2018/07/05
Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held on Wednesday 13th June 2018.
Minutes of the meeting of the Parish
Council, held on Wednesday 13th June 2018 in the Village Hall, at
7.30pm.
1. Apologies. Cllrs. Pat Lennard, Katrina Maxwell, Terry Oxman and Ray Triggol.
Also apologies from: Cllrs. David Hall (Somerset County Council (SCC)) and Liz Perry (Sedgemoor District Council (SDC)).
Present: Cllrs. Martin Allen (Chairman), Martin Baker, Brian Gale and Derek Alder (SDC).
Also present: the Clerk (Mr C.N Fry), together with twenty-six members of the public.
2. Minutes of the previous meeting of 9th May 2018 were taken as read, approved and signed.
3. Matters arising from the minutes.
4. Somerset County Council report. None.
5. Sedgemoor District Council report. None.
6. Planning. No new Planning Applications.
7. Correspondence.
9. Finance.
Balances after allowing for all payments made:
Four cheques were signed as follows:
Direct Debit for £36.29 to water2business was due out on 1st July (allotment water supply).
The first tranche of the 2018/2019 Precept of £3748.00 has been received.
The Clerk advised that the necessary paperwork was now in the hands of the accountants carrying out the external audit.
10. Any Other Business, including date of next meeting.
There being no other business the meeting was declared closed at 9.40pm.
1. Apologies. Cllrs. Pat Lennard, Katrina Maxwell, Terry Oxman and Ray Triggol.
Also apologies from: Cllrs. David Hall (Somerset County Council (SCC)) and Liz Perry (Sedgemoor District Council (SDC)).
Present: Cllrs. Martin Allen (Chairman), Martin Baker, Brian Gale and Derek Alder (SDC).
Also present: the Clerk (Mr C.N Fry), together with twenty-six members of the public.
2. Minutes of the previous meeting of 9th May 2018 were taken as read, approved and signed.
3. Matters arising from the minutes.
- Affordable Housing. Esther
Carter and Nick Draper from the Affordable Housing Development Team
(AFHDT) at SDC were present, and Esther addressed the meeting, after
which she took questions. Chedzoy’s Housing Needs Assessment (HNA),
carried out in November 2017, has been given an analytical assessment
of each individual respondent’s housing needs. At that time, six
households were determined to be in housing need, two required some
form of affordable rented accommodation and four required some form of
affordable home ownership.
The next Local Plan, now awaiting a decision of the Secretary of State (possibly by the autumn of 2018), has re-designated Chedzoy as a 'Tier 4' settlement, previously designated as 'unsustainable'.
Affordable housing aims to allow people access to a suitable home at a price they can afford, where they were born/grew up/have support/social networks or work. New homes under the scheme will have a “local lettings policy”, something existing council homes do not have. The ratio of affordable homes against market rate homes in any development has not yet been determined but may be of the order of 40%/60%. A minimum of six and a maximum of twelve affordable homes is envisaged in the case of Chedzoy.
There were many questions from the floor, which were (sometimes) robustly put to Esther.
It is now up to the Parish Council to decide if it wishes to proceed and the first question it has to consider is:
“Does Chedzoy Parish Council agree to tackle the affordable housing shortfall in the parish?”
The Chairman suggested any decision on the way forward should be considered at the next meeting on 23rd July 2018.
- Village Agent. As Vanda
Squire was not present this will be put off to a future meeting.
- GDPR seminar report. The
Clerk reported on this and said data should be handled extremely
carefully by the council, with particular areas of care being data held
in respect of cemeteries, allotments, payroll (where this was
out-sourced) and planning applications (where a good deal of data is
held- and with the Local Council archiving these there is no need to
keep them at Parish Council level once a decision has been made). It is
also good practice not to name parishioners in the minutes. Thankfully,
there is a new clause in the legislation exempting Parish Councils from
the need to employ a GDPR officer. The Clerk’s computer is password
protected.
- Parish Bridleways. The
parishioner who wrote in about poor state of the parish bridleways was
present at the meeting, although Cllr. Katrina Maxwell was not able to
attend. A discussion took place with the Chairman sympathising with the
problems of gateways being sometimes locked or tied shut, giving
walkers of horse rider’s problems of access which should be available
to all. It was decided to defer further discussion until the next
meeting when Cllr Maxwell could report on her findings.
- Bus Shelter Garden. The Clerk reported the resignation of the caretaker of the garden. Cllr Martin Baker kindly offered to have a look at it. The Clerk will reply thanking the former caretaker for all his work over the years.
4. Somerset County Council report. None.
5. Sedgemoor District Council report. None.
6. Planning. No new Planning Applications.
7. Correspondence.
- Fingerpost Restoration Project Training Course. The Clerk read an email from SCC (www.Fingerposts@somerset.gov.uk) who advise that they are currently co-ordinating a project aimed at surveying and refurbishing all historic fingerpost signs within the county. Training is being offered to volunteers at North Petherton Community Centre on Friday 15th June 2018 between 9.30 and 13.30. Noted.
- Work Place Pension. With the Clerk recently reaching the age of 65, he had discovered that, as he is not already in a scheme, then he need not be automatically enrolled. Tailored Auto Enrolment has advised that if the Parish Council terminates the agreement the auto enrolment system already in place will be lost.
- He asked the members to bear with the situation as he has not completed investigations with Legal and General (the insurance company holding the (unused) policy), to see if it could be “frozen” for future use in case of need, and should a new Clerk require enrolment. In the meantime the £13.20 monthly fee should not be cancelled.
- New Moto-Cycle Track. The Clerk has received an email from someone advising that she has been told by a Chedzoy resident of a new track having been built and used. She says she has seen activity in a field on the right hand side of Chedzoy Lane when looking down from near Mole Valley Farmers. The Chairman has been unable to establish where the site is. The Clerk will reply to the email.
- Merchant Navy Day - 3rd September 2018. We have again been encouraged to mark this by flying the Red Ensign. Noted.
9. Finance.
Balances after allowing for all payments made:
| Lloyds Bank Current Account | £4788.59 |
| Lloyds Bank Deposit Account | £2.48 |
| Cambridge Building Society Easy Access Account | £12318.53 |
Four cheques were signed as follows:
| Number | Amount | Payee | For |
| 601 | £25.00 | Somerset Association of Local Councils (SALC) | General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) seminar fee |
| 602 | £304.94 | Mr C.N Fry | May/June net salary |
| 603 | £119.38 | Mr C.N Fry | Expenses |
| 604 | £114.40 | HMRC | PAYE Apr/May/June |
Direct Debit for £36.29 to water2business was due out on 1st July (allotment water supply).
The first tranche of the 2018/2019 Precept of £3748.00 has been received.
The Clerk advised that the necessary paperwork was now in the hands of the accountants carrying out the external audit.
10. Any Other Business, including date of next meeting.
- 'Parish Council' Noticeboard. The
Clerk said the current village noticeboard at the junction of Front
Street and Higher Road was well used and often congested and there were
times when he found it extremely difficult to post the notices which
are required by statute to be on public view. He was given permission
to investigate and report back on the matter.
- Future meeting dates. The
Clerk suggested it would be better to now go back to holding meetings
on Mondays, as the hall had become free, and that in future no meeting
should be held in August or January (as is the case at Stawell), with
meetings being scheduled and advertised for the whole year ahead on,
say, the 3rd Monday of each other month. This was agreed.
There being no other business the meeting was declared closed at 9.40pm.
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