Minutes from 19th August 2024

East Sussex Association of Local Councils Limited

Minutes for a Board Meeting

To be held at Heathfield Community Centre

Monday 19^th  August 2024 at 10.30am

In attendance:

1. Apologies for absence

Apologies were received from Dr Alex McGillivray and Councillors Keith Robertson and Sean MacLeod.

• Minutes of the previous meeting

The minutes were then accepted as a true and accurate record.

• Financial update

The Chair said a surplus of £8930 was made in the last financial year. The Chair proposed the accounts were signed off

It was also previously agreed that a Finance Committee was set up (names previously agreed) – to discuss earmark reserves; do we remain a company or go back to how things were before? A paper with pros and cons would be beneficial here. The Chair also said what do we do with the surplus – it’s great we do not have to put the fees up again and would propose they remain the same. Free training for parishes signed up to the Civility & Respect project was suggested.

He estimated there would be a surplus this current year. Accounts at the moment – NatWest account had £8124, reserve account had £10,253 and the CCLA account was at £93,477 so we are in a good position. CCLA were continuing to pay good interest rates and had had record deposits over the last 3 months from local authorities and churches etc.

• NALC update

The Chair said NALC was taking the view that the new government was stating it would do a lot with regards to planning etc. but no fine details had been published yet. NALC is waiting for the finer details so it can offer solutions.

NALC Board and Assembly has agreed that lobbyists are appointed.

Hannah Hardy – flooding and water minister is keen to speak with councils which was encouraging news.

Chair has also had a couple of meetings with Nicholas Boys Smith who is from the Office for Place. Good examples of parish neighbourhood plans. 

Chair due to meet with the Chair of CPRE – work with NALC to provide information on their planning ideals.

Ministers under Angela Rayner have been parish councillors so know how things work at a local level.

NFFP was brought up by John Barnes – not in line with housing targets; proposal for Steve Tilbury to provide a critique of it in conjunction with West Sussex.

It was agreed that the Chair and CEO would offer to visit Westfield Parish Council to encourage them to re-consider their ESALC membership.

• Civility & Respect

At the last Board meeting, of the 90 parish councils, 35 had confirmed they had signed up. As of this morning, no further parishes had signed up. It’s a statement to show that you are agreeing to treat everybody fairly and politely – so on the contrary, by not signing up, what are parishes saying?

NALC has Hazel Broatch working on Civility & Respect and giving recommendations at a parish and town council level. This would be fed to parish councils for those who were not yet familiar with the literature.

Douglas Murray wondered if modules could be useful where each councillor had to complete a module and the clerk and wider community could then see it had been completed. CEO – fundamental flaw is that training is not mandatory for councillors.

One idea was tabled which was to be an EASLC member, you have to sign up to the Civility & Respect pledge; if you don’t,

• Police update

The CEO spoke about a recent issue in Peacehaven Town Council where the Clerk had approached Trevor Leggo for assistance. The CEO wrote to the Asst Chief Constable responsible for local policing and first thing the next morning it had been passed to the District Commander and it emerged the local inspector in Lewes has 3 teams – only one police constable for the whole of Lewes. PCSO’s have 12 months of training to become a constable. PCSO numbers have diminished; largely due to unattractive salary on offer.

Police did a community engagement in the park on Sunday, two PCSO’s were present; only PCSO’s available for the whole of Lewes that day. Half his salary was paid by the police, remainder was made up from the PCC.

The Chair spoke again of Immediate Justice (aimed at tackling anti-social behaviour).  

Finished by saying he has a good relationship with Sussex Police so clerks should get in touch with him if they are experiencing any issues.

• CEO update

The CEO referred to his previously circulated report and spoke about councillors feeling threatened, and referenced Fairlight Parish Council which resulted in the majority of the councillors as well as the experienced clerk resigning from their post. The CEO said he had concerns that even fewer candidates would step forward at the next elections in 2027. The topic of recording Council meetings was raised.

National speed limits – seems madness that some of the rural roads have a 60mph speed limit and at the recent Chairman’s Forum, most took the view that one benchmark would be if there is no white line, it should automatically be 40mph. This would require NALC and the Police to take a view on rural roads across the country.

Councillor John Barnes said there should be a blanket national policy; it cannot be done on a case by case basis. All unclassified roads should be 40mph in his opinion. Black cat data is out there.

The CEO said a carriageway was 13ft wide and if two carriageways on a road cannot be accommodated then there would not be a white line.

The Chair said if the police did not support it, it would not happen. Jo Shiner – head of roads policing – invite to AGM?

Need to check Chief Constable’s view.

Clerk’s Networking Days – two clerks recently requested that these are resurrected. Costs were kept low as exhibitors were invited and would be charged a fee to attend. If Board supports this initiative, we will work with West Sussex and Surrey to resurrect it. The Chair questioned why Surrey ALC would be included and not just East and West Sussex.

David Young said networking was lost during the pandemic and that a face to face networking day would be a great idea.

It was agreed to be between East and West predominantly but there would be some spaces from adjoining counties. The Felbridge Hotel in East Grinstead was suggested as it had been used previously and proved to be easily accessible, good parking, and had good catering and use of breakout rooms.

NPPF – Steve Tilbury had said he would do a critique for £1200 for the Association to share with all parishes. This would be in conjunction with West Sussex. Councillor John Barnes said a lot of information was not included within the NPPF and it would be helpful if Steve could reference these as well. It was decided that Board members provide their thoughts on Steve’s brief, this can be taken into account. It was agreed to support this initiative.

Police Focus Groups

Police focus groups have been held twice a year for the last 6 years. It was recently agreed the format would change so to preserve parish council access to the Chief Constable and PCC, they will now be brought into the DALC’s if they want to have them. This is being piloted at LDALC in September. If a DALC is not keen to do this, it is at their discretion not to include the police.

Councillor Kay Barnes said it was difficult for councils to engage with the police. The CEo said the CSAGs worked very well and it was a shame these ceased to exist.

Board would like to see a regular audience with a member from the police.

Local Authority Budgets

Parish districts are in similar situations to Eastbourne, not as dire.

Joint Conference

Suggestion for this year for a joint conference between East and West Sussex. Joint speakers – SE Water, planning associate, police, NALC. The Amex was suggested as a suitable venue as it has been used in the past. Councillor Kay Moss had concerns that both are big counties and worried there may be some information relevant to one county but not the other.

An agenda with the right items would and could appeal to both Associations. After discussion, it was agreed to hold a joint conference subject to the agenda. It was agreed to draft an agenda and circulate it to see views on content.

See Appendix 1 for the full CEO report.

• District Associations

Rother: David Young reported that parishes have agreed to run the toilets within the District. Their last meeting was good with attendance  from the police and county councillors.

Lewes: Christopher Baker said a meeting of LDALC took place in Newhaven with attendees from 18 parish councils along with AirS, LDC and ESCC. The purpose of the meeting was to try to create closer cooperation between the three tiers of local government. Larger parish councils need to start talking to their electors about responsibilities they are likely to assume with regards to budget preparations.  Rupert Clubb said parish councils could email him and he would pass on to relevant person to look into further.

Wealden: The meeting didn’t take place in the end as it was not scheduled to he quorate. The meeting is scheduled to take place in September instead.

• Any other matters raised by the Board

The Chair said he attended the rural affordable housing partnership recently and said some rural affordable housing plans were on hold because they were becoming too expensive but also they were becoming too expensive for the residents on their service charge. The service charges were soaring at the moment as district councils were not taking on the roads, lights, protection of the water etc. so the cost of maintenance was very high and people could not affordable it. The Chair said he had raised this with NALC.

              Feedback was received positively regarding the newsletter.

Glossary of terms for acronyms was requested – CEO would do this.

1. Date of the next meeting

TBC