Home » Parish Council Records » Reports » Clerk's Reports » Clerk’s Report January 2023

Clerk’s Report January 2023

Parish Clerk Report for 17th January 2023

Completed Actions

Copies of all letters and emails will be available to view at the meeting.

  • Following a phone call from a resident who was unable to log a problem on the DCC site, I reported ice, and an empty grit bin on Skaigh Lane. I also notified Josh Scillitoe. The bin was refilled.
  • The new Register of Electors was received.
  • I have updated the contact information a website called Pinpoint.
  • I have notified the Cricket Club of the Council’s decision at the November meeting.
  • I confirmed, after consultation, that the erection of the Christmas Tree on the Jubilee Stone was approved by the Parish Council.
  • I circulated information about the new defibrillator at Bernard’s Acre and publicised it on the website.

Training

  • I have attended a free webinar called ‘Clerk Smarter, not Harder’ which gave me some useful time management tips.

Agenda Items

2022/23-148 Planning

2022/23-149 Muddy Lane

Response from new Dartmoor Ranger Rob Taylor regarding sign at Skaigh end of bridlepath:

That’s fine, I can get one installed. We are moving away from the wooden routed No Vehicular Access signs, as there has been an ever growing cost over recent years. The replacement design is a coloured A5 portrait sign with the same message and symbol of a vehicle with a red line through it. I can arrange to have one of these installed on an existing post at the Skaigh entrance. They are a lot more visible then the previous routed signs.

2022/23-150 Speeding

The Okehampton Town Clerk, Emma James, has organised a presentation about Speedwatch, which I will be attending on behalf of Sticklepath Parish Council. It is at 6pm on Thursday 26th January. Interested councillors are welcome to attend; please let me know if you intend to come so that I can let her know. It is hoped that a Speedwatch group can be arranged covering various local parishes, to visit different sites with speed monitoring equipment.

Response from Josh Scillitoe, Neighbourhood Highways Officer (NHO) re SLOW signs:

“I’m putting forward the whole parish of Belstone for road markings for 23/24 budget, this includes all road markings i.e. SLOW markings but excludes double yellow lines – Not sure if you have any of those. If they are really faded could you let me know roughly where they are just so I can mark them so the gangs don’t miss them – no rush.”

2022/23-151 Hedge Cutting in Skaigh Lane

I have agreed a draft letter to residents with Cllr Pike and Cllr Weaver, which I will bring to the meeting, for distribution by councillors who will know the hedges causing problems better than me.

I mentioned the ‘alterations to the bank’ to the NHO that were discussed at the last meeting. Josh’s reply was: 

” I drove up Skaigh Lane in December to check on the scaffolding re the rethatch going on but didn’t see anything obvious. Do you know exactly where or have a picture please? “

2022/23-154 Budget 2023/24

I have circulated both the ‘Precept Summary’ prepared by Cllr Pike and the ‘Budget 2023/24’ which I have prepared using the figures and comments agreed at the last meeting. I was hoping to discuss it further with Cllr Pike, but I ran out of time, for which I apologise.

  • Cllr Pike is proposing paying a £75 annual fee in to the Car Park Reserve from general expenditure/the precept. My understanding from November 2021, when we got the promises of donations from the village organisations, was that any outstanding funds would be kept in a fund for the continued upkeep of the car park. I have therefore recorded that £700 will be received when we invoice the organisations, and £230 will be left for future Car Park expenditure in the Car Park Reserve, so there should be no need for a payment covered by the precept.
  • Cllr Pike also recorded a payment of £160 as an annual payment from general expenditure to the Election Reserve. This would then leave an Election Reserve of £40 at the end of the year. I have assumed that only the additional £120 not covered by the current Election Reserve would be paid. The new payments could then commence in 2024/25.
  • By saving those small amounts we would only need to take £400 from the General Reserves. Cllr Pike had also excluded any income (mainly VAT refund). Please see notes under Risk Assessments below about reserves.
  • Training – I would like to point out that my FILCA (Financial Introduction to Local Council Administration) was budgeted for in the 2022/23 budget, but not taken as I did not have time. I had negotiated with Sticklepath Council to go halves on this qualification with Belstone for 2023/24 so that it would only cost £72 per council instead of £144. However I do understand if the Council do not wish me to take it. The lower budget will also exclude anybody attending the DALC conference.
  • Tax Base – West Devon Borough Council have now informed us of the Tax Base for 2023/24. This is a representation of how many households will be paying council tax in the parish, with higher and lower bands being calculated in to a ‘Band D Equivalent’. This has gone up slightly from last year; this could be because new houses have been built, rateable values have been increased, more properties are paying tax rather than being exempt or on benefits, or other similar reasons. The slight increase from 122.28 to 123.42 means that we could increase our precept figure slightly without any residents paying an increased amount. The Parish Band D rate for 2022/23 was £27.87, or about £2,32 a month for the average household.  Assuming the £3,506 precept proposal, the Proposed Band D rate for 2023/24 would be £28.41, an increase of 54p a year for the average household or 1.93%.
  • Although the Government have put a cap on principal councils (e.g. WDBC and DCC) of 3% (plus 2% for adult social care), there is no cap on local councils like us. Some local councils are reducing their reserves to limit increases, while others are imposing quite large increases.
  • Please note the budget is available on request in Excel format, so that you can change figures to see the result on the precept. For example each £50 we add to the precept rather than taking it out of reserves increases the Band D increase by approx.50p a year.

2022/23-155 Risk Assessments

The risk assessments need to be reviewed every year. This is a chance for all members to read through and assure themselves that we are carrying out all the mitigations necessary. I have not added any new risks this year, but made some minor amendments to add the Vice-Chair as responsible for the Clerk’s Annual Assessment.

Could I draw your attention to Risk 7, which details a control measure of “Balances = 100% of precept as per external audit advice.” We are considering a budget which results in a general reserve balance of £2,659 which is 76% of precept, or just over 6 months of expenditure.

What the JPAG Practitioners Guide (the regulations written by a joint committee including external auditors, NALC, SLCC and Government representatives) says is:

5.32 The general reserve of an authority comprises its cash flow and contingency funds to cover unexpected inflation, unforeseen events and unusual circumstances.

5.33. The generally accepted recommendation with regard to the appropriate minimum level of a smaller authority’s general reserve is that this should be maintained at between three and twelve months of net revenue expenditure.

5.34. The reason for the wide range is to cater for the large variation in activity level between individual authorities. The smaller the authority, the closer the figure may be to 12 months expenditure, the larger the authority, the nearer to 3 months. In practice, any authority with income and expenditure in excess of £200,000 should plan towards 3 months equivalent general reserve. 5.35. In all of this it is important that each authority adopt, as a general reserve policy, the level appropriate to their size, situation, risks and plan their budget so as to ensure that the adopted level is maintained.

NB An example of a risk that could cause us high expenditure would be that a casual vacancy required an election, resulting in an expenditure of approximately £1,000. If the electors requested it, we would have no choice but to pay it.