Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the
Parish Council of Withypool and Hawkridge
Tuesday 14th may 2019 at 7.40pm at Withypool Village Hall
Cllr Members Present : Anthony Howard(AH), Keith Branfield(KB, Tim Lloyd(TL) and Alan Collins(AC)
Also District Councillor: Steven Pugsley(SP) and Clerk Charlotte Hornsby
Members of the Public present: 2
The clerk stated that all four members had signed their Declaration of Acceptance of Office and were full members of the Parish Council
01/19 Election of Chairman AC proposed AH as Chair and KB seconded. All in favour and so AH was duly elected Chair and signed the Chairmans Declaration of Acceptance
02/19 Co-option of new members AC proposed Mr William Lock(WL) to be Co-opted and KB seconded, all were in favour of Mr William Lock becoming a parish councillor. WL was unable to attend but has signed the Declaration of Acceptance of Office and is now a member of the Parish Council.
03/19 Election of vice Chairman and appointment of representatives
Vice Chairman Name: KB Prop: AC 2nd: TL All in favour.
Exmoor Panel Name: AH
Consultative Forum Name: KB & AC
Henry Leigh Trust Name: KB
Withypool Village Hall Name: KB
Hawkridge Village Hall Name: WL
Block proposal for above representatives: Prop: TL 2nd AC All in favour
Cllrs were reminded about the Return of Election Expenses Form, to be completed by 29th May.
04/19 Apologies for Absence: WL and Frances Nicholson - County Councillor
05/19 Declarations of Notifiable Interests - None
06/19 Approval of Minutes held on 12th March 2019. The minutes were proposed by AC as a true and
correct record of what took place and TL 2nd, All in favour. The Chairman signed the minutes.
07/19 Matters Arising from these Minutes : 18/94 (18/82i) Salt bins. 11 x 175Lt capacity and 2 x 350 litre capacity salt bins had been purchased at the cost of £757.18 including VAT which will be claimed back. CHQ details in Finance report
Order of Agenda changed to allow member of the public time to speak.
16/19 Parish Common Land
Time was given to a member of the public to raise concerns over the recent issue with the erection of a fence and the common land. The parish council heard the comments and thanked them for raising the issue. The sub-committee of AH, TL and AC will be meeting on 04/06/19 to discuss the issue and will report back to the council.
The members of the public then left the meeting
08/19 Finance Report
Bank reconciliation as of 14th May 2019: £8804.15
£60 missing from Acorn Rural has now been paid noticed when preparing accounts for auditor
£3500 for Precept has been paid the full years amount.
CHQ No: 489 £757.18 To Kingfisher Direct for Saltbins this cheque was approved by the parish council in the March meeting to be paid before the May meeting.
Approval of Clerks pay and exp for 1st July for PAYE data, cheque to be signed and dated 5th July 2018 £315.41 for 1st April 30th June 2019 at £9.705 per hour at 2hr 30m per week plus expenses for mileage for two meetings £14.40 plus missing 10p from April cheque for expenses. All Agreed for it to be paid. Total cheque: £ 329.91 CHQ NO: 490
Approval of Insurance quote All agreed for it to be paid. £ 184.13 CHQ NO: 491
Report from Internal Auditor The Clerk read the following report from Mrs Lyn Fisher the Internal Auditor. The books and accounts are really clear, meticulous and transactions can be followed up and correlated - so thank you for making my job such an easy one.
The only comment I could make relates to the requirement that " the authority assessed any significant risks to achieving its objectives and reviewed the adequacy of arrangements to manage these". I can see that the PC reviewed their objectives, but I think I need to see that they've at least considered the risks relating to their objectives. I'd suggest when reviewing objectives, they think about adding something about meeting Standing Orders/managing their finances appropriately. If these objectives were added, then a brief discussion about managing risks relating to these new objectives, and/or any others would be helpful (eg if responsible finance officer/clerk had to be absent or left - how would the PC manage? - ie appointing someone quickly, having one of the Parish Councillors more familiar with how the finances are managed, etc).
The clerk proposed to add to July Agenda : amendments to A& O, all agreed
Approval of gift vouchers for the Internal Auditor Last year was £20 gift voucher and £10 towards a bunch of flowers, which EX PC also did. KB proposed to do the same again and TL seconded. All in favour. Clerk to organise.
Presentation of 2018/2019 accounts (previously circulated) These were Proposed by TL to be adopted and were 2nd by AC. All were in favour.
Accounts and Bank Reconciliation to be signed Proposed by KB and 2nd by AC as correct and were then signed by Clerk and Chairman. The Certificate of Exemption was agreed and Proposed by KB and 2nd AC with all in favour and was then signed by the Chairman. This entitles W&H PC Accounts to be exempt from a limited assurance review or to submit an Annual Governance and Accountability Return to the External Auditor. This form has been completed to be published on the PC Website
09/19 Section 1 of Audit: Annual governance statement 2018/19 This was discussed and Proposed by TL and 2nd by KB all agreed and the Chairman and Clerk signed it.
10/19 Section 2 of Audit: Accounting statements 2018/19 This was discussed and Proposed by KB and 2nd by AC all agreed and the Chairman signed it.
All of the accounts and audit will be on the website at the correct time of publishing.
11/19 Code of Conduct, Standing Orders and GDPR: (Previously circulated) these were discussed, reviewed and Adopted Proposed by AC, 2nd AH all agreed Clerk said that the Financial regulations will be reviewed in July 2019.
12/19 Highways AH reported that the matter with the drainage issue on the road out of Withypool towards Sandyway is now being handled by the land owner and Highways.
AH wanted in written in the Minutes that Somerset Highways do an excellent job. All Agreed.
SP reported on behalf of FN that it is hopeful that the original gritting routes will be back on for next winter which includes Withypool. It is unsure if the dumpy bags will be issued but bins should be filled. The small bags might not be available. This is all still on going in discussions.
AH mentioned that the sand needs to be put in the Flood Defence Store and KB will organise with all Cllrs helping.
13/19 Planning 6/42/19/101 Halsgrove House, Sparrows Lane, Withypool, Somerset
Proposed by AC 2nd by TL and all agreed to approve this planning application on the grounds that it fits well in to the landscape. Clerk to email ENPA
14/19 Parish Maintenance AH raised the issue of the maintenance behind the bench near the shop which is owned by the parish council. It was Proposed by AH and 2nd by KB and all agreed to ask Dan Passmore to add this to his jobs that he does in the village.
15/19 Parish Gardens
The tree with branches that may cause future issues with the BT wire was discussed and it was agreed that the quote presented by Dan Passmore was a good quote and AC proposed that the job should be done and KB 2nd. All agreed and Dan Passmore will be contacted
17/19 Correspondence: (i) Election of Parish Members to serve on the Exmoor National Park Authority. Clerk read out the letter from SALC and it was discussed. As the Parish Council had no one to put forward they agreed to attend the Hustings on 29/05/2019 and will then have a discussion on who they would like to vote for. They will then ask the Clerk to complete the Ballot.
18/19 District and County Councillors SP spoke about the ENPA members election, he also mentioned that due to the change of the District Council that there may be changes to Area Panel meetings and the Consultative Forum.
19/19 Report from representatives of other groups
Exmoor Panel meeting coming up
Consultative Forum meeting coming up
Henry Leigh Trust - KB reported that they have adjusted the amount they give away and they had several applications at the recent meeting all of whom have been given money to help with music lesson, laptop purchases etc. All agreed that it was wonderful how much the HLT can help local children and young people up to the age of 25.
Withypool Village Hall AGM in two days time
Hawkridge Village Hall no report
20/19 Date of next meeting
Tuesday 2nd July 2019 Hawkridge Village Hall at 7.30pm NOTE A WEEK EARLIER!
Future Meeting dates:
Tuesday 10th September Withypool Village Hall
Tuesday 12th November Hawkridge Village Hall
Tuesday 14th January Withypool Village Hall
Tuesday 10th March Hawkridge Village Hall
Tuesday 12th May Withypool Village Hall
There being no further business the chairman closed the meeting at 9.33pm
Signed date