Practical advice, real stories, and a bit of fun for everyone working in parish, town, and community councils across England and Wales.
Hosted by John Fagan
with Tom Sykes
Tom Sykes — architect, founder of Common Works and former Head of Design at Transport for London — on getting positive outcomes from procurement. Thresholds, finding suppliers, writing the brief, scoring quality, and why you should never just take the cheapest bid.
with Julie King
Julie King on how to actually use the Big Yellow Book — Arnold-Baker on Local Council Administration, 14th edition. A practical workshop episode: have the book open in front of you and follow along through quorum, register of interests, churchyard grass cutting, and the six-month rule for councillor absence.
with Beckie Whitehouse
Beckie Whitehouse on managing stress, mastering your mindset, and getting through audit / year-end with energy to spare — from a parish clerk who's also a qualified life coach.
with Mark Tomkins
Mark Tomkins returns to show how to turn your council website from a legal tick-box into a genuine community engagement tool — signposting, social media, forms, and navigation that actually work.
with Millie Manton
Millie Manton explains why councils are getting it wrong with outdoor spaces for tweens and teens — and shares the research-backed design principles that actually get young people active.
with Eleanor Greene
Eleanor Greene shares practical advice on getting through your internal audit — covering remote vs face-to-face audits, Assertion 10, governance pitfalls, and the Daily Mail Test.
with Keira Lake, Nigel Hayes
Nigel Hayes and Keira Lake share how Dorchester Town Council made apprenticeships work — and map out the full career pathway from entry-level qualifications through to CiLCA and a degree.
with Mark Tomkins
Mark Tomkins breaks down what Assertion 10 of the Annual Governance Statement really means for parish and town councils, covering the key updates in the 2025 Practitioners' Guide.
Every guest answers a question from the previous guest, and leaves a new one for the next. See the chain so far — with every question, answer, and face behind them.
Follow the chain