PARISH COUNCIL North Weald Bassett Jim Davis Room, Parish Office, North Weald Library, 138 High Road, North Weald, CM16 6YZ Tel: 01992 523825 Fax: 01992 524756 Email: [email protected] Web Site: www.northweald-pc.gov.uk Clerk to the Council. Susan De Luca 27th June 2020 TO: ALL COUNCILLORS You are summoned to attend a Meeting of the Parish Council which will be held on Monday 6th July 2020 at 7.30pm There will be no physical meeting in line with current government guidelines and therefore all communications will be conducted electronically via ZOOM. A link will be sent out to you in order that you are able to access the meeting. Clerk to the Council Susan De Luca Members of the public and press are invited to attend this meeting AGENDA 1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE To RECEIVE any apologies for absence 2. OTHER ABSENCES To NOTE any absences for which no apology has been received. 3. CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES To APPROVE, as a correct record the Minutes of the Meeting of the Parish Council held on 1st June 2020 as attached Appendix 1. 4. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST To RECEIVE any Declarations of Interest by Members. A Member with a personal interest in a matter must consider whether it is a Disclosable Pecuniary, Non Pecuniary or Other Pecuniary Interest, and declare it accordingly. A Member who is unsure as to how to declare their interest should seek independent advice 5. QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC To RECEIVE questions from members of the public for a period determined by the Chairman of the Meeting. Please NOTE the Clerk may have to Note Questions and respond to them after the Meeting. 6. REPORT OF THE CLERK During Covid -19 Virus Outbreak Members are asked to NOTE that All Staff have been working on all items within this Agenda, if any Councillors wishes further information on any item please do not hesitate to contact the Clerk or a Member of the Parish Council Staff for further Updates. NORTH WEALD BASSETT PARISH COUNCIL - 2 - Meeting: PARISH COUNCIL Date 6th July 2020 NOTE: Any Member wishing to have a communication brought to the attention of the Council should give prior notification to the Clerk. 7. REPORTS & MEMBERS REPORTS Members are reminded that in order to ensure smooth and prompt running of the meeting it would be prudent to provide the Clerk with a written copy of their report in order that this can be circulated to all Members with the Agenda. To RECEIVE any reports from Members who wish to give a report and/or who are representatives on Committees, Working Groups, Outside Bodies and other meetings that Members or the Clerk have attended and which, if available, will be reproduced at Appendix 2 if they have been submitted by Members for inclusion MEMBERS REPORTS INCLUDED WITH THIS AGENDA a) Chairman’s Report b) Vice Chairman’s Report c) District Councillors Reports, District Councillors are Invited to Submit a Written Report if they are Unable to Attend the Parish Council Meeting d) County Councillor Reports e) Parish Councillors Reports - Cllr Clegg to give an update on Speedwatch f) Queens Hall Report g) Neighbourhood Plan Report – Neighbourhood Plan – Principal Financial Officer to Report h) EFDC Local Plan Report - Green Infrastructure to be Reported On i) Highways Report (update has previously been circulated) 8. FINANCIAL REPORTS a) List of Cheques & Monthly Statement of Accounts To APPROVE the lists of payments which have been made up to the 30th June 2020 and NOTE the account balances at the end of the month - this list will be circulated prior to the Meeting 9. RAINBOW STONES The Clerk was approached by a number of local residents to set aside an area to place ‘Rainbow Stones’ as a permanent memorial to the NHS and other services and to remember those who had either passed away or been affected by the Covid 19 crisis. Details of how these stones have been used as a Memorial in other areas are attached at Appendix 3. Many young people painted these stones during the Covid-19 Crisis. Members are asked to CONSIDER how they would like to move forward in this matter. 10 a) ‘GOING FORWARD’ PARISH COUNCIL Following last month’s decision to work out of the Parish Hall from September 2020, subject to Government Guidance and where social distancing can easily be maintained, together with adequate cleaning and sanitising schedules being adhered to, the hall is being currently set up with some frontline services to ensure that we are able to open to the public, initially twice a week on a Monday and Friday between 9.15 and 12.30. This would be increased to include a Wednesday once we have reached Step 2 and with the appropriate R level being in place, as per the Government’s Document ‘OUR PLAN TO REBUILD the UK Government’s COVID-19 Recovery strategy’. Document attached Decision required NORTH WEALD BASSETT PARISH COUNCIL - 3 - Meeting: PARISH COUNCIL Date 6th July 2020 We could also look at including a Councillors Surgery once a month. We have ordered appropriate PPE, a Sanitising Station and arranged for the move of the photocopier, Fireproof Safe, and other such matters. It was understood that Essex County Councillors were give some funding to use specifically for Coronavirus implications and problems in their communities. In view of this the Clerk has asked if those Councillors would be willing to provide some funding from this fund to help set up this face to face service for residents. An extract of the copy of the request is attached at Appendix 4. A date that the Parish Council will be operational for this ‘face to face service for residents’ is still being worked on, but it is hoped to be the week commencing 14th September. The Government & HSE has reissued the 39 Steps for Offices/Contact Centre to re-open and these are currently being worked on by the Clerk and PFO to ensure that we can offer the face to face service safely. b) ‘GOING FORWARD’ PARISH COUNCIL ELECTRONIC MANAGEMENT OF PC FUNCTIONS The Parish Council office staff currently employ a range of measures to manage some of the different functions of the Council, as follows: • Parish Council Accounts – Rialtas Omega Software • Parish Hall Bookings – Volunteer Booking Secretary, with manual records and reports • Assets – Excel Spreadsheet and Word • Allotments – Excel Spreadsheet • Cemetery – Hard copy Cemetery Books, hard copy files and Excel Spreadsheet As has become clear in lock down, in order to improve both efficiency and record keeping the Office Staff have had to look at the different software packages available to facilitate ‘one stop’ electronic records, along with how these could be managed and backed up. In addition, concerns have been raised by the internal auditor for the past few audits of the inadequacy of the current system for Parish Hall Bookings. The Council already uses Rialtas to manage its accounts, and the office staff have received a demonstration on the bespoke Rialtas software packages. Whilst some further investigation is needed to establish the best method of software hosting, the Clerk recommends the purchase of tailored software to manage the Cemetery, Allotments, and the Parish Hall bookings. After the demonstration, It is felt the purchase of the Asset management software would not add any particular value to the method currently used. The cost of the initial purchase of all three software packages would be £2,470 (one off cost), with some additional training costs, followed by a yearly annual support fee (dependent on what user licence is needed). Council is asked to CONSIDER the purchase of this software. c) ‘GOING FORWARD’ PARISH HALL AT THORNWOOD Members are advised that as of 4th July, the Government Guidance is that Halls may be able to re- open subject to the ‘R’ Rate being at an appropriate level. This Council is also Guided by RCCE / EALC who are sending over their interpretation of Government Guidance. As previously stated, the Clerk has contacted all the Hall users and it still seems highly unlikely that any of the usual groups will return before September. Further emails will be sent out this week asking for updates. The Caretaker continues to check the Hall on a regular basis and is to do additional jobs and to ensure that we are ready to open safely. Staff are continuing to review the Cleaning Schedules called ‘Restart For Hall & Caretaker’ and ‘Draft Cleaning Schedule’ (amendments may be necessary dependent on Government Guidance before any opening and changes to any Social Distancing) however these are the current appropriate Document attached Decision required NORTH WEALD BASSETT PARISH COUNCIL - 4 - Meeting: PARISH COUNCIL Date 6th July 2020 documents we will continue to work from in the absence of any others. A further set of paperwork will be sent to Members prior to the Hall opening once these are known to be the ones that we will be ‘Up and Ready To Run With’. d) GOING FORWARD - REPORTING OF ENVIRONMENTAL, HIGHWAY OR FLY TIPPING ISSUES Over the last few months the reporting of these issues is becoming increasingly more difficult, especially to Essex County Council, when the issue has not been resolved for a considerable time. We are not able to re-report or chase the matter on the website. The website clearly states that if the person reporting the issue believes there is a risk to health and safety they should call ECC Highways as a matter of urgency, if we try to do this we get told to report on the website – ‘it’s a catch 22 situation’ .
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