It is a with a certain irony that the Secretary of State, Eric Pickles MP, with his huge media relations' resources behind him, has decided to take on the parish sector with its very meagre resources on the issue of talking to the press.

The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) is working closely with the Department of Communities and Local Government on issues around localism and we are quite pleased with the progress made so far, such as making it easier to create new parish councils, new neighbourhood planning and community rights powers.