Council Meeting, 25 September 2024

HELMDON PARISH COUNCIL
MINUTES
of the meeting of Helmdon Parish Council, held in Helmdon Primary School,
Helmdon on Wednesday 25th September 2024 at 7:30pm.
Present: Cllrs Harris, Hart, Holloway, Marchant, Minshall, Moody (Chair), Plunkett,
Shepherd, Wheeler, and the clerk Charmaine Jay
Members of the public: one member of the public were present.
Cllr Moody opened the meeting and called for a moment's silence for Geoff Abbey, a volunteer flag master for the council and part of the working group for Station Road.
266. Apologies for absence
None
267. Declarations of Interest
None
268. Approval and signature of the minutes of July 24th, 2024
RESOLVED: That the minutes of July 24th are approved and signed.
269. Matters arising
None
270. Open Forum (15min max- 3 min per person)
Item 281 was discussed when John Coatsworth was chair. It was explained that an asset of community value is registered for 5 years, and the 5 years has now expired.
It was noted that the War Memorial is looking a lot better.
271. Finance:
A. To receive the financial statement: note payments received and consider invoices to be paid.
Payee
Invoice No
Reason
Amount
R&G
121085
Grass Cutting
£309.60
NCALC
3965
Training
£60.00
HMRC
£1.56
RESOLVED: To note financial statement and approve payments.
272. To update with a quote for the play area
Following on from weekly inspections, the bark at the play area desperately needs a top up.
Clerk to do a doodle poll to see when councillors are available to top up the bark.
The quote supplied from Playdale is to move forward to complete repairs on play area.
Clerk to write to the school to ensure play area is being respected.
RESOLVED: Approved.
273. To receive an update on the defibrillator
The resident is still happy to have a defibrillator on the side of their house.
The cost for a new defibrillator is £1200 including installation.
The defibrillator has a 2–3-week lead time for installation.
RESOLVED: Approved.
274. To receive a report from the highway’s representative regarding the Helmdon sign on the Sulgrave road.
Due to the sign on Wappenham Road coming into Helmdon being snapped in half, a fix my street report has been made and Cllr Moody met with Helen
Howard (Highways representative for West Northants Council) and a standard sign was offered free of charge.
RESOLVED: To accept the standard sign for Helmdon.
275. To consider a freedom of the Parish policy
To defer to October meeting.
276. To receive an update from Station Road working group
To defer to October meeting.
277. To receive an update about improving local amenities such as benches and notice boards
Cllr Hart reached out on social media to see if there were any volunteers to improve local amenities.
Clerk to get write a specification to send out to tender and get three quotes.
RESOLVED: Approved and quotes to be received at finance committee meeting in November.
278. To receive an update from the Parish Plan Working Group, including early results of the Stage 1 village survey
There were sixty responses from the initial survey. The Parish Plan working group would like to meet on 16th October to work towards the stage 2
survey.
RESOLVED: Noted and approved and to receive update in October meeting.
279. To receive an update on the Brackley bus consultation
A zoom call happened 3 weeks ago; it is a slow operation due to lack of funds.
RESOLVED: To note update and await further information.
280. To receive a recommendation from the planning committee for the local transport plan
The planning committee were unable to make a recommendation.
RESOLVED: Approved.
281. To consider nominating The Fat Landlord as an Asset of
Community Value (ACV)
The Asset of Community Value was registered on the pub in Helmdon, previously called The Bell Inn.
The Fat Landlord is not registered as an Asset of Community Value and having the option to buy if the landlord choses to sell the property is beneficial to the village.
RESOLVED: Approved to proceed with the registration.
282. To consider two delegates attending NCALC 77th annual conference
Cllrs Hart and Moody will attend on behalf of Helmdon Parish Council.
RESOLVED: Noted.
283. To consider a delegate to attend the West Northants Area Climate
Summit
There was nobody available to attend the West Northants Area Climate
Summit.
284. To discuss Welsh Lane (B4525) and grit store
Cllr Harris served West Northants Council with a letter of abatement due to a lack of responses from Cllr Garret and Cllr Unit over the cleanliness of the grit store on B4525.
The response from WNC was that the grit store is too dangerous to litter pick due to the HS2 traffic.
On 26th September, there is a meeting to reduce the speed limit to 40mph on B4525.
The speed limit in Helmdon is 30mph and the council believes it should be
20mph. Other villages have signs around the village to advise a 20mph speed.
RESOLVED: Clerk to write to West Northamptonshire Council to ask what their plan is in the future regarding the cleanliness on the grit store. Clerk to get 20mph advisory speed signs.
285. To note proposals for arrangements regarding
Remembrance Sunday
The church would like to remove music from Remembrance Sunday and have it as a spoken service.
RESOLVED: No objections
286. Close
Meeting closed 21.16.