Meeting of the Parish Council 20th June 2024 Minutes

Dawn Lacey — Parish Clerk & RFO

claygate PARISH COUNCIL

caring for Claygate Village

Claygate Parish Council

Claygate Village Hall

Church Road

Claygate

Surrey KT10 0JP

☎ 07741 848 719

email: clerk@claygateparishcouncil.gov.uk

website: www.claygateparishcouncil.gov.uk

20th June 2024

MINUTES OF THE CLAYGATE PARISH COUNCIL Meeting held on Thursday 20th June 2024 at 8.30pm at Claygate Village Hall, Main Hall, Church Road, Claygate

Present:	Chair of the Council: Cllr Holt
Council Members:	Cllr Moon, Cllr Bray, Cllr Collon, Cllr Bingham, Cllr Coffey, Cllr French
In attendance:	Two members of the Public

1.	To confirm the receipt of Declarations of Acceptance and Interest for Cllr Holt.
	These were completed on 9th May 2024 and are on the Claygate Parish Council website.

2.	To accept apologies for absence.
	Apologies were received by Cllr Herbert, Cllr Sheppard and Cllr Freeborn.

3.	To receive the Chair’s Declaration of Acceptance.
	The Declaration of Acceptance was completed and signed and dated by Cllr Holt and Clerk Dawn Lacey.

4.	To receive Declarations of Interest in items on the agenda.
	Cllr Holt and Cllr French to leave the meeting after item 17 as they have an interest in item 18.

5.	To confirm the minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held on Thursday 16th May 2024.
	The minutes were agreed and proposed by Cllr Holt, seconded by Cllr Moon and carried unanimously.

6.	Review actioning of items from previous minutes and agree any further action required (Actions List).
	4:1 on the list to be resolved before the next meeting — this action arose from the meeting held on the 29th February. Vanessa Relleen from the Tree Wardens had asked whether the Council could arrange for cuttings to be taken away from the Firs following work done on trees and bushes. This has already been completed by Cllr Holt and Cllr Bray.

7.

To answer any questions from the general public.

7:1 Does the Parish Council have a new policy of promoting specific businesses in Claygate? The council does not have a policy of promoting specific businesses in Claygate but are aware that the recent Courier could be seen to advertise a business in the village. This was not the intention – the Parish Council were approached by the shop holder who had taken an initiative to write an article. It is noted that the Parish Council does not advertise one shop or business over another and simply published the article because the shop was new to the Parade. 7:2 Does the Parish Council plan to hold any private meetings in the future? The Chair informed the public that there is a strategy meeting planned for July 6th with all the Councillors and the Clerk in attendance and that is not open to the public. It was noted that any decisions that may need to be made would be added to the next main Council meeting agenda for discussion and voting in front of the public. 7:3 Afternoon Crumbs in the Parade have concerns about the shop owners and businesses not being made fully aware of what is happening with events. Cllr Holt will contact the owner and arrange a meeting to discuss her views and concerns. ACTION – Cllr Holt

8.	To appoint Councillors to the Staffing Committee.
	It was agreed that Cllr Bingham and Cllr Coffey would both be on this Committee and a meeting would be held with the Clerk every 8-12 weeks. ACTION – Clerk to book the first meeting date.

9.

To appoint any new Committees in accordance with Standing Orders 4 if the Council deems this to be required.

A: Communications The Communications Committee is essentially for the purpose of the production of the Courier at this time. Cllr Holt, Cllr Moon and Cllr Collon were elected to this committee. Proposed by Cllr Holt, seconded by Cllr Moon and agreed unanimously. B: Strategy It was suggested that this committee was not required as there is a Strategy meeting already scheduled for Saturday 6th July. As all decisions will be put through council, there is no need to convene a separate committee. Proposed by Cllr Holt, seconded by Cllr Bingham. Agreed by Cllr Bray, Cllr French, Cllr Collon and Cllr Coffey. Cllr Moon abstained

10.	To review a new Equality Policy (Appendix 1)
	On further reading, the Clerk confirmed that there was an error in the Appendix sent out and that a new Policy would be processed and sent out before the next meeting in July. ACTION – Clerk

11.	To Receive a report of EBC’s Oversight & Scrutiny Committee & Agree Action as appropriate
	It was agreed that Cllr French would deal with this subject moving forward and report back to the committee at the next meeting. Proposed by Cllr Holt, seconded by Cllr Moon. Carried Unanimously.

12.

To receive a Report of EBC Audit and Standards Committee

This item was deferred to the next meeting to be held in July. To Discuss the Matter of Resilience Planning – which featured in SALC Cllrs Zoom meeting on April 24th and Agree Appropriate Action(s). It was agreed that Cllr Bray would write to Elmbridge Borough Council to ask where they stand with Resilience Planning and perhaps the best solution would be for Claygate Parish Council to shelter under their ‘umbrella’ for this. ACTION – Cllr Bray

13.

To discuss the Trees in Meadow Road

The island in Meadow Road has village green status and is not owned by Elmbridge Borough Council. A resident had contacted the Clerk regarding two trees on the island which have died. Cllr Bray has since had contact with the resident regarding this matter and it has been agreed that we ask the resident for two quotes for felling the trees. We have a spending limit for this and so will wait for quotes. It was noted by Cllr Holt that we should maybe look to replace the two trees and Cllr Bray will ask if this is appropriate in the circumstances. ACTION – Cllr Bray

14.	To confirm the dates and times of meetings of the Council and its Committees for the year ahead 2025 (Appendix 2)
	These were agreed and are now also live on our Parish Council website. Proposed by Cllr Holt, seconded by Cllr Bray. Carried unanimously.

15.	To receive an update on replacing the Village Sign and to consider approval for an estimate of the works involved
	Cllr French has also been working on some design ideas. An estimate for the work is currently being organised with approximately £500 to supply a cherry picker and erect the sign and £40-£50 per print for the sign. It was agreed to discuss this in more detail at the strategy day. Proposed by Cllr Bray and seconded by Cllr Coffey. Carried unanimously.

16.

To receive details of grant applications and consider whether they will be approved (Appendix 3).

The Clerk read out an email and had circulated a request for a £350 grant for the Air Ambulance Charity. On further discussion the Parish Council are unable to give money towards the routine ongoing costs of organisations. Our current policies do not allow this. The Clerk is to write back to them with other possibilities of us being able to help them. Proposed by Cllr Holt and seconded by Cllr Bray. Carried unanimously. ACTION – Clerk to write to the Air Ambulance Charity.

17.

Matters for Information purposes only.

1: A resident had written to Cllr Moon regarding the new gate at the Claygate Recreation Ground being too heavy and that young mums with pushchairs and older residents were struggling to open it. Cllr Moon to contact Ian Cunningham at the CRGT regarding this. Proposed by Cllr Holt and seconded by Cllr Bray. Carried unanimously. ACTION – Cllr Moon 2: There will be other activities which need to be delegated to the communications committee (as presently it is only The Courier). There is a need to understand the full scope of what is needed and pull together a full Terms of Reference for the Communications committee. Proposed by Cllr Holt and seconded by Cllr Moon. Carried unanimously. ACTION – Cllr Holt 3: Debrief of Claygate the Way Forward meeting held on Tuesday 18th June at Holy Trinity: It was felt that the meeting was well attended and went very well. There were a lot of questions at the end and many of these were felt to be negative but that is the nature of challenge and not something to be too concerned about. It was agreed to send all the material from this meeting to Councillors as a reading list before the Strategy meeting and that all councillors need to read the survey, report findings and appendices prior to the meeting. Cllr French will continue to organise leads for the various areas as she always has – this will link into volunteers. Residents can contact the Clerk with their details if they would like to volunteer and she will maintain a list to hand over to Cllr French. It was agreed that the Council/Committee needs to be able to absorb this without clogging up the current meetings; a sub-Committee may be one way to proceed. ACTION – Cllr Holt to circulate CtWF reading list

It was agreed that Cllr Holt and Cllr French did not need to leave the meeting for this as there was no Pecuniary Interest.

18.	To consider a request by the Claygate Community Benefit Society to share some space on our stand at the Claygate Flower Show on July 13th.
	It was agreed that the space could be shared as existing stand space is now full and this is a way for the Parish Council to further support this not-for-profit cause. Proposed by Cllr Bray and seconded by Cllr Collon. Agreed by Cllr Moon, Cllr Coffey and Cllr Bingham. Cllr French and Cllr Holt abstained.

18. Consider a request by the Claygate Community Benefit Society to share some space on our stand at the Claygate Flower Show on July 13th

It was agreed that the space could be shared as existing stand space is now full and this is a way for the Parish Council to further support this not-for-profit cause.

Proposed by Cllr Bray and seconded by Cllr Collon. Agreed by Cllr Moon, Cllr Coffey and Cllr Bingham. Cllr French and Cllr Holt abstained.

19. To confirm the date and time of the next meeting.

The next meeting to be held on Thursday 18th July, at the Claygate Village Hall, Main Hall, Church Road, Claygate at 8.30pm. The meeting closed at 9.45pm.