Parish Council Meetings 2024

Parish Council Meetings will take place at 7 pm on the following dates:

• 7 January
• 3 March
• 16 May - to include Parish Annual Meeting and Parish Council Annual Meeting
• 2 July 4 July
• 5 September
• 5 November 7 November

Agendas and minutes will be added as they become available.

The agenda for the meeeting to be held on 4 January is available below.

The minutes for the meeting held on 4 January are available below.

The  agenda for the meeting to be held on 7 March is available below.

The minutes for the meeting held on 7 March are available below.

The minutes for the meeting held on 7 March are available below.

The agendas for the meetings to be held on 16 May are available below.

These include:

• the Parish Annual Meeting,
• the Parish Council Annual Meeting, and
• the regular Parish Council Meeting.

The minutes for the meetings held on 16 May are available below.

The minutes for the meeting held on 2 July are available below.
 
 
BRADFORD PEVERELL PARISH COUNCIL
July Meeting
Held in the Village Hall on Tuesday 2^nd July 2024, starting at 6:00pm

MINUTES
 
In attendance:
Bradford Peverell Parish Councillors:
Gloria Towner - Chairman (GT)
Neil Howard (NH)
Jon Desborough (JD)
 
Prospective Bradford Peverell Parish Councillors:
Terry Bishop (TBi)
Brenda Edwards (BE)
 
Bradford Peverell Parish Council (BPPC) Officer:
Clerk — Christopher Cook (CJC)
 
BPPC Representatives:
Tess Buck - Village Hall (TB)
Cathy Bishop — Muckleford (CB)
 
Dorset Councillor:
David Taylor (DT)
 
Apologies for absence:
Paul Meaden (PM)
Tess Buck (TBu)

• The Chairman welcomed all those present and outlined the purpose of the meeting.
   
• G T then resigned as Chairman but expressed her willingness to serve as Vice-Chairman.
   
• Terry Bishop was proposed for co-option as a councillor by JD. NH seconded the proposal and it was agreed unanimously.
  
  Brenda Edwards was proposed for co-option as a councillor by JD. NH seconded the proposal and it was agreed unanimously.
   
• No-one put their own or anyone else’s name forward for the post of Chairman. This item will therefore be carried forward to the next meeting.
   
• NH proposed that GT be elected as Vice-Chairman. TBi seconded this motion and it was agreed unanimously.
   
• The apologies for absence were read out and noted, as per the list above.
  
  In the absence of a Chairman, GT, as Vice-Chairman, chaired the rest of the meeting.
   
• There were no members of the general public present, so no matters were raised under this Open Session.
   
• The minutes of the meeting of the 16^th May were unanimously accepted and were signed as such by GT. The minutes of the Annual Parish meeting of the 16^th May and the Annual Parish Council meeting of the 16^th May were also unanimously accepted and were signed as such by GT.
   
• There were no matters arising that were not on the agenda for this meeting.
   
• DT was welcomed back after his recent re-election.
  He reported on the recent spate of flooding and the work parishioners, himself and the Dorset Council staff had done to avoid more severe consequences. DT went on to inform the meeting of a recent meeting with Stratton Parish Council in relation to flooding and the new road scheme. There is a farm where banking up has taken place to the extent that it has created dangerous run-offs to the roads. The farmer has been warned that this is illegal. There was much discussion about traffic diverting through BP and other small villages whenever there are traffic problems on the A37. DT advised that there had been discussion at Dorset Council about the possibility of reducing the speed limits nearby but it was felt to be unlikely that anything could be achieved in the short term.
  
  DT further invited the council to feedback whatever problems particularly needed addressing so that he could get things done. CJC invited the councillors to contact him so that he could write to DT on behalf of the Parish Council.
  
  It was further noted that some of the problems arise from drivers having inappropriate satellite navigation systems (sat. navs.) in their lorries, vans, cars with caravans, etc. In many cases a car sat. nav. Is not the appropriate tool. DT promised to raise this with the Highways Department at Dorset Council.
   
• Planning – In the absence of PM, GT informed that no planning applications of relevance to Bradford Peverell had been reported.
  
  Amenity Fields – Colin Chapman was not present and had not sent in a report.
  
  Village maintenance – NH raised the matter of the road leading to the church. He advised that the surface was unsafe and particularly so for those less able.
  
  Village Hall – CB spoke on behalf of TBu and informed the meeting that the recent event had raised nearly £1,000. These funds would be a significant contribution toward the cost of all the work that had been done on the ladies’ toilets in the Village Hall. Chris Ayres, the local plumbing and heating technician had been paid very promptly in recognition of the excellent work he had done on those toilet facilities.
  
  Muckleford – CB informed the meeting that there was nothing to report from Muckleford. She further advised that, as TBi was now a councillor, he would in future make the reports from Muckleford.
  
  River/Floods – Colin Hawkins was not present and had not submitted a report.
   
• CJC read a letter to the council regarding intrusive smoke nuisance from an illegal bonfire. There was a brief discussion on this and it was decided that nothing further need be done unless the problem recurs.
  
  The second letter read to the members was from Dorset Police. It was an invitation to join the Dorset Alarm system. DT informed the meeting of the benefit of joining this community messaging system and council agreed that CJC should enrol the council.
  
   
• Finance. CJC addressed the meeting and raised for additional approval, an invoice received from the internal auditor for £92.33. This and the other amounts due for payment were unanimously approved. CJC further advised the meeting that there was just over £15,000 in the main account and just over £5,000 in the savings account. The meeting agreed that a better home should be found for a significant amount of these funds, in order to earn a better rate of interest than the bank is paying.
  
  CJC informed the meeting that a letter of apology had finally been received from Lloyds Bank and that they had paid the amount of £75 into the main bank account by way of monetary recompense for all the trouble they had caused.
  
  Finally, CJC asked NH to contact Paul Cooper and have him complete his details and add his signature to the bank forms to enable BPPC to resume operation of the Amenity Fields bank account.
   
• The newly appointed internal auditor, Paula Harding, had issued her report on the 2023-2024 AGAR. Both CJC and GT spoke to this. GT emphasised that she had spoken at some length with Paula and that many of the procedures and practices BPPC used were unacceptable or at least, in need of improvement. It was agreed that:
  
  a: Paula would be invited to address council at the September meeting.
  b: CJC would draft and circulate an Action Plan, prioritised according to Paula’s recommendations.
  c: Subject to approval by council, CJC would then put into action that plan.
   
• The meeting agreed to adopt the Code of Conduct already circulated. TBi had one small question on the grammar of one item. He promised to look further into this and report back.
   
• Future meeting dates were acknowledged.
   
• No matters were raised under a.o.b.
   
• The next meeting would be at 6 p.m. on Tuesday the 3^rd September 2024, in the Village Hall.

The minutes for the meeting held on 5 September are available below.
 
 
BRADFORD PEVERELL PARISH COUNCIL
September Meeting
Held in the Village Hall on Thursday 5^th September 2024, starting at 6:00pm

MINUTES
 
In attendance:
Bradford Peverell Parish Councillors:
Gloria Towner - Chairman (GT)
Neil Howard (NH)
Jon Desborough (JD)
Paul Meaden (PM)
Terry Bishop (TBi)
Brenda Edwards (BE)

Bradford Peverell Parish Council (BPPC) Officer:
Clerk — Christopher Cook (CJC)
 
BPPC Representatives:
Tess Buck - Village Hall (TBu)
Cathy Bishop — Muckleford (CB)
 
Apologies for absence:
Colin Chapman (CCh)
David Taylor (DT)

Internal Auditor:
Paula Harding (PH)
 

• The Vice-Chairman welcomed all those present and outlined the primary purpose of the meeting. For this particular meeting, that purpose was to receive a verbal report and clarification thereof from the Internal Auditor (PH). This would also involve questions from the Councillors to PH. The objective was to arrive at a clear understanding of how to develop and/or initiate procedures and regulations to ensure best practice in the management and conduct of BPPC.
   
• Apologies for absence were noted for Colin Chapman and David Taylor.
   
• There being no members of the public present, there were no matters arising under he Open Session.
   
• The minutes of the meeting of 2nd July 2024 were agreed as an accurate record and were duly signed by GT.
   
• No matters arising from the minutes of 2nd July were raised.
   
• PH went through the Internal Audit report in some detail, explaining not only the comments she had made but also the reasons for those comments. There were many questions from individual councillors and PH answered each on in a most helpful and informative manner.
  
  This item took the meeting through until after 19:30.
  
  The eventual outcome from this item was that TBi agreed to produce and circulate documents covering:
  Standing Orders
  Risk Register
  Publication Scheme
  
  In turn, CJC would produce Financial Regulations and edit them to ensure there was no contradiction with or duplication of content in the Standing Orders.
  All these policy documents would then be circulated to councillors.
  An additional meeting would then be held to go through the Standing Orders, Risk Assessment and Register, Publication Scheme and Financial Regulations.
  
  In light of the time, it was agreed to limit the rest of the meeting to just items 9, 10 and 11 from the original agenda.
   
• There were no members of the general public present, so no matters were raised under this Open Session.
   
• PM reminded councillors that the annual report on the playground had been received and that an action plan is required. The action plan will be discussed at the November meeting if not agreed beforehand. Both the report and the action plan can then be published.
   
• Correspondence had been received from Sylvia Denning about raising awareness of the BPPC’s existence and activities. It was agreed to defer discussion of this to the January 2025 meeting.
   
• In response to the council’s invitation to 3 organisations to tender for maintaining the Jubilee and Millenium Fields, one had declined to quote and the other two had quoted a price within £200 of each other. The contract was awarded to Dorset Council for a number of reasons, not least being the fact that BPPC would not be dependent upon an individual.
   
• The payments listed in the agenda for payment were unanimously authorised.
   
• PM advised that Steve Morgan is still keen to become a councillor. It was agreed that he would be invited to the next meeting at which he would be proposed for co-option.
   
• The next meeting will be on Tuesday November the 5th 2024 at 6 p.m. in the Village Hall.

The agenda for the meeting to be held on 5 November are available below.

BRADFORD PEVERELL PARISH COUNCIL
Meeting to be held in the Village Hall
Tuesday 5th November 2024
Starting at 6 p.m.
AGENDA

1. Introduction by the Chairman - Chairman
    
2. Apologies for Absence - Clerk
    
3. Open Session - Chairman
    
4. Minutes of the meeting of 5th September 2024 - Chairman
    
5. Matters arising from Sept. minutes, not on this agenda -Chairman
    
6. Co-opt Steve Morgan as a Councillor - Chairman
    
7. Election of a Chairman - Chairman
    
8. Documents and Policies: - Chairman/Cllr Bishop
   Standing Orders
   Risk Registers
   Financial Regulations
   Asset Register
   Publication Scheme
    
9.  Recruitment of new Clerk and RFO - Chairman
    
10. Representative reports:
    Planning Cllr Meaden
    Amenity Fields Colin Chapman
    Village Maintenance Cllr Howard
    Village Hall Steve Morgan
    Muckleford Cllr Bishop
    River/Flood Warden Colin Hawkins
     
11.  Action Plan for the Playing Field - Colin Chapman
     
12. Correspondence - Clerk
    Janet Collins re Millenium Field
    Neil Howard re road surface
     
13. Grass cutting - Chairman
     
14. Action Plan for the play fields - Chairman
     
15. Finance - Clerk
    Payments made since last meeting
    C J Cook £77.65
    DAPTC for training £120.00
    Kevin Kirk £750.00
    Barker-Fox Associates £55.40
    
    Payments to be made
    Gwynfor Ashford re Jubilee Field £450.00
    Clerk’s Wages from August 2023 to 31 December 2024
    as per calculations herewith £4,076.00
    Clerk’s Expenses as per calculations herewith £37.65
    
    Money Received since last meeting
    Precept from Dorset Council £4,715.00
    
    Invoices to be issued
    PCC of St Mary’s Church re Jubilee Field £50.00
    
    Reconciled Bank Balances
    Treasurer’s account £18,619.90
    Business savings account £ 5,158.27
    Amenity Fields account £ 308.25
    
    (Financial spreadsheets including bank reconciliations will shortly be
    circulated to councillors)
    
    Update on banking arrangements
     
16. Future Meetings - Chairman
    To be agreed
     
17. Any other business - Chairman
     
18. Next meeting - Chairman
    as per item 14 above - to be agreed