A Meeting of Harlestone Parish Council will take place on Tuesday 5 th July 2016 at 7.30 pm in the Village Institute

Transcription

1 A Meeting of Harlestone Parish Council will take place on Tuesday 5 th July 201 at 7.30 pm in the Village Institute To members of the Council: You are hereby summoned to attend the meeting of Harlestone Parish Council on Tuesday the 5 th Day of July 201 in the Village Institute. AGENDA Admin matters 24. To receive and approve apologies for absence Cllr Facer already offered his apologies (Pre Planned arrangements.) 25. To approve and sign as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Parish Council held on 2 nd June 201. (Clerk has noted Cllr Letts was NOT present and apologies offered.) Minutes amended. The Clerk is asked to formally update the Council with the progress and if appropriate closure or action(s) carried forward from the June ordinary meeting. Action numbers 1 to 3 (Dec 15) are as follows: Action 1 Bank Handover Clerk to update PENDING. New Bank account agreed application submitted with 500 cheque issued. Copy of cheque available for inspection and produced to Council during meeting. PENDING. Actions from meeting held on 2 nd June 201 Action 1. Quarry correspondence all completed and all parties aware of current situation before the next QLM on the 20 th June 201. Item covered in this agenda request this now be CLOSED. Action 2. As above this item was covered in the subsequent QLM held on the 20 th June. Request this now be CLOSED. Action 3. Clerk linking in with NCALC regarding suitable Consultant to progress the NHP which Council have agreed should be progressed. PENDING. Action 4. Standing Orders will be amended once fully reviewed and published. BAU request this now be CLOSED. (Recording of meetings) Action 5. Ongoing Clerk has linked in with Cllr Davies provider scoping in progress. PENDING. Clerk invites the Council to close all actions requested. Councillors are asked to review the minutes and make any further comments before the Chair is invited to sign. 2. Members are requested to make any declarations of personal or prejudicial interests, in line with the 2015 code of conduct, relating to items on this agenda. 27. Finance: To receive an update on Finances from the Cllr Stock and the Clerk. In addition Council are invited to confirm ALL Cllr s have seen and studied the Internal

2 auditors report and action plan 1 submitted by the Clerk for the year ended 31 st March 201. Council are asked to note the plan. Following that report, in readiness for the external audit the Notices (Appendix 5 & ) have been published on all notice boards and the website and the 30 day exercise of public rights to inspect the accounts has now been declared as the 27 th June 201. Council are asked to note this action and finally, the clerk has now submitted all papers to the External Auditor BDO for inspection and validation. a. The council are asked to review the information below. (5 MINUTES) Current Account Value of cheques yet to clear Total allocated fund account TBC NIL TBC Transparency Fund** 1, VAT Claim submitted TBC July Meeting B Halliday Admin AA Landscapes AA Landscapes AA Landscapes AA Landscapes HMRC P Autela Payroll Serv Simon Dackombe Fifty Seven Business Fifty Seven Business Sam Dobbs (Chair) N/A B Halliday HVI July LGA (FP) A 193 S5 Office /Audit BT OSA 190 S10 Grass cutting BT 0.00 OSA 190 S10 Grass cutting BT OSA 190 S10 Grass cutting BT OSA 190 S10 Grass cutting BT LG(FP)A 193, S5 Chairman A. NI & PAYE BT P/Roll admin BT Consultant fee BT Website & IT BT Website & IT BT BT LG(FP)A 193, S5 Phone & BB BT 3.17 LGA 1972 S134 Meeting Room S O See agenda item 37 for details of Plan. 2

3 B Halliday July Sam Dobbs July LGA 1972 S LGA 1972 S145 Clerk payment S O HM Queen event BT In relation to Payroll payments NO payment must be made until Autula issue the required payroll paperwork by order of the Clerk. 28. Parishioners are invited to address the council on ANY matter but MUST be on the published AGENDA. Parishioners will be limited to 15 minutes combined and is strictly limited to 3 minutes per person(s) The Chairman will invite comments; in line with the Standing Orders agreed on the 15 th July 2010 by the Council. (15 MINUTES) Discussion Items: 29. Planning Applications Council are asked to note the application submitted Reference No DA Nobottle Road has been withdrawn at this stage. 30. DWH Application. The Council are asked to note the following: The Council submitted a firm objection to the application in its current form. HPC have met with DWH on an informal basis to discuss future options. This was very helpful and the Council was supported by Cllr Barry Frenchman and external support from the OMBH meeting. Our own Consultant SD attended and the Council will be given an update at the meeting by Cllr Dobbs. 31. Quarry update following the previous complaints Cllr Dobbs and the clerk to update Council on current situation following the QLM held on the 20 th June 201. Cllr s Dobbs and Hammond attended this meeting and the Council are asked to note the update and agree any future proposals. 32. Review of Harlestone Parish Council Strategic Plan 33. Council are asked to note Cllr Davies Paper in relation to the lack of SFBB in Lower Harlestone and agree proposals submitted. Paper submitted in advance of this meeting on the 2 th June to all Cllr s (Reproduced in full below to demonstrate transparency.) Clerk has received communications from residents in LH (D Knight and N Stock) and there is real concern within this aspect of the village that this key infrastructure facility is not available and not likely to be available in the foreseeable future. UH and the new developments have this facility and despite the village wide campaign to secure SFBB this resulted in a partial rollout and the residents in LH feel let down by BT and the overall strategy. 3

4 Cllr Davies submitted the following paper to all Cllr s. Achieving superfast broadband speeds in Lower Harlestone The situation in Lower Harlestone The project for superfast broadband (SFBB) in Northants has always had two implementation strategies: commercial roll-out, for properties deemed to be commercially viable for the operator (Openreach) the Superfast Northants (SN) project for all remaining properties. When the SN project was initiated HPC immediately launched a drive for connectivity. At the time of our HPC initiative Lower Harlestone was NOT part of the SN project, and was never going to be connected by SN. It was part of the commercial roll-out, as were the Bramptons and Duston. At some time in the last year or so, Lower Harlestone was excluded from the commercial roll-out as too technologically difficult based on its distance from the Smiths Farm Shop telecoms cabinet (Cabinet 17). As a result, Openreach will NEVER connect Lower Harlestone and nor will they be compelled to do so until (presumably) forced by the Government target (see below.) By default, therefore, LH becomes part of the SN project and is subject to stage 3 implementation planning which has now commenced, and is due to be completed this summer (I am unable to obtain a date from the Superfast team.) Stages 1 and 2 have delivered SFBB to 94% of Northants premises, including Upper Harlestone. There is, in my opinion, no point in contacting Openreach or BT at this point in tme. Lower Harlestone is not now part of the commercial roll-out. Lower Harlestone will either obtain SFBB through the SN project (current situation), or if that fails, through the governments target (see below.) It is important to realise that at no point has anyone from SN stated (yet) that Lower Harlestone will not have SFBB by the end of In fact, they have reiterated their commitment to include Lower Harlestone in phase 3 planning. There is widespread scepticism among parishioners about this commitment. The technological challenge facing Lower Harlestone must be the same as for most of the remaining Northants communities: distance from the cabinet. So far SN have not commented on this. National and County Council targets The Government target is that 99% of all premises should have access to superfast coverage by December 2018, and 100% by 2020 (at a minimum speed of 10Mbs.) The NCC SN target commitment has not changed: "The County Council is continuing to invest in next generation fibre broadband and our ambitious target is to see this available across the county by the end of 2017". Of course targets can be missed. As a result I think our lobbying activities should be focused on the SN project team. 4

5 Accelerating implementation within the SN project Within the context of the SN Project, Lower Harlestone residents should register their interest in SFBB with either, or both, Openreach and SN. This is regardless of whether they registered two and a half years ago as Lower Harlestone was not in the SN project at that time. The link to register demand with SN is: The link to register interest with Openreach is: To state the obvious, lobbying will not have much effect if Lower Harlestone residents have not registered interest. For immediate access to SFBB, there are two options If superfast broadband access is required before end 2017, or if the SN project fails to meet its end 2017 target, there are only two realistic options: satellite or 4G. Satellite access is now subsidised for those with very slow speeds Satellite access involves the installation of a rooftop dish, a router and a modem. Most distributors will provide the hardware for free, but installation is likely to cost about 150. A government voucher is available to off-set this cost, as long as you are receiving speeds of less than 2Mbps. You can check your speed at: The subsidy application form link is here: Once installed, monthly fees of between 30 and 70 are payable depending on the amount of bandwidth you use. 4G mobile is an option if there is a reliable 4G signal within the property 4G mobile now provides average speeds of 14Mbps to 1Mbps. I have undertaken a brief analysis of the providers, and the strongest signal in LH is likely to be BT(ee), although this may differ significantly from property to property. BT Mobile has a contract at 25 per month which provides 20GB per month of bandwidth. You can estimate how much bandwidth you require here: The fibre connection to the school. There is a fibre connection to the school, mandated as part of the last government s education policy. It is a dedicated, single access link and as I understand it, it is either 5

6 impossible or unfeasible to spur from this to other Lower Harlestone properties, based on discussions I had three years ago (prior to the SN project). But this may be worth revisiting. Recommendations 1. There has already been correspondence between our MP and Openreach. Their response was, predictably, that SFBB connection was not in their plans. 2. Correspondence between myself and other parishioners with SN, confirms that Lower Harlestone SFBB is part of their stage 3 planning. 3. Publication of the stage 3 plan is due this summer (no defined date.) 4. We need to lobby SN on publication date and the case for LH. 5. We could also engage Althorp (I am unaware of their BB connectivity.). Investigate if the fibre connection to the school can be used to connect Lower Harlestone (may already be part of SN planning.) The Council are asked to consider the proposals and consider Cllr support/sub Committee to drive forward any recommendations adopted. 34. The Council are asked to agree the Pension provider for the clerk in accordance with the legislation. Not to act is an offence for which a fine of 400 can be imposed 2. Please see footnote and previous E mail sent to all Cllr s outlining the options. The clerk seeks the Council s support to adopt the NEST provider as this is the most cost effective option most suitable for this Council as outlined in my rationale in the correspondence sent to all Cllr s on the 25 th June Council are asked to review the position in relation to the Tennis Courts in the village and agree a way forward or notify the estate this is no longer a project for the Council to undertake. This agenda item will be covered by Cllr Bilbie and the Estate representative. 3. Althorp Estate Update Katie Evans Althorp Estate Manager. 37. The Internal Audit has now been received and sent to ALL Cllr s for noting. The Council is asked to officially note the report and note the clerk s response to the recommendations made and note our response. Clerk response: The 4 points highlighted in reality terms, suggests we run our Council in a fit and proper fashion, my thanks go to Sarah for her assistance during this audit period ensuring all papers presented are correct. The four points indicate action is required to be taken, these are as follows: Minute Page numbers. (error on my part, I simply assumed this was automatic, but now working from the Council's laptop as well as my office computer often at the same time has caused duplication of page numbers, this is easily resolved and action taken accordingly.) 2 Auto Enrolment Pensions, there are many different schemes that could be chosen. We have three that is supported with our software, those are NEST, NOW Pensions and The Peoples Pension. NEST Corporation is the trustee body that runs NEST. (Setup by the Government) It's a non-departmental public body (NDPB) that operates at arm's length from government and is accountable to Parliament through the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Currently there are no plans to charge an admin fee but this could happen in the future.

7 Payment Schedules. Now rectified but our Unity Banking arrangements will resolve this also. Bank Statements. All printed off and filed. Website: The council are criticised for NOT publishing minutes and agendas prior to November 2015 in line with the Transparency codes. As we have been only doing it from November last year I feel this comment is unfair. We never had a bespoke website until Nov last year and we are now seen as one of the most 'transparent' councils locally, I simply take the view this is resolved. 39. Website Pen pictures and photographs Clerk to comment and Council are asked to expedite compliance. 40. This is a new section within the Agenda and in order to comply with the transparency codes details are recorded in this section when contact is made with the council by any Cllr via any method. The list is not exhaustive but seeks to highlight matters which may need to be shared with ALL Cllr s during the meeting. Cllr s may wish to comment or expand on the items set out below but please note only 15 mins is allocated to this section. Medical support (Defibrillator install) raised by Chair Clerk to comment and reply sent. Clerk considers this to be a vital requirement and was also raised by Cllr Davies. The Police Mutual Force for Good campaign will accept applications in Sept 201 if unsuccessful Council may be invited to purchase Eqp. Letter of Thanks received from the PCC following the HM Queen s birthday event. Circulated by Clerk to all Cllr s. Tennis Courts review requested by Katie Evans (added to this agenda.) Railway Cottages complaint re speeding and hedge cutting. Road visited by Cllr Bilbie and engaged with resident. Street Doctor notified re hedge/verge cutting and speed enforcement carried out by Police on the A428, Brampton and also outside Railway Cottages during month of June. Chair to expand. E mail of thanks received from Mo and Mark Shipario for the Birthday events. Flytipping notice sent to all Cllr s and website please take a pro-active stance when such offences are disclosed. Next meeting date: Tuesday 2 nd August 201. The council may need to convene for planning items which require a response before the date of the next meeting. Dead- line for items for the next meeting to the Clerk please NO LATER than 20 th July 201. B M Halliday Barry Halliday Clerk HPC 2 th June 201 (Published) 7

8 8