Back to business as usual (whatever that is)
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19 February 2023
First, an update on who’s who at Hughenden Parish Council. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been losing track.
Jaye Hawkins, who was co-opted as a councillor for the Great Kingshill ward in November last year has resigned. Sam Thomas was co-opted as a councillor for Widmer End at the last meeting of the Council on 14 February.
So, Council now has 10 councillors and 5 vacancies as follows:-
Naphill and Walters Ash
Chris Janes and Usha Prashar (2 vacancies)
Hughenden Valley
Jill Armshaw, Simon Kearey and Marc Byrom (1 vacancy)
Widmer End
Gareth Cadwallader, Linda Derrick and Sam Thomas (1 vacancy)
Great Kingshill
Stan Jones and Debra Main (1 vacancy)
On staffing, Naz Salauddin, our temporary Parish Officer left on Friday. The following have joined, or are due to join HPC shortly:-
Louise Steele – Locum Clerk and HPC’s Proper Officer
Elizabeth Howard – temporary Assistant Clerk
Emma Marsden – temporary Burial Clerk
Cllr Stan Jones remains HPC’s Responsible Financial Officer.
The Council meeting on 14 February had a long agenda so I am going be selective. Let me know if you want more information.
Item 1. I raised the poor attendance at HPC meetings of Hughenden’s ward councillors on Bucks Council i.e. Cllrs David Carroll, Steve Broadbent and Clive Harriss. All three attended the first parish council meeting in May 2021 after the local elections to thank residents for voting for them and all three attended the meeting in March 2022 in order to make HPC quorate again. Apart from that, none of the councillors has attended a parish meeting.
Bucks Council adopted a Town and Parish Charter in 2021 which commits BC to working with all local councils in Bucks, including encouraging ward councillors to attend parish meetings. I suggested the Clerk should write to Hughenden’s ward councillors reminding them of this commitment. Council agreed.
Item 7 was a proposal to approve a payment of nearly £2000 to Hughenden Community Support Trust for interest on the late payment of rent. HPC paid rent last November of about £31,000 for rent on land that was supposed to be transferred to HCST by HPC on 7 October 2015. HPC paid rent back to 1 January 2015. HCST requested interest on the back rent because it wasn’t paid on the due date i.e. 1 January 2015 and each year thereafter.
I objected to paying this interest for a number of reasons.
First, I continue to believe that HPC owns this land and the leases are invalid. The Chairman of HCST said in explanation for the payment of interest that the First Tier Tribunal of the Charity Commission “held that the Trust did in fact legally own the Land.”
This is incorrect. Council has been provided with documentary evidence from the Tribunal showing that it did not have the legal competence to decide ownership and would not do so.
No court of law or judicial body has pronounced on the ownership issue except the Land Registry in 2012 when it decided that the land was owned by HPC.
Second, HPC did not appear to have copies of the leases most of which were signed in April 2021 just before the local elections.
Council has been asked to approve payment of the rent without sight of the leases on a number of occasions. This included in September 2022 when Council did approve payment of the rent (with me voting against). Now Council was being asked to approve payment for the interest on late payment of the rent - still without copies of the leases.
Finally, I objected because, to my knowledge, until recently, HCST did not have a bank account. Nor did it notify HPC of its bank details until 26 September 2022 when it sent the invoice for the rent.
So, it would have been impossible for HPC to have paid the rent as required under the lease.
(Incidentally, I wonder why Council signed these leases in April 2021 requiring Council to pay interest on the rent if not paid when it was due i.e. January 2015. Council knew in April 2021 that this was impossible.)
Item 11 proposed that Council set up a Working Group to take forward a lease with Great Kingshill Cricket Club for the Club’s use of Great Kingshill Common and the pavilion and garage on the Common.
I proposed an amendment to establish the current agreement between Great Kingshill Cricket Club and HPC and, if necessary, to put that agreement on a sound basis. My concern is that since 2016, when the old lease ran out, there has been no legal basis for GKCC making use of this property.
The amendment was approved and the working group set up. I am a member of the working group.
Item 13 was a discussion of Council’s Committees and working groups. I’m not sure we resolved this issue. All I know is that the current structure with four Committees is not working as only the Finance Committee has met since January 2022 and the Finance Committee not since last August. Until there are sufficient councillors volunteering for Committees (which need at least 3 councillors), Council will have to depend on more frequent Council meetings and working groups.
Under item 16, Council turned down a request from the One Can Trust for a grant. The request did not meet the criteria of the grants policy which requires a grant to significantly benefit the residents of Hughenden. The Trust informed the Council that only four Hughenden residents were eligible for help from the Trust.
Parish councillors are meant to be apolitical. However, I will say that foodbanks are not the best solution to poverty. Better solutions are a sound benefit system, living wages and a Government that does not crash the economy and can manage a cost-of-living crisis. In the meantime, we have a OneCan collection box at our gate.
And in brief,
- Council agreed to use the services of a company called Hoey Ainscough to improve Council’s practices and relationships.
- Council also deferred a decision on a grant to Great Kingshill Village Hall to contribute to the cost of solar panels.
- Council approved a quote to install new gates at the burial grounds.
- Council agreed a quote for playground inspections. It also received some inspection reports pointing out there were problems with some of the playground equipment. Council needs to deal with these problems.
- Council came to no conclusion on proposals from Bucks Council for cycle tracks in Hughenden – 2 cycle tracks from Four Ashes/Cryers Hill to Hughenden Valley on existing footpaths and one from Hughenden Valley to Wycombe across National Trust land alongside the river. Widmer End Residents’ Association objects to the cycleways on environmental, practical and safety grounds. Council was told that Hughenden Valley Residents' Association supports the proposals.
- Council approved the payments list (with no queries for once!) and
- Council approved a contract, which had gone out to tender, for the provision of services to maintain HPC land. The contract went to a company called Spruced Up.
