A week in the life of

A week in the life of…A deputy town clerk

Deputy clerks, working for town councils, are busy people who keep the cogs of community life turning. But what do they actually do? Diss Town Council’s Deputy Town Clerk, Sonya French, walks us through a week in her shoes. “Being a deputy clerk is like being a town resource,” says Sonya. “We’re the link between higher tier authorities and local information. We might not always have the right answer, but with patience we can usually find it. Having the confidence and contacts to make that phone call or reach out to someone else to try and find an answer, is what makes the difference. And this is what I love about my job.” Here’s a little taste of what Sonya’s average week might look like:

Task 1. Site visit to the play park with our maintenance manager to check on the installation of our new, inclusive play equipment. While there, I noticed that the wet pour safety matting was not as we expected and had to organise for the contractors to come back to site to rectify it.

Task 2. Meet with Mervyn Lambert on site to sort out road closures, signs and health and safety barriers for our annual Diss Carnival procession.

Task 3. Meet with contractors at the cemetery for a “toolbox talk” ahead of works to stabilise the chapel walls and upgrade the chapel roof.

Task 4. Draft the minutes of a recent Executive Committee meeting to provide transparency and an accurate record of what was discussed at the meeting.

Task 5. Write a monthly update for the local newspaper, updating the public on what Diss Town Council is working on and has achieved.

Task 6. Meet with the Carnival Committee Chair to decide on acts, scope out maps of the park, and agree health and safety, risk and method statements for the District Council’s Safety Advisory Group.

Task 7. Meet with County/District Councillor Kiddie to decide where the new bunting will be installed ahead of this summer’s events.

Task 8. Meet with councillors to discuss the Sports Ground and Diss Youth & Community Centre (DYCC) and the improvement projects planned for the coming year.

Task 9. Draft new contracts and rental agreements for all our long-term hirers.

Task 10. Help the homeless man who came to our office asking for housing. Diss Town Council doesn’t own any accommodation, so we needed to contact the District Council who deal with housing and homelessness. The gentleman didn’t have a mobile telephone, so I called on his behalf to get the information and help needed to ensure his safety. I then went to the shop to buy him some food and drink to keep him going until the homelessness team came to attend and assess him.

Task 11. Help a resident who came to the office looking for her lost glove.

Task 12+: Manage staff queries that have arisen throughout the week. These included: Is there room on the market to allow for a new stall? Can we install a monument at the cemetery for a recent interment? What press articles need to go out for the upcoming Queen’s Jubilee event? Can you help me write a social media post for Carnival? When do I need to do the road closure application for upcoming events? Can you fix my laptop as it has stopped working and will not load anything?

And finally: Just as I was winding up for the week, I get a phone call about a problem with the scaffolding at the cemetery. So, on my way home, I put on my hard hat, don my scaffolder’s outfit, and go to the cemetery to try and sort it out.”

Find out more about the council at: www.diss.gov.uk/the-council. Want to meet the rest of the team? Find us at: www.diss.gov.uk/meet-the-team.