11 December 2022
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My last blog said that Jen Richman had been contracted to be HPC’s Temporary Parish Officer. However, she decided to take another job on Wednesday afternoon. Naz Salauddin has been contracted to be temporary Parish Officer instead.
In my open e-mail below, I have suggested Council needs to face the fact that it is again in acute difficulties. This means prioritising its work, including next week’s Council agenda which includes some controversial and difficult items.
Open e-mail to Cllr Simon Kearey
Dear Simon
I am writing to you as I believe you will be chairing the next meeting of Full Council on 13 December. I am writing to propose that you prioritise the agenda so that Council can make well- informed and carefully- considered decisions on those issues which are both important and time critical.
I am writing this as an open e-mail because what I propose would, in some ways, adversely affect the interests of the residents I represent and I would wish them to know what I am proposing and why. What I am proposing is I believe in the longer-term interests of the Council and all the residents of Hughenden.
I have to start, I’m afraid, with suggesting that Council needs to face the fact that it is again in acute difficulties. It is not perhaps as bad as earlier in the year when there were only two councillors (you and me) and no staff. We now have thirteen councillors and one member of staff.
However, four of those councillors are new and will need support. The Clerk resigned last Monday with a leaving date of last Friday. Jen Richman, who was contracted to be the new temporary Parish Officer, decided to take another job on Wednesday afternoon. That has meant that Naz Salauddin, who has stepped in as temporary Parish Officer, has had only one day of handover and he comes to us with no experience of council work and no knowledge of Hughenden.
This means that Council once again has limited resources and experience. I think that once again Council has to concentrate on the basics, making sure we have got a firm foundation and worked through the implications before we consider other issues.
With that in mind, there are four items on the agenda which I think are both important and time critical:-
1. To approve the 2023/4 budget and precept;
2. To approve the list of payments;
3. To approve the invitation to tender documents for the procurement of grounds maintenance; and
4. Staffing and other issues.
Council had a good discussion on the budget at its last Council meeting. However, the resignation of the Clerk changes things. For example, Council agreed at its last meeting that quotes for tree work would come to next week's meeting. This would have meant that a substantial amount of tree work could have been done this financial year and the associated substantial expenditure would fall in this financial year. With the departure of the Clerk, this work may well be pushed into next year.
To give another example, the proposed budget assumes that the work currently contracted out to Azets could be brought in-house. With the departure of the Clerk, Council needs to reconsider this assumption and the relevant budget line.
Obviously, Council needs to reconsider the timing of the recruitment of a new permanent Clerk, a Parish Officer and a warden. Logically the recruitment of the Clerk should come first. It would be difficult to take on a warden for example with no-one to manage them.
To give another example, with the departure of the Clerk, can Council realistically spend the money allocated to the projects covered by the £154 000 in the Ear Marked Reserves.
All of this would of course have implications for whatever precept Council approves.
What I am saying is that Council cannot just rubber stamp the proposed 2023/4 budget. It will need time at the Council meeting to consider and decide.
You will realise that Council has had no discussion about setting the precept and this is an important decision, sensitive to residents, and it needs careful thought.
Obviously, Council has to approve the list of payments. It also has to decide how it is going to continue to do so now the Clerk has resigned. Who is going to induct Naz into the payments system and who is going to set up the relevant bank mandates?
Similarly on the procurement item, Council needs to consider the implications. The proposal is for final approval to be delegated to E&S Committee. However, E&S Committee hasn’t met for months due to other commitments by councillors and the Clerk. The tendering is time critical and difficulties may arise if the temporary Parish Officer and councillors have time pressures before Christmas and E&S cannot meet.
The sensible solution might be for Council to approve the documents itself or perhaps delegate final approval to named councillor(s). Either way Council needs to time to discuss and decide on this critical item.
Incidentally, I think this item needs to be discussed in a confidential session.
Finally, Council needs time to discuss the staffing and other implications of the Clerk's resignation. It needs for example to consider who is to be appointed as RFO which I think is a legal requirement. And who is going to provide the induction and support the new temporary Parish Officer will need.
At the moment the agenda puts this item right at the end when councillors will be tired and just want to go home. However, this is critical to the continuing functioning of the Council.
So, what I am proposing is for Council to consider the 2023/4 budget and precept, and the list of payments and then go into confidential session to consider the procurement and staffing items. Other items need to be deferred.
I say this despite the fact that my proposal for a bench in the amenity field in Widmer End – which I think would probably take a few minutes to decide at the meeting - would fall and residents have been waiting for these benches for years.
I should also point out that the agenda fails to include the report of the Streetlights Working Group and its recommendation for Council to formally adopt the footway streetlights in Hughenden.
I don’t know why this item was dropped and it is disappointing, particularly as the report was sent to the Clerk weeks ago and the resolution would reassure residents who have been angry and anxious about this issue for months. It would also start to put right something on which Council has, on its own acknowledgement, made the wrong decision and handled poorly.
It will obviously be January before this item can come to Council and work can start on the maintenance of the streetlights.
I can live with this item’s deferment to next year; the Working group can meet, in any case, in the meantime and consider ways to maintain the lights more cost effectively.
However, it will be difficult to justify this delay if other items which could similarly be deferred were considered, particularly if they were difficult, controversial and have only been set out for councillors when the agenda came out.
For example, I was surprised and dismayed to see the proposed lease for the Great Kingshill Cricket Club appear on the agenda. We now know that the lease for some of this land between HPC and Hughenden Community Support Trust was signed in haste in April 2021 before the elections and is seriously flawed. For example, the permitted use for this land is allotments - and there have been no allotments on this land for something like 45 years.
It seems to me that once again Council is being asked to decide in haste – this time on a complicated 25- year lease.
This is the first time I have seen any proposed lease with the Great Kingshill Cricket Club and I would like to know who put this item on the agenda. Who in HPC has been negotiating this lease with the Great Kingshill Cricket Club? No-one has been authorised by Council to start such negotiations so any negotiations would appear to have taken place without authority.
There is no covering paper explaining the lease so I do not know if the Cricket Club has agreed it.
I cannot understand what land is covered. To find out with certainty, I would have to go to the Land Registry’s website. At the moment I assume all of the Common is covered, including the land where the playgrounds are. This is contrary to what Stan has said previously. Where does that leave the playgrounds?
We need a discussion about the rent and about the lease covering the pavilion and the garage.
In short, Council needs time to consider this proposed lease and the item needs to be deferred.
Prioritising the agenda in the way I suggest would mean the exclusion of the public after only one substantial item – and might cause annoyance if residents turned up for items which are deferred. Which is why I am making this an open e-mail.
I have already pointed out that in any event the papers for this meeting are not available on the website. Without the papers, residents’ understanding of any discussion and decision would be limited. I hope this can be quickly rectified.
I also hope you can prioritise the agenda as I suggest.
Kind Regards
Linda
Councillor for Widmer End
Hughenden Parish Council