Full agenda for the meeting of the Parish Council being held on 2nd December 2020
Download the full Agenda as a PDF here
Meeting Details
Day/Date: 2nd December2020
Time: 7.30 pm
Meeting to be held remotely, via video-link
Platform: Zoom
Access: Please click on the link below to join
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86907712566
Notes for Members of the Public
- This meeting is being held remotely in accordance with regulations made under S.78 of the Coronavirus Act 2020. There are, therefore, no paper copies of the agenda or the accompanying documents.
- All documents (other than those which are restricted) can be accessed from the Parish Council’s website — www.shavingtononline.co.uk.
- Please join the meeting 10 minutes before its commencement to enable the Clerk to make a note of the full complement of speakers.
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1 APOLOGIES
2 DECLARATION OF INTERESTS
Members to declare any (a) disclosable pecuniary interest; (b) personal interest; or prejudicial interest which they have in any item of business on the agenda, the nature of that interest, and in respect of disclosable interests and prejudicial interests, to withdraw from the meeting prior to the discussion of that item.
In these circumstances, the Chairman will control the ‘presence’ of the appropriate Member and give him/her a time slot at which he/she can re-join the meeting.
Members are referred to the Code of Conduct for guidance (issued with the agenda papers for Annual Council on 8 May 2019 and adopted at that meeting).
Whilst the Clerk can advise on the Code of Conduct and its interpretation, the decision to declare, or not, is the responsibility of the Parish Councillor, based on the circumstances.
3 MINUTES
To approve the Minutes of the meeting held on 4 November 2020.
4 PUBLIC QUESTION TIME
Members of the public are able to ask questions under the Parish Council’s Standing Orders and have been asked to submit their questions in writing by no later than Tuesday, 1 December 2020.
5 POLICE MATTERS — BEAT MANAGER’S REPORT
To receive a copy of the Beat Manager’s Report. These are forwarded to Members as and when they arrive. At the date of publication of the agenda, there have been no recent reports.
6 BOROUGH COUNCILLOR DAVID MARREN
GUIDE TIME (10 MINUTES)
6.1 Report
To receive Councillor David Marren’s report on Cheshire East Council matters of interest, together with an update in respect of outstanding parish matters.
6.2 Questions
Members are able to ask questions of Councillor Marren in respect of his report presented under item 6.1 above. This is limited to Councillors and is not an opportunity for members of the public to ask questions.
7 NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN
To receive a copy of the fact-check report, prepared by Intelligent Plans and Examinations (IPE), the Independent Examiner.
The purpose of this pre-issue stage ‘fact check’ report is to identify any issues of fact which are incorrect, such as place names or figures that are referenced. Whilst there is no legal or policy provision for a ‘fact check’ report stage, it has, nonetheless, become commonplace for examiners to provide a pre-issue version of the report to the Borough Council and the qualifying body (the Parish Council) mirroring the legal requirement regarding the final report, so that purely factual errors can be identified and corrected.
The examiner will not consider any comments which do not relate to factual errors. As such, this is not an opportunity for representations to be made on the content of the report.
IPE has said that it would be helpful if comments could be prepared as a collated response from both the Borough Council (as the local planning authority) and the Parish Council. This is a matter which the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group can consider in consultation with Cheshire East Council.
The deadline date for comments is 9 December 2020.
Subsequent to issue of the report, the Head of the Neighbourhood Plan Team at Cheshire East Council, has already commented on the report, as follows:
2.1- makes reference to Macclesfield Borough Local Plan, this should be Crewe and Nantwich Borough Local Plan instead (I’ve a feeling I made this error in my rep and it may have been carried through to the report).
4.51 — the paragraph makes reference to there being no specific strategic policy that deals with parking and this isn’t correct. At appendix C of the CELPS, parking standards are set out and the requirements link into CELPS policy CO2: Enabling Business Growth through Transport Infrastructure.
Mr Bill Atteridge, Chairman of the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group will be in attendance to speak to this item.
8 DRAFT BUDGET — 2021–2022
At its meeting held on 18 November 2020, the Finance Committee considered the draft budget for 2021–2022 at which time, the way in which the budget is presented was revised with the aim of ensuring that it is easier for residents to understand. The changes made have resulted in a consolidation of the various budget heads.
An additional change made is that the budget monitoring statement, which had previously included the draft budget for 2021–2022 has now been divided into two separate documents, namely (1) budget monitoring statement to October 2020, and (2) Draft budget for 2021–2022.
The figures for several budget heads have not yet been finalised. Those will be added to a revised document to be submitted to the meeting to be held on 6 January 2021; however, Members may wish to hold an extra-ordinary meeting later in December 2020 to give more detailed consideration to the budget, to enable it to be ‘rubber-stamped’ at the January 2021 meeting.
The following documents are submitted:
• Clerk’s covering report.
• Budget Monitoring Statement. This statement sets out the financial position for the year 1 April — 30 October 2020.
• Draft Budget for 2021–2022.
• Receipts and Payments statement for the period to 30 October 2020.
The Parish Council is asked to consider the proposals and suggest amendments as appropriate.
As part of the budget considerations, the Clerk has written to Meller Speakman to enquire into the cost of the Kate McLean contacting individuals identified as having an interest in land which is considered to be appropriate for recreational space.
A response has been received, to the effect that one of her colleagues will now be dealing with this project. The work will be carried out on a time-charge basis with a maximum fee threshold in place. A breakdown of the costs is awaited.
9 ACCOUNTS — 2019–2020
The external auditor, PKF Littlejohn LLP, was not satisfied with the explanation of the spend difference between 2018–19 and 2019–20. As a consequence, the Clerk was required to prepare a detailed variance schedule. This was requested by 13 November 2020, but as only one week’s notice was given, the Clerk asked for an extension to 20 November 2020 and provided the required schedule on that date.
The regulations require that the External Auditor’s report must be published on the Council’s website by 30 November 2020. The report is enclosed, together with the closure letter from PKF Littlejohn.
10 PAYMENTS
10.1 To receive a list of payments made in September and October 2020.
10.2 Authorisation of payments
The Council is asked to approvement payment as follows:
£480.00 PKF Littlejohn LLP — audit of the accounts 2019–20 (£400.00 net and £80.00 VAT)
11 AUDIT MATTERS — 2019–2020
The only outstanding matters which the Council is reviewing are:
(a) Village Hall account: A sum of £315 which could not be accounted for in the accounts of 2018–2019.
The Finance Committee has reviewed the paperwork, and is satisfied that the entry for £315 with no named recipients and no receipt number is an error, and is a duplication of the deposits identified against Receipt Nos. 12 (£15), 13 (£30), 14 (£15), 15 (£15) and 16 (£240). As there are named individuals on the schedule which was submitted to the Committee, it has not been
included on this agenda, but a copy can be provided to Members, on request.
(b) The Council to ensure that Members are not given authority to take action on behalf of the Council. This is contrary to S.101 of the Local Government Act 1972 which states that —
‘a local council may arrange for the discharge of any of its functions to –
A committee (or sub-committee); or
An employee; or
Another local authority
The Clerk will report on this at the January 2021 meeting.
12 PLANNING APPLICATIONS
There are no planning applications for consultation.
13 CAMERON AVENUE
The Parish Council is invited to draw up an appropriate specification for investigative work to be carried out at Cameron Avenue, to take into account the condition of the trees, and to request an arboricultural report.
Members will recall that this was an item on the agenda for an extra-ordinary meeting of the Council on 18 November 2020 meeting; unfortunately, the quotations which were due to be considered only addressed the removal of the Silver Birch trees, and the meeting was, therefore, cancelled.
14 CONSULTATION — TRANSPORT AND PARKING
Cheshire East Council has launched public consultations on local transport and parking plans across the borough. The details can be accessed at
www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/LocalTransportEngagement
The consultation has commenced and concludes on 31 January 2021. CEC is engaging with communities, towns, elected Members and stakeholder.
The results of this exercise will inform the future direction of how to improve transport, walking and cycling in our towns. It will also inform proposals, which would be subject to further consultation, regarding changes to parking provision and potential changes to car parking charges in the borough.
15 VILLAGE HALL
15.2 Councillor Kevin Gibbs’ Report
Councillor Kevin Gibbs wishes to report to the Parish Council in respect of energy costs at the Village Hall, fire extinguishers, and a request for hire of the Village Hall kitchen only.
15.1 Hire Agreement
As reported to the November meeting, Lynne Thornton, Solicitor, agreed to re-draft the current hire agreement. It is not yet available.
The Clerk’s view is that the current hire agreement is satisfactory for the time being as it was originally drafted by a solicitor, but has subsequently been amended by councillors to reflect Covid-19 arrangements.
16 DATE OF NEXT MEETING
6 January 2021
17 EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC
The Council is invited to RESOLVE that in accordance with Paragraph 1 (2) of The Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960, the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items owing to the confidential nature of the business to transacted and the public interest would not be served in disclosing that information.
Councillor Gibbs wishes to report to the Parish Council in respect of energy costs at the Village Hall, fire extinguishers, and a request for hire of the hall.
Note: The headings only have been included on the public agenda, but the details withheld.
18 STAFFING MATTERS
(Reason for exclusion: Relates to an employee of the Council)
To consider a request for overtime payment.
19 BUILDING SURVEYOR QUOTATIONS — 140 MAIN ROAD, SHAVINGTON
(Reason for exclusion: commercial sensitivity)
As reported previously, the Clerk had received four indicative quotations for surveying 140 Main Road, Shavington.
At the previous meeting, only two firm quotations were noted. A third has now been received and this is the quotation previously submitted.
