Swinbrook & Widford Parish Council Meeting 20th July 2020
Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held remotely by Zoom due to the Covid-19 outbreak on Monday 20th July 2020 at 7pm.
Present: Sue Meech (SM - Chairperson) Christine Standen (CS), Claire South (C-S), William MacKinnon (WM) Fenella Breaks (FB)
Public Attendance: Tim & Eliza Bell, Tim & Eileen Graham, Sue Matthews,
In attendance: Lisa Harrop (Clerk) Richard Harrop RFO (Responsible Financial Officer) Nicholas Field-Johnson (County Councillor) Alex Postan (District Councillor)
Apologies: Eileen Boothroyd
The meeting was called to undertake the following business
0001 Declarations of Interest William Mackinnon declared an interest in the Heythrop Hunt application.
0002 Confirm and sign the minutes of the meeting of the 18th May 2020 All Parish Councillors confirmed the minutes were an accurate account of the meeting. Due to the remote nature of the meeting the Parish Council agreed that the minutes would be signed in person by SM at our first face to face meeting.
SM proposed that the minutes were approved this was approved by WM, CS.
0003 Matters arising from those minutes No matters were raised.
0004 Parish Councillor Vacancy Co-Opt LH informed the Parish Council that following the departure of Andrew Mitchell that a Parish Councillor Vacancy had become available. A notice was placed on the Village Noticeboard for the vacancy and at the last meeting it was agreed that anybody who wished to be considered for co-option onto the Parish Council would need to apply to the clerk in writing before the end of June. LH informed the meeting that only one written application had been received from Fenella Breaks. LH asked the Parish Council if they would like to co-opt Fenella to the Council as the Widford Representative and informed the Parish Council that Fenella had put herself forward for election in 2018 and had been pipped to the post by Jeremy Duckworth at the flip of a coin.
CS informed the Parish Council that it was highlighted on the National news that Fenella had been pipped to the post by a flip of the coin which Fenella remembers.
SM informed the Parish Council that she was thrilled that Fenella had put herself forward to represent Widford and to have a member under 30! CS seconded this it is great to have somebody from Widford represented and to have someone who can give a different perspective and insight. Also, Fenella won a lot of votes in the Election. WM welcomed Fenella and looks forward to meeting her. C-S congratulated Fenella and welcomed her to the team. Fenella Breaks was formally welcomed and co-opted to the Parish Council.
Action: LH to print off forms for Fenella to sign and complete and have a follow up meeting with Fenella to run through the forms.
0005 District Councillor Alex Postan Alex Postan welcomed Fenella to the Parish Council. The whole nature of the last few months has meant that there has been comparatively little dramatic work of any particular
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subject or any particular movement. The West Oxfordshire District Council permanent staff have devoted themselves entirely to doing what they can to help and if you have seen some the things they have managed to do and the contact they have made with the residents and the people under stress during this difficult time and they have done a wonderful job. The moment has come again where the concept of changing our local government towards a Unitary is back on the cards and it’s not my interest to lose any more ground up politics that we have had up to now. There are 4 Tiers of Government in our nation, Westminster, County, District & Parish, Parish Councils have the most contact with the people on the street but no real effective power or money, District Councils have some contact with people and some money, County Councils have quite a good budget but diminishing contact with people and Westminster has all the money and virtually no contact with the people, we will not gain any direct political or local power by joining the Unitary movement.
SM asked about the Unitary Authority and if this went through it would be a transfer of power from the District to the County Council would it? AP replied it would be forming a new regulatory body which would be a combination of District & County Council. We have a government that wants to improve local government the difficulty that I perceive is that the majority of the population is urban and we are not urban society here in West Oxfordshire and therefore anything that diminishes our voice is not a good thing. West Oxfordshire District Council has managed its affairs very well indeed and are one of the few district councils that built up reserves that has enabled us to get through this last period and are not in debt. That would fail to be quite so easily obtained and managed in the concept of Unitary power where Oxford County as whole including Oxford and all its urban problems would be looking at our council tax our reserves our skills for their interests and not ours.
SM what are the timescales for this and what are the opportunities for public consultation is being planned? AP it is tied up with the next election in May 2021 and if we can get that far we will then have another 4 years before anything can be radically changed, there is a call to postpone the next elections until 2022 which would give the Unitary movement further time. AP will keep us informed and let us know of the exact timescales.
CS asked if there will be a Consultation or is this dealt with at a level above our heads and I understand from other councils that have done this it is a nightmare in terms of rural areas and how they are managed and I don’t feel optimistic about the opportunity if it was to go ahead but who votes for it and where is the decision taken? AP There will be a consultation we are expecting a visit from the minister for housing & local government to be given more detail, we know that there have been a number of councils that have joined and formed Unitary and the general trend has been unpopular in terms of the grass roots and bottom up aspect of arrangements as they are at the moment. I will keep you updated.
SM I would expect that the Parish Council will be consulted on in its capacity? AP confirmed this would be the case. SM so we will have an opportunity to comment someway further down the line. AP: and one hopes that your comments will be taken onboard not just listened to and park to one side.
SM asked AP if it was right that West Oxfordshire District Council ha tried and to pre-empt this by linking in with the Cotswold District Council and outsourcing some services in conjunction with others. AP confirmed that this was not the intention but yes however it was not an attempt to subvert any unitary movement, it was a vision of the way of not duplicating services in neighbouring councils and standing together to improve services and reduce the cost and the service agreement with the new company publica is a product of that, it has the effect of showing what is the point of a unitary council when all of the services are managed in a joint way.
SM thanked AP for the update.
0006 County Councillor Update Nicholas Field Johnson NFJ as AP has mentioned Unitary is not a done deal by any means and Alex is right that this is bad for both District, County & Parish Councils to make one council. NFJ confirmed that he is against this and is a great believer in the current situation but all
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councils, County, District are now facing huge deficits in their budgets due to the Coronavirus and we are looking at a 50 million deficit, social care at the moment is 60% of our budget and one thing that we have to demonstrate from this whole process is how we totally re-evaluate how we run social care. Unfortunately, it will be the top down, National government will be in the Autumn doing a whitepaper on how local government should be re-organised. It is not in mine or Alex’s hands, but I expect this white paper to be quite drastic. My real problem with Unitary is quite simple is the way that Oxford City can get their hands on the Counties budget by this I mean the rural counties. As we all know Oxford City has a very different agenda very different politics and have looked at the rural areas as a great area to try and skim off our money and our budgets to put into Oxford City. Alex and I are aligned neither of us are for the Unitary system however it is going to be very much decided by the government and there are a lot of movements at the County level where a lot of people are in favour and I am certainly not, however we will know more in the Autumn.
HGV Ban in Burford: The signs are now in place and we hope to go live on August 1st however it is likely to September 1st. We are still giving some of the local traders, garden centres a permit to go through Burford. As you know the HGVs that we want to ban are the European, intercontinental and Nation Carriers we are not trying to penalise local trade. I have received a number of emails from residents of Swinbrook concerned about HGV’s coming through Swinbrook and I don’t see that happening, you might get the odd HGV trying to come through the back roads but I would be very surprised if you see an increase in the number of HGV’s coming through Swinbrook as there is a perfectly good route along the A40 up to North Leech and the Fosseway and A34 and M40 much quicker and better roads.
The other area that Alex and I are concentrating is on the River Windrush, the pollution has got worse in the last 8 months over the winter Thames Water were clearly dumping more raw sewage particularly around Bourton-on-the-Water which was affecting Witney are water levels have got darker and greyer. There has been a motion at WODC and now at the County Council which unfortunately has been postponed to July to take Thames Water to task. The Windrush is incredibly important to both Swinbrook and Widford and I have been working very closely with Ashley Smith and the WASP organisation and we are not letting up, Robert Courts is also involved and once the Covid situation has died down the rivers will be our next priority. We have clean beaches in the UK and there is no reason why we cannot have clean rivers as well and we must stop the dumping of raw sewage into our rivers.
The one good thing that has come out of the current situation is that we have been able to get out and mend a lot of the pot holes in roads including the roads around Swinbrook & Asthall and the verges have also been improved.
C-S asked NFJ the idea of dumping raw sewage into the Windrush is unfathomable, but the fact that this is going on during the pandemic when we don’t know a huge amount about the virus and what might be contained within that raw sewage and to what extent it can contribute to making the situation worse, whilst I recognise that it might be shrugged off by scientists, I wonder if there is an angle there to work in terms of moving that forward rather than backwards after things have settled down. NFJ responded that there have been traces of the virus found in our rivers not necessarily the Windrush but other rivers. Raw sewage by law allows Water companies to dump raw sewage into our rivers at times of high rain fall so normally January, February time however they do it throughout the year and there has to be national legislation against that. We need a clean river policy and national law by the central government to pass which puts a stop to raw sewage being dumped in our rivers. I think the politicians are waking up to this fact, and there was a bill by a Buckinghamshire MP passed at the last session saying this should be the next environmental problem that we need to address. The more publicity that organisations like WASP can give to this and WODC and Oxford County Council are creating a lot of publicity about the state of our rivers and it is not just the Windrush the Evenlode is just as bad can only be helpful. We are taking Thames Water to task on this situation and will continue to do so.
CS responding to C-S question that Covid has been detected in waste water and is being used in some countries in Europe to warn of local spikes and there is work going on here
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in the UK as well to pick up Covid in the waste water to detect spike, so we know that it ends up in the river and WASP have been working very closely with a scientist called Andrew Singer and what they don’t know is if the virus that is found in the river is infectious or active and is something that is being looked at. WASP proposal is that until it is proven more scientifically that can predict or give us an assurance one way or the other whether there is risk from the river they did not want to make to much of it but they are keeping a very close eye on this.
SM whilst we are on this point, I took an action at the last meeting to share material that Ashley had pulled together. I have been in touch with Ashley and asked him to draft a letter that we can send to whichever body and this is currently with Ashley to draft so that we as a Parish Council can support the work of WASP.
NFJ confirmed that a letter was sent to Thames Water signed by Ashley, NFJ several Councillors from both the District and County Council with a lot of evidence. Robert Courts has met with Thames Water who promise to do a lot more testing but with very little action and the worst of all is the Environment Agency who are completely toothless and agree with everything that Thames Water says they do.
Action: SM to look at the draft letter and contact Ashley to push forward. NFJ to send a copy of the letter sent to LH.
0007 HGV Weight Restriction following Burford Bridge Weight Restriction The Parish Council in view of the imminent HGV ban taking place in Burford the Parish Council got together to map out some action points which included new signage. CS informed the Parish Council that she had been in touch with James Wright at Oxford County Council Highways, he understands what we are trying to achieve and has been very supportive of us being allowed to put up new signage which is more obvious that the roads are unsuitable for HGV’s. So, we have agreed a plan with James and as a Parish Council on the options available to replace the existing unsuitable for HGV’s with signage that is more suitable and visible at strategic points in the village saying “Unsuitable for HGV’s single track lane no passing places for x mile” as a Parish Council we are very pleased that James has supported us with this and endorsed our proposals. Two things to say about the signage, we need to draft a communication out to the village to let them know about the new signage ahead of it being installed as some people may not be in favour of this new signage as it wont be in keeping, however it is our best deterrent currently to stop HGV’s coming through the village as we understand that HGV’s do currently have right of access through the village and understand that HGV’s will still be coming for farms and deliveries but this is to deter those stray vehicles that may decide to use the village as a cut through. CS also raised the point with NFJ about one of the reports on the Burford Weight Restriction that it mentioned “That Fulbrook & Shipton- Under-Wychwood would likely not see a problem through their roads but will suffer occasional inconvenience since HGV’s from and to the south will need to divert away from Burford” which is part of our concern as they will divert away from Burford through Fulbrook and come via Swinbrook as a shortcut. We hope that this will not be the case but felt that having the right signage in place at the right locations will hopefully deter those drivers. NFJ responded that both the bridges at Asthall & Minster Lovell have now got Weight Restrictions signage in place to stop HGV’s going over them and suggest that we have a similar signage at Swinbrook as our bridge is very similar to these and we should have the conversation with James Wright at OCC Highways and if we need any help with that then NFJ would be very happy to assist. CS responded to NFJ to inform him that we have started that process with James Wright as we currently do not have a weight restriction on the bridge we would need to apply for a weight restriction which is a lengthy process however anything that NFJ can do to expedite the process would be very much appreciated. James Wright has given us advice on how to get started with the process and one of things that he has suggested is that we do some sort of survey before and after the Burford Trial has started to try and measure if there is an impact to the village in terms of changes to the type and number of vehicles that are coming through.
C-S informed the meeting that she had been in touch with Natalie Moor about the possibility of including an impact on Swinbrook in the base line testing and subsequent testing of what happens as a consequence of the Burford ban and to see if she could incorporate Swinbrook in to this process, and wondered if there was also an opportunity
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to tie the need for a weight restriction in Swinbrook to what happens in Burford, however as yet C-S has not heard back from Natalie. NFJ we should look at what they have done at Asthall Bridge & Minster Lovell as they are like the Swinbrook Bridge and we should have a weight ban of nothing more that 7.5T. CS informed the meeting that the Bridge in Asthall has a lower weight restriction than that and has a width restriction in place as well.
SM raised the point with NFJ regarding the permits that local businesses can apply for to be exempt from the HGV ban. NFJ informed the meeting that the permits are dealt with by Burford Town Council and local businesses can apply for a permit by contacting Burford Town Council. C-S informed everyone that she had been in touch with John White at Burford Town Council a number of weeks ago and he had informed her that they were still in discussions about what the parameters would be for the permit and how they would communicate with the local businesses, however it seems that they are much further forward now. NFJ confirmed this to be the case.
AP made a comment that Shilton has a weight limit through the village however if the roads are blocked then Sat Nav re-directs them through the village and that we should be contacting Google, Tom Tom & Ways asking for them to remove Swinbrook as a place for HGV’s to divert through and inform them that the road is single track with no passing places.
SM proposed that the Parish Council approved the new HGV signage costs for 3 new signs which will be located at the top A40, B4437 & Fulbrook. CS confirmed these where the locations however there is another sign that James has proposed which is the road leading from Fordwells where the sign would be replaced indicating that HGV’s should go right instead of coming through the village and asked the PC whether they felt that this sign was required. SM asked the Parish Council to confirm that they were happy with this additional sign, this was agreed by WM, C-S, CS confirmed she was happy with the additional sign so long as no additional posts were required. LH confirmed that the costs for the signage was £404.05 which includes £56.63 +VAT for the sign at Fulbrook and will need to obtain permission from Fulbrook Parish Council before we erect this sign. CS confirmed that she has been in contact with Kim at Fulbrook Parish Council to confirm they are happy for us to replace the sign; however, CS has not yet received a response.
SM proposed that the Parish Council approve the costs of £404.05 for the new HGV signage, this was seconded by WM, CS, C-S & FB. CS confirmed that we would need to pay for the signage before the company makes the signs and was happy to pay herself and be reimbursed by the Parish Council.
SM asked who installs the new signage which CS informed would be by the Parish Council as it saves quite a lot of money.
SM other action points that need to be considered are the HGV survey questionnaire. CS informed the meeting that there are several considerations that need to be made around for example safety & how long we want the survey to take, so two proposals are being put forward, the first proposal would be to actually stop the HGV drivers at suitable safe places 1)outside the village hall and 2) at the bottom of Black Smiths Lane and the 2nd proposal for the survey is not to stop and ask the drivers direct questions but just to take details and log the vehicles going by. The reason for both options is that CS is waiting to hear back from our PCSO Darryn Moulding to see if he is happy with the first proposal of HGV traffic being stopped. CS to push this forward and update the Parish Council with the survey details.
LH raised the point about how they conducted the original HGV survey in Burford, did they have people sat counting the number of HGV’s driving through or did they employ a system similar to the ones that we used for the speeding survey. CS will contact James Wright at OCC to confirm how the original HGV survey was conducted in Burford.
Action: CS & C-S to get together to discuss the HGV restriction and plan of action. SM to check with Robin on the process he used for removing Swinbrook from HGV mappings. CS to chase Kim at Fulbrook Parish Council to confirm they are happy for us to erect the new HGV sign at the entrance to Black Smiths Lane.
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CS to contact James Wright at OCC to ask how the original HGV survey was conducted in Burford. C-S to contact John White to get an update on the permits and look at the process they have in place to see how robust it is so we can understand the next plan of action on our campaign plan.
Planning Application 20/01092/HDD - Alterations to the fenestration of the dwelling and 0008 coach house. The Vicarage Swinbrook. PC Response: The PC have no Objections.
Wildlife Group Update 0009 CS updated the Parish Council on behalf of the Wildlife Group and gave a refresh on what the Wildlife Group was about especially as there have been several new residents that have moved into the village including those that have young children and teenagers that have expressed an interest in Wildlife & ecology who would like to get involved.
The key message that the group would like to get out is if anyone would like to join in any wildlife related activities, bring forward new ideas, has an interest in or has expertise in Biodiversity, ecology & the environment then please contact either Lisa, Christen or Richard as we would love people to join in and help us.
The current wildlife group are all volunteers with a passion for Wildlife and have managed to establish some excellent contacts with a number of local expert groups and professional ecologists who are willing and able to offer the village advice and guidance for anybody who might need this. We are very lucky to live in an area that has a rich biodiversity & ecology including some vulnerable and endangered native species and so many species are disappearing rapidly across the English countryside, so living here in Swinbrook we have to thank the people who lived here before us for taking care of the village and land and many of us feel it is our responsibility to understand what we can do to preserve and conserve what we have inherited, it’s within all our gift to offer some small actions to keep everything that we have here as special and this is really what this group is about, and it isn’t about setting ourselves up as a bunch of experts which we are not we are just enthusiasts who have a passion for wildlife.
Up until now the group has been pretty reactive to situations as needed, notably dealing with flooding when we had a problem with the stream flooding the road following the storms earlier in the year which required the group to go out and clear the stream from the fallen debris whilst being mindful of disturbing any habitats and there have been a number of trips undertaken by LH to Tiggywinkles animal hospital with injured hedgehogs found in the village. Going forward the group will be looking to take part and develop a more proactive annual Parish Maintenance plan which would look at items that need doing in the village but with a more sensitive approach so we can maintain as many habitats as possible.
Action: CS to write a short update that can be circulated to the village which will also detail how people can get in touch with the group.
Maintenance Plan 0010 LH shared with the Parish Council a spreadsheet that had been compiled detailing tasks that needed to be completed on an annual basis. An example of the plan would be the need to check the Salt Bins to ensure they are full and if empty then an order will need to be placed with OCC ahead of winter as the bins are not topped up automatically and OCC rely on the Parish Council to do this for them. Other items that could form the maintenance plans could be litter picks, clearing vegetation, strimming the verges, clearing the drains, or identifying blocked drains and reporting to OCC.
SM raised a point about how do we go about getting the tasks completed and by who? LH commented that this really needs to be the next step that we discuss on how we action this plan if we all agree on this approach.
CS commented that we could ask for volunteers to assist with the plan. C-S asked whether we should use some of the money that Parish Council has to pay for some of this maintenance work to be undertaken for example the strimming that needs to be done.
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CS said that the strimming is normally undertaken by OCC however there are several sensitive areas that you would not want OCC doing, for example the verges where the glow worms are present and maybe something that we wish to do ourselves.
LH also discussed the flooding that takes place regularly outside Wychwood Lodge and followed up with NFJ to see if he had ever received the report detailing the findings regarding the flooding. NFJ responded that he had not received any such report but he had gone back to Iain & Linda Baillie asking them to keep a record of when it floods and for how long for, this will then be used as evidence for getting the problem resolved permanently.
LH advised that the next step with the maintenance plan should be to go through and detail which jobs are our responsibility, and which are OCC responsibility. Currently several of the jobs are completed by volunteers but if we have the funds to pay for somebody to complete these then we should look at this.
SM commented that in her view there are some jobs people enjoy doing and there are others that are rather big jobs like clearing the drains and ditch by Old Manor Farm which is not an easy thing to do and we should pay somebody to do this and the same goes for strimming back stocks hill as this is a big job, however clearing the Village green was something that was done by volunteers who enjoyed doing this. Strimming the verges through the village is something that we should not be undertaking ourselves as this is a massive job.
CS informed the meeting that in previous discussions that she had had with OCC regarding the time at which they come and strim the verges we could have a say in when they came to complete this work, however CS has been in touch with them recently and been informed that we can no longer have a say on when this takes place and that the contractors will be coming in the following days. There are concerns that they will come and cut the verges where the glow worms are present and destroy this habitat. LH asked whether we could put some signage up asking them not to cut the verges that we want to protect, CS said this had been successful in the past.
CS informed the meeting that the drains that cause the flooding down by the Swan that is definitely the responsibility of Simon Holloway from OCC and he has informed CS that he has cleared them and he is concerned about the run off across the pub seating area as it is their responsibilities however it appears that this has been changed. However, at the top of the road leading to Asthall Leigh the water runs off the fields and should go into the ditches that run alongside of the road but instead it travels down the road this is the farmers responsibility to keep those ditches clear.
Action: LH to send the maintenance plan to the Parish Councillors for comment. LH to update and detail who is responsible and which jobs could be undertaken by volunteers. LH & CS to look at the maintenance plan and what can be picked up by the Wildlife group.
Finance & Administration 0011 SM welcomed Richard Harrop to his first meeting as RFO for Swinbrook & Widford Parish Council. RH started by thanking SM and asking her to take us through the Review of Internal Controls assessment as the previous RFO.
Review Internal controls assessments SM ran through the Swinbrook & Widford Parish Council 2019-2020 Spreadsheet that was sent to the Parish Councillors prior to the meeting for review. The first item is a review of our own internal controls to make sure that we have completed everything that we should have done as a parish council. There are several items that are still outstanding which are: -
The Clerks salary is still outstanding for 2019-2020 including PAYE & Auto enrolment The historic VAT reclaim that Jeremey Duckworth submitted in August 2018 which has had to be resubmitted. We need to ensure that we accurately minute the payments that we make
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Scan all invoices/receipts to ensure that a soft copy is available. At the last meeting we said that we would be removing Andrew Mitchell as a signatory which has now been completed and added WM as new signatory and changed the correspondence address to Richard, however the bank statements are still coming to SM at present.
Internal Audit Points for the Previous year SM ran through the Internal Audit points which also include a record of the previous year’s points for completeness. The VAT reclaim is still an ongoing action and the other one to note is the Risk log should be visible and accessible on the Parish Council Website, there was an issue with locating this file previously.
Action: LH to confirm that the Risk Log is now easily accessible on the website and upload the latest version to the website.
Internal Audit Report RH thanked Mark South on behalf of Swinbrook & Widford Parish Council for acting as the internal auditor. RH informed the meeting that Mark South has commented and concludes that the accounts and controls for the financial year are complete and accurate and have therefore passed the internal audit review it is also worth pointing out that he notes that the digitisation of overall accounting controls & processes that were put in place in 2019 continue to prove efficient and effective.
Mark South raised four points:
As previously mentioned by SM that expenditure should be itemised on a line by line item basis and recorded in the Minutes of the Parish Council, in line with stated requirements. Mark states that “Whilst progress has been made, there are still occasions where there are minor inconsistencies in the amounts stated” RH informed the meeting that this has already been picked up by SM earlier and we acknowledge that improvements will be made and has been picked up in the Internal review.
The other point that was picked up was the reclaiming of the outstanding VAT for 2018- 2019 and as mentioned by SM this has now been done twice and will be followed up to conclusion.
The third point is that we continue to run at an excess and hold more than 2 times the recommended precept in our account and the Parish Council acknowledges this point with funds being held in reserve for the speeding survey and is expected that reserves will come down and the Parish Council did run a deficit in the 2019 reporting period and this is expected to continue until the reserves are inline with the recommended levels and it is worth noting that the precept was reduced in the 2020-2021 year in recognition of the surplus.
The final point that Mark raises is that the Parish Council should undertake a review of the spend associated with the Transparency Grant and this has been used with the setting up of the website and more recently the purchase of a Laptop and software for the Parish Council and we not expecting to spend any further money other than the ongoing costs associated with the hosting of website and consider that everything has been brought from the Transparency grant.
This concludes the review of the internal Audit.
Year End Accounts 2019/2020 RH ran through the Annual Accounts Statement for 2019-2020, no questions were raised by the Parish Councillors so the RFO proposed that the accounts for 2019-2020 are approved by the Parish Council which will then need to be signed by the Parish Chair SM & the RFO.
WM, CS, C-S, SM all approved the Accounts for 2019-2020. LH informed the meeting that due to the current restrictions with Covid-19 and the meeting being held remotely that we will need to get RH as RFO to sign the accounts and then LH will arrange for SM to
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sign and date the accounts. The signed copy will then be published on the Parish Council Website.
Bank Reconciliation RH ran through the Bank Reconciliation for 2019-2020, no questions were raised by the Parish Councillors so the RFO proposed that the Bank Reconciliation for 2019-2020 are approved by the Parish Council which will then need to be signed by the Parish Chair SM & the RFO.
WM, CS, C-S all approved the Bank Reconciliation for 2019-2020. LH informed the meeting that due to the current restrictions with Covid-19 and the meeting being held remotely that we will need to get RH as RFO to sign the accounts and then LH will arrange for SM to sign and date the accounts. The signed copy will then be published on the Parish Council Website.
Annual Governance Accountability Return 2019-2020 0012 RH informed the meeting that each year we must complete the Annual Governance Accountability return.
Certificate of Exemption This is a certificate that we sign as a Parish Council if we fall below the income and expenditure threshold so that we are exempt from external audits and then is submitted to our external auditor Moore & co. The Parish Council WM, CS, C-S approved the signing of the Certificate of Exemption.
LH informed the meeting that due to the current restrictions with Covid-19 and the meeting being held remotely that we will need to get RH as RFO to sign the Certificate of Exemption and then LH will arrange for SM to sign and date. The signed copy will then be published on the Parish Council Website and LH will email the Certificate to the external Auditors Moore & Co and inform them that the RH has now taken over the role of the RFO and will give them his details.
Annual Internal Audit RH informed ran through the Annual Internal Audit page which was completed by Mark South and notes that Mark has ticked all boxes and that he agrees that all the controls are in place and have been met. The Parish Council had no questions.
Annual Governance Statement RH ran through the annual governance Statement with the Parish Council. There being no questions or comments RH asked the Parish Council to approve the signing of the form by the Chair & the Parish Clerk. The Parish Council WM, CS, C-S, SM approved the signing.
LH informed the meeting that due to the current restrictions with Covid-19 and the meeting being held remotely that she will arrange to meet SM and sign the Annual Governance Statement. The signed copy will then be published on the Parish Council Website.
Accounting Statement 2019-2020 RH ran through the Accounting Statement for 2019-2020 with the Parish Council. There being no questions or comments RH asked the Parish Council to approve the signing of the form by the RFO and Chair SM. The Parish Council WM, CS, C-S approved the signing.
LH informed the meeting that due to the current restrictions with Covid-19 and the meeting being held remotely that she will arrange for RH as RFO to sign the Accounting Statement 2019-2020 then LH will arrange for SM to sign and date. The signed copy will then be published on the Parish Council Website.
Accounts & Variance Analysis 2019-2020 RH ran through the Accounts & Variance Analysis spreadsheet with the Parish Council and the only point to note that the only thing that was greater than a 10% variance was
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the precept which was due to the precept being increased by £420 to cover the costs associated with the election.
Expenses RH ran through the expenses that exceeded £100 in 2019-2020 and informed the meeting that a copy can be found on the Parish Council Website.
OALC subscription £138.97 Came & Company Insurance £343.55 JB Construction & Landscaping Turf for the Village Hall £600 Function 28 Website Hosting £144 Sue Meech reimbursed iro prior year election expenses £420.07 Sue Meech reimbursed iro posts for village green £710
Publication of Notice of public rights & Other documentation RH informed the meeting that the Publication of Notice of public rights allows people to come and review the Parish Council Finances from the 23rd July until the 3rd September. The notice will be uploaded to the Parish Council website and a printed copy will be placed on the village noticeboard in Swinbrook.
Invoices to be Paid 0013 LH informed the PC that the following invoices have been received and are due for payment.
Parish Council Laptop & Mouse £275.46 to be reimbursed to Lisa Harrop and ensure that this gets added to the Parish Council Asset list. Zoom June & July Monthly Subscription to be reimbursed to Lisa Harrop for holding remote meetings £28.78 Clerk 2019 Salary £600 of which £360 to be paid to Lisa Harrop HMRC tax of £240 to be paid by RH online to HMRC and RH to be reimbursed £240 Defibrillator Pads & Battery Invoice £283.02 HGV new signs £404.05 Microsoft Office Annual Subscription of £79.95 to be reimbursed to Lisa Harrop
SM proposed that the Parish Council approved the above payments, this was approved by WM, C-S, CS
LH informed the meeting that back in January SM applied to HMRC to register Swinbrook & Widford Parish Council as an employer. Now that we have the Parish Council Laptop LH informed the meeting that she had now installed and configured the HMRC PAYE software on the laptop and added LH as an employee of the Parish Council and we have submitted our first payroll for the Clerks 2019 salary of £600. SM informed the meeting that the payment being made was for 2019 and that towards the end of the year another £600 will be paid to LH for the Clerks 2020 salary. The HMRC software works out what Tax is due and £240 will need to be paid to HMRC online. LH asked if the Parish Council were happy for RH as the RFO to make the online payment to HMRC for the tax and the Parish Council reimburses RH. This was approved by SM, CS, WM. SM
LH also informed the meeting that due to Auto enrolment of pensions that even though the Clerks Salary is below the level required for auto enrolment we still as a Parish Council have a legal obligation to provide a pension even if nobody enrols. LH has registered Swinbrook & Widford Parish Council with the government free scheme provided by NEST, however to complete the registration LH needs to input the Parish Councils bank account details as it won’t let you complete the registration without it. LH informed the meeting that once this was completed, we would need to complete a declaration of compliance with the Pensions Regulator.
Action: RH to update the Parish Council Asset sheet with the Laptop & Mouse.
Action Log 0014 LH ran through the action log and the following actions were discussed.
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Action 1: Tree Pledge – LH informed the meeting that she had spoken to Lucy Staveley who is running an initiative to plant 2020 trees in Burford and surrounding villages in 2020. Due to Covid-19 the project has been delayed however she is looking to get some trees ordered for Autumn planting. Lucy is very keen to talk to anyone who is able to provide any land or have room in their garden to be able to plant a tree or two and would be very happy to come and meet people in Swinbrook & Widford to look at areas where a tree could be planted and offer advice on the types of trees that could be planted.
Action: LH to send an email out about the Tree Pledge.
AOB
Village get together/BBQ: SM asked as we didn’t do anything for the VE celebrations due to Covid-19 and lockdown whether now that restrictions are being lifted whether we wanted to hold some sort of village get together at a social distance. LH though this would be great idea and thought we could do something at the end of August/September while the weather is still good. SM was in favour of this so long as we could still socially distance.
LH mentioned that rather than hold it at the village hall garden which is a lovely setting it isn’t very big and would make social distancing quite difficult and suggested that we should hold it at Swinbrook Cricket Club where there is plenty of space. LH said that Maxine & Wayne would be very happy to run the bar and it would also mean that we wouldn’t have to apply for a temporary license and they also have a BBQ and would require very little organisation.
Tim Bell offered his garden at Pebble Court as an option, Eileen Graham wanted to know what the bad weather plan would be as there will be quite a lot of organisation required and our weather is unpredictable and we wouldn’t be in the position to decamp into the village hall unless it was a small gathering.
LH suggested that we email the village to get an idea of those who would be interested in a socially distanced gathering and what their preference would be and look at potentially muting some dates.
Eileen Graham suggested that we could have a bring your own picnic and people just brought their own food which would be sociable and safe.
SM, CS & WM all agreed that this would be good idea.
Action: LH to email the village asking if they would be in favour of a village gathering and bring your own picnic.
Eileen Graham asked what was happening with our stream and is still concerned about the 100 hounds & 12 horses that will be taking water from the stream and was not sure where this had got to with the final decisions. CS said the options were still being considered as mentioned in the last meeting and once the preferred options have been recommended this will go to the planners for discharge of the notice against the planning application. WM informed the meeting the water is a planning condition which will need to be signed off by planning. Eileen noted that in the previous minutes it stated that the build had been delayed by 4 months which takes us to now. WM said that the latest update from the hunt was that they were now looking at starting in September but because the hounds cannot move over this season that this will now mean that they will not move here until next year.
SM asked where the hunt was with the planning conditions. WM said that they are working through them and keeps asking for an update and know that they are conducting a wastewater survey in the next couple of days.
Tim Bell asked what the issue is as he has an interest in the stream as it feeds his pond and wondered if the question is about whether the water will be restricted, or whether it will be dirty or what is the issue? SM replied that there were at least 2 issues that had been raised, 1 is the treatment of the waste and effluent and make sure that it doesn’t
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damage the water course and the 2nd is the impact of extracting water on the water supply. Sue Lucas did write to the Parish Council with a helpful note that described the situation at the Estate about 30 years ago describing the number of cattle that were being supported and actually made a point at the planning meeting that 100 head of cattle would have taken far more water than 100 hounds will, but we do need to have a checkpoint with the hunt to see where they are at in the process.
Tim Bell my interests is just to make sure that my pond continues to be fed and I have no concerns around the likelihood that 80 or so hounds having any impact on that whatsoever. WM the water consumption is not going to increase significantly or at all from what it has been in the past.
CS to add a couple of points, there are actions in the action log which have been deferred because of the current situation and we need to revisit these. I do not know whether the Local Planning Officer is the same lady as it was before, and we can drop her a line to see what is happening regarding the planning conditions. The water provision was discussed quite extensively at the planning meeting where approval was given and it wasn’t so much the 100 hounds drinking the water but it was more to do with meeting the various health and safety regulations that now exist that the treatment of the hounds, cleaning out of the kennels, the maintenance of the site and the provision of water to the houses was going to add to the pulling of the water and the fact that there have been issues historically of provision of water to properties. Which was why the planning approval was conditional of reviewing the options available one of which was continuing to pull through the current source or digging a new borehole.
LH informed the meeting that minutes for the meeting that was had with the hunt and C-S are up on the Parish Council Website under planning applications.
Action: CS to catch up with C-S regarding the outstanding Actions regarding the Hunt Application and to work with WM to arrange another meeting.
Next Meeting Date Dates for next meeting will be Monday 21st September at 7pm and will be held remotely. SM informed the meeting that she would not be able to attend this meeting.
With no other business to conduct the meeting officially closed at 9.10pm.
Swinbrook & Widford Parish Council Minutes 20th July 2020 01/2020/2007