Welcome to the first edition of the monthly bulletin from your new HAPTC team Nikki Bugden & Katie Eyre.

It has been a busy month of orientation, training and planning and we would like to extend our thanks to Carina Helmn, Sue Campbell, and our Executive team for ensuring that there is as smooth a transition as possible for both us and our members. As experienced clerks and ‘frequent users’ of HAPTC and its member services we are both delighted to be in post and look forward to working with you and your council teams.

If you would like to know more about HAPTC don’t forget we are hosting our AGM next Wednesday (more details below).

Over the course of the next few months, we will be investigating how we communicate and engage with our members. With the approach of significant change to all of our relationships at District, Borough and County level as we navigate Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) we will be working hard on building connections at all levels to set firm foundations on which to build our future inclusion, engagement and partnership working with the new Unitary Authorities.

As your membership organisation we warmly welcome your feedback so any comments that you have or ideas that you would like us to consider then please do let us know!

Nikki & Katie

HAPTC AGM 14 July 10am Zoom Agenda

Open to all HAPTC member Councillors, Clerks and staff.

Essential: please RSVP to nikki@haptc.org.uk if you would like to attend.

Guest Speakers:

Let’s Talk Digital AGAR  Tuesday 20^th October  11am (1hr)

Learn about the new digital year end submission

Let’s Talk Resilience  Thursday 8^th October 12pm (1hr)

Free session for members in support of World Mental Health Day

HCC/HAPTC Annual Meeting Tuesday 1 December, 2-5pm (hybrid event) 

MHCLG decision target date summer 2026 

The Government is progressing plans to reorganise Hertfordshire’s councils into new unitary authorities, replacing the current county and district system. A public consultation ran from February to March 2026 and has now closed. Three options (2, 3 or 4 unitary councils) are under consideration. If approved, new councils would be elected in 2027 and take full responsibility from April 2028. Our new webpage on LGR can be found here.

Free trees

for residents and community groups https://hertfordshire.gov.uk/yourtree.

Councils are also asked to inform your local schools about a separate initiative where they can apply for trees and hedgerow at a larger scale for their grounds: Email: emma.cantu@hertfordshire.gov.uk

Consultations

Updated Speed Management Strategy Consultation| Hertfordshire County Council Deadline Monday 27th July

Please answer “About you” to indicate the organisation or perspective you are representing.

Please share the link through your networks, newsletters, social media channels.

Civil Society Covenant – GOV.UK Deadline

As you may be aware work is ongoing to coproduce a Civil Society Covenant for Hertfordshire. HAPTC are working with the steering group.

This project has been driven by a central government initiative to ‘re-set’ the relationship between government (at all levels) and Civil Society. The group are particularly focussed on how statutory and VCFSE organisations work together. HCC is co-producing the Civil Society Covenant with its voluntary sector partners at Herts Community Solutions and would welcome your views as a statutory body. Please complete the survey on behalf of your council as a stautory body  to help shape the work of this group Partner engagement on the Civil Society Covenant – Fill in form

We are currently reviewing our training programme and will soon be launching our series of ‘Lunch and Learns’  Details to follow but in the meantime all training can be found in our monthly training bulletin or on our website Training & Events 

If there is a training area that you are particularly interested in but can’t find please let Katie know (katie@haptc.org.uk)

Martyn’s Law Webinar

The Home Office will be holding a webinar between 14:30 and 15:30 on 20 July 2026 via Teams to provide more information on the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, commonly known as Martyn’s Law.

Joining Link: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/337469347070855?p=tVjyoO7oVWW0i5OUlo

Meeting ID: 337 469 347 070 855

Passcode: gu2X6j62

Please join us in congratulating  Jenni Thompson, Deputy Clerk  Knebworth Parish Council on recently passing her CiLCA

If you can help with any of the following, please respond

direct, no need to copy us in:

Publication of Councillor Addresses

https://www.nalc.gov.uk/resource/local-authorities-are-no-longer-required-to-publish-members-home-addresses.html

Model Standing Orders

NALC launches review of Model Standing Orders. Please help to ensure this essential resource continues to meet the needs of the sector bu completing the survey Survey link.