Minutes from Wealden District Association of Local Councils – 15th January 2025

1. Present: Councillors Keith Stevens (Chairman, Wartling), Patrick Coffey (Heathfield and Waldron), Martyn Garrett (Crowborough), Martin Cooper (Willingdon and Jevington), Christine Payne (Willingdon and Jevington), Douglas Murray (Polegate), Richard Brown (Cuckmere Valley), Kay Moss (Crowborough), Nicky Kinghorn (Arlington), Diane West (Uckfield), Stephen Tolhurst (Chiddingly), David Mallett (Buxted) and Kath Waterman (Warbleton).

Also in attendance; Councillor James Partridge (Deputy Leader of Wealden District Council), Chris Bending (Director of Place, Wealden District Council) and Alison Stevens (Honorary Secretary).

2. Apologies for Absence: Apologies for absence were received from: Beryl Smith (Berwick), Sally Carnie (Berwick), Graham Knight (Horam), Shirley McKinnon (Pevensey), Penny Lawne (Withyham), Lolita Reeves (Maresfield), Andy Watkins (Willingdon and Jevington), Richard Hannay (Fletching),  John Castle (Hellingly), Deveda Redman (Mayfield and Five Ashes) and Long Man Parish Council.

3. Draft Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on the 18^th September 2024

The minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on the 18^th September 2024 were read, approved by all and signed by the Chairman.

4. Keith Stevens, Chair of NALC

Councillor Stevens provided updates on the following on behalf of NALC:

1:         Members were encouraged to sign up individually to the NALC website where they will find out more about the campaigns it runs, its policies, training opportunities and National Networks.

2:         NALC has appointed a Public Affairs Agency which has resulted in greater press coverage, new contacts and more meetings with Ministers.

3:         There was recently a consultation on Virtual Meetings and Proxy Voting.

4:         MHCLG recently issued a local government standards consultation here (https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/strengthening-the-standards-and-conduct-framework-for-local-authorities-in-england/strengthening-the-standards-and-conduct-framework-for-local-authorities-in-england ) and NALC will be responding. Please also see the related NALC news story issued yesterday (https://www.nalc.gov.uk/resource/nalc-to-respond-to-the-governments-consultation-on-standards.html ).

NALC has accordingly published and produced the following standards sector survey (https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=XI10-kGBhESEUZ2oBPD-MXcDGgACcfVLo9lsczFoTXpUQjhJR1VOVVRIV1EyVzZHMk9SNFNCOUMwTCQlQCN0PWcu&route=shorturl ) to help inform its response.

NALC would be grateful if you and your councils could please complete the survey – the final sector survey response deadline is 23:45 on 2^nd February.

5:         District Councils have received several requests to remove Councillor addresses (or other personal details) from published Register of Interests. In order to do this the Monitoring Officer needs to sign off the request. A new style Register of Interests Form was sent to all parishes by Wealden District Council on the 13^th September.

6:         Martyn’s Law – The public will be better protected from terrorism under new laws requiring many public venues to improve preparedness against attacks and bring in measures to help keep people safe.

The new legislation, known as ‘Martyn’s Law’ in tribute of Martyn Hett who was killed alongside 21 others in the 2017 Manchester Arena attack, will make sure venues across the UK must consider the security of the public, and take steps to protect them from harm. 

Under the changes, a new duty will be placed on those responsible for premises and public events, requiring them to take appropriate action to strengthen public safety, with requirements reflecting the size of the venue and the activity taking place.

More information on how can be found at protectuk.police.uk

7:         The leaders of East Sussex County Council (ESCC), West Sussex County Council (WSCC), and Brighton and Hove City Council (BHCC) have formally expressed Sussex’ interest in joining the Devolution Priority Programme.

Following unanimous support from their cabinets, a joint letter was sent to central government. In addition to this, they will be requesting permission to defer the upcoming May elections, paving the way for significant changes to the Counties’ local government structure.

If accepted into the Devolution Priority Programme, Sussex will undergo a transformative restructure of its local government. This could involve: Significant changes to, or abolition of each of the three Councils, and the district/borough councils. The creation of new unitary authorities, which will assume the roles and responsibilities currently spread across these councils. A directly elected mayor alongside a new Mayoral Strategic Authority, with the first mayoral elections potentially as early as 2026. Unitary authority elections, proposed for 2027/2028.

This restructuring is part of the government’s broader devolution agenda, designed to bring decision-making closer to local communities. For Sussex, devolution could mean access to new powers and additional funding, with the promise of improved services for taxpayers.

The next key milestone in this process is the 30th January, when the government is expected to announce whether Sussex has been accepted into the Devolution Priority Programme.

There was a lot of speculation but it was pointed out that much remains uncertain at this stage, particularly regarding the boundaries of the proposed unitary authorities and how the restructuring will impact residents and local services. The Wealden District Association of Local Councils will be closely monitoring developments and keeping its member councils informed throughout this process.

5. AI and Parish Councils

NALC is working with Cloudy IT to produce a sector specific AI package for Parish and Town Councils. The package will ensure the information used by those who subscribe to the package will be from safe and reliable sources. AI is being viewed as potentially useful tool for those who work within the sector.

6. Updates from Wealden District Council

District Councillor Partridge said:

• Wealden District Council apologises for the timing of some Direct Debit collections over the Christmas period. An automated scheduling error meant that direct debits for Council Tax and Business Rates were taken on 27th December rather than on 1st January. Not a huge number of people were affected but an inquiry will be taking place to make sure it doesn’t happen again. More information about the issue can be found here; https://www.wealden.gov.uk/news/wealden-district-council-apologises-for-the-timing-of-some-direct-debit-collections-over-the-christmas-period/
• Residents and business are being urged to have their say as Wealden District Council has launched a consultation on its budget for the financial year 2025/26. The consultation is now live and closes on 10th January 2025. A 2.99% increase in its share of the Council Tax is being proposed.
• The Waste Collection Contract with Biffa has been extended for a further seven years. There will also be a new food waste collection service from Spring 2026, for which residents will be given a caddy.

In answer to councillors questions it was confirmed that;

• Wealden is still going through the responses to the Local Plan Regulation 18 consultation, after which it is hoping to move swiftly onto Regulation 19.
• A Feasibility Study is underway to assess two possible sites for a potential new Medical Centre at Polegate. The NHS is the body responsible for providing the centre and funding will be required from them.
• Everything possible will be done to make sure the work needed to the mouth of the Cuckmere River is a priority for a new unitary authority and the work which is still needed gets done.
• The South Downs National Park Authority is a Planning Authority and will remain so after the restructuring.
• It is normal to have a management company set up for new developments and they are usually controlled by the property owners because they are responsible for their management, repairs and maintenance of services on their estate. If there is a majority owner (such as a Housing Association), the property company effectively controls the management company.
• The current affordable housing system is broken and there is no money available from Central Government, Councils or Developers to support the costs of providing it. Central Government is unable to provide any more grants, councils have no money and developers need an element of affordable housing to guarantee their cash flow. A request from a developer who wanted to rid themselves of the requirement was unsuccessful but this will not set a precedent for the future. It was also noted that even though large numbers of houses on new developments are not selling this cannot be used as reasons to reject future applications.

7. Questions from Members

There were no further questions.

8. Next Association Meetings: 2^nd April (Association), 16^th July (Association), 17^th September (Management Committee) and 1st October (Association).                                      

There were no further questions and this meeting ended at 8.40pm.