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Facebook Linda Derrick for Ridgeway East
17 April 2024
I’m taking a break until May. I will be back just before the Annual Parish Meeting on 7 May.
This is the meeting when the Chair of HPC presents Council’s annual report and residents have the opportunity to ask questions and make their views known. I hope to see you there.
In the meantime, I thought I would let you have my report on HPC for the financial year 2023/4.
I must admit it’s been a bit tricky doing this. Normally, councils report against objectives they have set at the beginning of the year. However, Hughenden Parish Council failed to agree any objectives.
So my report uses my own objectives for Council. These concentrate on the basic functions of the Council which residents have repeatedly said were their priorities.
My report is factual and pretty boring. But I wanted to present a straightforward and unbiased report, rather than spin. The only bias in the report is that I have selected my own objectives – which I have had to do as Council failed to agree any.
If you don’t want to read the whole lot, I suggest you skim and then read the last few points.
Issues of governance and financial management are not covered here but will be in my Annual Governance Statement.
CONCLUSIONS
One thing sticks out – how little time and consideration was given by Council to its basic services and functions. It is therefore not surprising how few of my objectives it met.
During the year, Council never had more than 10 councillors. It had insufficient competent staff. In the circumstances, it should have agreed its priorities and ensured they were delivered.
Instead, Council could not agree any priorities. Its time and energy were therefore dissipated into work which was not critical and, in many cases, not progressed.
MY OBJECTIVES
1. Allotments
Council should: -
a) provide sufficient allotments to meet demand to comply with its statutory duty;
b) administer the allotments efficiently and cost-effectively;
c) review the fees annually; and
d) ensure the safety of tenants and other members of the public.
Council is unable to say whether it met its statutory duty at a) or objectives b) and d. It did not meet objective c.
In May 2023, Council considered a request for a beehive at the Hughenden Valley allotments. It referred the matter to the Environment & Services Committee to consider the policy on beehives. The matter did not return to Council.
Apart from this, Council had no discussion about allotments during 2023/4. It did not review the fees. It had no information about demand nor about the number of vacant plots, and no information about the efficiency/cost-effectiveness of the administration of the allotments. Nor did Council ask for this information. Nor did Council carry out an assessment of the risks to tenants or members of the public. It had no information – nor did it ask for it - about the state of repair of the allotments.
2. Garden of Rest
Council should: -
a) ensure it complies with the law in providing burials and internments;
b) provide a cost- effective and sympathetic service;
c) review the fees annually;
d) ensure the safety of those working at, or visiting, the burial grounds; and
e) plan for the future.
Council failed to meet objective c) and e). It is unable to say whether it met its statutory duty at a) or its objectives at b) and d).
In 2022/3 after the Council became quorate, Council had serious concerns about the management of the Garden of Rest, including whether its operations complied with the law. It commissioned work to see whether Council was compliant and to make recommendations.
However, Council did not follow up this work in 2023/4 to ensure the recommendations were implemented.
The Council approved expenditure in July 2023 for the landscaping of new plots at the Garden of Rest and in January 2024 for Cemetery Management Package which is intended to provide a cost-effective administration.
However, apart from this, Council has shown little interest in the Garden of Rest during the year, including failing to review the fees and to discuss plans for the future.
3. Cutting hedges and grass/maintaining footpaths under contract with Bucks Council
Council should: -
a) specify what maintenance is required;
b) obtain value for money in carrying out the work; and
c) ensure the work is done in line with the specification.
Council met objective a. It failed to meet objective c) and does not know whether it met objective b).
4. Maintenance of hedges and cutting grass on allotments/ amenity Council land
Council should: -
a) specify what maintenance is required;
b) obtain value for money in carrying out the work; and
c) ensure the work is done in line with the specification.
Council met objective a. It failed to meet objective c) and does not know whether it met objective b).
5. Streetlights
Council should: -
a) comply with the law in having a system in place for assessing the safety of the lights;
b) maintain the streetlights in a safe condition and make repairs promptly;
c) operate the streetlights cost effectively; and
d) provide sufficient illumination to protect the public.
Council agreed a system and meets objective a). It did not meet objective b); it took 9 months to replace a light bulb. It does not know whether it has met objective c). Procedures have been agreed to ensure residents will be consulted if it is proposed to reduce the level of illumination.
6. Dog bins
Council should: -
a) provide the right number of dog bins in the right places in the parish;
b) operate the service cost-effectively; and
c) ensure the bins are emptied in line with the contract.
Council does not know whether it has met any of these objectives.
Council agreed to provide four additional dog waste bins in May 2023, three at Naphill and one at Great Kingsmill. It also agreed that the Clerk should review the provision of the dog bins across the parish but this was not done.
7. Ensuring residents hedges do not encroach on pavements
Council should: -
a) respond promptly to complaints from members of the public;
b) investigate the complaints promptly;
c) take any necessary action in line with Bucks Council’s procedures; and
d) report back promptly to those who complain.
Council does not know whether it has met any of these objectives.
8. Playgrounds
Council should: -
a) commission competent people to carry out quarterly inspections of the playgrounds;
b) consider and act on the inspection reports; and
c) ensure that the playgrounds comply with the law and official guidelines.
Council met objective a). It failed to meet objective b) and c); the Health and Safety Executive started an investigation into the safety of HPC’s playgrounds (which is still ongoing) but the locum Clerk did not disclose to Council the correspondence between him and HSE, and Council did not discuss the investigation.
9. Planning
Council should: -
d) fulfill its role as a statutory consultee on planning applications; and
e) ensure that those affected by an application have the opportunity to put their views to Council before it commented.
Council failed to meet these objectives; it had no Planning Committee.
10. Staffing.
Council should: -
a) recruit, appoint, induct, and train sufficient, competent staff to support the work of the Council;
b) manage its staff, including providing staff with clear objectives and agreed workplans;
c) monitor their performance; and
d) carry out its other management functions in compliance with its Staff Handbook and the law.
Council did not meet objective a). Council does not know whether it met objectives b) – d).
At no time during 2023/4 did the Council have sufficient, competent staff.
Council appointed two Proper Officers during the year, one a locum Clerk until July 2023 and the other a permanent employee from May – October 2023. Another locum Clerk was named as Proper Officer in November 2023.
Council’s Responsible Financial Officer, a councillor, resigned in September 2023. The then Proper Office appointed an RFO in September 2023. The Proper Officer had no authority to make the appointment and it is unclear whether this appointment is valid/lawful.
A Burials & Allotments Administrator was appointed in July 2023.
From September 2023 at least, Council was unaware of its staffing complement, who was working for the Council at any one time and their terms and conditions. It was unaware as to whether those staff had been properly inducted or trained. It was unaware whether the staff had objectives or workplans and it was unaware whether the performance of staff was being monitored, or by whom.
There was no substantive discussion by Council of its staffing since July 2023.
11. Engagement with Community
Council should, as a minimum:-
a) ensure that residents have information about the Council and its decision-taking.;
b) ensure that Council is informed about residents’ concerns;
c) ensure residents have adequate opportunity to put their views to Council before decisions are taken;
d) ensure that residents’ views are taken into account.
Council did not meet any of these objectives.
Even basic information e.g. supporting papers for Council and Committees meeting was not put on the Council’s website. From at least September 2023, draft minutes were not provided until the next Council or Committee meeting which meant a two- month delay.
The correspondence log which used to come to Council was discontinued. Reports from residents’ associations and other external meetings were also discontinued.
The consequence was that engagement with residents was minimal; residents did not know what the Council was doing and therefore did not know when and how to make their views known – and Council did not know what residents’ thought and could not take their views into account.
12. Councillors.
Council should: -
a) encourage residents to apply to be councillors.
b) arrange induction and training for councillors and encourage councillors to attend; and
c) arrange appropriate team building events.
Council did not meet any of these objectives.
Council did not take any steps to meet objective a). The Council started the year with 10 councillors. Two resigned during the year and 1 was co-opted. Another councillor was co-opted and resigned within the year.
There was no induction for new councillors and no training programme for councillors with particular responsibilities e.g. for finance.
Council approved a team building programme to be run by a consultant in July 2023 and Council paid for the programme. But nothing was arranged.
13. Decision-taking
Council should:-
- monitor its decisions and ensure that all its decisions are implemented or brought back to Council.
Council did not meet this objective.
Council agreed in 2022/3 to review all outstanding decisions of Council and prioritise and plan their implementation. In April 2023, Council considered a list of Council resolutions which had been made since September 2022 and had not yet been actioned. The list was 11 pages long. Council declined to use it and asked the Clerk to revise.
In May 2023, Council noted the latest list of action points. It agreed that this was a work in progress and should be reviewed by the Finance and Environment & Services Committees. This did not happen.
Council did not monitor the implementation of its decisions nor ensure that what it decided took place.