Hassocks Parish Council

Agenda

A meeting of the Parish Council is being held on Tuesday 9 July 2024
at 7.30 pm in the Council Chamber, Parish Centre, Adastra Park, Hassocks.

Parish Clerk – 2 July 2024

Members of the public are encouraged to come to the meetings and there is an opportunity for them to address the Council relating to the non-confidential items on the published agenda. A period of 15 minutes will be set aside in item 4 Public participation. It may be necessary to consider particular items in confidential session and where this arises, these items will be considered at the end of the agenda.

AGENDA

1. APOLOGIES

To accept Apologies for absence.

2. DISCLOSURE OF INTERESTS

To deal with any disclosure by Members of any disclosable pecuniary interests and interests other than pecuniary interests, as defined under Hassocks Parish Council’s Code of Conduct and the Localism Act 2011, in relation to matters on the agenda.

3. MINUTES

To accept the minutes of the Parish Council meeting held on the 11 June 2024.

4. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Up to fifteen minutes will be available to allow for the public to make representations, answer questions or give evidence in respect of any items of business included in the agenda, in accordance with Standing Orders.

5. TO ACCEPT THE FOLLOWING MINUTES

5.1       Planning Committee – to agree the minutes for the 3rd June 2024 and to note the minutes for the 24th June 2024.

6. FINANCE

To approve the Financial Report (Appendix 1 – To view appendix 1 please click here) and authorise the list of payments in the sum of  £33,123.69 issued between 1 May 2024 and 31st May 2024. (Appendix 2 – To view appendix 2 please click here)

7.  REPORTS

7.1      West Sussex County Councillor

7.2       Mid Sussex District Councillors Report

7.3       Police Report

7.4       Rail Matters

7.5       Youth Initiatives

7.6       Reports from Councillors on meetings outside bodies where the Council is represented.

8. CHAIR’S REPORT

8.1       Current matters (oral report).

9. CLERK’S REPORT

9.1       Councillor Co-option –The Council currently has one vacancy and is now able to consider co-opting a suitable person onto the Council. The vacancy is about to be advertised and it’s anticipated if successful, Members will be able to consider co-option of a new Member onto the Council at its September meeting.

9.2       On-line banking signatories – The Council is in the process of setting up/establishing an on-line account and initially identified six authorised signatories:

Cllrs Weir, Simmons, Bunting, McBeth, B Hatton and Barton.

Since this time, one of the above Members has resigned and with holidays and availability to improve resilience, Members are requested to consider nominating further signatories for consideration. This will provide further resilience and facilitate the authorisation of payments electronically.

A prerequisite of any signatory is that they are comfortable using technology and have up to date securities on their PC’s.

9.3       Current Account – In addition, the Council will retain its existing account with Barclays alongside its on-line account and currently has the following signatories, Cllr Weir, B Hatton, Neil and Bunting. Due to holiday commitments and availability, Members are requested to consider nominating at least one, possibly two, additional signatories to provide further additional resilience on this account.

To amend signatories on this account can be a drawn out process , however the prerequisite of any signatory is that they would need to be available to attend the office from time to time to provide a ‘wet signature’ for payments. It is anticipated that most of the Council’s day to day business activities will be moved over to the on-line bank account.

10. URGENT MATTERS AT THE DISCRETION OF THE CHAIR for noting and/or inclusion on a future agenda.

11. DATE OF NEXT MEETING

To note that the date of the next Council meeting will be 10th September 2024

EXCLUSION OF PUBLIC AND PRESS

In view of the confidential nature of the business about to be transacted Councillors will be referred to the Confidential Agenda. If any members of the public or press are in attendance they will be requested to withdraw from the meeting in the public interest.

FILMING, RECORDING OF COUNCIL MEETINGS AND USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

During this meeting members of the public may film or record the Committee and officers from the public area only providing it does not disrupt the meeting. The Confidential section of the meeting may not be filmed or recorded. If a member of the public objects to being recorded, the person(s) filming must stop doing so until that member of the public has finished speaking. The use of social media is permitted but members of the public are requested to switch their mobile devices to silent for the duration of the meeting.

 

 

Minutes

Draft Minutes of the Meeting of the Parish Council held on 9 July 2024

Attendees: Parish Councillors Frances Gaudencio (Chair) Robert Brewer, David Bunting, Lesley Cruickshank-Robb, Ian Weir, Don McBeth, Peter Richardson, Paul Shepherd, Kristian Berggreen, Sue Hatton, Alex Simmons and Kate Bailey

Visiting Members: None

Clerk: Ian Cumberworth

MINUTES

PC24/53        APOLOGIES. Cllrs Angus Neil and Bill Hatton.

PC24/54        DISCLOSURE OF INTERESTS.

Disclosure by Councillors of personal interests in matters on the agenda, and whether the Councillor regards their interest as prejudicial under the terms of the Code of Conduct. There were no disclosures of interest.

PC24/55        MINUTES.

The minutes of the Parish Council meeting held on the 11th June 2024 were accepted as a true and accurate record of the meeting.

PC24/56        PUBLIC PARTICIPATION. No members of the public were present.

PC24/57        MINUTES.

PC24/57.1     Members agreed the minutes for the Planning Committee meeting held on 3rd June 2024 and noted the minutes for Planning Committee meeting held on the 24th June 2024.

PC24/58        FINANCE

Members considered the finance reports and the supporting bank statements and reviewed the payment list for payments totalling £33,123.69 for the period ending 31 May 2024.

PC24/58.1     Members APPROVED the payments list totalling £33,123.69 for the period 1st to 31st May 2024.

PC24/59        Reports

PC24/59.1     West Sussex County Councillor report – no report submitted.

PC24/59.2     District Councillor report: – Cllr S Hatton informed Members that the Regulation 19 District Plan had now been submitted to the Planning Inspector who will consider this later in the year. It’s believed due to the timing of the submission of the plan this will provide some protection against the potential impacts of the pending planning changes being considered/proposed by the new government.

PC24/59.3    Police Report – no report submitted

PC24/59.4     Rail matters – no report submitted

PC24/59.5     Youth Initiatives – no report submitted

PC24/59.6     Report from Councillors on meetings of outside bodies where the Council is represented.

The Windmills Junior School.  Cllr Peter Richardson attended a recent event where pupils presented various ECO Pioneers projects. Cllr Richardson indicated he was very impressed by the children’s engagement and enthusiasm for the subject matter and commended other members to attend similar events at the school if the opportunity arises. Members discussed whether there would be any opportunities to liaise with the school on some of the initiatives covered at this event. Members indicated this could be revisited once the Council had finalised its Business Plan as a number of environmental initiatives are included within the plan.

PC24/60        CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT.

Cllr Gaudencio reported that she had held some preliminary discussions with Father Alex regarding arrangements for Remembrance Sunday to explore if the Parish Council could play a more active role in the event.

Cllr Gaudencio then sought expressions of interest from Members to consider joining the Policy Resources and Communications Committee due to the current lack of numbers. Cllr Weir offered to join this Committee therefore members RESOLVED to AGREE that Cllr Weir join the Policy Resources & Communications Committee.

Cllr Gaudencio advised Members that progress is being made on the Business Plan which will be considered by Policy Resources & Communications Committee and will then come forward to Council for consideration and adoption.

PC24/61          CLERK’S REPORT

PC24/61.1       Councillor Vacancy.  Members were advised that the Council is now able to consider co- option onto the Council. It’s proposed the vacancy will be advertised shortly with a closing date set at mid to late August. The Clerk informed Members that the Council has been approached previously by some individuals who have expressed an interest in becoming a Councillor therefore its proposed to draw their attention to the vacancy. If the process is successful it’s hoped Members may be able to consider co-option onto the Council in September.

Members NOTED the action being taken.

PC24/61.2       On-line Banking Signatories. Members were informed that the account is currently being set up and the Council currently has five proposed signatories (Cllrs Weir, Simmons, Bunting, McBeth and B Hatton) however to improve resilience further signatories were being sought.

Members RESOLVED that following additional signatories were APPROVED Cllr Paul Shepherd and Cllr Kristian Berggreen.

Therefore the following signatories have been approved for the on-line account Cllrs Weir, Simmons, Bunting, McBeth, B Hatton, Shepherd and Berggreen.

PC24/61.3       Current Account signatories. Members were informed that the account currently has three Councillors as signatories (Cllrs Weir, B Hatton and Bunting) however to improve resilience further signatories were being sought.

Members RESOLVED that the following additional signatories were APPROVED for the Barclays account Cllr Alex Simmons and Cllr Paul Shepherd.

PC24/62          URGENT MATTERS AT THE DISCRETION OF THE CHAIR for noting and/or inclusion on a future agenda.  Cllr Bailey advised members that it was hoped Woodlands Mead School will open in September.

PC24/63          DATE OF NEXT MEETING. Tuesday 10 September 2024.