Public Affairs Test

We’ve been lucky on our course to have guest speakers and visits to meetings of both our County Council and the Safer Neighbourhood Committee in the past month or so, and I believe these experiences have helped me gain a better understanding of the differences between District and County Councils.

Local government can be formed in different ways with the most common being the two tiered system where the responsibility for services is divided between District and County Councils. Sometimes you can have single tier councils or Unitary Authorities, responsible for all local authority, services and functions such as in Southampton; in all there are 55 Unitary Authorities across the country.

The total number of people employed by local authorities is about 2 million with about 133 billion pounds spent a year. The councillors in these authorities are responsible for matters such as land use (i.e. planning applications), refuse collection and leisure facilities; they agree the local authority budget and make constitutional decisions. They are elected by local people and stand for a 4 year term. When talking about this it is important to remember that this is local government, almost separate from central government in operation and often politics. The only connection to central government is the money.

In the case of Winchester, Hampshire County Council is based in the City and they run the schools, they deal with land use and employ over 40,000 staff, that’s a lot of people and a lot of money. In fact, when we were visited by Kate Ball, the Council’s Communications Manager, she told us that the council has a huge budget of £1.8 billion for the whole of Hampshire, but when you’re covering 500,000 households with 1.4 million residents then maybe it doesn’t seem so much. In comparison we heard from Kelsie Learney, the Leader of Winchester City Council, that their budget is a comparatively small £12.5 million. As well as collecting the rubbish and other things you’d expect from a local authority, they also run the car parks, have health inspectors, distribute housing benefits and look after their estimated 6000 council houses. They run a leader and executive model with the cabinet making the decisions, much like central government, but although the cabinet make the final decisions, policies are set by the whole council. At the moment in Winchester the City Council has a Liberal Democrat leader and cabinet whilst the County Council is Conservative. This would be a problem with any county and city council but in Winchester, the tension is doubled as they’re in the same town. Decisions on issues like the highways can be contentious because although the County Council looks after the highways, the City Council runs the parking. As Kelsie Learney said though, whatever the political issues, they are still civil with each other as they are both aiming to improve the area, despite their differences.

In conclusion, District Councils and County Councils have very similar functions. They both exist to serve the public and do the best for their constituents. County Councils operate on a larger level, affecting the decisions of the district and city councils, but without the district councils, the county councils would surely be too disassociated from the general public to act in their best interests.

Radio Script - Final Bulletin

So here it is, Merry Christmas... wait, that's not right. This is actually my final piece of radio for the year and is in fact just the previous three that have posted right here on this blog all edited together nicely. Well it's been fun doing the radio module, going out and trying to get stories... failing. Trying to edit and record your copy... generally succeeding. But now we're done, and I leave you with the script and the final bulletin itself in YouTube form.


Hampshire County Council has agreed to change the way social care is paid for in the area because the current system is thought to be unfair.

In a meeting this past week it was agreed that those who need social care will all have their own individualised budget tailored to their needs. The new plan would ensure that people contribute to their own care based on their ability to pay, not the services they choose.

The new policy will mean an average increase of between twenty eight and thirty six pounds per week for those affected. With heavy cuts to the council’s budget this plan would mean less contribution from the council to certain users of social care whilst others who are less able to pay would receive a larger grant.

Winchester's tourist information centre are pleased to have won an award for being the best tourist centre of the year in the south east region.

The centre's team leader, Sarah Harfield talked to us about the award and what they do for tourism and the community.

AUDIO INSERT NAME: TOURISM AWARD
INWORDS: We try and provide
OUTWORDS: from other TIC's
Duration: 0'15"

The centre is also in to the last four in the national finals with the results being announced on April 15th in Birmingham.

The Safer Neighbourhoods Council aims to promote the plight of Winchester's homeless though the nationwide Spare Change for Real Change campaign.

There will be collection boxes placed in the shops and pubs in the town centre.

Winchester's Trinity Centre which aims to give support and care to the homeless and those in need are giving the campaign their full backing.

We talked to Development Manager Sue McKenna who let us know more.

Audio Insert NAME: SPARE CHANGE AUDIO
INWORDS: Instead of just giving
OUTWORDS: difference to homeless people.
Duration: 0'12"




Thank you for listening if you did, and if you didn't, why not?

Until next time. Stay Classy Internet.

EDIT: Oops. Massive video. Well it goes over the borders but as long as we both don't worry about it or look at it for too long I'm sure everything will be fine.

Radio Script - Social Care

This is the script for the first part of the Radio assessment. I took the story from a Hampshire County Council meeting that we visited as part of our course.


Hampshire County Council has agreed to change the way social care is paid for in the area because the current system is thought to be unfair.

In a meeting this past week it was agreed that those who need social care will all have their own individualised budget tailored to their needs. The new plan would ensure that people contribute to their own care based on their ability to pay, not the services they choose.

The new policy will mean an average increase of between twenty eight and thirty six pounds per week for those affected. With heavy cuts to the council’s budget this plan would mean less contribution from the council to certain users of social care whilst others who are less able to pay would receive a larger grant.


There it is; the next part of the assessment will be uploaded (with audio unless there are any technical hitches) by next Thursday.

Until Next Time. Stay Classy Internet.