MINUTES OF THE COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON Wednesday 8th May 2019 in St George’s church, Trotton at 20:00 hrs Members present: Carola Brown, Barry Cooper, Thais Robertson, Neil Ryder, Darren Stiles Also attending: Kate O’Kelly (WSCC / CDC) and 2 members of the public 1. Apologies: Dave Dawtrey, Kathryn MacKellar 2. Council members: acceptance of office and disclosure of interests NR (clerk) confirmed that he had received signed acceptance of office and disclosure of interest forms from all newly-elected council members. He had produced a report to be sent to WSCC and all members checked it for accuracy. All members were reminded to submit nil returns for their election expenses by 31 May. 3. Election of chairman and vice-chairman for the year: DS and DD respectively were unanimously elected as chairman and vice-chairman. 4. Election of responsible financial officer (RFO) for the year: BC was unanimously elected as RFO 5. Appointment of members of the planning and finance committees and delegation of other responsibilities a. Planning: All members were elected as members of the planning committee. It was agreed that Keith Tregunna (former chairman of the committee) would act as a consultant to the committee. b. Finance: BC, TR and NR were unanimously elected to the committee. NR agreed to look into changing the authorised signatories for the bank account. c. Other responsibilities: The allocation of other responsibilities were agreed as follows: - Amenity plans: DS & NR - Church safety, bonfire, bus shelter & noticeboard maintenance: DD (Ash tree at Chithurst: CB) - Clerk: NR - Community events: TR - Emergency / resiliency plans: TR - GDPR & website: DS & NR - Operation Watershed: CB - Paths & open spaces: BC - Telephone kiosk: CB - Trotton common: DS & NR 6. Annual governance and accountability return for the year ending 31 March 2019. a. Members approved the certificate of exemption from external audit and it was signed by the RFO and chairman b. Members approved the annual internal audit report from the internal auditor c. Members approved the annual governance statement audit and it was signed by the chairman and clerk d. Members approved the accounting statements and they were signed by the RFO and chairman e. Members approved the other information that needed to be on public display by 2 July f. Members approved the re-appointment of Bruce Robertson as honorary internal auditor g. The clerk was instructed to submit the certificate of exemption to the external auditor and to post the required information on the website and noticeboards Normal meeting items 7. Public questions There had been two public complaints via the clerk about lights outside Wembridge and Manor cottages, and one public question was asked at the meeting about the parish council’s policy on dark skies. After discussion, CB agreed to circulate a draft policy based on the one from the SDNPA. 29 July 2019 Minutes20190508pcAGM.docx Page 1 of 3 8. Reports from district and county councillor: see appendix 9. Minutes from the council meeting held on 13th March 2019. There were no matters arising 10. Finance – current year The budget for 2019-20, with transaction tables and bank statements had been circulated and NR apologised for having the wrong years in the heading for the budget. The figures were noted, with no matters outstanding. 11. Updates on current projects / plans: a. Community Land Trust: NR reported that START Community Trust has been legally registered and was presented to all 3 village annual parish meetings. As a result, it is already building up lists of potential members, donors and residents for any houses it can provide, It is trying to finish the necessary administrative steps in time to do a public membership launch at the Sussex Day . newcomers event in Rogate on 16th June. b. Calor rural community fund application: DS had submitted the application for £5,000 for kitchen equipment for the church and now needs residents to vote for the project at https://www.calor.co.uk/shop/communityfund/the-trotton-amenity-project c. Trotton community fund: as agreed at the last meeting, DS and NR were proposing to use the START Community Trust experience to help set up the charitable trust they want to increase funding for the amenity project, so this project is on hold until START CT is “up and running”. d. Telephone box opposite St Georges: After discussion at the parish annual meeting it was agreed that the kiosk should initially be used to house a book exchange and information display. CB would start by looking for volunteers to repair the door and repaint the kiosk. e. Operation Watershed: CB had contacted Sue Furlong at WSCC who had promised to chase the highways department, but nothing had happened, It was agreed that NR should write formally to WSCC highways (with an email copy to Jane Trimmer) department to ask for follow up to the (expensive) CCTV survey carried out in the previous year. f. Bus consultation and working party: see appendix – update from KO’K g. Trees in Chithurst graveyard: NR had invited a quote from a Bepton-based tree surgeon. CB was pursuing Arborlec and one other quote. h. Office 365 launch & GDPR compliance: NR reported that he had finally set up the Office 365 account on Microsoft public terms (much cheaper than commercial accounts). The web forwarding was working correctly and his own email account (as clerk) had been transferred and was working fine. All parish council files had now been transferred to the secure “cloud-based” store associated with the account. He had asked council members to answer various questions about their use of email and would try to run a trial with them shortly. i. Trotton fete: The date (7 Sep) had now been agreed with the owners of Trotton Place and planning was progressing. The gardener had agreed that setup could again be done on the previous evening. j. Dark skies / lighting: see item 7 above. k. Potholes: This had been raised at the parish council meeting. Residents should be advised to report road problems via: https://love.westsussex.gov.uk/account/logon 12. Planning / enforcement update: The council had submitted objections to the soft sand consultation and the Stedham common sculpture planning application. 13. Information for councillors that are considered urgent or to be included on future agenda. The council had been informed very belatedly that time was running out to nominate candidates to stand as parish representatives on the SDNPA. It was agreed that the parish council should nominate Andrew Shaxson. 14. Date of next meeting: 10th July 2019 29 July 2019 Minutes20190508pcAGM.docx Page 2 of 3 APPENDIX: COUNTY & DISTRICT COUNCILLOR REPORTS A. County Councillor report 1. Ofsted report on childrens services: WSCC had just been rated as “Inadequate” in all aspects of its children’s services and had pledged to work really hard to improve the service. The numbers of ‘Looked after’ children had risen from 602 to 706 in the last 5 years and it was a challenge to recruit new staff. 2. Electric vehicles: KO’K had agreed to join the working party. There are currently 1,593 electric vehicles in the county, all but 10 relying on public charging points. Estimates are for a requirement of more than 44,000 charging points by 2013, so much discussion will be required. 3. Soft Sand Consultation: WSCC / SDNPA are expected to publish the results of the consultation in July. 4. Bus Update: KO’K had met Stagecoach and WSCC officers on 8th May for a useful meeting. The next local meeting is on 25 June. She is on the task-finish group and one agenda item is to develop a framework for partnership so that parishes have the option of contributing to save their local bus services rather than lose them. One parish will need to lead on this in terms of setting up the partnership with WSCC. 5. Midhurst Cycle Bypass: KO’K will be working with Midhurst Area Cycling group and officers from SDNPA and WSCC to take things forward, and also hopes to see progress on a Petersfield to Nyewood multi user route coming to parishes soon. B. District Councillor report 6. Election results: 18 conservatives, 11 Lib Dems, 2 Green, 2 Labour, 2 Independent Alliance – Selsey, 1 Independent – so no overall control. The first meeting will be on 21st May and a Conservative minority administration is likely. 7. Wellbeing: Mental health awareness week (13-19th May). CDC adviser attending Midhurst MIND Move it and Lose it workshops restarting in Chichester, Midhurst and Selsey. More info: [email protected] 8. Arts and Culture: Novium museum Hollywood Rome exhibition: 6th April - 8 Sept. Chichester Roman Week: 28th May 11-4pm (including Roman re-enactment in Priory Park - More info: www.thenovium.org/romanweek 9. D-Day, Sussex and its airfields: Talk at the Novium Museum - 75th anniversary - Ken Rimmell – former curator of Shoreham D-Day Aviation Museum – RAF run up to D-Day. Book online – www.thenovium.org.dday 10. Festival of Chichester: 15thJune -14th July - box office now open at the Novium 11. Lets Talk panel: - Anyone who joins the panel will hear first about CDC consultations and surveys. 371 people signed up so far – anyone interested www.chichester.gov.uk/letstalkpanel 12. Health Protection: 6 car washes inspected for human slavery but no issues found. 13. High Streets: New events officer to help restore. Current shop vacancy rates: Chichester 6.3% (7.3); Petworth 1.17% (unchanged); Midhurst 5.45% (unchanged). KO’K is on Midhurst Vision project - a cross community project with CDC backing. 14. Recycling: CDC are keen to encourage more people to take advantage of the garden recycling service – they now have 15,400 residents who have a green bin.