Pod-on-the-Parish

Martyn's Law sounds daunting — but for most parish and town councils the response is far smaller than the panic suggests. Alex Jay of Little Green Button cuts through the jargon on who's in scope, the tiers, and what a...

Employment law's biggest shake-up in a generation is here. HR specialist James Corrigan explains what the Employment Rights Act 2025 means for parish, town and community councils — from six-month unfair dismissal rights...

<p>Eleanor Greene is back — this time to walk you through the bit that comes after the AGAR submission: the external audit stage. In this episode, Eleanor covers what external auditors actually look for, why one in...

Eleanor Greene — returning from Episode 3 — on what happens after you submit the AGAR: how to navigate external audit queries, explain variances, handle Assertion 10, and come out with a clean sign-off rather than a...

<p>Most clerks deal with planning applications, precepts, and the occasional difficult councillor. Gale Pettifer deals with all of that — plus donkeys cracking open wheelie bins, cars floating down the village high...

Dr Gale Pettifer — Clerk & Proper Officer at Brockenhurst Parish Council and a practicing commoner with ponies roaming the New Forest — on what it's really like to manage a council where the residents include...

<p>Stepping into a role that involves public money can feel overwhelming — especially when local council finance comes with its own rules, "proper practices" and terminology that can read like a different language. This...

Hannah Driver — Head Accountant at Scribe and an eight-year veteran of town and parish council finance — strips the jargon out of local council accounting: the cashbook that underpins everything, receipts-and-payments...

<p>This one breaks the usual format. Instead of a single guest, we brought together a panel of people who know the sector — and the tech — to ask a deceptively simple question: if AI keeps developing at its current...

Something a bit different: a seven-strong panel on where AI takes parish and town councils over the next decade — automation, the changing clerk role, guardrails and hallucinations, data and GDPR, and keeping the human...

<p>Every pound in a parish or town council's reserves represents a future investment in the community — playground repairs, village hall upkeep, the project a clerk hasn't yet thought of. Most councils default to a...

Jamie Charters — Client Relationship Manager at CCLA Investment Management and a 25-year lifer in the public-sector investment space — on what to do with the reserves. Why diversification beats a single bank account...

<p>Procurement doesn't have to be dreadful — and Tom Sykes makes a compelling case that it's actually one of the most important relationship-building exercises a parish or town council ever runs. Tom is the architect...

<p>This one's different. The episode opens with a heads-up from John: don't listen to this in the car or walking the dog — it's a hands-on workshop, and you'll need the 14th edition of Arnold-Baker on Local Council...

<p>Beckie Whitehouse joins the podcast for a deliberately different kind of year-end episode — not the AGAR-and-bank-rec mechanics, but the bit nobody talks about: keeping your head, your boundaries, and your evenings...