East Sussex Association of Local Councils Limited
Agenda for a Board Meeting
To be held at Heathfield Community Centre
Monday 3rd July 2023 at 10.30am
In attendance:
Marquess of Abergavenny DL [President]
Mrs Marion Shepherd DL [Vice President]
Dr. Alex MacGillivray [Vice President]
D.P.M.Young [Vice President], Chairman RALC]
K.B.D. Stevens [Chairman ESALC], Chairman WDALC]
J. Barnes [ Vice Chairman ESALC], RALC
Philip Allard, RALC
Trevor Leggo, CEO ESALC and Emily Simpson, Admin and Finance Assistant, ESALC
The Vice Chair opened the meeting with a minute’s silence for the late Stephen Catlin.
- Apologies for absence
Apologies were received from Councillor Moss.
- Election of the Chairman
Councillor Keith Stevens was proposed and seconded as the new Chairman of ESALC. This was unanimously agreed.
- Minutes of the previous meeting
The minutes of the previous meeting held on April 17th were accepted as a true and accurate record.
- Financial update
The Chairman ran through the year end accounts and said the figures were as expected. He confirmed that £60,000 was in the CCLA account, £25,000 in the NatWest reserve account and approximately £15,000 in the current account. He advised that £500 of interest had already been accrued with CCLA.
The Board agreed the form and content of the statutory accounts and RESOLVED to have two members sign the accounts for the year ended 31st March 2023 and instruct the company secretary to file the accounts with companies house.
- South East Water
The CEO advised he wrote to the Chief Executive of South East Water, Richard Hinton, to invite him to today’s Board meeting but he had not received acknowledgement of his letter. Representatives were also supposed to attend the WDALC meeting next week but had now retracted their acceptance. Conversation progressed and it was subsequently suggested that ESALC write to Ofwat (Water Services Regulation Authority) to say how disappointed the Board was in not having received acknowledgement from South East Water.
- Martyn’s Law
The Chairman advised that various bodies including NALC were in communication with the government on this matter, mainly over capacity issues. For example, if a town of parish council was holding a meeting and it had capacity to hold 100 people, despite how many attendees there actually were, all the rules and regulations of Martyn’s Law would need to be adhered to. If anything were to happen then they would be liable should they not carry out the appropriate checks. This was likely to extend to fetes.
Dr MacGillivray said community buildings could be at risk and said trustees needed to be informed of Martyn’s Law, many of whom were volunteers. He said many trustees passed on the liability to the hirer of the hall, so this is an area which needed to be explored further.
The CEO had heard that District Councils would administer this so it would be largely down to their resources and zealousness.
Dr MacGillivray gave the example of Barcombe’s Coronation Day celebrations. He said they ensured a risk assessment was carried out of the area as well as traffic management and ensured a health and safety leader was appointed.
The CEO suggested a briefing session should be organised for all parish and town councils within the next couple of months. It was suggested that a Legal Topic Note from NALC would be helpful and the Chairman agreed to discuss this further with NALC.
- Office Premises
The CEO advised that the office in Lewes previously used by ESALC, WSALC and Surrey ALC did not have its lease extended once the pandemic struck. The CEO told how he had been working from home but felt a professional office with space for meetings would be an advantage. He advised that WSALC had agreed the lease of an office space in Hurstpierpoint at a cost of £4000 per annum. The Board were invited to proportionally split the cost of the lease which would equate to £1600 for ESALC. To offset this, the CEO reminded the Board that Lewes Town Council who received post for ESALC would no longer have their membership discounted by £500. He also said that he had a working from home allowance which would be discounted should ESALC decide to become involved.
The Board unanimously agreed to contribute towards the office share.
- CEO update
The CEO reported on ESALC training and said with the advent of new councillors, there had been three sessions take place already as well as sessions in planning, finance and new clerks training. Successful clerks and chairman’s forums had also taken place within the last month. The CEO also advised that he was carrying out a number of face to face new councillor sessions as well as visioning exercises with parish councils.
Regarding recruitment, the CEO advised there was a full time position available at Peacehaven which had received no applications as of last week. Hadlow Down parish council had appointed a new clerk but she resigned almost immediately. Arlington parish council was in the process of holding interviews for a new clerk and Wadhurst parish council was looking for a locum clerk whilst its clerk studied for CiLCA; to date, one expression of interest had been received.
The CEO then spoke about a handful of councils in East Sussex who were experiencing issues: Horam, Alfriston, Hurst Green and Northiam. East Hoathly parish council was causing a personal issue which he was currently investigating so he could establish all the facts.
The CEO also advised that East Sussex Highways were adding £5m to the budget for road repairs as well as £5m into the capital programme which would bring the capital programme to £23m.
Lastly, the topic of councillor behaviour was discussed and it was questioned why it appeared to be deteriorating. The limited role of the monitoring officer was questioned and the use of sanctions were once again raised.
The Chairman said this topic frequently arose when he discussed the civility and respect pledge and said that bad behaviour should be called out at the time and the meeting should be closed if necessary.
A conversation on the title of the clerk ensued and it was widely agreed that the word ‘clerk’ should be changed to reflect the wider work they do as many still believe it is solely a role of writing agendas and taking minutes.
Dr MacGillivray commented that there appeared to be a distinct lack of knowledge on how council meetings should be run and questioned the number of councillors who did not attend training sessions.
- District Associations
The Lewes Association meeting was due to take place on 6th July, Rother and Wealden were both on the 12th July so there was nothing to report at this stage. The CEO advised there were currently no Lewes representatives on the ESALC Board but that interested parties had been asked to come forward and three potential representatives were invited to today’s meeting but unfortunately two gave their apologies and the third had not responded to the invitation.
It was suggested that the minutes from the Association’s meetings should be sent to Emily so these could be shared with the rest of the Board.
- Any other matters raised by the Board
The Chairman advised that the company who provide ESALC’s payroll services was increasing its fees and so the decision had been made to switch to a new firm based in Uckfield who were cheaper and had been recommended. This would take effect from September.
The CEO informed the Board that Westfield Parish Council had decided not to re-join ESALC and he was keen to further establish the reasons behind this decision.
The CEO briefly spoke about Sussex Police and their recent publicity surrounding an incident in Lancing. He had scheduled a meeting with them to discuss further.
Dr MacGillivray raised the issue of parliamentary constituency boundaries which was previously discussed. Last week through social media, he discovered that the boundary commission had made a decision and the 3 or 4 parishes in Lewes would be in a new constituency which many were not happy about as they wanted to be part of the South.
Finally, the Chairman referred to a draft motion to NALC on caravan sites and council tax:
Residents of caravan and mobile home parks can remain in residence for 50 weeks each year, during that time they do not pay council tax; the site owner paying business rates. Given that the bulk of business rate income is retained by government with just a proportion being returned to the district or borough council, residents are effectively not contributing to the local services provided.
It is therefore proposed that NALC should lobby Government for a change in legislation to ensure that such residents become liable for Council Tax.
At the last meeting it was suggested there was no definition of ‘caravan’ however under the Caravan Sites Act of 1968 the following definition exists :
When assembled is physically capable of being moved by road from one place to another – whether being towed or being transported by a motor vehicle.
The Board agreed to the above motion.
- Date of next meeting
The date of the next meeting was agreed as Monday 23rd October at 10.30am at the same venue.