Draft Minutes 2025 January 27

Jan 30, 2025 | Minutes

DRAFT Minutes of the extraordinary Meeting of Blackawton Parish Council held on Monday 27 January 2025 at 7:30 p.m. in Blackawton Village Hall

Present: Parish & South Hams District Council Cllr Rake (Chair), Parish Cllrs Coe, Hadow, Luckens, Oughton (Vice-Chair), and Thomas, were present, as was Clerk A Thom.
There were no members of the public present.
Absent: Parish Cllr Mardon.

  1. Apologies

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Mardon.

  1. Declarations of Interest

Cllrs Coe and Oughton declared Other Registerable Interests in Blackawton Village Hall and it was resolved to grant them dispensations to speak and vote.

Cllrs Rake and Thomas declared Other Registerable Interests as Directors of the Blackawton Business Units CIC for which they have current dispensations to speak and vote.

  1. Government (.gov.uk) Websites

Cllr Hadow joined the meeting. It was resolved to support the Report’s recommendation to defer a decision about changing to a government domain and to review in Autumn 2024.

  1. Closure of the Meeting

It was resolved, in accordance with the 1960 Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act, to exclude the public and press during consideration of the following item(s) because of the commercial-in-confidence nature of the business.

  1. Grounds Maintenance Contract

It was resolved to award a contract to the 2024 contractor to continue grounds maintenance in the Churchyard and Cemetery at the same charges as in 2024 and for the contract’s term to be one year and an optional 3 year extension. It is expected that the responsibility for the maintenance of the St Michael’s Churchyard will be resolved before the end of 2025.

  1. Re-open the meeting

The meeting was re-opened to the public and press.

  1. Budget and Precept 2025/26

The documents for the 2025/26 budget and precept demand tax were considered in detail. Earmarked reserves and reserve requirements were considered. Community Employment, Community Shop, Playing Fields Committee, Road Safety, and New Projects reserves will be combined into one Community Assets, Associations, and Projects reserve. The proposed transfers of reserves were confirmed.

It was resolved to accept budget Option 1 and that the precept will be £29,943. This option includes an increase in pension contributions by the BPC towards the level in the standard industry contract, and would allow some additional clerk hours to fund the contracting of a second clerk to deliver services, including running the Blackawton Cemetery while one clerk is on leave, and to transfer Cemetery records to an electronic system.

The meeting closed at 20:38.