Draft Minutes 2024 May 14

May 18, 2024 | Minutes

The Minutes can  be read below or downloaded here: MN_2024_May BPC Draft Minutes

DRAFT Minutes of the Meetings of Blackawton Parish Council held on
Tuesday 14 May 2024 at 7:30 p.m. in St Michael’s Church

Present: Parish & South Hams District Cllr Rake (Chair), Parish Cllrs Oughton (Vice-Chair), Coe, Haddow, Luckens, Mardon, and Thomas were present, as was A Thom (Clerk). There were five members of the public present for the Open Forum and two stayed for the Meetings.

a. Open Forum

i) Blackawton Playing Fields Committee

The incoming role holders introduced themselves. They discussed work being done to maintain the playground. Substantial and costly works will be required within the next few years. Planning for those works and the possible means of funding, including Greenslades S106 and grants, were discussed.

b. Councillors Forum

No matters raised.

Annual Meeting of the Parish Council

  1. Election of Chair

It was unanimously resolved to re-elect Cllr Rake to be Chair of BPC.

  1. Chair’s Signature of Declaration of Acceptance of Office

Cllr Rake signed the Declaration.

  1. Election of Vice-Chair

It was unanimously resolved to re-elect Cllr Oughton to be Vice-Chair of BPC.

  1. Vice-Chair’s Signature of Declaration of Acceptance of Office

Cllr Oughton signed the Declaration.

  1. Apologies for absence

All Parish Cllrs present. Apologies for absence received from Devon County Cllr Brazil.

  1. Ordinary Meetings of the Parish Council

It was confirmed that ordinary meetings of BPC will continue to take place on the first Tuesday of each month excluding August unless that Tuesday follows a public holiday, in which case the meeting will be held the following Tuesday.

  1. Appointments to special areas of responsibility

It was decided that the role of Footpath Warden will be shared between Cllrs Coe and Haddow. BPC will request that the current Tree Warden remain in the role if they are willing to do so. The appointment of a Snow Warden was deferred. BPC will confirm the location of a grit spreader and any stores of grit already supplied by DCC.

  1. BPC’s Delegations of Authority to the Clerk

It was resolved to confirm the current Delegations document.

  1. BPC Standing Orders

The Standing Orders approved 9 April 2024 were noted.

  1. BPC Financial Regulations

The proposed Financial Regulations, based on the new 2024 Model Regulations, were discussed. It was resolved to approve with three estimates to be sought for purchases valued between £500 and £3,000, the Clerk able to purchase items valued below £500 under delegated authority and able to authorise emergency expenditure of up to £2,000.

  1. Arrangements for Insurance Cover

The three year agreement which ends 3/5/26 was noted.

  1. Review of the Council’s Subscriptions to other bodies, Contracts, & Direct Debit mandates

The current arrangements were noted.

  1. Review of the Council’s Bank signatory mandates

It was resolved to add Cllr Mardon to the Mandate, and once that change is implemented to remove Cllr Coe.

  1. Approval of the list of due payments which arise on a regular basis as the result of a continuing contract, statutory duty, or obligation, to be authorised by the Council and paid in response to correct invoices

It was resolved to approve the list.

  1. Review of the list of the Council’s Policies and Procedures

Cllr Rake said that it was important that BPC establish a Personnel Committee. The Clerk noted that the most important core documents have been reviewed and are in place but the review of other core documents, such as the Publication Scheme, are overdue, an Equality & Diversity Policy remains to be created, and the requirement related the new Website Accessibility Standard from October 2024 needs to be assessed.

  1. 2024 Statement of Internal Controls

The Statement was considered and approved.

  1. 2024 Risk Register Review

The Register was discussed and approved.

May Meeting of the Parish Council

  1. Apologies

All Parish Cllrs present. Apologies for absence received from DCC Cllr Brazil.

  1. Report from Devon County Council Councillor

Cllr Brazil’s written report was read:
For the county it has been a difficult year around the finances. The three big spending departments of children’s, adult’s and road maintenance continue to struggle. Costs rise at an unsustainable rate and as a result services suffer. The most obvious for us all to see is the state of our roads.

The county has now entered into a ‘Safety Valve’ agreement with government. This is to deal with the large deficit in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) budget. The debt is forecast to be over £200 million by April 25. Government have agreed to provide £95 million over 8 years, with county having to find the rest. This will be a mixture of reserves and further revenue savings within the budget. What concerns me is we have little idea about how they are expecting to stop the annual overspend in the SEND budget. It’s running at about £40 million a year so massive changes are needed.

The devolution deal has been agreed by both the County and now Torbay. It will head up to Westminster for various bureaucratic processes before becoming law in the Autumn. Whilst I am a massive advocate of devolution, this is not it. I can’t get too worked up about it though, as a new a government at Westminster will no doubt completely rewrite the deal including Plymouth.

Council tax went up by 5%. 3% for the base budget and 2% ring fenced for adult services. In reality, with cuts to central government grants over many years there probably wasn’t any choice.

  1. Declarations of Interest

Cllr Coe noted that she has worked on the project to establish a Community Composting site in her role as Parish Councillor. Going forward she will be involved in running the site with Sustainable Blackawton.

  1. Minutes of Previous Meetings

It was resolved approve Minutes of the Meeting on held 9 April 2024 and the Annual Parish Meeting on 16 April 2024.

  1. Report from South Hams District Council Councillor

Cllr Rake reported that the Household Support Fund to assist with cost of living has been reopened. It is a one-off payment and the previous grant had a high uptake.

  1. Planning Applications

    1. SHDC Planning Decisions

The following decision was noted:

  • 0456/24/LBC Larcombe Farm East Allington TQ9 7QB. Listed Building Consent for emergency structural remedial repairs on historic western stone gable wall of the attached barn at Larcombe Farm, detailed structural investigations undertaken as part of ongoing, previously approved works, have determined that upper section of wall is structurally unstable and at risk of collapse, structural engineer has advised that the only way of suitably resolving this issue is for upper part of wall to be carefully taken down before being reinstated. Conditional Approval.

    1. Review of New Applications

The following current application was noted:

  • 1379/24/CLP North Millcombe Farm Blackawton TQ9 7AE. Certificate of lawfulness for proposed use for construction of dwelling following commencement of works on site.

For information only.

  1. BPC Public Statement about delayed Completion & Handover of Community owned assets and Business Units in the French Furze Development

It was resolved to delegate to the Clerk authority to write BPC’s public statement in consultation with Cllr Rake.

  1. Finance

    1. Update on Current Financial Position

The available Reports were noted. The Clerk advised that the bank accounts are not reconciling at 30 April due to an incorrect payment to HMRC. The total funds were £62,564.19 with an unearmarked general fund of £19,715.77.

    1. Payments & Receipts

It was resolved to authorise the following payments:

  • Repainting the lettering on the Blackawton War Memorial, £100.20

  • Lengthsman, December to March 2024, £345.00

  • Lengthsman, April 2024, £483.00

  • Society of Local Council Clerks membership, £83.30 for 24/25 (pro-rata with Dittisham PC)

  • Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management membership fee, £100.00

  • Clerk April Expenses Reimbursement, £26.19 (to be reduced by 7.50 refund)

  • SHDC, Uncontested Election 2023, £122.70

  • Cemetery Frequent cuts 1 April, 15 April, and 29 April 2024, £324.00

  • Cemetery Biodiversity cut 1 April 2024, £42.00

The following payment made since the April meeting was noted:

  • Information Commissioner’s Office, (compulsory) annual fee, £35.00 by direct debit

The following receipt was noted:

  • Precept, first instalment, £11,500.00

  1. Grant Requests

    1. Blackawton Playing Fields Committee for a Tennis Courts Parish Website Page

It was resolved to authorise a grant to create a separate Community page for the Tennis Courts, expected to be £33.

    1. Blackawton Parish Church to Support Publication of the Beacon

It was resolved to authorise a grant of £100.

  1. BPC Maintenance Contract

It was agreed to advertise a contract, with a term to December 2025 and optional two year extension and highways safety awareness training provided, in June Beacon, the Dartmouth Chronicle and other sites for a decision in the July meeting of BPC.

  1. Community Composting Planning Application

It was resolved to agree to the request for BPC to submit the application on behalf of the community. The site will be run by Sustainable Blackawton.

  1. Councillors Planning and Review Session

It was agreed that Cllr Rake will work on initial organisational details.

  1. Community Website Access

It was resolved to grant a resident administrator access to Community and Events pages to update them.

  1. Update on Asset of Community Value Application to SHDC for The George Inn

SHDC is currently processing the application which was submitted in January 2024.

  1. Correspondence

The following correspondence was noted:

  • Public Sector Executive, EV Charging Deployment Plan, 19/6/2024, 2.00pm – 3:00pm

  • Scribe, Website accessibility & .gov.uk domains, 15/5/24, 10:00-11:00

  • Western Gateway and Peninsula Transport STBs published Electric Vehicle Charging Study

  1. Next Meeting

It was confirmed that the next meeting of the Parish Council will be held on Tuesday 4 June 2024 at 7:30 p.m.

The meeting closed at 21:13.