November 09 2021 - Minutes
Nocton Parish Council Meeting
Nocton Hub, Nocton
9th November 2021
Minutes
Present.
Councillors: Cllr M Clarke (Acting Council Chair), Cllr G McDonnell, Cllr N Faulkner, Cllr G Kempster
Clerk and RFO: Mr S Baxter (Clerk is absent due to medical appointment. )
Members of the public: twenty-one
Meeting commenced at 7pm
AGENDA ITEMS AND DISCUSSIONS
1. The Chair`s welcome to all Councillors and members of the public.
The Chair welcomed all persons present and he reminded all the attendees the meeting is being recorded (with the recording kept for 12 months). The Parish Council`s innovation is we've purchased a Recording device and hopefully it will work. We have tested it out before the meeting, and it seemed to be acceptable. I will ask, if you could stand to talk and put your voice in this direction and tell us who you are and then you can go into your question.
2. Apologies for absence from Councillors – to agree the reasons for absence (if any). There were no apologies as all Councillors were in attendance.
3. Declarations of interest – for the Council to note including dispensations presented to the Clerk.
The Chair asked are there any declarations of interest? None declared.
4. Motion to exclude members of the press and public from participation but able to view the meeting.
The Chair stated under his discretion to still allow comments from attendees when it was felt it would be helpful to the meeting. Motion to exclude the members of the public and press from participation but allow them to view the meeting was proposed by Cllr. McDonnell, seconded by the Chair and resolved unanimously. Motion carried.
5. Questions previously submitted to the Clerk 10 working days prior to the meeting (Section 1 (e) Standing
Orders.
No questions are permitted (that have not been submitted prior unless the Chair under his discretion, feels they are urgent and specifically pertinent to any agenda point).
We are following the standing order that we're about to adopt later in this meeting.
Statement
A resident requested information under the Freedom of Information Act on 7th September 2021. To which the parish council stated exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act. The member of the public in question had complained about this to the Information Commissioners office.
The Parish councils reply to the ICO, who had written to the Parish Council about the matter, said they would review the complaint, but they have also confirmed that a consideration does not automatically result in the complaint being upheld.
A member of the public then stood up and introduced himself and said that the Clerk said that the complaint may be eligible for consideration. In fact, the complaint is going ahead. The resident quoted “Your complaint has been accepted and eligible for further consideration.”
The resident wanted this to be corrected in the minutes. The Parish Council noted this request.
6.Motion to Exclude members of the Press and Public from Participation
There is a motion to exclude the members of the press and the public from participating if you were to remain silent and then at the end, we will ask you to make any comments as you wish. Councillors agreed and passed the motion.
7.Minutes of Full Council Meeting 6th September 2021
Parish Council meeting on the 6th of September. The Chair asked Councillors if they have any observations they wish to make. The Chair extended that invitation to members of the public.
8.Public Observations.
A member of the public asked why his statement regarding the investigation was not in the minutes even though the Clerk had sent him a rather a rude email.
The chair replied that the investigation is still ongoing.
Another member stood up and asked “Will you inform the village how high the charging in the precept is likely to be, as it wasn’t mentioned at all in the previous minutes.
The Chair stated we can review the figures at the sixth month point, we would then have an idea of what the end of year forecast would look like.
The minutes of 6th September were resolved by the Parish Councillors.
9.Apology from member of the public
The Chair requested that an apology be made to the Clerk by a resident of Nocton Village during the meeting about a false accusation made against the Clerk.
The chair stated there had been a false accusation made against the Clerk. The Chair asked the member of public, who attended the meeting to formally make an apology to the Clerk.
The member of Public stated that he had apologised by email to the Clerk and would now like to make it publicly known. The Clerk had not been convicted of an offence under GDPR regulations.
The same member of public then went on to make a statement about the Clerk saying that he had committed a data breach offence while acting as Clerk for Fylingdales Parish Council because he was using his own personal computers. Confidential information belonging to other Parish Councils had been discovered in the Clerks email account. The breach was reported to the ICO. The Clerks employment for Fylingdales Parish Council was then terminated.
10.Schedule of Payments
We have several scheduled payments to consider, October and November 2021.
Can I have a vote from the Councillors about agreed payment. Motion agreed and passed.
excepted. Financial regulations that number of comments in their films to follow. Recommendations from the internal and external auditor so that measure things using first forward financially directions.
11.Policies for the Council to discuss and agree.
Following the internal and external audits, there was various recommending in regard to policies and procedures that the Council needed to consider. This is to ensure that the Council used the most up to date NLC recommended standing orders, financial processes as well as others needed to ensure that the Council's policies were adequate for what it needed.
The policies and procedures are as follows: -
1. Asset Register Policy. 2. Financial regulations.
3. Parish Council risk assessment policy, including business continuity plan.
4. Standing orders.
The Chair suggested that we adopt these Policies and procedures. If need be, at a later date, we can always vote to make amendments as necessary.
Proposed by Cllr Faulkner and seconded by Cllr McDonnell – Resolved.
12.Planning
There have been a number planning applications put forward. They are straight forward applications.
A single storey building.
To form a garage.
A change of location of a boiler.
Change a kitchen window
The school wishes to retain its 2 x Porta cabins.
Application to remove a tree.
The Parish Council has no opinions and has no objections. Resolved.
13.Nocton 200 club.
Nocton School
A representative from the Nocton School gave a presentation requesting help with the purchase of students’ books. The Parish Council agreed to contribute £360, with agreement from the 200 Club
Renew@Nocton Hub.
Application for £299.68 to help pay for room divider and several storage boxes and notice boards. The project is to support the wellbeing of people living in Nocton. The 200 Club recommended that the items, including the dividers remained the property of the Parish council. Grant Approved.
Gardening Club
The Gardening Club requested £170 towards the purchase of a projector which could also be utilised by all hirers. The Parish Council and The 200 Club agreed to the purchase.
Community Defibrillator Project
Initial application for £1,000 from resident on Nocton Park. The applicant stated that they had raised some funds towards £1000 pounds and now only wished to apply for a grant of £700. Nocton Park residents are hoping to raise a total of £2100 for the defibrillator which will include pads and will be sited in Nocton Park but for the use of the whole village. The defibrillator located at The Hub will receive new pads
Counsellor Faulkner asked, “Where is the defibrillator at Nocton Park going to be situated?”
The reply from a member of the public was “Last house on the right at the end of Nocton Park Road on the wall as you go straight into Bridleway.”
It was suggested that it was going on somebody's wall. If the house is sold it could also cause issues.
Cllr Faulkner has obtained funds to replace the defibrillator box on the wall outside the Hub.
Parish Councillors agreed the funds with The 200 Club
The current balance in the 200 Club funds is £2222.93, the above grants will need to be deducted from this sum. 14.Counsellor vacancies
There are 3 vacancies.
15.Hub Management Report
Meeting was on 18th October2021. The finances at this time are in a good position, including sales, purchases and invoices.
Looking at redecorating the Hub but this will be next year 2022. The current decoration is poor.
We're looking to investigate costs of a hearing loop.
Alcohol Licence. We have been informed by NKDC licensing team alcohol can be consumed in the Hub and off-site sales. The Licence has been received.
We are looking for a Secretary and Media role for the Hub. We're hoping for younger people to volunteer. They are the future of this village.
Christmas Party fundraiser in December 2021, is a children’s Christmas Party to raise funds for the defibrillator at Nocton Park.
A Parish Councillor suggested that we provide a room in the hub free of charge for the children’s party, as this is a charity event.
A member of the public suggested that the Parish Council does approve this suggestion. Any funds from the event could marginally reduce the £700 donation. Agreed.
Counsellors agreed that no fee will be charged. Resolved.
Chair. We now need to ratify the Terms and Conditions for The Hub. These had already been previously distributed. Counsellors agreed. Resolved.
Cllr Faulkner. All snagging seems to be completed. Obviously with a building like this, there's going to be little things crop up in the future, but hopefully we've got that covered.
We have received a final invoice from the builder for £7,000. “This needs to be picked to pieces with the help of 2 previous counsellors. We believe the builder may owe us”.
Chair. Thanked the 2 previous counsellors, who were present, for their assistance in this matter.
Chair. Wave Utilities (Angilan Water) have been contacted asking them for details of our account because we haven’t as yet received a water bill.
A previous Councillor asked to make comment about The Hub budget because there appears to be some misunderstandings on the part of parish councils budget headings. He advised that it looked as if the Parish Council and The Hub budgets had not been separated.
16.Village Green Bench & Other Matters
We will look at replacing it in 2022 and the vote was for recycled plastic style, so we will endeavour to select something appropriate .
Cllr Kempster. Vegetation along Wellhead Lane needs cutting back from the road. The relevant parties to be contacted. Landowners either side of the Lane and Highways may be responsible for a metre from the roadside.
17.Petition
Chair. Requested the names of those who went round the village collecting names to sign a petition of no confidence in Nocton Parish Council whilst Mr Baxter, the Parish Clerk is still in office.
The Chair asked “Could we have the other names so we can officially recognise them. Will you send me that me later?” A member of the public stated he would email this to the Chair.
Chair. “There's a question I want to ask of you. Can you be specific about the disrepute you put into the petition?” You mentioned it was for the village and for parish council. Similarly, I would like to know, when you were at the doorstep explaining the situation to our parishioners, to obtain their signatures, was it always the same statement made by all the participants to the residents.”
A member of the public stated. “ I only collected a few in my area.”
Each of the people who went collecting signatures had a list of items to talk about this. They didn’t necessarily talk about all of them. But they introduced them. Most times the parishioners came out and said I will sign and wanted to discuss things that weren’t on our list.
The member of public went on to make a claim that Fylingdales Parish Council apparently had issues with The Parish
Clerk during his time as Clerk with them. He went on to say to that “many of us here are corresponding with the Clerk and do not get a polite reply. I've mentioned to him that he is a public servant to which he seems to object. We want him to be polite and courteous instead of bullying and harassing.”
Chair. “Thank you for your comments.”
18.Poppy Wreath
The Parish Council have been in contact with the British Legion. A Poppy Wreath was obtained this week and will be placed on the village green and then subsequently it will put it in the church for a short period of time.
19.Next Parish Council Meeting
The next Parish Council meeting is to be a Clerk advisory meeting on the 14th December at 7pm by Zoom.
Chair. We are going to go to motion shortly where we can go into closed session, and which excludes members of the public and press. But I just give a few minutes. Should there be any other questions to ask. Please ensure they are short ones. Thank you.
20.Questions from the Public
A previous councillor asked “Just a quick thing about Standing Orders and I see something similar to the ones that we used to have, by requiring people to ask. Putting questions, in writing, 10 working days before a meeting, and the Agenda only goes out 4 working days before a meeting makes it impossible for anybody to raise a question about an agenda item. Now I know you've been very kind to allow people to talk. If you perhaps want to think about that.
Budget and the payments, I notice on the October payments which you approved, they've already been approved because they appeared at meeting in October’s figures in 2021. So, I don't quite know why the Clerk will put them on twice. But if I could just say something about The Hub. We were instrumental in getting The Hub up and running. But also delighted to hear that The Hub is doing well. The thing that concerns me slightly is that when the parish council borrowed half a million pounds off the government to build it, we were very clear to the residents. when the precepts were set, that the only bit of the precept that would be used to fund the building, would be for the loan repayments. Everything else, every other single cost facility, insurance, cleaning starting the Clerks time, in terms of managing the Hub Manager and cleaners, everything that that goes with this building would be funded from income. There would be no other part of the Parish Councils mainstream budget, funded by the precept, would have anything to do with the running of the Hub. Because, although most people in the village wanted the Hub.
There were clearly some people who thought it was waste of money and all the rest of it. Obviously, I’m pleased as I have said, that the Hub is doing very well, and I’ve seen the income figures. But the way in which the Clerk presents the budget, within the budget monitoring, it is impossible to see how the Hub is doing financially because of the staffing costs which are linked together. You can't actually work out what the Hub is doing. Now very early on in the Clerks career here I did send very detailed notes, which you (The Chair), have seen recently, these set out exactly how the budget should be set out. Unless there is a document which exists that's clearly confidential to any of us in the village, I don't know how the Parish Council can say whether the Hub is running at a profit, loss or breaking even.
Chair. It's something that I requested from the Clerk as a guide, to show to the councillors that we've tried where possible to separate expenses and income for The Hub. The financial management strategies that we've got will help us going forward, it should be easy to follow expenses, and income related to the Hub. I want the Clerk to put up specific headings regarding The Hub.
The previous Councillor then went on to say that “£5000 from the Management Committee was handed over to The
Hub for all the costs to be met from that, to get it up and running with some equipment. All the rest of it, about the Management Group was under Philip Johnson Davis's chairmanship. They looked after that and ran that as a budget. That's not there anymore, but there was a portion of that £5000 about £2000, but I don't know what's happened to it.”
Chair. It is my intention that we will be working through the accounts with the Clerk so in December 2021we can have a draft of the precepts. My request to the Clerk is that we have separate detailed accounts for the Hub so we can see that there are no crossovers
The previous Councillor asks two more questions. “Why is there a payment of £231.80 to HMRC for tax deductions?
Chair. Regarding on salaries. I’m not an accountant. The Clerk has advised us that we must pay the tax.
A Parishioner requested that our meeting in December be Zoomed using the new equipment.
Chair. Sounds a good idea but perhaps we should purchase the equipment and look at doing that in the future.
The 200 Club wished to comment “We have raised over the years about £12,000. People can have more than one entry.”
A member of the public requested that in future if we not going to hold a Parish Council meeting that we advise and publicise it.
Chair. Made an apology and noted the request.
Chair. Thanked all attendees and moved to closed session.
The Meeting Closed at 21.20 Hours
Mike Clarke, Acting Chair.