Bleadon Parish Council

Agenda, Minutes & Reports

From various sources mainly clerk, councillors and website)

SEE PREVIOUS YEARS

Bleadon Parish Council Meetings now commence at 7.00 pm on the 2nd Monday each month (but please check agenda notices) as the BPC Meeting Schedule indicates - but generally no meeting in August. Other meetings that are on the schedule will commence as stated on the calling notices.

Members of the public may attend and speak at each and every one of the above meetings, subject to the Council’s Standing Orders. It should also be remembered that on some occasions a scheduled meeting might not take place because of lack of business; and by the same token meetings will be called when there is matters to be discussed that might not wait for the next arranged meeting. All of which of course should be duly posted on parish notice boards and BPC website.

Agenda, minutes and reports should be timely, accurate and accessible. The ICO Model Publication Scheme states: "The guidance is not meant to give an exhaustive list of everything that should be covered by a publication scheme. The legal commitment is to the model publication scheme, and public authorities should look to provide as much information as possible on a routine basis. Publishing datasets for re-use Public authorities must publish under their publication scheme any dataset they hold that has been requested, together with any updated versions, unless they are satisfied that it is not appropriate to do so. So far as reasonably practicable, they must publish it in an electronic form that is capable of re-use."

The APM (Annual Parish Meeting) is a resident meeting usually held in April and is called for by the Chairman of the Council .Electors may also be invited to hear the report on the past year’s activities. That report should eventually be published as part of the Annual Audit and in the BPC's Newsletter. [For Guidance see Stratfield Mortimer, and the Local Government Act]

The AMPC (Annual Meeting of the Parish Council) is a councillor meeting and is usually held in May, which is the start of the Council’s new year and where the first formal subject matter is the election of Chairman.

For further information see Parish Council website and/or Email Parish Clerk

In due course, in conjunction with the Parish Clerk, it is hoped to add the 'missing' historical minutes and indeed the final versions rather than drafts. Agenda will also be added if supplied to BOB in good time before the meeting.

NOTE 1: As of September 2013, Bleadon Parish Council website was being maintained irregularly and updated by a councillor but this ceased in 2014. Subsequently a re-designed site was commisioned with some controversy in February 2015 and completed in January 2016, that then also received sporadic maintenance (more information below.) However, as comprehensive historic agenda and minutes are not included, BOB will continue to maintain this page for public record and convenience as backup.

NOTE 2: BPC sometimes also publish their sub/working group minutes for various BPC projects.

BPC only started publishing Neighbourhood Development Plan Working Group agenda and minutes from

Feb 2019, the Oct, Dec & Jan Minutes were backdated and posted at that time and are indicated in brackets. The current adopted TOR have not been published despite requests.

Bleadon in Bloom (BIB) have no published TOR, do not pubish any meeting minutes and/or agenda only occasional reports?

Parish Council Newsletter (BVN) is owned, budgeted, projected managed (May 19 Min 322.15) and published by BPC 2-4 times a year, yet states an independent Editor (Feb 19 Min 319.17), and has no pubished TOR, etc.?

Bleadon Rights Of Way (BROW) volunteer group, managed by BPC, do not publish their planning/meeting minutes and have no TOR? See PROW page re: BPC BROW minutes.

The Minutes do not always correspond with the published Agenda? Were the decisions made at these meetings still valid considering Good Cllr Guide (2018)? (Also, online here) E.g.:

• "At least three clear days before each council, committee or sub-committee meeting, you [Cllrs] should be sent a summons and agenda. The three clear days is established in law because it is important to be notified of issues to be discussed. Topics requiring a decision cannot be added to the agenda after the deadline has passed; they must wait for another meeting.
• Each agenda item should make it very clear what you as a councillor are expected to do and be precise about the subject under discussion. For example, an agenda item saying “footpaths” gives you no idea what to expect. It is more helpful to know that your task at the meeting is [e.g.] 'To receive a report from Cllr Gorie on the condition of footpaths in the parish and to agree action in response to proposals for repairs (copy of report attached).'
• It is actually unlawful to make a decision, especially a decision to spend money, without sufficient (three clear days) warning. Vague agenda items that don’t specify exact business (such as Matters Arising, and Any Other Business) are dangerous and should be avoided, because the council cannot make unexpected decisions.
• ... The council must advertise the meetings by putting up public notices; electors have a right to attend, record and report on public meetings.You may be wondering when they have their say. Many councils encourage members of the public to speak and ask questions in a short, defined period, early in the meeting."

The question that remains is, after notifying the public, can parish councils amend/add to the agenda without publicly republishing it and making residents aware before they make their decision, including spending public money?

For example, the 09 Mar 20 Agenda, which was still on the parish notice boards as of 02 May due to COVID19 pandemic does not match the 09 Mar 20 Minutes? (See images 1, 2 &3). This Agenda also has a Feb 20 signature date? A Mar 20  Agenda is not present on the BPC website?

Further information from Wikipedia on Parish Councils in England 

The NALC Good Councillors Guide 2017 (NB: old versions can be found on precept page

also please note that NSC District Councillors have a different Guide from LGA here)

Town and Parish Council Minutes and Agenda information from CPALC

PREVIOUS YEARS MEETINGS

Bleadon Parish Council

Historic Information

(as originally provided by Parish Clerk or via PC website(s), and provided by Cllrs.) 

09 Nov 20 Meeting cancelled, and rescheduled for 16 Nov 20, as Agenda not publicly posted, Zoom meeting link also not published?

SEE CURRENT YEAR

NB: BPC sometimes also publish their sub/working group minutes for various BPC projects.

BPC only started publishing Neighbourhood Development Plan Working Group agenda and minutes from

Feb 2019, the Oct, Dec & Jan Minutes were backdated and posted at that time and are indicated in brackets. The current adopted TOR have not been published despite requests.

Bleadon in Bloom (BIB) have no published TOR, do not pubish any meeting minutes and/or agenda only occasional reports?

Parish Council Newsletter (BVN) is owned, budgeted, projected managed (May 19 Min 322.15) and published by BPC two or three times, yet states an independent Editor (Feb 19 Min 319.17), and has no TOR?

Bleadon Rights Of Way (BROW) volunteer group, managed by BPC, do not publish their planning/meeting minutes and have no TOR? See PROW page re: BPC BROW minutes.

SEE CURRENT YEAR

SEE CURRENT YEAR

SEE CURRENT YEAR

 SEE CURRENT YEAR

 SEE CURRENT YEAR

For further information see Parish Council website and/or Email Parish Clerk

and for copies of the BPC Newsletter or information on Precept and Parish Plan

The historic minutes have been converted to PDF from the original Word documents to aid access. In due course we hope also to add the 'missing' historical minutes and indeed the final versions rather than drafts if produced by BPC (although content is likely to be identical, technically some may still be drafts unless they are the officially adopted by committee).

HISTORIC WEBSITE INFORMATION

As previousy stated, following discussion with the Parish Clerk in May 2013 and pending maintenance to the Parish Council website, We created this page to show all Parish Council meetings and latest minutes, including Open Spaces, Planning and Finance and Personnel committee meetings. It remains now a excellent reference source of Parish Council information. However.........

See also PC minutes and Beinvolved blogs:

After some silence after May 2013 and as at September 2013, Bleadon Parish Council website was being maintained and updated by a Cllr. However, by mid 2014 maintenance seemed to have ceased citing difficulties. In late 2014 (after queries by BOB over 20 months continued expenditure on the 'old' (2nd) PC website) BPC decided to commission another (3rd) website development, expending even more public finance and ignoring the potential FREE professional consultancy from BOB via a meeting offered in May 2013 and again in subsequent emails, but never actioned. Thus potentially negating instead the FREE and continued offer of permanant use of these website pages for BPC (and saving £££s of Bleadon Public Finance too)! Why, we know not and have not been given a reason or even a reply despite asking the Clerk (resigned September 2015) and councillors on many occassions........It seems content 'control' was/is a major concern to certain past councillors as well as of course BOB's awkward questions.

So, as of January 2016 after paying WebGLU another payment in November 2015 for development completion (£650+ so far and yet £29.99 monthly hosting fees continued to be paid to prior hosting company InTouchCRM during this time) the 'new' BPC website was finally made live! It should be noted that the decision to develop the new (3rd) website was made without any apparent (public released) design, standards or specification by the 2014/15 term councillors and clerk, 5 of whom did not then stand for re-election in May 2015. In April/May 2016 the new novice clerk and a new councillor resigned leaving only 4 councillors, but since then another 4 more were co-opted leaving 1 vacancy. Unsurprising the new website looks very like the old one but during this period it has also only been receiving sporadic maintenance via additional payment to their new contractor. (Still no public design specification published). Then as of June/July 2016, another more experienced clerk was appointed after a short period as locum clerk and resumed sending BOB copies of new agenda and minutes for this page which is most welcome. Hopes were raised as apparently, despite continued limited financial resource, the intention is for the clerk to maintain the BPC website in future. Although in 2017 it was still unclear despite BOB asking, exactly what content will be provided, the clerk stating whatever information he should decide! (yet here is the governments Information Commissioners Office Model Publication Scheme guidance and code of practice info from DCLG, that BOB shared with BPC).

In Spring 2017 the qualified clerk and councillors resign then several months later also the unqualified replacement also with councillors! The new year of 2018 saw an interim clerk appointed, pending permanent advertisements and (after many years, many clerks and 3 websites) it was hoped that the BPC website would soon be maintained to the required standard, without any unecessary costly and confusing duplication of information that is already freely available elsewhere in Bleadon.

BPC Cllrs.again met and agreed with BOB to ask their web contractors WebGlu assist in redesigning the BPC site to reflect ICO Model Publication Scheme. Some information was removed, and although the Clerk started to populate new design with policy documents and other BPC relevant information.... a select few documents have disappeared? When will BPC fulfil its legal commitment to the ICO Model Publication Scheme?

Further information from Wikipedia on Parish Councils in England

Bleadon Parish Council Precept Information