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20 May 2023
The Annual Full Council meeting of Hughenden Parish Council took place on 16 May. I found it a surreal experience.
I’m going to jump to item 21 on the agenda to explain.
Item 21 was a resolution for Council to sign the Civility and Respect Pledge. This is a Pledge which councils are encouraged to take to improve their governance. Most of the Pledge is aspirational e.g. the Council agrees “to continue to learn from best practice” and “aspires to be a role model”.
However, one part of the Pledge is not aspirational. It requires councils to agree “that it has good governance arrangements in place …”
As we went through the meeting, there were numerous examples to show that HPC does not have good governance arrangements in place. So, Council’s solution was to change this part of the Pledge to make it aspirational too i.e. “to commit to having good governance arrangements”. Council then voted to sign the Pledge (with me voting against).
As I said, a bit surreal.
I have nothing against the Pledge but committing to good governance is the easy bit – actually having good governance arrangements in place is what counts.
You can decide for yourself whether HPC has good governance arrangements in place – and whether Council is committed to good governance – as we go through the agenda.
When I received the agenda some days before the meeting, I noticed that one of the councillors had resigned and had applied for co-option to represent another ward. I didn’t know he had resigned, nor could I find an application form in the papers.
When I queried this with the Clerk, she said the councillor had sent his notice of resignation on 9 May “effective on the 16th of May at the Annual Full Council Meeting.”
So, it was odd that the councillor concerned was sitting with the Council at the beginning of the meeting. I asked when his resignation became effective and was told 7.30 pm when the meeting stated. So I suggested when the meeting started that he should perhaps be sitting with the public as he was no longer a councillor. However, no-one else seemed to be concerned so he remained sitting with Council.
Cllr Cadwallader took the Chair and the first item on the agenda was the election of a new Chair and Vice Chair.
Cllr Stan Jones and Cllr Debra Main stood for Chair. Cllr Jones was elected by a majority vote. Cllr Main was elected Vice Chair unanimously.
It was only later that I realised that the councillor who had resigned, and was not a councillor at the time, had voted in the election for the Chair. I have raised this with the Clerk.
As I said, a bit surreal.
Councillor Carroll joined the Council briefly to report that he had followed up on an inspection carried out by Bucks Council’s planning enforcement team at Four Ashes. Thank you, Cllr Carroll.
When Council considered the draft minutes, I asked again if the new Clerk had been appointed as Proper Officer on 1 May, as the Council tried to do at its meeting in March, or whether she would be appointed later in the meeting.
I think it is reasonable for a councillor (or indeed a resident) to know who is the Proper Officer at any one time as the Proper Officer has considerable authority to take decisions, including financial decisions.
I’m not sure I got a clear answer but I think the Council got it wrong in March; Council can’t appoint someone at an unspecified time and then put the date in later. So, apologies from me as I was one of the councillors who got it wrong.
Council then formally received the resignation of the councillor and voted to co-opt him while he remained seated with the Council. The Clerk apologised for not bringing the declaration of acceptance office form which he could then sign and become a councillor again. So, the Clerk asked the councillor to repeat the declaration after her (a bit like a wedding). He then became a councillor for Naphill and Walters Ash ward.
As I said, a bit surreal.
Council then approved, with some amendments, a very helpful document prepared by the Clerk setting out all the delegations made by Council.
There were then a number of items setting up Council Committees. I had previously notified Council that I would not be volunteering for any of these in view of the Council censoring me.
There will only be three Committees – Environment and Services, Finance and Human Resources but no Planning Committee. I am unsure about the working groups but I think they are all now defunct.
All three Committees were encouraged to meet before the next Council meeting in June. Only the Finance Committee has met since the Council became inquorate in January 2022 and the Finance Committee hasn’t met since last August.
I assume the membership of the Committees and a list of who is representing HPC on outside bodies will shortly go on the website.
Approval of the asset register and the arrangements for insurance were deferred.
Council approved a press and social media policy. I abstained as I hadn’t read the papers. Five more policies were then deferred.
And so we came to approving payments.
HPC’s Financial Regulations require the Clerk to present the invoices for the payments so that councillors can check what the payments are for before they are asked to approve them. Unfortunately, Council had not received any invoices. Council was also asked to approve a further list of payments provided at the meeting with no invoices. Council, including me, approved the payments, albeit reluctantly. This was not good governance.
I took the opportunity to ask when Council would receive the outturn on the 2022/3 financial year. I’m afraid I have no idea whether, and to what extent, HPC was over or underspent, nor whether our reserves have gone up or down and by how much.
It is certainly surreal operating without knowing how much money the Council has and it’s not good governance either.
Council was told it has to receive this information by the June Full Council meeting in order to meet its statutory obligations.
I also asked when Council would receive the monthly financial reports it is meant to have under its Financial Regulations. Council had agreed to move its monthly meeting to the third Tuesday in the month to allow this to be done more easily but Council had no financial report. There was no clear answer.
I thanked Cllr Main for all the hard work she has put in trying to sort this out and Council agreed that this was a priority.
Council approved the lease for the Great Kingshill Cricket Club with me voting against.
I have every sympathy for the Cricket Club who have been waiting eight years for HPC to agree to a new lease. However, councillors are responsible for taxpayers’ money and HPC’s Financial Regulations require a valuation and survey of the property before a lease is signed. I have been asking HPC to carry out that valuation and survey for 6 months but nothing has been done.
So, in my view, this is a breach of HPC’s Financial Regulations and not good governance.
And on to dog bins. HPC has 22 dog bins across the parish and it approved 5 more at the meeting. It costs about £500/year to empty a dog bin so the total cost will now be over £12k/year. That’s probably all you want to know about dog bins.
Discussion on the latest playground safety report was deferred because Council only received the report shortly before the meeting.
We had a short discussion about the Clerk’s use of her delegated authority which I didn’t understand. Council noted this use.
Council voted against a list of outstanding actions which was a bit odd as we were only asked to note it. However, councillors were concerned that it was not complete nor accurate. I was puzzled how the previous 11 pages of outstanding actions had been reduced to two. However, the print was so small on my printed version, I couldn’t read it and I left the puzzle for another time.
Finally (or nearly), Council appointed Alice Fisher as Proper Officer. Welcome Alice again. Cllr Stan Jones remains the Responsible Finance Officer.
The last item was on staffing and confidential.
At present, I think HPC has three employees, one full-time and two part-time. It also has contracted the services of two people, one full-time and one part-time. I hope a full, up- to-date list will shortly go on the website because I’m confused too.
And that’s it until the June meeting unless anything comes up. I might go to a Committee meeting or two in the meantime as a member of the public but none have been posted yet.