Minutes of the meeting of the Staffordshire Branch of the Society of Local Council Clerks
held at the Guildhall, Lichfield on Saturday, 15th January 2011
Present: Christine Heelis (Chair), Bruce Poole SLCC President and Ann Poole, Derek Jones
(Vice-Chair), Ruth Redgate (Publicity and Membership Officer), Mary Danby (Treasurer), Viv
Evans (SPCA), Wendy Kinson, Margaret Jones, John Blount, Peter Young, Liz Harrington-Jones,
Anne Andrews, Bryan Sullivan, Bob Beaumont, Tom Doubtfire and Christopher Moulton
(Secretary).
1.
Chair's Welcome
Christine Heelis opened the meeting and extended a warm welcome to the Society’s
President Bruce Poole and Ann Poole, and also welcomed new members attending for the
first time. She commented that the morning presentations and training session had been
most interesting and hoped that members had found them useful.
2.
Apologies
Apologies for absence were received from: Emma Coleman, Malcolm Bagguley, Sue
Buxton, Sue Broom, Debra Bate, Jackie Pilarczyk, Bob Haysom, Jill Waring, Catherine
Gill, Stephen Beck, Becky Hodgetts, Jean Burton, Kate Thacker, Ray Smythe and Chris
Gilbert.
3.
Minutes of the Meeting held on 5th October 2010
RESOLVED: That the Minutes be accepted as a correct record and signed by the
Chairman.
4.
Matters arising
Further to the decision at minute No. 7 of the last meeting the members expressed their
appreciation to the Chair for arranging the retirement gift for Steve Hopkins which had been
presented to him at the close of the morning training session.
5.
Branch Matters
Ruth Redgate presented her verbal information report highlighting elements from Nick
Randle’s last report; and the meeting also received an update on current information from
the ILCM. Bruce Poole then gave a short verbal update on consultancy arrangements.
The meeting also noted that Ruth Redgate had been formally nominated and seconded for
the Small Council’s Champion role at the NEC, to replace John Whitney who would be
retiring from that role.
6.
Staffordshire Parish Council’s Association information report
Viv Evans presented her verbal report on SPCA matters and also passed on details of VAT
and year-end accounts training courses which were being delivered by the Association.
She went on to say that the Association was keen to continue work in raising general
awareness of Parish Councils and encouraging more people to become interested in
standing for the office of Parish Councillor.
7.
My Council
Bob Beaumont addressed the meeting about Denstone Parish Council and his role there
as its Clerk.
He had been the Clerk at Denstone since April 2000. Before then and up until retirement in
1999 he had lived and worked in London.
1
Denstone Parish Council had 9 Members and operated in a non-political way. Its annual
precept was £11,000, from £4,000 in 2000, and Bob was employed for 7.5 hours per week.
The Parish Council was involved in the County Council’s Lengthsman Scheme and also
employed a gardener. It owned and maintained three bus shelters, gardens and a
fountain, red telephone boxes, and a former railway line.
In 2003 the Parish Council in partnership with another village in the Ward started the
process of preparing a Parish Plan. A very good response to the questionnaire was
achieved (60%) and the finished Plan was published at the end of 2004.
The key issue arising from the consultation was the lack of any children’s outdoor play
provision, and this had been addressed with the creation of three play areas.
Communications was also seen as an important issue and arising from the Plan a local
website had been developed using volunteers. This had initially been seen as an
inexpensive option but because of several problems and delays, and two websites being
produced, it may have been more cost effective to have engaged the services of a
professional company from the start.
The final issue was that of traffic and the need for some new footpaths along a main route
though the Village. After much negotiation the County Council agreed to match fund the
cost of a new footpath up to a figure of £15,000. The other half of the funding was raised
locally, through Denstone College and JCB to enable the footpath to be constructed in
2008.
A further survey of the Village had been carried out but this one showed that residents
views on what was missing was now considerably less than in the first survey.
In closing he said that the Parish Council had considered applying for quality status but
remained unsure and had not yet made any decision on the matter.
The Members then expressed their thanks to Bob for his most interesting address.
8.
Finance
The Honorary Treasurer presented her report on the Branch finances and Members noted
that there were funds of £529.84 in the current account; and £86.29 in the reserve account.
RESOLVED: a) That the Honorary Treasurer’s report be received.
b)
9.
That the following payments be approved:
Chair’s reimbursement for the retirement gift
and card for Mr S Hopkins
£27.90 (Cheque No. 000049)
£4.54 (Cheque No. 000050)
Publicity Officer travel expenses
£34.10 (Cheque No. 000052)
Date of next meeting
RESOLVED: That the Annual General Meeting be held during April, the date and
venue to be arranged by the Honorary Secretary following a canvas of members to
determine preference for either a lunchtime or evening, weekday or Saturday
meeting.
10.
Chair's closing remarks
The Chair thanked everyone for attending and expressed particular thanks to Bruce and
Ann Poole for their attendance, and to Lichfield City Council for its kind hospitality in
hosting the meeting and the morning presentation/training session.
2