October 2023 Minutes
MINUTES OF THE HOGSTHORPE PARISH COUNCIL MEETING
HELD ON THURSDAY 5th OCTOBER 2023
Present: Cllrs Les Wildman (Chairman) Mary Banks, Chris Rolph, Ellen Smith,
Clerk: K Hayes
Also present: Dist Councillor R Dawson and 1 member of the Public
PUBLIC FORUM
i) A member of the public noted that the bench at Three Ways needed re-varnishing. The Chairman said that this is in hand and would be done in due course.
ii) District Cllr Dawson gave his report from District, noting that Councillor grants were now available. (Dist Cllr Evans had already been in touch to inform the clerk of this). He confirmed that two grants were available, one from Cllr Evans and one from himself.
He also noted that his main interest in District was the Planning process and he is now on the Strategic Planning Committee. He has raised concerns about the number of caravans being allowed in the area. The Local Plan is now out of date and a new one is in the process of being established and the score for Hogsthorpe will be notified to the council. It would be of help if the Parish had an official Neighbourhood Plan which was passed by a national inspector so that the score can be challenged if need be. The clerk pointed out that there had previously been a village plan drawn up but the District didn't take any notice of this. Hogsthorpe had previously been given a score for a medium sized village and because of this an outline planning permission had been given for 100 houses to be built in the village. Hogsthorpe did not have the infrastructure to support such a development. Cllr Dawson would check up on this outline planning consent. There is a policy committee coming up shortly and he will put in his concerns to this (1) the recent traveller encampment in Chapel and what measures and agreed procedures can be put in place to avoid this happening again (2) the process they are following with regard to allowing planning permissions to go ahead based on an out of date Local Plan.
1. APOLOGIES - Cllr Stephen Day was absent no apologies received prior to the meeting.
2. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST - None
3. APPROVAL OF NOTES OF MEETING
The Minutes of the meeting of the 7th September 2023 were unanimously approved and signed by the Chairman.
4. CLERK'S REPORT
The clerk read out her report noting that the Highways survey was being worked on; no communication from Highways with regard to cutting of verges. The flier for the village not yet completed, the playpark web site to be done as soon as time allows. Churchyard benches and allotment lease are items on the agenda.
5. REPORTS FROM OUTSIDE BODIES
i) See report under the Public Forum (ii) item from Dist Cllr Dawson.
ii) Cllr Banks reported that there had been no meeting of the Village Hall committee as there were not enough attendees.
iii) Cllr Banks also reported that she was unable to attend the recent meeting of the Charity Farm.
6. CORRESPONDENCE
There was no correspondence.
7. FINANCIAL MATTERS
i) The clerk presented the financial statement for the year to 30th September 2023 which showed a balance at the bank of £24892.58. All the precept had now been received, the VAT reclaimed, and together with Allotment Rent, Cemetery fees and other small takings, the income for the 6 months was £16059. All expenditure was in line with the budget and the Playpark had been repaid for their outstanding account.
ii) Payment of cheques were agreed and signed for:- £32.15 to L Wildman for paint for churchyard benches, £433.46 to K Hayes for salary, £108.20 to HMRC for PAYE, £36.49 to K Hayes for homeworking allowance and stationery expenses, £23.68 to Sid Dennis, £192 to RDR towards church bench repair and £15 for hire of Village Hall.
8. PLAYPARK
i) A short briefing is being held by YMCA at the Corn Exchange on the 31st October on grant funding. It was agreed that Cllrs Banks and Smith together with two other members of the public would attend. A suggestion of five-a-side football/basket ball / tennis court is being mooted and grant funding would be needed to put this into place (approx. £60-70000) - enquiries to be made at this briefing.
ii) It was agreed that a Lloyds Debit Card should be applied for in order that moneys could be paid into a post office instead of a trip to the bank. The application was duly agreed and completed.
iii) Quotes for the ground work for fixing of the picnic benches was now required - clerk to look into this. The District Councillor grant could be applied for to pay for this work.
9. CHURCHYARD REPORT
i) Churchyard wall The fencing round the dismantling work has now been removed and the grave stones laid flat. The ground needs to settle and the grass needs to grow. After that it can be looked at again to see if further work is needed.
ii) The bench slats have been returned from RDR and are in the process of being repainted. These will be replaced as soon as possible.
iii) The clerk reported that the 40% increase agreed in November 2021 had not been implemented until March 2023. Cemetery fees were now being charged at the uplifted rate. It was unanimously agreed that these should remain at this rate for this year, even though they are less than others in the area.
10 VILLAGE BENCHES
A decision had been made at the last meeting where to place the village benches. Quotes for fixing them are now being sought. Application for a District Councillor grant would be submitted to pay for this work.
11 ALLOTMENTS
i) The clerk reported at the last meeting that solicitor's fees would be £450 but noted afterwards that this was £750. She had therefore contacted another solicitor who said that the fees would be nominal. Since then it has been discovered that the solicitor fees to be charged to the Charity would be £1200. They proposed, therefore, that the renewal of the lease could be done between ourselves without solicitors. There was very little change to the lease except that a 5-year break clause for the tenants had been added and the rent would be reviewed annually. Councillors agreed to this. It was agreed that the renewal lease would be signed by the Chairman and passed to the Charity Trustees to sign.
12 PLANNING
On checking with Planning Department, the clerk had found that the 'discharge condition' did not mean the cancellation of the conditions but were the submissions to the conditions requested.
13 COUNCILLOR TRAINING
There were no face-to-face councillor training sessions. Two zoom sessions were arranged for the 24th October and the 7th November. These were problematic to Cllr Rolph but Cllrs Banks and Smith agreed to be enrolled on the 24th October. Cllr Day would be contacted to ask if he could attend one of these sessions.
14 PROGRAMME OF EVENTS FOR CHRISTMAS
It was agreed that the Chairman would ask the two residents who had previously been involved, if they would be willing to arrange the event again. It was agreed that there should be a small charge to attend.
15 DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The next meeting would be 2nd November 2023 commencing at 6pm for Public Forum
16 ANY OTHER BUSINESS FOR NEXT AGENDA
Two items to be added to next agenda - (1) Email addresses for councillors and (2) Churchyard maintenance - who is responsible for what.
There being no further business, the meeting closed at 7.15 pm
2023/10
Page 3 of 3