Parish and Town Councils (Hansard, 10 May 2004)

§ Mr. Drew
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what advice and assistance(a) her Department and (b) the Countryside Agency provide to parish and town councils who wish to (i) start up and (ii) develop their own website. [170577]

§ Alun Michael
Defra has supported the Countryside Agency's work to promote the use of ICT within the parish sector.
In 2002 the Agency worked with the Local Government Association (LGA), the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) and the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA), to develop and implement a web-based management and good practice guide for the parish and town council sector. It has a focus on partnership working between parish and town councils and principal local authorities. This 'toolkit' was launched in September 2002 and is hosted within the existing 'Knowledge' website created and managed by IDeA to serve as local government's own management good practice 'warehouse' of information and guidance.
The Countryside Agency has advised NALC on a current project, 'Connecting with Communities'. ODPM, the LGA, IDeA and the Audit Commission have jointly produced a good practice toolkit offering comprehensive communications support to local authorities. This toolkit, found at www.idea-knowledge.gov.uk contains professional advice, best practice case studies and hundreds of documents that can be downloaded free-of-charge to help spread good practice.
The Countryside Agency continues to work with NALC to explore ways in which ICT skills, acquisition of suitable equipment and its usage within the parish and town council sector can be enhanced and supported.

§ Mr. Drew
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what research(a) her Department and (b) the Countryside Agency 29W have commissioned into the role, functions and relevance of parish and town councils in the last five years. [170578]

§ Alun Michael
The information is as follows:

(a) The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs funds came into being in June 2001 and took over responsibility for the Countryside Agency whose responsibilities have included relevant research. Prior to 2001 the Agency was funded by the Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions.

(b) Relevant research commissioned by the Countryside Agency in the last few years is as follows:

(i) The report, Training for Local Councils' was produced for the Countryside Agency by the (then) Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education and was published in 2000.

(ii) In 2003 the University of Gloucestershire was commissioned to research internet resources available to local councils, including websites, e-groups and networks. The study researched how the internet was being used by parish and town councils by identifying good practice, barriers to use, and gaps in provision. The resulting research report, 'Internet resources for town and parish councils', is available from the Agency's website.

(iii) In 2004 the Countryside Agency commissioned UK Villages On Line to manage an on-line poll on attitudes towards parish and town councils. The results have been reported in 'Local Councils Review' and are also available on the Countryside Agency's website.