clerk and Responsible Financial Officer.
So does this mean they will both be getting pay rises?
Bembridge and Brading tried out this initiative many years ago. Didn’t work at all and the trial ended after a few months.
One assumes, if Bembridge were involved in any sharing with others, then the United Nations peace keeping force would need to be placed between the two Councils.
Not at all Alan, this was before the “troubles” in Bembridge.
Ahh, likely before I was born then. The ‘troubles’ seems to have been going on for a very very long time.
Thank you for the reply, I must say that I have always found the staff there most helpful.
Yes, the Clerks and RFO’s both current and previous have been wonderful Most of the councillors have also been high quality. It just takes a few bad apples!