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7 July 2024
My last blog was about the statutory governance stuff considered at the Council meeting on 25 June. This blog covers the rest of the agenda and a few other things.
But first, items not on the agenda of the June Council meeting.
Once again, nothing about streetlights. Council needs to approve the replacement of some of the columns of the streetlights in Widmer End which are now about 60 years old.
The locum Clerk failed to put streetlights on the agenda for the May meeting.
So, I submitted a motion on streetlights under HPC’s Standing Orders for the June meeting. However, the locum Clerk did not put the motion on the June agenda. Standing Orders requires the Clerk to provide an explanation if they decide not to put a motion on the agenda. I didn’t get an explanation.
I asked at the June Council meeting for an explanation.
I got no response from the locum Clerk.
I got no response from Cllr Jones, the Chair.
I got no response from Cllr Thomes, who is Chair of the Streetlights Working Group and a fellow ward councillor for Widmer End.
I got no response from Cllr Cadwallader, the other ward councillor for Widmer End, as he was not at the meeting and indeed hasn’t been to a Council meeting since last November.
You may take it that I am pretty fed up at the Council’s lack of commitment to making the streetlights safe, to the obstructiveness of the locum Clerk and the Chair, and the lack of support of my fellow ward councillors. The safety of the streetlights is a matter of concern to many residents in Widmer End.
Once again, nothing about staffing. No report from the HR Committee which last met in April. Once again, no item on the agenda about staffing so Council couldn’t discuss staffing. Not even a mention of progress in recruiting a permanent Clerk and deputy Clerk; interviews for the latter were planned to take place in June and an appointment made in July.
No report from the Finance Committee because its last meeting was inquorate.
No report from the Environment Committee. All Council had was a personal report from Cllr Cadwallader proposing to extend a contract with Chiltern Rangers, yet again, without obtaining alternative quotes.
Cllr Cadwallader proposed a four- year extension for £17k to plant bulbs, encourage wildflowers, and water the trees at Cockpit Hole and the Old Allotments at Great Kingshill.
In order to do this, Cllr Cadwallader proposed suspending HPC’s Financial Regulations.
I have to say I was a tad annoyed that my motion about the safety of streetlights never got on the agenda – and with no explanation for its rejection - while Cllr Cadwallader’s personal report, said to be urgent because the bulbs needed planting, was included. And he didn’t even attend the meeting.
In the end, Council agreed funding for this year only.
So on with the agenda.
Item 2
I declared a personal interest on yet another discussion about my sanctions. I recused myself for this item but made a short statement.
I said that, at three separate Council meetings, I had been shouted at by Mr Truppin, the locum Clerk. I had informed Council and Mr Truppin that, if he shouted at me again, I would leave the meeting.
So just in case I never made it to the item on the sanctions, I needed to say that:
- according to Bucks Council’s Principal Governance Officer, Mr Truppin’s narrative on the agenda about this item is confused and inaccurate; and
- the only sanctions Council had informed me about were those imposed in April 2023. Under those sanctions, I had discharged the requirement to attend the specified training. (Apparently Council had imposed some other sanctions but failed to inform me about those.)
I was subsequently informed that all the sanctions had been discharged and I can go into the Council offices and be a member of any committee or working group.
Oh joy!
Item 5
No-one was clear what Council was being asked to decide about the asset register; the register included in the Council papers was incomplete; and nothing was decided.
Item 7
Council considered three grants. It would have been kind to have brought this item to the beginning of the meeting and spared residents, who came to support the applications, all the statutory governance stuff. But no, that didn’t happen.
Council approved a grant of: -
- £5160 to Naphill Village Hall for playground equipment.
- £6000 to Widmer End Residents’ Association (WERA). WERA is to transfer the grant to the Windmill Estate Maintenance Company (WEMC) as a contribution towards the maintenance of alleyways and forecourts on the Estate.
Legal advice read out at the meeting appeared to say that providing a grant to WEMC directly was lawful. However, the solicitor providing the legal advice recommended the grant go via WERA to avoid arguments about WEMC’s commercial interests.
WEMC and WERA pointed out that WEMC’s constitution doesn’t permit it to have commercial interests.
However, Mr Truppin declined to put WEMC’s application for the grant on the agenda so Council’s only option was to approve the grant to WERA.
It has taken three Council meetings and two Finance Committee meetings for WERA and WEMC to pursue this application and get the grant.
- £1500 to Great Kingshill Cricket Club (GKCC) for the maintenance of Great Kingshill Common.
The application said that “The cost of this would fall to HPC if not carried out by GKCC”. I thought this was incorrect; it is a condition of the lease between HPC and GKCC that GKCC maintain the property. I suggested Mr Truppin check the lease before Council approved the application.
I was told this was irrelevant and Council should just get the decision out of the way.
Apparently, WEMC and WERA have to go to five meetings to get a grant but GKCC has to get a decision immediately. I just wonder why.
Item 8
Council received an update from residents of Bryants Bottom about their proposals for a war memorial. As these didn’t seem to involve the Council, I was a bit puzzled why this was on the agenda.
Finally, a few more bits of news:-
- The meetings on 9 July of HPC’s Human Resources Committee and Environment Committee appear to have been convened unlawfully.
- I have submitted a formal objection to the external auditor on Council’s Annual Governance and Accountability Return.
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