Minutes of the December 11th 2014 Meeting

Meeting 7 of 2014/2015.  Minutes of the Ordinary Meeting of Stutton cum Hazlewood Parish Council held at 19.50 hrs on Thursday 11th December 2014 at Stutton Village Hall

Present:  Cllr Fawcett (Chair), Cllr Birchall, Cllr Wrigglesworth, Cllr Aarons, Cllr Heard.

Clerk – H Fothergill.

Also present: Mr K Tillett.

Apologies:  NYCC Cllr C Metcalfe.

The Chairman asked Mr Tillett if he wished to address the Council prior to the commencement of the meeting.

Mr Tillett stated that he was disappointed that as a non-resident he had not been updated (or received any information or survey details) in relation to the current Affordable Housing Survey. The Parish Council advised that all responsibility is with Rural Housing Enablers Office and this had been recorded under previous meetings. After continued discussion Mr Tillett advised that he would contact the Rural Housing Officer direct.

Mr Tillett also stated that noise from the Bonfire/Carnival in Tadcaster had caused some disturbance to the animals in his fields and asked if the Parish Council had been made aware of this activity. The Parish Council have found no record of this, but agreed that any notice of this and similar events should be notified in future via the Town/Parish Websites.

14084 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST –  Cllr Aarons declared an interest in Agendum 14087, Village Hall and Grounds.

14085 MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS –The minutes of the Ordinary Parish Council meeting held 13th November 2014 having been read were agreed as a true record, and it was resolved that the receipts and payments as recorded under the minutes were accepted.

14086 PROGRESS REPORTS – No reports this month.  

14087.1 VILLAGE HALL AND GROUNDS – The Parish Council have been overseeing the running and administration of the Village Hall for many years, due to the reluctance and absence of volunteers to run the former Village Hall Committee. Attached to these minutes the document “Bullet Points for Discussion” was reviewed and with no volunteers forthcoming it was agreed that the Parish Council should consider the offer by Mrs. Aarons to run and administer the Village Hall, on a temporary basis, until such time as any volunteers take over. It was agreed that a formal handover and agreement would be required with some form of remuneration to be considered, utilising funds from the Village Hall Account. Cllr Aarons left the room with the remaining members of the Parish Council agreeing to ask Cllr Aarons to run and administer the Village Hall for a fee of £25.00 per month, to be reviewed after 3 months. Cllr Aarons accepted this offer on returning to the room. Cllr Aarons to provide cheques for signature for Village Hall Aaccount on a monthly basis, with statement of accounts to be reviewed every three months.

14087.2 DOG POO ON FOOTPATH OUTSIDE VILAGE HALL – Playgroup have asked that another sign be placed outside the Village Hall requesting dog walkers to utilise the dog poo bin. Parish Council to suggest that playgroup children get together make a large sign with a message that can be transferred to a poster. This may have greater impact on negligent dog walkers and encourage them to clean up after their dogs and use the bins that are in place.

14088 FINANCE 

14088.1 Parish Council Account

Receipts                                      

Nil

Payments

11/12/14 000733 Living Landscapes £176.00 £176.00
11/12/14 000734 Clerk’s salary – Oct £138.67 £138.67

Chairman initialled all Bank statements and Invoices  

14089 PLANNING – No matters to discuss this month.

14090 PARISH COUNCIL WEBSITE – No actions to discuss this month

14091 CHURCH –Parish Council was advised that an application relating to Community Development was in place considering the Church to be a community asset, which would give the village (with potential support from the Parish Council) a five month period to raise funding to consider a bid for the purchase of the site.

Chairman advised that she would prepare a restructured letter, in line with recent developments, to the Archbishop of York, Bishop of Selby and other relevant parties, with an invitation to visit the Church site.

14092 HOUSING NEEDS SURVEY FOR STUTTON CUM HAZLEWOOD PARISH – Parish Council noted Rural Housing Enabler’s Department (SDC) have instigated, issued and distributed this Survey.

No further information to date

14093 UNDERPASS – Parish Council requested Clerk to follow up Parish Councillors’ meeting with Mr Yateman (AONE) and contact Mr Hodgson at SDC to investigate any possibilities to assist in resolving this matter and reduce Parish Council costs.

14094 GRASS CUTTING – Parish Council reviewed details under letter from NYCC re changes to Highway grass cutting service – limiting cutting to what they consider to meet the needs of safety requirements only.

Councillor Wrigglesworth advised that he had been in contact with potential tenderers, briefly outlining scope of work. Parish Council to prepare proposed scope of work and contract for next year’s grass cutting requirements. Clerk outlined grass cutting operations undertaken by SDC, which was predominantly around OAP retirement homes.

14095- SELBY PLAN – Clerk distributed documents re Selby Plan for discussion next month.

14096 CORRESPONDENCE – To note the following items of correspondence:

a) Letter SDC re Selby Plan – see item 14095.

b) Parish Precept Documents received from SDC (to be reviewed next meeting).

14097 COUNCILLOR’S REPORT AND ITEMS FOR FUTURE AGENDA

Parish Council were notified of the removal of a large hedge in a field on the Hazlewood Castle side of Chantry Lane. The Rural Payments Agency, SDC and National England have all been notified.

14098 The next ordinary meeting of the Parish Council was confirmed as Thursday 8th January 2015 at 7.30 pm.

PART II –

No items this month

 

There was no further business and the meeting closed 21.05 hrs.

                                                                                                                         

 

                    STUTTON VILLAGE HALL – ADMINISTRATION – VILLAGE HALL COMMITTEE

 

BULLET POINTS FOR DISCUSSION

  1. Village hall Committee set up many years ago when Sam Smiths built and leased the Hall to the residents of the village on a peppercorn rent – the Committee consisted of volunteer residents, with no link or connection the Parish Council.
  2. Over 10 years ago in the absence of any volunteers to run the village hall, the Parish Council agreed to take over the administration of the hall on a temporary basis until resident volunteers could be found.
  3. Since that time, there have been no volunteers willing to form a village hall Committee, with a poster for this requirement being placed in the village hall notice board a few weeks ago, with no response
  4. Parish Council Clerk has advised that there is now a potential that the requirements of administering the village hall will impact on his duties to the Parish Council, and that that his and previous clerks contacted hours were never increased when the administration of the Hall was taken over by the Parish Council. The Clerk has previously advised that he is no longer willing to administer the Village hall for the Parish Council, and it is his opinion that a recent advertisement for a new Clerk received no applicants when the estimated working hours were advised, which included the time required in administering the village hall.
  5. If no volunteers are forthcoming before the Parish Council meeting of 11/12/14 the Parish council will consider options going forward, on a temporary basis, until at least 2 volunteers come forward. (2 volunteers may be subject to amendment, but this is the current minimum signatory requirement in place under the village hall banking arrangement )
  6. Parish Council to consider all options proposed at the next meeting, including the offer by Cllr Aarons to undertake these duties on a temporary basis – with formal handover and agreement required. Under MOM 13/11/14 Parish Council stated with no volunteers, (and this type of temporary arrangement in place), some form of remuneration should be considered, utilising funds from the village hall account. The remaining four members of the Parish Council should review these terms, and propose an offer of terms to Cllr Aarons or any other interested party willing to undertake this task.
  7. It should be clear that the Parish council have no legal obligation to undertake the administration of the village hall, and would be relieved of their caretaker role, if 2 willing residents came forward and formed a new village hall committee.

 

 

 


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