Overview

Greg Jones, Parish Councillor for Compton Dundon, finds that using Parish Online makes Council Meetings much more interesting and efficient.

Challenge

Parish Council meetings are open to the public, and, in an ideal world, they should be interesting enough to attract a wide cross-section of residents to attend on a regular basis. But in practice Parish meetings tend to be dull and difficult to follow, and they are therefore sparsely attended. The challenge is to make Parish meetings more interesting so that more people (and in particular younger people) take an interest in local politics.

Solution

Compton Dundon uses Parish Online and a projector; or in these days of Covid-19 restrictions sharing a screen online to make their council meetings more interesting and informative. This allows the councillors to illustrate the business of the meeting with maps and photographs – for instance the exact position of a proposed new speed camera, the position of a fly-tipping incident, the proposed site for new allotments etc. It may sound like a small and simple advance, but the effect is that everybody understands what is being discussed much more clearly, and the council looks modern and efficient.

The important thing to note is that a 3rd person drives the visuals during a meeting. The Chair and Clerk are left to run the meeting with the 3rd person (another councillor) using parish online to navigate to the correct location in the parish or share photo’s or documents.

Here are some simple examples to show how Parish Online has been used recently to support parish meetings:

a)      Grass Cutting

The red polygons show the area where grass-cutting is required. (Note that the Print tool can be used to embed the same map in a grass-cutting contract).

b)     Cycle Path

This screenshot shows Compton Dundon’s proposed cycle path. 

c) Plotted Assets

Compton Dundon’s plotted assets are: Grass cutting, Planning Applications, Allotments, Permissive Rights of Way, Cycle Paths. We also use Parish Online to record the locations for our Asset Register.

Benefits

 “We couldn’t be without Parish Online! We use Parish Online at every Council Meeting so that everyone can follow what is being discussed, and where it is!”

Greg Jones, Councillor for Compton Dundon

 

About Compton Dundon Parish Council

The Parish of Compton, Dundon, & Littleton share a range of community facilities including the church and cricket pitch, in Dundon, and a post office, village hall, and public house in Compton.

Title picture CC BY-SA 2.0 Brian Roberts, View towards Compton Dundon. All other pictures sent to us by Compton Dundon Parish Council.