Noticeboard

There are two vacancies in the office of Wembdon Parish Councillor. These vacancies have arisen following the resignations of Anne Reed and Bridget Hedaux. The official notices are available here.

To qualify as a Councillor a person must be aged 18 years or older and be a citizen of the United Kingdom, any EU Country or any Commonwealth country and also meet one or more of the following criteria:

• Is, and thereafter continues to be, a local government elector in the parish of Wembdon or
• During the whole of the 12 months preceding the date of appointment has occupied as owner or tenant any premises in the parish of Wembdon or
• During the whole of the 12 months preceding the date of appointment has had a principal or only place of work in the parish of Wembdon or
• During the whole of the 12 months preceding the date of appointment has resided either in the parish of Wembdon or within three miles of it.

There are a number of reasons why a person may not stand for this position.  These include if the person:

• Is subject to a bankruptcy restrictions order, or an interim bankruptcy restriction order, or a debt relief restrictions order, or an interim debt restrictions order or
• Is named on the Register of Sex Offenders.
• Has, within five years before the date of appointment, or since being appointed, been convicted of an offence in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man which has imposed a sentence of imprisonment of three months or more (whether suspended or not) without the option of a fine.

Any person who is qualified to stand as a Councillor, and is interested in applying for one of these volunteer positions, is asked to email the Parish Clerk at clerk@wembdonparish.gov.uk. An application form is available HERE.

This year’s Annual Parish Assembly will be held on Monday 19th May at 7pm at Wembdon Village Hall, Homburg Way. We hope to have an speaker on a subject of local interest – details to be confirmed.

The Annual Parish Assembly is open to all electors of the parish, who have the right not only to attend but also to speak on any matter of interest in the Parish.

The Annual Parish Assembly is, in legal terms, a quite separate body from the Parish Council, but it is invariably the Parish Council which arranges it. This assembly must be held between 1st March and 1st June each year. It is a legacy from the Middle Ages, when local councils did not exist, and all local decision making was carried out by meetings of the whole community. Any enquiries should be directed to the Parish Clerk.

On Tuesday 18th March our addresses will be changing.

Our website will be unavailable from 9am on 18th March for a few hours while we update its address. When it comes back up again, it will be on the new address wembdonparish.gov.uk. For a while, our site will also still be available on the old address, but that will not be guaranteed, so please get used to using the new one.

At the same time, the email addresses for our Parish Councillors and Clerk will also be changing to the wembdonparish.gov.uk domain. You will find the new addresses on the Councillors’ Details and Interests page once the new website is active. To reassure you: any emails sent to our old addresses will not go astray – they will be forwarded automatically to the new ones.

Why are we making the changes?

Our use of a .gov.uk address confirms that we are a genuine local government organisation, as such addresses are used exclusively by government and public sector organisations in the UK. It conveys trust and authority, and its use confirms a high level of security of data.

The Government’s Central Digital & Data Office have been encouraging Town and Parish Councils to make the change, and we, like others, have received a grant which covers the initial setup costs.