Here is an opportunity for you and/or your councillors to attend this new event .

Adrian Berendt,Director, 20’s Plenty for Us CIC invites you to join his team,  Hannah Greenberg and Adrian Berendt who will give a short presentation about the benefits of 20mph, what is happening elsewhere in the UK and will answer your questions about 20’s Plenty for Worcestershire.  It should be an interesting and lively event.   

We have pleasure in inviting you to a Zoom meeting to hear about the benefits of 20mph for Worcestershire.  There will be two opportunities: please register in advance for either of the dates

on one of the links below: This event is free of charge.

Jul 11, 2025 12:30 PM London: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Rx7oZDRUTzeTDEZ0mlwWDQ

Jul 16, 2025 07:00 PM London: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/ilJC1plVSnCd2-QYB_JVDg

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Videos of previous “Delivering 20” webinars available here.

Further Planning and Development Training

We also have a new external speaker Lee Searles www.pellegram.co.uk  coming to give two very detailed training sessions on Planning and Dealing with Responses and Influencing Local Plan Policies for any of those who would like further training . Please encourage your councillors to attend as well as the guidance and suggestions are most helpful..

Planning Session 1 Dealing with Development Proposals -Clerks and Councillors

Planning Session 2 Influencing Local Plan Policies-Clerks and Councillors

Fighting Food Waste
The impact of food waste
▪
7.1m tonnes of food and drink is wasted from UK households each year
▪
Each day, the UK throws away 24m slices of bread and 4.4m potatoes
▪
If food waste were a county, it would have the third biggest carbon footprint after the USA and China
▪
Wasted food accounts for more than 30% of Worcestershire’s black bin waste
▪
By reducing food waste, the average household could save over £700 a year.
Planning
▪
Make a list on paper or your phone
▪
Check cupboards, fridge and freezer before shopping. Take a “shelfie” to
help you remember
▪
Cook double and keep half for later in the week – freeze to keep for longer
▪
Don’t buy for every day – allow for a “leftovers night” or if your plans change
TOP TIP: the free app and website ‘Yummly’ searches thousands of recipes from across the internet and creates an automatic shopping list, which allows
you to tick off items you have before going shopping
Shop sharp
▪
Just buy for a couple of days at a time to reduce waste
▪
Stick to your list while shopping and avoid offers unless you’ll definitely
use them
▪
Buy loose fruit and veg where you can
▪
Buying wonky veg reduces food waste and can be cheaper in some supermarkets
▪
Consider buying veg boxes from “Odd Box” which uses up fruit and veg rejected by supermarkets
TOP TIP: grab free food from shops and cafes with the OLIO app or cut price food from restaurants and shops via ‘Too Good to Go’
Know your dates
▪
“Sell by” and “Display until” are only labels for retailers, so ignore them!
▪
“Best before” just means it might taste dry or have less flavour after this date
▪
“Use by” indicates food safety, so it is not advisable to eat it after this date, especially meat, fish and dairy
▪
Check dates and eat food with the shortest dates first – freeze if you won’t use in time
▪
Food can be frozen right up to the “Use by” date
For more information on reducing your
waste please visit www.letswasteless.com
Perfect portions
▪
Weigh or measure your food – work out the right amount for you
▪
Encourage people to serve themselves from dishes at the table
▪
A mug, tablespoon, spaghetti/rice measurer and simple scales are all
you need
TOP TIP: Use the Love Food Hate Waste portion calculator if you’re not sure how much to cook or are cooking for more people than usual (especially at Christmas) www.lovefoodhatewaste.com
Love your leftovers
▪
Check cupboards/freezer before meal planning to use up what you have
▪
Freeze leftovers in portion sizes meals
▪
Have a good store of canned, dried and frozen foods to use with leftover food
TOP TIP: Forget searching through cookbooks for recipes, type your leftover ingredients into the search bar of the
‘BBC Good Food’ or ‘Yummly’ websites
to find recipes
Savvy storage
▪
Keep out air and moisture by keeping food in bags or boxes
▪
Don’t keep milk in the door as it’s the warmest part of the fridge
▪
Keep the cold in by closing the fridge door quickly and not putting warm
food in
▪
Remember to label and date food before freezing to avoid any “UFO’s” (Unidentified Frozen Objects)
▪
Freeze food in 1 or 2 portion sizes
– it will freeze faster and defrost quicker (empty plastic takeaway tubs are great as usually one portion size)
▪
All foods can be frozen, even bananas
TOP TIP: Fridges work better at 0-5°C, yet a recent study showed the average one was running at 7°C
Share
▪
£500m worth of food is thrown
away in the UK each year when we
go on holiday
▪
Share unwanted food through the OLIO app or the growing number of community fridges (visit www.hubbub.org for their locations)
TOP TIP: Start a food sharing network in your street, village or town by getting more people to use the OLIO app. Just snap a photo, post and share!
Recycle
▪
Recycle your food waste by turning it into nutrient rich compost for your garden, window boxes or pots. Standard “Dalek” bins. Bokashi, wormery, HotBin or Green Cone – there’s a home composting solution for everyone!
For more information on reducing your
waste please visit www.letswasteless.com

SAVE THE DATE: 15^TH May 2025 9.30am -1.30pm.

The Arena, University of Worcester, Joel Richards Suite

Elevating the role of community in creating good health and preventing illness

(both mental and physical)

This year the theme of Mental Health Awareness Week is ‘Community’.

In support of this, we are inviting you to join us as we bring people together to explore the value of community not just in preventing poor health but creating good health, why we need to elevate it and how we can do that.

This free, interactive half day event will be opened by Gary Woodman, CEO of Worcestershire Local Enterprise Council (LEP), who will be our Chair for the morning.

It will then commence with a fireside chat between Dr Simon Lennane, GP Ross on Wye and author  of  'Creating Community Health: Interventions for Sustainable Healthcare' and Professor Richard Humphries, Senior Fellow at The King’s Fund, Senior Policy Advisor to the Health Foundation, visiting professor at the University of Worcester, and author of ‘Ending the Social Care Crisis: A New Road to Reform.’  Their conversation will be ably guided by Frank Myers MBE, Acting CEO of Community First. 

You will then have the chance to discuss the role of community in creating good health from your own perspective and put questions to the panel.

Following this you will have the opportunity to benefit from an example of learning experiences from the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Wellbeing and Recovery College led by Will Thomas, Vision for Learning and Associate Lecturer at the University of Worcester.

There will also be an opportunity to find out more about the role of the University of Worcester in building community, health and wellbeing.

You will have time at the start and end of the morning as well as during the break to meet some of our valuable local partners who are helping to create healthier communities across Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

Who should attend: those working in health and social care and commissioners; VCSE; people providing community activities and services that support health and wellbeing from all sectors including public health and faith groups; parish councillors and village hall committee members; people working or studying at the University of Worcester; experts by experience; employers keen to learn more about what will improve staff absenteeism, wellbeing and productivity and members of the public.

Welcome to the new training opportunities wiyth Breakthrough Training . Please contact caroline@worcscalc.org.uk should you wish to book to attend any of the sessions . (£35 per session to members) 

Parish Council Domains Helper Service: Guidance now available on GOV.UK 

Parish councils wishing to move over to a .gov.uk domain can now access guidance on the GOV.UK website.  It’s laid out in a step-by-step format, taking the reader all the way through the process, from getting council approval all the way through to choosing your Approved Registrar and what to do when you’re set up. 

Hosting the guidance on GOV.UK means that parish councils can access up-to-date information at any time. You don’t have to attend a virtual session with the Parish Council Domains Helper Service team unless you want or need to, even the contact list for the Approved Registrars can be found there.  It’s a one-stop-shop for everything .gov.uk domain. 

Any questions regarding the new GOV.UK guidance can be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." data-outlook-id="f4c8ac34-0d73-451b-b023-7a9278f966c2">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Local Government Association has informed us that the National Joint Council for Local Government Services (NJC) has reached an agreement on rates of pay applicable from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. We encourage employers to implement this pay award as soon as possible.

Backpay for employees who have left employment since 1 April 2024. If an ex-employee requests it, we recommend that employers pay any monies due to that employee from 1 April 2024 to the employee’s last day of employment. The table below lists the new pay scales for clerks and other employees employed under the terms of the model contract, including SCPs 50 and above. These should be retrospectively applied from 1 April 2024. 

Hourly rates have been calculated using the NJC-agreed formula: annual salary divided by 52.143 weeks (which is 365 days divided by 7) divided by 37 hours (the standard working week).

Local government services pay agreement 2024-25 and 2023-24 v2 

The new model Financial Regulations have had an overhaul and are now available to members to download

NALC model financial regulations 2024

Worcestershire Local Nature Recovery Strategy: Briefing Note for Parish Councils

What is a Local Nature Recovery Strategy?
A Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) will be a spatial strategy for nature and environmental improvement. They are required by law under the Environment Act 2021 and 48 LNRS are now in preparation, to cover the whole of England.
LNRS will be a key part of delivering the targets in the Government’s Environmental Improvement Plan for England, by mapping where important habitats can be conserved, restored and connected in order to reverse habitat loss and declines in species. They will also seek to widen environmental benefits, such as flood mitigation and carbon sequestration, and increase access to nature.
Each LNRS will contain:
• A Statement of Biodiversity Priorities with agreed local priorities for nature’s recovery
• A Local Habitat Map showing the most valuable existing areas for nature and areas that could become of particular importance
• Specific proposals or actions (‘measures’) to deliver the agreed local priorities.
Further reading: UK State of Nature Report Worcestershire State of Nature Report Government’s Environmental Improvement Plan
Who is producing the LNRS? Worcestershire County Council is the Defra appointed ‘Responsible Authority’ for preparing the Worcestershire LNRS. The ‘Supporting Authorities’ for the LNRS preparation process are the six District Councils1 and Natural England.
The preparation and delivery of the LNRS will be locally led with support from Government. The Responsible Authority must work in collaboration with the Supporting Authorities, public, private and voluntary sectors to agree a single vision for nature recovery.
What role does the LNRS have in planning and parish-level project delivery? The Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 directs that plan making, including neighbourhood development plans, local plans, minerals and waste plans and supplementary plans, must ‘take account of’ any LNRS that relates to the area. Government will provide separate guidance on how local authorities will be expected to comply with their duty to take account of LNRS through their planning functions.
Does the LNRS come with funding? The LNRS itself will not directly provide any funding. Delivery of the priorities and actions identified in the LNRS, and mapped on the Local Habitat Map, will be incentivised through the targeting of public and private finance including, but not limited to:
1 Bromsgrove District Council, Malvern Hills District Council, Redditch Borough Council, Worcester City Council, Wychavon District Council, Wyre Forest District Council
• The new Environmental Land Management schemes • Biodiversity Net Gain • Woodland Creation grants • Carbon Credits • Nature for Climate Peatland Restoration Grants • Species Survival Fund • Flood resilience funding including Natural Flood Management
The Local Habitat Map will increase the opportunity for funding applications for parish-level projects that deliver on measures and in areas that support nature’s recovery, as identified by ‘areas that could become of particular importance for biodiversity’.
When will the LNRS be adopted?
There is no statutory deadline for the publication of the LNRS, however Government hopes that they will be adopted by March 2025. The LNRS is then to be reviewed and republished every 3-10 years, as decided by the Secretary of State. The review and republication will be the same collaborative process with all key partners and stakeholders as was undertaken during its inception.
Preparation of the Worcestershire LNRS
You can check progress in preparing the Worcestershire LNRS by visiting the Worcestershire County Council LNRS webpage. LNRS preparation will involve two rounds of public consultation:
Issues and Options Consultation
This consultation will include a draft Local Habitat Map and will ask for stakeholder views on the potential opportunities for nature recovery that exist within Worcestershire. The consultation will run for 6 weeks from Monday 15th January to Friday 23rd February 2024. As statutory consultees Parish Councils will receive notification of the commencement of the consultation.
Draft Local Nature Recovery Strategy Consultation
This is anticipated in Autumn 2024.
Engaging with LNRS preparation
Parish Councils, local communities, landowners, managers, countryside users and local interest groups are all key stakeholders in LNRS preparation. Parish Councils can support the LNRS preparation process by communicating the contents of this briefing note to residents and highlighting the upcoming Issues and Options Consultation. Once live, the following consultation documents and resources will be available on the Worcestershire County Council LNRS webpage:
• Issues and Options Consultation Paper
• Issues and Options Questionnaire
• Draft Local Habitat Map
• Draft Local Habitat Map Questionnaire
If you would like to contact WCC about the LNRS please email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
You can access further information and updates from Defra on LNRS via the Defra Local Nature Recovery Strategy webpage.
You can access further information and updates from Defra on Biodiversity Net Gain via the Defra Biodiversity Net Gain webpage.

16 January 2024
Procurement Thresholds
The thresholds for public procurement have changed from 1 January 2024
Public contracts, with an estimated value (including VAT, since 1 January 2022):
over £214,904 (previously £213,477) for goods or services, or
over £5,372,609 (previously £5,336,937) for public works (construction),
must comply with the full requirements of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (which will be replaced by the Procurement Act, when it takes effect later in 2024). These include specific tendering methods and timescales, as well as a requirement to advertise on both the Contracts Finder website and Find-a-Tender (the UK e-notification service).
Where a contract will run for several years, it is the total (not annual) value that matters.
Where the estimated total value (including VAT) is below these thresholds, but exceeds £30,000 (after 21 December 2022), a council is required to advertise the opportunity on Contracts Finder if they publish an open invitation to quote/tender. If they are inviting specific firms and not opening it up to wider competition, they don’t have to advertise the opportunity on Contracts Finder (Public Contracts Regulations 2015, Reg. 110(5)(b)).
However, a council must comply with its own Standing Orders and Financial Regulations and if those regulations require an open invitation and a formal tender process, the council should follow them. Tendering processes ensure fair competition, achieve value for money and avoid anti-competitive behaviour. They protect the council and taxpayers.
If a council simply chooses specific firms to invite, it must avoid allowing non-commercial considerations (defined in Part 2 of the Local Government Act 1988) to influence its decisions. If a council invites some suppliers and not others, it should record its reasons.
If the council genuinely believed the value would be under £30,000 but the tenders came in above that, the Regulations do not require it to go back and start again.
Regardless of whether the opportunity was advertised, Regulation 112 requires a council to publish the award of a contract over £30,000 on Contracts Finder within a reasonable timescale. There is no specified timescale for parishes, but we suggest within 3 months.
Disclaimer
This bulletin is only intended as a brief guide and councils should ensure they follow the Regulations and guidance on www.gov.uk, seeking professional advice if they are in any doubt. The Parkinson Partnership LLP accepts no liability for any loss arising from situations where councils have not followed the law and guidance.

Holiday Pay Calculations

Chris Moses, Personnel Advice & Solutions, advises parish and town councils on the implications of new holiday regulations that come into effect from April 2024. Read the full article

Funding News

Inclusive Communities Fund - The Fund aims to strengthen the achievements, prompted by the Games, offering community organisations access to new funding to make a difference for the people they work with. The webinars and word documents of all application forms are now available on their website, please visit Free Resources - United by 2022 - Games Legacy  You may also wish to read through their existing support for applicants here.

Women and Girls Fund - There is a gender activity gap!  Women are less active than men at every stage of life and we must take intentional steps to create the safe spaces, places & ways to be active. The Think Active Women and Girls’ Fund is aimed at providing opportunities to enable women and girls to be active, to promote mental wellbeing and physical health, now and into later life. They are looking for projects that are keen to grow their existing provision for women and girls or want to introduce and build new opportunities. Grants of up to £5,000 available, for more information and to apply, please click here. Closing Date: 31 January 2024.

Community Ownership Fund – 19 Parish and Town Councils nationwide have again successfully secured around £4.5 million from the Community Ownership Funds.  The fund aims to support local people in saving, developing, or restoring local community assets, such as libraries, town and village halls, pubs, nature reserves, and garden projects. Round three of the fund launched in May 2023 and opened to Town and Parish Councils. The funding will be opened in four windows. The third window is open and will close on 31 January 2024. Find out how to apply