18 February 2021
Minutes of the Uffington Parish Council held remotely on February 18th 2021 at 7.30pm
Present by Zoom : Cllr Brown – Chairman, Cllr Hutchins, Cllr Barratt, Cllr Woolf, Cllr Sheehan, Cllr Hartley, Cllr Genever, parish clerks Lorraine Thurston and Katie Turner plus one member of the public
Cllr Brown opened the meeting and welcomed everyone present. Briefly explained the reason for the meeting and explained that notes from the previous working party meeting had been circulated to everyone, had been made public and also welcomed comments on any of the issues raised. Cllr Brown expressed concerns over how the parish council was currently operating and that current issues are preventing the council from moving forward ,these needed to be resolved to prevent further diversion.
- 1. Adoption of the charity policy
Cllr Brown explained that a new charity policy was agreed in October 2020. This was following a request for a donation from a national charity body. It was normal practice for a parish council to have a charity policy in place.
The PC would carefully assess any applications going forward and applications refused if deemed unsuitable.
Comments – Cllr Genever expressed concern and has asked for the following statement to be noted and included in this meetings minutes
'Now that we are in a formal meeting of the Parish council may I request that my objection to the proposed charity scheme of the parish council be minuted. As a small Parish council I believe we are being side tracked from doing what is required to benefit the parish such as roads and infrastructure and in keeping costs down for the tax payer' - Cllr P. Genever
- The charity policy remains in place and will be reviewed on its renewal date of October 2021.
Proposer: Cllr Hutchins, seconder: Cllr Barratt
Action voted on 6:1
Motion carried
- 2. Method of actioning transparency
Cllr Brown discussed the PC level of transparency and agreed that the PC needed better visibility of correspondence being received and that it to should be made available to anyone who wishes to see it. Currently any member of the public can request documents from the clerk.
- All future correspondence that is received is to be listed along with the meeting agenda items with more detail and any further relevant documents will be made available.
- Requests for documents will be reviewed on a case by case basis subject to being fully compliant with GDPR rules.
Proposer: Cllr Woolf, seconder: Cllr Hartley
Action voted on 6:1
Motion carried
- 3. Allotment Agreement
Cllr Brown briefly discussed the issues that have arisen from the new tenancy agreement. Main issues being the restrictions for bonfires, number of chickens allowed and boundary queries. The PC is happy to extend the bonfire restrictions from Oct – March on a trial basis and up to an amount of 6 chickens allowed. Boundary ownership will need to be ascertained and may possibly require a working group with tenants to discuss in future
- As some agreements have already been signed and returned the agreement will stand until its next review date and a letter to be written and sent to all tenants advising of the above amendments
Proposer: Cllr Sheehan, seconder: Cllr Hutchins
Action voted on 6:1
Motion carried
Meeting closed at 8.10pm.
Next meeting: Thursday 11th March@ 7:30pm by zoom unless government guidance changes.