PARISH COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES, 23rd JUNE 2020, 19:30
Present were:
- Nicky Brooks (Chair)
- Eileen Mawle (Parish Councillor)
- Martin Wilson (Parish Councillor)
- Lysette Nicholls (Parish Councillor)
- Mark Walker (Parish Councillor)
- Carl Rylett (District Councillor)
- Dan Levy (District Councillor)
- Charles Mathew (County Councillor)
The meeting was held via ZOOM – two members of the public joined.
Nicky Brooks opened the meeting by welcoming Tammy Heavens, our new Parish Clerk and thanking Jackie Johnson and Ken Brooks for ably filling the gap between permanent Clerks.1. Apologies: Graham Soame (Parish Councillor)
2. Declarations of interest: None.
3. The minutes from the previous meeting were approved.
4. Matters of concern from Parishioners: Nicky advised that she been asked to enquire ifthere was anyway of increasing the collections from once a day on the post box by Gunn Cottage as this was the only box in the village which accepted A4 letters. Unfortunately, in the present climate the royal mail is not able to consider, so this item will be bought forward to the next meeting.
5. Matters of concern from County Council or District Council: Carl Rylett advised that the Council groups and committees were starting to reconvene their meetings through ZOOM or similar. There are lots of meetings scheduled re. new housing developments particularly West of Eynsham and the Garden Village due over the next two months which would lead to more information being available. Carl advised that a new planning application for Shuttles Cottage had been submitted. There was no news on the Solar Farm. Charles Mathew advised that he would be attending meetings over the coming weeks regarding the Garden Village, the proposed changes to the A40, and the Park and Ride. Charles advised that through Government funding, Oxford City Council have been making changes to Oxford City centre for walking and cycling. He will be putting in a proposal for some of the funding for the WODC area.
6. Matters arising from previous minutes not covered elsewhere: None.
7. Constitutional Matters: Nicky advised that she wanted to be more careful that decisionstaken were properly voted on particularly whilst meetings are via Zoom, so that all
councillors are very clear about decisions. 8. Financial Reports
a. To agree, complete and sign the year end reports for the auditors and which are to published on the website by 30th June – in particular:
- The Certificate of Exemption agreeing that our turnover was less than
£25,000 and therefore we are exempt from a full audit.
- Annual Internal Audit.
- Annual Governance Statements.
- Annual Accounting Statements.
- Year End Bank Reconciliation.
- Notice of Public Rights and other information required by the Regulation 15(2)
Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015.
These were proposed by Nicky Brooks and seconded by Lysette Nicholls. All voted in favour.
9. Payments to approve: A cheque to be raised £399.32 including VAT for the tree guards and tree stakes. This money is held by the PC on behalf of the Forest Restoration Group and was given as a grant by OCC.
10. Employment of Clerk: Tammy Heavens became the Clerk on the 9th June 2020.
11. Mobile Phone Signal: Nicky Brooks advised that two / three years previously there had
been some consideration for a trial of mini-phone masts in the village, but for some reason this did not happen. Since Gigaclear have installed fibre broadband cables in the village, their subscribers are able to make use of ‘wi-fi calling’ for telephone calls. Carl Rylett was asked to enquire if there might be an initiative similar to the Gigaclear one for mobile signal.
- Facilities updates:
- The Village Green grass cutting contract is currently in place till next year. Quotes
will be sought and considered in due course.
- A thank you to Graham and Martin for the ditch clearing.
- The Village Green grass cutting contract is currently in place till next year. Quotes
- Any other business:
- Please could all Councillors send their photo to Tim Lawson for updating the
website. The report for the Forest Restoration had been received and circulated
and will be published in the next newsletter.
- Nicky Brooks advised that they would be looking into change the bank account to
internet banking.
- Date for the next meeting: 4th August at 7:30pm via Zoom.
- Please could all Councillors send their photo to Tim Lawson for updating the
The meeting closed at 20:28