A NEW parish council has started as it means to go on, with 30 members of the public attending its first full meeting.

A sea-change at Maker with Rame Parish Council saw nine new councillors elected earlier this month, seven of whom came in under the banner of INFORM (Independents for Rame and Maker). Two previously sitting councillors were re-elected, along with two new independent councillors.

INFORM campaigned on a platform of bringing openness to the Council’s operations and engaging as many local people as possible in local politics. The turnout for the first contested parish council elections since 2004 was 67%.

“It’s really sparked the imagination down here,” says new chairman of the Council John Weale.

By his own admission, the new members are inexperienced. Cllr Weale says they’re basing their approach on the Nolan principles – the seven standards for those working in the public sector – of selflessness, integrity, accountability, objectivity, openness, honesty and leadership.

It was too early, he said, to set out plans for the coming civic term, as the Council first wanted to get its regular routines and processes in order. One of the first jobs will be to recruit a new parish clerk.

“INFORM did a good job of motivating and getting people interested in local politics again,” he said.

“We now need to be given time to work out how we take the community’s wishes forward.

“There’s none of us that has much experience, so we’re starting from basic principles. We’ve got to work with the community and deliver what they want – I think that’s a wonderful position to be in.”

The new chairman, a former submariner who now works part-time for a defence contractor, said that the Cornwall Association of Local Councils (CALC) had been extremely supportive.

“CALC is giving that confidence, so there is a structure there for us to lean back into,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do, but none of us is fazed by that.”

Cllr Weale said his attitude was that INFORM had achieved its agenda of changing the council, but that he now wanted members to see themselves as one body of independents.

“If we turned round and said we are an INFORM council, I would dispute that,” he said.

“My aim is to move forward as Maker with Rame Parish Council. We all live in the parish and we’re going to work together to work out what the community wants us to do – I don’t think that’s INFORM business, it’s parish council business.”

INFORM was started by a group of people chatting over coffee who wanted to see a change in the way Maker with Rame Parish Council did things, and greater involvement by local people.

Among the founding group are Fleur Young, Malcolm Cross and Jette Johst – and they set out to recruit candidates from across the political spectrum and of all ages.

Malcolm and Jette were the driving force behind the Rame Protection Group, which has just mounted a successful judicial review, overturning Cornwall Council’s decision to award planning permission for a new house within the AONB to a farmer, who is also the former chair of the parish council.

“There was a lot of local anger over the planning approval and also over the unwillingness to countenance any kind of climate initiatives,” said Malcolm.

Atrustee of the Rame Conservation Trust and previously a parish councillor for a brief time, Malcolm said he had left the Council after just a few months because he “found the culture so difficult to cope with”.

“It wasn’t a friendly environment,” he said.

“I felt that having already had that opportunity, and stepped away, it wasn’t appropriate for me to stand this time. I wanted other people to have a voice, I just stayed in the background.”

INFORM had registered as a minor political party because there were some advantages to this, including the ability to have a distinctive logo, a factor Malcolm feels was part of the success of the group at the ballot box.

He said that INFORM would carry on as a support group for councillors who wanted practical advice.

“One of the things we are very keen on is to respond to local needs and issues more openly, the other is to try and look elsewhere across the country for inspired ideas,” he said.

“We won’t be in a position to tell any of the councillors what to do but we can still put up a proposal.”