There was a meeting of Chawleigh Parish Council on Wednesday 29th September 2021 at 7.30pm held in the Chawleigh Village Hall.
Members Present: Parish Councillors Steve Godley (Chairman); Daphne Cockram; Jan Flavin; Henry Martin; Andrea Huxley; Stuart Swift.
Also Present: District Councillor Clive Eginton; County Councillor Margaret Squires
In attendance: Rob Martin, Locum Clerk
3 members of the general public.
.
MINUTES:
| 2122-80 | APOLOGIES Apologies from Cllr. Bert Batty were received and accepted. |
| 2122-81 | DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST (PECUNIARY AND NON-PECUNIARY) Non-pecuniary interests were declared by: – The Chairman in relation to anything on the playing field – Cllr. Cockram in relation to anything on the playing field – Cllr. Flavin whose husband was involved with the CCT |
| 2122-82 | MINUTES OF LAST MEETINGS On a proposal by Cllr. Martin, seconded by Cllr. Flavin, the minutes of the Parish Council meeting held on 25th August 2021 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman. |
| 2122-83 | COUNCIL REPORTS a) Clerk’s Report – the Clerk reported that: – The Parish Council had received an email from PKF Littlejohn, the External Auditors. The query was about the matters negatively reported on by Mel Bickell, the Internal Auditor on the Annual Internal Audit Report within the AGAR submitted for 2020/2021. The Locum Clerk had responded with a statement on each item, also explaining the Clerk circumstances that had been at the bottom of the problem. – Heather Penny, had notified the Clerk that she had bought the Earl of Portsmouth pub, and that she would be present at the meeting, which she was. – The Playing Field charity accounts were now fully up to date (ie to the year-ended 31/8/21) on the Charity Commission website. He explained that the activities of the charity need to exclude Parish Council involvement. There would be a need to do some work to ensure these are separated out with reference to the Parish Council being the Sole Trustee of the charity. – The playing field weed-spraying had now been done and a cheque was ready for signing at this meeting. – The section 106 money in hand, had now been spent, so its reserve would go down to zero, until the next tranche was received. – A reserve should be set up for the shop, equal to the bank account balance, as this is currently presented as part of the General Reserve? – Budget preparation was under way. Councillors are asked to feed back to him their ideas for the next year (2022/2023) and beyond. These would include: items coming up next year? Shop reserve? Other Reserves shown need to be reviewed for adequacy and purpose. – He was pleased that up-to-date financial information could be provided because he had online access to statements. – A VAT Return would be done as at 30 September 2021, to recover the tax incurred in the first half-year. – The Assets Register needs to be updated for the new equipment, such as the Table Tennis table, and the Insurance Policy needs adjusting for the same reason. – The current Insurance schedule has a noticeboard valued at £3,785 when it is on the asset register at £378, which will also be rectified. b) Chairman’s Report The Chairman had nothing to report. c) Other Councillor Reports – Cllr. Flavin questioned what was happening about the illegal entrance problem and District Cllr. Eginton responded by saying that it was still progressing through the legal team. – Cllr. Martin reiterated the concerns about the Butts Cottage highway drainage problem. The Locum Clerk had written to County Cllr. Squires explaining the situation and requesting something be done to ascertain what was causing the problem since jetting the drain had not been successful. Cllr. Squires would investigate what was going to be done about this problem. – Cllr. Cockram questioned the ownership of Butts Close and District Cllr. Eginton responded that it was not privately owned, but was the responsibility of Mid-Devon DC. She also pointed out that there was a shrub on the green area that was overgrowing onto the road. District Cllr. Eginton would take that matter up within MDDC following a DC walkabout in October. She had been asked whether the green space could be designated as a dog exercise area, but had referred the questioner to MDDC for their directions on this idea. |
| 2122-84 | CHAWLEIGH COMMUNITY TRUST (CCT) The Chairman reported that the CCT had been granted an extension to the planning application because it had been looking at adjusting the application to accommodate one of the properties being made suitable for disabled person occupation. |
| The Chairman declared the meeting out of session to allow updates from District and County Councillors and questions from any members of the public | |
| 2122-85 | PUBLIC AND OTHER BODIES’ SESSION The Chairman introduced the members of the public as Jenny, Alex and Heather Penny, who had attended to outline their current thoughts on the Earl of Portsmouth pub which they had recently purchased. Heather outlined the situation which was that the work needed to make the building suitable for business was more extensive that they had originally thought. They were therefore reluctantly going to have to move the potential opening date from the expected pre-Christmas to sometime in the new year. Their thought process was to ensure that the building was ready before opening rather than open early and have to close again later to complete works, because this would improve the chance of the project being viable. The parish council thanked the Penny family for undertaking the project and wished them well with the endeavour. The members of the public left the meeting District Council District Cllr. Eginton reported on a new Councillors code of Conduct that was now suggesting changes such that, amongst other things, the requirement with the current Pecuniary (involving financial benefit) Interest where councillors to have leave the room during discussions should also apply to those with a Personal Interest. MDDC are deciding during October whether it should apply this more onerous sanction in its Code of Conduct, or not. County Council County Cllr. Squires reported that there were more children needing care as a result of the pandemic, but there were not enough Social Workers available to deal with them both in Devon and nationally. |
| The Chairman declared the meeting open | |
| 2122-86 | DEFIBRILLATOR GROUP The Clerk needed to gain ratification from the Council in order to send the draft TORs to the Defibrillator Group. The TORs would ensure that the way to enable this to happen followed an acceptable process to ensure parish council regulations would be complied with. On a proposal from the Chairman, it was Agreed that the TORs be sent to the Defibrillator Group to help them focus on whether this would be suitable for them. |
| 2122-87 | FOOTPATH WORKS Cllr. Batty was not present, but had sent an email suggesting that only one of the two stiles identified should be replaced as the other one was in good order. Councillors believed however that both stiles should be replaced with gates and the Parish Council would request funding for both to be done. The Locum Clerk would email Cllr. Batty to ask if would do this on behalf of the Council. The Locum Clerk also stated that the expected additional £150 for the previous work had not yet been received from the County Council. He would chase this matter up with the PROW team to expedite this. |
| 2122-87 | DISABLED PARKING IN CHAWLEIGH Cllr. Flavin had been approached regarding the provision of dedicated disabled parking spaces within the village. The possibilities were discussed which varied dependent on where in the village they would be introduced. MDDC would be the appropriate point of contact within its estates whilst DCC were responsible on the highway. It was Agreed that the Locum Clerk would contact the County Council in the first instance, and Cllr. Squires would talk to Steve Tucker, to find out what was possible and where. In addition, Cllr. Eginton would discuss the matter following the village walkabout in October from a MDDC point of view. |
| 2122-88 | SHOP NOTICEBOARD The Chairman would get quotations and would work with the Clerk to arrange for this to be organised. Cllr. Squires indicated that there might be some community grant funds available towards this. The Locum Clerk would make a claim once the details were known and quotations received. |
| 2122-89 | WEBSITE Cllr. Huxley had drafted an Accessibility Statement and circulated it to councillors. This needed more work, which would require an accessibility audit to be carried out beforehand. She also observed that the upload of the agenda and minutes to the website required a cut and paste operation which meant that there was a need to re-format the transferred document. Cllr. Swift was concerned that, although there was a website available that had information on it, but he was not able to publish it yet as there was no accessibility statement available. After some discussion on the subject, it was Agreed that the Locum Clerk would look to arrange an audit and would join with Cllrs. Huxley and Swift, possibly by Zoom, to decide whether the agendas, minutes and other documents could be drawn up in such a way that there is no need to reformat information. It was also Agreed that the website should be published with the draft Accessibility Statement present, together with a notification that an audit was being arranged and the statement would be adjusted accordingly. |
| 2122-90 | ONLINE BANKING On a proposal by Cllr. Flavin, seconded by Cllr. Cockram, it was Resolved that the online card machine and related card would be passed to the Clerk so that he could make online payments, subject to an appropriate internal check process being in place. |
| 2122-91 | SHOP STORAGE The Chairman had attempted to get alternative prices for the type of container that had been agreed to at the previous meeting. This had been difficult because the demand for such office sized containers was very high and their availability limited. He suggested that the quotation from Devon Containers, which he had negotiated a reduction of £95 as the ‘build’ would be done free of charge, would be the best option. Delaying further would probably result in this option not being available, and a potential increase in the cost if they were. On a proposal by the Chairman, seconded by Cllr. Swift, it was Resolved to accept the single quotation from Devon Containers Ltd of £2,700 for supply and installation of the container. This would be financed from the Shop Fund Bank Account. |
| 2122-92 | BANK RECONCILIATION The attached Bank Reconciliation for the month ended 29th September 2021, was Noted. |
| 2122-93 | RECEIPTS & PAYMENTS TO DATE COMPARED TO BUDGET The attached statement of Receipts and Payments compared to Budgets was Noted. The Locum Clerk explained that consideration of this statement would be the first stage in the 2022/2023 budget considerations. He would produce a budget analysis for the next meeting, not just looking at next year’s budget, but also at the likely outturn for the current year, the reserves policy and balances and look forward 5 years to ensure that any decisions are made on a robust basis. |
| 2122-94 | RECEIPTS & PAYMENTS SCHEDULE On a proposal by the Chairman, seconded by Cllr. Flavin, the payments in the table below were unanimously Approved |
| PAYMENTS Payment to Services Amount £ Payment No. 2020/2021 Plandscape Weed Spraying 120.00 1551 RJ Martin Locum Clerk – August 2021 352.05 1552 RJ Martin Locum Clerk – Sept 2021 337.50 1553 Plandscape Grass Cutting 105.00 1554 Lilian Jones Caretaker – August 2021 142.27 1555 Lilian Jones Caretaker – Sept 2021 152.08 1555 Lilian Jones Caretaker – Key Cutting 9.00 1555 Lilian Jones Caretaker – Oct 2021 152.08 SO ICO Annual Fee 35.00 DD IONOS Website 2.40 DD IONOS Emails 2.40 DD ZOOM Access 14.99 DD RECEIPTS Receipt from Services Amount £ Method 2020/2021 Mid-Devon District Council Precept 6,500.00 BAC Chawleigh Shop Rent – August 21 170.76 BAC Chawleigh Shop Rent – September 21 213.45 BAC NatWest Bank Interest – August 21 0.03 BAC NatWest Bank Interest – September 21 0.03 BAC Payment items in bold will be made following the meeting. | |
| 2122-95 | PLANNING APPLICATIONS To consider the following Planning Applications and to agree comments: |
| Decisions made by Mid Devon District Council since the last meeting Reference 21/01245/FULL Location Land at NGR 270024 111478 (Southcott Farm) Chawleigh Devon Proposal Construction of silage pit Decision Permit | |
| 2122-96 | DATE OF NEXT MEETING The next meeting of Chawleigh Parish Council would be Wednesday 10th November 2021, at Chawleigh Village Hall at 7.30pm. |
| 2122-97 | CONFIDENTIAL MATTERS Section 1 paragraph 2 of the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 stipulates that a council may, by resolution, exclude the public from a meeting (whether during the whole or part of the proceedings) whenever publicity would be prejudicial to the public interest by reason of the confidential nature of the business to be transacted or for other special reasons stated in the resolution and arising from the nature of that business or of the proceedings. The Council Resolved to close the meeting to the public and press on the basis of confidential personal details that need to be considered. |
| 2122-98 | MEETING CLOSURE The public section of the meeting closed at 8.51pm. |
Signed:………………………
Print:…………………………
Date:…………………………
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