Council Meeting, 28 February 2024

HELMDON PARISH COUNCIL
MINUTES
of the meeting of Helmdon Parish Council, held in the Reading Room, Church
Street, Helmdon on Wednesday 28th February 2024 at 7:30pm.
Present: Cllrs Holloway, Luckett, Marchant, Moody, Shepherd and Wheeler
219.Apologies for absence
Apologies were received from Cllrs Harris and Minshall
RESOLVED: To approve Cllrs Harris and Minshall’s absence
220. Declarations of Interest
Cllr Wheeler declared an interest in item 232
221.Approval and signature of the minutes of January 24th, 2024
RESOLVED: To approve and sign the minutes of January 24th 2024
222.Matters arising
None
223.Open Forum (15min max- 3 min per person)
Members of the public made representations on:
[address removed]
• Parking issues down Station Road
Action:
Helmdon Parish Council to put forward a case to WNC in the future
 To form a working group for Station Road parking
219. To consider a new website provider as the current provider is going out of business at the end of March 2024
It was confirmed that the council will use new provider for the website to start a fresh. There are a lot of out of date items on the website.
RESOLVED: Clerk to request Parish Online to become new provider for Helmdon Parish Council’s website
220.
Finance:
A. To receive the financial statement: to note payments and receipts.
RESOLVED: To note payments and receipts
B. To consider invoices to be paid:
Payee
Invoice
Purpose
Amount number
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Marcus Young
4229
Scribe
5154
2Commune
4704
2Commune
4737
Dog bin emptying
Annual subscription
Domain
Renewal
Partial hosting
£636.48
£414.72
180.00
500.40
RESOLVED: To approve payments to both Marcus Young and
Scribe. Clerk to enquire termination costs for Cuttlefish. Up to
£200 has been authorised from the council for the clerk to pay
221. To reconvene the Station Road Working Group to produce an issues and options report on parking near Station Road Green and to appoint members of the council and members of the public to it
To appoint Cllrs Marchant, Plunkett and Shepherd alongside Geoff Abbey and
Peter Coy to reconvene the Station Road Working Group to produce an issues and options report on parking near Station Road Green.
RESOLVED: Cllr Marchant to convene first meeting
222. To discuss application for permanent diversion of footpath ap30
The council supports the application and has no comments
RESOLVED: Clerk to reply in support of application
223. To review flood mitigation project
It was noted that:
• The catch pit was dug out in June 2017. This exposed the pipe running under Grange Lane and a break in the pipe indicated that is was almost completely blocked with hardened silt. The pit was dug by the landowner, using their equipment and at their expense.
• The part of Grange Lane traversed by the pipe was also owned by
Badnell Properties and it was therefore their responsibility to clean it, which they accepted.
• The cleaning was undertaken by a specialist contractor and funded by
Badnell Properties
•
I is not known what the total costs of the above works were. HPC did not pay anything.
RESOLVED: Work with new land owner to create a plan to get the catch pit cleaned
224. To consider a date for the annual litter pick
Sunday 7th April 2024 was decided on the annual litter pick at 10am outside
Helmdon Primary School.
RESOLVED: Clerk to circulate information on social media and website. Clerk to contact WNC for equipment.
225. To consider access to ownership issues with Helmdon Old Station site
226. To receive an update Welsh Lane (B4525) gritting store
There was no update or correspondence received from WNC.
Sam Simmonds from Highways is attending the Annual Village Meeting in
April- a good opportunity to discuss issues on B4525.
It was suggested that there is more monitoring of speed along the B4525
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227. To consider quote from R & G for weekly cuttings on War Memorial
Clerk to question R & G if they are able to do adhoc cuttings on war memorial and if other arrangements were made would they be happy to continue with other quotes.
RESOLVED: Clerk to contact R & G
228. To consider acquiring a portrait of King Charles III to celebrate his reign
Clerk to write to Reading Room and the school to see if they would like the portrait of King Charles III
229. To exclude members of the public and press
230. Confidential
231. Close: Meeting closed at 21.22
Next meeting is on Wednesday 27th March 2024 at 7.30pm
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