Brockley Parish Council Meeting Minutes

MINUTES OF THE BROCKLEY PARISH COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON THURSDAY 21ST NOVEMBER 2024 IN THE VILLAGE HALL, BROCKLEY AT 7.00PM

Present: Cllr Dr J Wymer, Cllr R Dinsey, Cllr S Hudson, Cllr S Holmes, Cllr B Tyler, Cllr G Baber, Cllr F Driver

Apologies

District Cllr Sarah Pugh, County Cllr Bobby Bennett.

Declaration of Interests & Requests for Dispensations

None.

To Approve the Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting Held on Thursday 19th September 2024

Proposed and seconded that the minutes of the meeting of the 19th September 2024 are approved – all in favour.

Matters Arising from the Minutes

A formal letter of thanks has been sent to Anglian Water (Strategic Pipeline) for work carried out to improve the Mill Lane footpath. Concerning an overgrown hedge at a property opposite the village hall, this has now been cut back but uncertain whether this was because of an enforcement notice, or the letter sent by the Parish Council. Elsewhere in the village, further notices are to be issued relating to illegal wooden and metal posts. A thank you to both Ray and Steve for putting together the new benches.

County & District Council Reports

Cllr Pugh has sent a message via the clerk advising there are still monies available from her locality budget that have to be spent by the end of March 2025.

Public Forum

No members of the public were present.

Finance

Balance as of 12th October 2024 stands at £20,253.74 with no outstanding cheques.
Cheques to be approved at the meeting
- Cowlin PH – Ditch cleaning 2820.00
- Gallager Insurance 506.30
- Padlock reimbursement 12.22
- Clerk’s salary x 2 months 228.20
- Hall hire 16.00
- Gates Hut Ltd – Benches 1292.40
Balance following approval of cheques £15,378.62
Expenditure not shown on the latest bank statement
- All Out Play – Deposit 12000.00
Income not shown on the latest statement
- Locality budget award 600.00
- Donation from Cllr Driver 499.00
Proposed and seconded that the payments schedule be approved – all in favour.
To consider the precept for the financial year 2025/26
- Children’s Playground, as well as other budget matters were discussed as one under 7b. Cllrs were asked to consider when discussing the budget, invoices for the notice board and oak posts have yet to be received. Similarly, if the grant application towards the play area is not successful, an invoice of £10,000 will be payable in January. Options to consider
  1. take a loan of £5000 offered by the Brockley Charitable Trust and paid back over two years
  2. increase the precept by £2500 for two consecutive years.
- Additionally, it was agreed the sum of £5000 be earmarked from PC general reserves towards new play equipment – all in favour. Following full discussion, it was decided to defer setting the precept until the January 2025 meeting, by this time the funding bid to West Suffolk Council for play equipment will be known. Up to date financial information including a 5% and 3% uplift on the previous year’s precept of £9308 to be circulated prior to the meeting. Councillors wished to place on record their thanks to Gillian Leader for her work on the application for funding submitted to West Suffolk Council.
- Tree survey - An added implication for the playground is the need for two bordering trees to be felled and a sympathetic crown reduction to the third. One quotation has been received with a second to follow next week.
- Traffic calming – The Chair, Cllr Dinsey and Cllr Holmes met with County Cllr Bobby Bennett and Suffolk Highways to see what measures can be considered in reducing the speed of traffic along Mill Road. Options put forward are to carry out a speed survey which will show the volume and speed of traffic and positioning a Speed Indicator Device at an agreed location; the application for a pole is pending approval.
- VE Day – This will need to be a scaled down version from last year. A locality budget grant could be applied for. The project team will be meeting in January to plan the event.
- Newsletter – To be increased from ten to twelve editions, thereby increasing costs, plus the National Minimum Wage to be paid.
- Bio-Diversity – To rewild the pond and surrounding area it is hoped to purchase sedge plants and supplement the hedging whips if required.

Donations – Village Hall, Church and Chapel to be reviewed at the January meeting. Other matters included the difficulties of setting up online banking, the clerk has now been given a phone number to establish why the process is taking so long; the response to the playground survey in which thirty eight residents completed the questionnaire has been included in the December newsletter; the new play equipment, weather permitting, will be in situ early December.

To Review Updated Financial Regulations and Standing Orders

Unanimously approved.

Children’s Play Area

Dealt with in agenda item 7b.

Risk Register

With three parish councillors sitting on the Village Hall Management Committee, it was agreed a report from the VHMC will be an ongoing standing agenda item; following the resignation of Bob Double, the Trustees took the decision to leave the current number of five trustees in line with Charity Commission advice that a Board should ideally have an odd number of Trustees; the booking forms are currently being reviewed; bookings are going extremely well with finances healthy.

Correspondence

The potholes that have appeared in Chapel Lane, past the Chapel and down to Coverack, have been reported via the reporting tool on Suffolk County Council website.

Date of Next Meeting

Thursday January 23rd 2025 at 7.00pm.

Any Other Business

A vote of thanks was given to Sue Tyler for restoring the heritage benches on the village green. With approval by members, the Chair to purchase a thank you gift for Jeff Keighley who on a monthly basis ensures the defibrillator is in good working order.

With no further business the meeting closed at 8.00pm.