GOVERNMENT has ordered that all parish councils sign up to a new Code of Conduct.

The code will require every unpaid volunteer councillor to register their interests, including employment, business and property, and gifts or hospitality over £25. They also have to disclose any family interests and withdraw from a meeting if those interests are discussed.

There's even an article widening the code's scope to cover conduct of members outside their council function.

Enforceable as law, the code imposes a duty on parish councillors to inform on actions of other councillors in writing, with all infringements investigated by a new national body - the Standards Board for England.

A final deadline for signing the code passes this Sunday. Seats are stake on those councils that have not done so by then.

What happens next depends on Whitehall; dissenters could be forced from office and replaced by code-friendly co-opted members or fresh elections called at parish expense, provided candidates have signed.

After much argument, and not a little animosity, most of the county's town and parish authorities have agreed to the code - like Belmont Rural.

Kingsland is among the handful holding out, believing the code to be both draconian and intrusive.

Each explains to Hereford Times readers what the issues are as they see them.

Other councils have been hit by resignations as members decline to sign.

Herefordshire Council is responsible for administering compliance to the code.

Robert Rogers, head of its independent standards committee says here that he's willing to 'go to the wire' in negotiating settlements with the rebels.

All this because Government wants to overhaul the lowest tier of local authority, claiming the new code is little different to the rules by which parish councils currently operate.

A Conservative motion to strike down the code was debated in Parliament on March 19 this year. It fell to a Labour majority.