Minutes from 17th January 2023

East Sussex Association of Local Councils Limited 

Minutes of the virtual Board Meeting held via Zoom on 

Thursday 17^th January 2023 at 10.00am 

1. Apologies for absence

Apologies were received from Marion Shepherd DL, Ruth O’Keeffe, Philip Allard and Lord Abergavenny DL. 

• Minutes of the previous meeting

The minutes from the meeting held on the 17^th November 2022 were approved as a true and accurate record of the meeting.

• Financial update

Cllr Stevens advised that the current financial year started with £55,000 in the bank account and the current balance was approximately £75,000. He anticipated that the next quarter would see expenditure in the region of £4,000 so a surplus of £8,000 should be expected for the year. He reminded the Board that affiliation fees were the same last year as the previous year but a 15% reduction was given to cover the surplus that had been made in 2021/22 which equated to approximately £8,000. He recommended that the Board keeps the affiliation fees the same as the previous year and this was unanimously agreed.

The CEO said he would look provide an update with regards to depositing £25,000 into the CCLA savings account.

Councillor Stevens recommended that £25,000 be transferred from the current account to the reserves account (both with NatWest) as rates are doing slightly better. This was unanimously agreed.

• Planning, targets and the Government’s plan

Councillor Young reported on the Government’s proposed changes to the NPFF and planning numbers and targets. He advised that in Wealden they have a huge problem due to the National Park where they obviously can’t build. Councillor Young asked if ESALC should engage with MPs on the topic or if Wealden should continue to press MPs on their own. 

After substantial debate and input from the Board, it was widely agreed that planning is an issue across Sussex and the CEO would meet with Councillor Stevens to draft a response to the consultation once NALC have met on February 3^rd to discuss the matter.

• Queen’s Green Canopy

The CEO advised the Board that there is a digital map and Councils are invited to enter the details of where they have planted trees in honour of the Queen’s Green Canopy. Councils have until the end of March to add their entry on the map.

Councillor Young reminded everyone that the Woodland Trust still had trees available free of charge.

• Dealing with difficult councils

The CEO reported that one or two councils require more time than he can reasonably devote to them and referred to the report he shared ahead of the Board meeting. Should councils be charged an additional fee if they require an excessive amount of ESALC’s time or is it fair that this is being subsidised by other councils? He mentioned one council who have had four clerks within two years. He advised that additional fees could risk alienating some councils and commented that ESALC is one of the very few ALC’s with 100% membership.

After considerable debate, Councillor Stevens tabled the suggestion of ESALC contracting clerks to difficult councils so the council in question has to deal with ESALC as opposed to the clerk when issues arise.

The Vice Chair said it would be worth exploring Councillor Steven’s suggestion and commented that it was widely agreed that there should be an upper limit to the support we can give before an additional charge would need to be made. It was unanimously agreed that this had to be at Trevor’s discretion.

[The Chair had to leave the meeting at 10.50am and the Vice Chair proceeded to chair the meeting.]

• Elections

The CEO circulated a report ahead of the meeting and commented on the very low number of contested elections. He also gave examples of successful parish councils making a difference within their community. He gave details of WSALC’s initiative to engage more people to stand as councillors and asked if the ESALC Board wished to get involved. If so, the ESALC share of the fee would be £3,200 on the basis that Surrey ALC also become involved. If Surrey did not take part then ESALC would pay £4,300.  

After discussion, the Board voted to proceed with the proposal.

• CEO update

The CEO advised that parishes.uk network have written to all councils asking for their details to be included in an online directory. The website seeks to mimic the government website and NALC wrote to them to ask for further information but never heard back, so the CEO advises against engaging with them before more information has been received.

Martyn’s Law was discussed at the recent NALC meeting and the law of unintended consequences could apply here. It is aimed at major events but if there was an overzealous local authority, it could impact on village fetes so it is up to individual authorities to ensure that the appropriate risk assessment has been made ahead of any event.

The CEO said that County Councillor Claire Dowling wrote to all parish councils explaining where the county stood on pot holes and commented that it was a very informative letter.

The CEO also spoke of the increase in retail crime in Mid Sussex and said he had arranged for Katy Bourne to chair meetings in May to focus on retailers.

He also reiterated the importance for councils to sign up to the Civility and Respect pledge.

Lastly, the CEO discussed the problems with South East Water before Christmas and reported that a meeting had been suggested where district councils, the parishes affected and David Hinton, Chief Executive of South East Water, would be invited to discuss the issues and to find ways to minimise the chances of it happening again. The CEO will advise on dates in due course.

• District Associations

Councillor Young said the recent RALC meeting was face to face and said it was very informative. He said Olivia Carroll, Rother Inspector attended amongst others to discuss her recent work. Other topics which were discussed included housing supply and planning, as well as RALC’s budget.

The CEO said Lewes District Association had not met recently and there seemed to be a lack of interest from parishes, however, a meeting had been called for 15^th February.  

Councillor Stevens said Wealden District Association had a meeting this week so he would provide a report at the next meeting.

1. Any other matters raised by the Board

No matters were raised.

1. Date of next meeting

It was agreed that the next meeting would take place in April face to face.  The date would be shared soon.

The meeting closed at 11.32am.