Bestwood St Albans Parish Council

Minutes of the meeting of the Bestwood St Albans Parish Council, held on the 18th July, 2017 in Oakwood Academy, Bewcastle Road, Warren Hill. The meeting commenced at 7.30pm.

Present

Councillors:

Jack Ashworth

Frank Beckwith

Andrea Bennington

Keith Eddyshaw

Marlene Gee

Portia NewlingChair of the Council

Mike Robinson

Also present:Mr Gary LongActing (Locum) Clerk

Mr Alec DubberleyGedling Borough Council

2 members of the public

263/17Apologies for absence

Apologies were received from Councillors Pat Clarke and Alastair Hamilton.

264/17Declarations of interest

There were no declarations of interest.

265/17Minutes

The minutes of the Parish Council meeting held on the 18th July, 2017 were approved as a true and accurate record and were signed by the Chair of the Council.

266/17Updating information

Councillor Robinson reported that Nottingham City Council had declined to water the hanging baskets. Gedling Borough Council had been instructed to water them up to the agreed limuit of £200.

Councillor Newling reported that the work on the notice boards in Bestwood Village and the War Memorial was still ongoing.

The Acting (Locum) Clerk thanked those councillors who had provided information on Parish Council assets and reported that work combining and clarifying the different lists had now commenced.

The Acting (Locum) Clerk reported that a follow up request had been received relating to the Freedom of Information (FoI) request reported at the June meeting. This was both FoI and a query under the Data Protection Act. He had responded to both aspects but, unfortunately, had missed the deadline. The questioner had raised the matter with the Information Commissioner (IC). No correspondence had been received from the IC.

267/17Community Governance Review

Mr Alec Dubberley, Gedling Borough Council (GBC), had been invited along to update the Parish Council on the Community Governance Review. He reported that the decision had been made to split the Bestwwod St. Albans Parish Council (BSA) into two new Parish Councils corresponding to the two existing wards: St. Albans Parish Council with 9 councillors and Bestwood Village Parish Council with 7 councilliors.

Bestwood St. Albans Parish Council would finsih on 31st March 2018. The two new Parish Councils would become operative from 1st April 2018. Elections wil be held on 3rd May 2018. Until the first meeting of the new councils the Borough Councillors for each area will act as parish councillors.

GBC wil lead the process of moving from BSA to the two new Parish Councils. The Gedling officers will need to work with the BSA Clerk and councillors to give local knowledge to inform the process.

A Community Re-organisation Order (CRO) will be drafted by GBC which wil set out the process and divide the assets of BSA. Those assets which are located in a ward or are linked to the maintenance of those assets will be allocated on a geographical basis. Other assets will be allocated by population. GBC will looking for an agreement on assest transfer by BSA. If not GBC will make a decision. As part of this task GBC must ensure that adequate resources are available to each new parish to enable them to maintain the assets within their new areas.
GBC wil legally set the precept for the new Parish Councils. However this will be informed by a draft budget for each of the two new parish councils. GBC will work, through the Clerk, will councillors from each ward to draw up a draft budget. Councilloirs requested that GBC provide the Council Tax Base for each new parish council to assist in setting the draft budget. Mr Dubberely said that this information was not currently available but should be so sometime in December.

The next steps for BSA are to provide the 'geographical' assets for GBC to include in the CRO. The Clerk agreed to provide this information after confirming the accuracy with parish councillors.

A number of other issues would also need to be addressed including Lengthsman hours, storage of BSA records after it ceases to exist, contracts and insurance before the new parish councils have elections. The Clerk agreed to ask NALC for advise based on experience elsewhere.

The Chair thanked Mr Dubberley for his presentation. Mr Dubberley then left the meeting.

268/17Parishioners questions/statements

  • A parishioner reported that the breakdown of the Council Tax Base between the two new Parish Councils had been reported by Borough Councillor Payne at a meeting some time ago as £18k for Top Valley and £11k for Bestwood Village. Councillor Robinson had some figures which he would share with the Clerk.
  • A parishioner asked about progress with the two new notice boards. The Clerk reported that the previous Clerk had passed on some information about this and he understood that GBC had been provided with information that had been requested. This matter had already been raised with him by Councillor Clarke and is following this up.

269/17Financial matters

The meeting approved the following orders for payment.

Cheque
number / Payee / Amount
(£) / Reason
302170 / Warren Action Group / 2000.00 / Grant - Top Valley Fireworks display
302171 / Warren Action Group / 1000.00 / Grant - Top Valley Christmas Tree
302172 / Bestwood Village Christmas Tree Appeal / 500.00 / Grant - Bestwood Village Christmas Tree
302173 / M Plumb / 231.75 / Clerk - July
302174 / CANCELLED - ERROR
302175 / M Robinson / 27.20 / Material for renovate road signs
302176 / G Long / 452.86 / Clerk(inc. RFO) August & RFO July.
302177 / Notts PC Repair / 237.00 / PC repair (£45) +
Annual website management (£192.00)
302178 / Countrywide Grounds Maintenance / 166.80 / August (£83.40) + September (£83.40)
302179 / Malcolm Lane & Son Ltd / 222.00 / Repair of notice board

The new Acting (Locum) Clerk requested that the address for the bank statements should be amended to his address. This was agreed and a letter signed to go to the bank.

270/17Planning matters

Councillor Robinson reported on a planning application on the community church site. He had arranged a meeting to try to get the applicant to delay the application until the new Parish Council has been set up.

271/17Complaint:

Councillor Hamilton had received a complaint about the decision not to circulate poll cards at the recent by-election. The complainant had asked that the complaint was noted by the Parish Council. The Clerk had, therefore, agreed to include an agenda item to do this.

It was pointed out that while there were democratic benefits in distributing poll cards including, hopefully, a higher turn out, there was also a significant cost.

272/17Grant Application

A grant application was considered from Bestwood Miners Welfare to contribute £310 towards skip hire to facilitate the clearance of accumlated rubbish. Following discussion this was agreed.

273/17Date, time and location for the next Parish Council Meeting

Date.Tuesday 17th October, 2017

Time7.30pm

LocationSt. Mark's Church, School Walk, Bestwood Village.

Please note the change from the previously suggested date.

There being no further items of business, the Chair thanked everyone for their contributions and closed the meeting at 8.45pm.