Councillors meeting at this week's Midsomer Norton Town Council meeting were challenged on whether they understood that when there are new elections in May, the new council will need to declare that it is considered competent - and did they know what this meant?

The questioner, who said they preferred to remain anonymous, also questioned the council on its level of reserves, and whether these could not be used to create a balanced budget ?

With questions about the cost of a new clerk, or a consultant to find a new clerk and possibly a deputy for Midsomer Norton, if one is not hired, there are still lots of blanks in the balance sheet and the budget for next year still needs to be formally set.

Cllr Michael Evans told the meeting: " The fact that working on a budget has been stressful is not a negative point, councillors should be thanked for taking the time and trouble to give up their time to working on this... the council should be praised."

Midsomer Norton Town Council has yet to set a formal budget - struggling to keep the precept down from the first proposal of 16 per cent, currently hoping to bring it to around 8 percent.

There is now an interim precept leaflet agreed in terms of wording but not working, as there are still unknowns in terms of costs and incomes. The biggest single item on expenditure is for staff and offices.

This is the interim document for the current budget negotiations.

Councillors were also challenged about the budget and specifically by Cllr Shaun Hughes about the lack of consultation about council finances, a situation he said at this late time to be 'crazy'.

Cllr and Deputy Mayor Gordon Mackay told the meeting the council was always seeking better ways to engage with the public, pointing out that there are telephone numbers and emails on the web site and he himself was at the latest Somerset Farmers Market.

He told a member of the public who had asked why the council was so slow to respond to questions about conduct and their plans that : "We have to respond to written questions and with the best will in the world there are only so many requests we can answer."

General Power of Competence

Nub News was not aware of what General Power of Competence is : So we are grateful to a reader sent us the details of what this actually entailed - and these are the details :

The General Power of Competence (GPC) was introduced by the Localism Act 2011 and took effect in February 2012. In simple terms,

it gives councils the power to do anything an individual can do provided it is not prohibited by other legislation. It applies to all principal

councils (district, county and unitary councils etc). It also applies to eligible1 parish and town councils. It replaces the wellbeing

powers in England that were provided under the Local Government Act 2000.

In summary, the GPC enables councils to do things:

• an individual may generally do

• anywhere in the UK or elsewhere

• for a commercial purpose or otherwise, for a charge or without a charge

• without the need to demonstrate that it will benefit the authority, its area or persons resident or present in its area (although in practice councils will want to realise such benefits).

1 An eligible council is one which has resolved to adopt the GPC, with at least two thirds of its members being declared elected and the Clerk must hold an appropriate qualification (Parish Councils (General Power of Competence) (Prescribed Conditions) Order 2012).

2 Further discussion of the legal implications of the GPC can be found in the Local Government Association (LGA) essay 'Power to make a difference', October 2011: 

But there are some limitations on the General Power, either because they are not things which an individual can do or because they are excluded by the Act. The GPC will not:

• provide councils with new powers to raise tax or precepts or to borrow

• enable councils to set charges for mandatory services, impose fines or create offences or byelaws, over and above existing powers to do so

• override existing legislation in place before the Localism act 2011, so-called 'pre-commencement limitations' (however powers enacted after commencement of the GPC will only limit the GPC if this explicitly stated in the legislation).

Where using the GPC for charging or trading purposes, the recipient should agree to the service being provided, the income from charges should not exceed the cost of provision and, where things are done for commercial purposes, this must be done through a specified type of company.

3 Notwithstanding the limitations outlined above, the GPC remains a broad power.

You can see the workings of the latest Town Council meeting HERE