Policy, Resources & Communications

Minutes

HASSOCKS PARISH COUNCIL

Minutes of the meeting of the Policy Resources & Communications Committee held on 30^th March 2023 at 7.30pm in Parish Centre, Adastra Park, and Hassocks

Attendees: Parish Councillors Ian Weir, Claire Tester, Carolyn Barton, David Bunting and Dan Sewell.

Parish Clerk: Ian Cumberworth

Absent without apologies: Cllr Kate Bailey

MINUTES

As no Chair had been previously appointed the Clerk sought a volunteer from the members present to Chair this evenings meeting – Cllr Weir indicated he was prepared to Chair the meeting. All members were in agreement and Cllr Weir was duly appointed to Chair this meeting

PRC22/26    APOLOGIES none

PRC22/27    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. – None.

PRC22/28    MINUTES

The minutes of the meeting held on the 29^th November 2022 were accepted as a true and accurate record of the meeting.

PRC22/29    PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

No members of the public were present.

PRC22/30    Standing Orders & Financial Regulations

The Clerk introduced the paper setting out a series of proposed amendments to the Councils current document to reflect changes to the NALC model documents that were updated in April 2022.

Council is required to review its Standing Orders / Financial Regulations periodically and it seemed appropriate timing to so in light of the forthcoming elections to enable revised copies to be issued to all councillors when the new municipal year starts in May.

To assist members the Clerk had incorporated all amendments within boxes to enable additions and omissions to be identified (Appendix 1) within the current document together with a summary of all proposed changes aa set out in Appendix 2. The Clerk then invited any questions from members.

Members discussed the proposed amendments set out in the attachments  and RESOLVED to RECOMMEND to full Council to formally adopt the amended Standing Orders & Financial Regulations.

PRC22/31    Banking Signatories – Members were advised that the Council currently has 4 signatories (3 members & Clerk) one of whom will be stepping down from Council. To maintain resilience it is suggested that the Council should seek some additional signatories initially for our current accounts.

It is still proposed to operate an online bank account, however when previously trying to establish signatories some of those who volunteered did not provide the information required by the bank, whereas 2 members who did provide the required information will not be standing for re-election onto the council. By the 5^th April we will know whether the Parish election will be contested or not and which members propose to stay on the council. If the election is not contested it would enable the signatory item for our existing account to be considered at the April Council meeting. Member’s views were sought regarding this approach. Members were supportive of this approach and AGREED that a paper should be taken forward to the next Council meeting seeking further volunteers. The timing on this proposal will be influenced by whether the election is uncontested.

Cllr Bunting indicated he would be prepared to be considered as a bank signatory.

PRC22/32   COMMUNICATIONS The Clerk advised members that an attempt was made to arrange some group meetings on behalf of Cllr Sewell however this resulted in a mixed uptake. It was hoped that a workshop session could have been set up pre elections, however in light of member availability at present members agreed to defer this until after the elections once the new membership is known.

Members discussed how they wished to progress this initiative and it was AGREED that a paper be considered at the Inaugural Council meeting in May setting out a timeline for the workshop to be arranged and programmed in.

PRC22/33    ANNUAL PARISH MEETING members were requested to consider the format of the Annual Parish meeting this year taking into the consideration the timing and the on-going elections.

Historically this has involved the respective committee chairs producing and reading out an annual report. It was anticipated that the piece of work being undertaken on Communications would have informed this process however for various reasons this initiative has stalled.

Member’s views were sought on how they wished to progress for this year.

Members AGREED that in light of the delay in the progression of the communications initiative at this time realistically the Council should adopt a similar approach to previous years which focussed on reports produced by the respective committee chairs.

Members discussed the preferred format of these reports and it was felt that rather than individual reports from the chairs it should be consolidated into one.

Members indicated that to inform a wider audience of the community that this report should also be published in Hassocks Life. In light of the proposed date 16^th May 2023 this would fit in with the editorial deadlines for the publication. Members requested that the Clerk circulate last year’s Annual Parish meetings papers

Members were keen to revisit the format for 2024 and discussed the need to start planning at an early stage to have a clear vision on its format. This could be informed by the ongoing communications initiative.

Members requested the Clerk to review the Grounds & Environment Committee for the last year to identify specific initiatives/projects that are/have been delivered. The Clerk agreed to undertake this.

  PRC22/34     URGENT MATTERS AT THE DISCRETION OF THE CHAIRMAN – none

PRC22/35    DATE OF NEXT MEETING

To note that the date of the next as Tuesday 18^th April 2023 at 7.30pm

PRC22/36   Confidential Minutes – The confidential minutes of the meeting held on the 29^th November 2022 were accepted as a true and accurate record of the meeting.