Has Spring finally sprung? My garden thinks so, but my hat and gloves needed for early morning commutes into London in the last week or so think not. Oh well, hopefully the warmer weather will soon be here to go with the lighter evenings.
It’s election season again and we are gearing up for Mayoral elections in London. Other parts of the country have local and Police and Crime Commissioner elections, so my best wishes to all preparing for those.
ADSO conference
We are finalising the programme for this year’s conference being held at The Slate conference centre at the University of Warwick on 25th and 26th November (Monday and Tuesday). We will go live with early bird conference bookings as soon as possible. We’re looking forward to another fantastic learning and networking experience.
ADSO awards
A reminder that all four ADSO awards are up for grabs this year: Learner, Rookie, Team and Distinguished Service. Please start thinking about who you’d like to nominate. The nomination process goes live next month.
Publishing Members’ home addresses
You may have seen in the press recently that UK ministers have been urged to scrap that part of the law requiring councillors to publish home address:
UK ministers urged to scrap law requiring councillors to publish home address
In Wandsworth and Richmond Councils, the Monitoring Officer has given both sets of Members a dispensation on recording their home addresses on the website. In other Councils, requests are considered on a case-by-case basis. What does your Council do? Contribute to our forum thread on Councillors’ Home Addresses.
Young people & democracy
The British Youth Council has announced its closure due to “on-going financial challenges” after more than 75 years of championing the voices of young people. ADSO believes we should do all we can to encourage young people to engage with democracy.
Below is a link to Runshaw Sixth Form College’s website showing some great work with South Ribble and Chorley Borough Councils who they ran their own version of ‘Question Time’ giving students the opportunity to quiz their local MP alongside both council leaders:
Question Time comes to Runshaw
We know that other Councils are doing similar work, including North Kesteven District Council. Tell us what your own authority has done in this area by emailing info@adso.co.uk and we’ll include it in future editions of this newsletter. Please also let us have your ideas on what ADSO could do to support you in this work.
Peter Sass, ADSO Vice Chair