Departing Holbeach Parish Council chairman calls for external review or for authority to be disbanded

An external review of a troubled parish council is needed to tackle its problems – or the community needs to disband it – according to the departed chairman.

Clive Turner was at the head of Holbeach Parish Council for less than a year before resigning last week ahead of a meeting in which a vote of no confidence in him had been scheduled.

Mr Turner said he feels an external body should be brought in to review the council – which is now seeking its fifth chairman in four years – and to step in and run the authority following a range of internal issues.

Alternatively Mr Turner, who was unopposed when he was voted in as chairman in May last year, suggested the community comes together to vote to disband the council and hold fresh elections.

During the January meeting, Coun Rick Stevens said that he did not like how Mr Turner was ‘dealing with things outside the council’, while Coun Peter Savory pointed to the ex-chairman’s lack of experience as a councillor.

In an email to this paper, Mr Turner said: “I’m sure many have differing views on this, but in my view there has to be an external review completed, perhaps by South Holland District Council.

“The number of councillors has in recent years been low. Few people have volunteered to serve on the parish council, if they do, few remain for long.

“An external body to investigate the issues with the council needs to occur, perhaps the remaining empty seats are filled with the district councillors and Holbeach Parish Council is then effectively run by that body for a period of time with a locum clerk assisting.

“Alternatively, the community raise the necessary paperwork and signatures to disband the council and elect totally new members, if they would come forward. As they now seek a new chair, someone with the right values and integrity should be chosen very carefully.”

“A parish council’s responsibilities are clearly laid out (in the Nolan Principles) but in order to do more for the community many now seek to offer events, and contribute in other ways. There’s nothing wrong in this in my opinion but it should be managed carefully, generally these events are well received and bring the community closer together.

“Liaison with other local committees which seek to and do offer events though is limited, there’s an element of protectionism about ‘their’ events perhaps. Wouldn’t it be great if they/we could all work together. Perhaps a utopia too far.

“In my view, it could and should be very rewarding volunteering for the council. It’s not difficult, closer and more frequent communication with the community, closer ties with other committees, a genuine desire to relate, respect and serve the public, greater internal respect would all help to begin to resolve these issues.

“Sadly though I’m not optimistic that this will happen yet but will watch closely.”

Mr Turner said it was apparent that there were a number of issues when he joined the parish council in 2022 which included an ‘almost unwillingness to volunteer information’.

He says there has been turmoil between councillors and staff and that ‘personal attacks’ have been sent for review to monitoring officers.

He added: “When I was voted chair of the council, and before, a number of people said I must be mad, and hoped I was resilient. Generally I am resilient (not mad), however there’s a fine line perhaps between that and it being very unwise (or mad) to continue.

“It’s a volunteer role and effectively full time should anyone be considering it in the future. For some, balancing work and council responsibilities can be a challenge and frustrating as they want to perform well for the parish.

“This is not a broad brush approach, there are some genuinely very nice people on the council whom I have respect for, who work hard to deliver to the community offering their time free, and organising various activities, some longer serving members’ intentions being generally misconceived perhaps.”

Holbeach Hurn ward member and leader of the district council Nick Worth said it was a shame that that there had been a vote of no confidence in the chair.

He added: “From what little I saw Clive did a good job of chairing meetings but I obviously don’t know what goes on behind the scenes. I am not about to interfere in the parish council, they are a statutory body in their own right. They have received mediation in the past.

“As a district we will only get involved if asked and that is as a last resort.

“However, for the good of Holbeach let’s hope they can work together for the betterment of the town and my door is always open if they want to talk things through.”

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