hemingford grey parish council...explained that we (cambridgeshire and peterborough) are the only...
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Mrs Gail Stoehr, Clerk to Hemingford Grey Parish Council, 30 West Drive, Highfields Caldecote, Cambridge, CB23 7NY Tel: 01954 210241 Email: parishclerk@hemingfordgrey.org.uk
HEMINGFORD GREY PARISH COUNCIL
I hereby give notice that as previously arranged, the Meeting of the Parish Council will be held on
Monday 10 April 2017 in the Reading Room, High Street Hemingford Grey
at 7.30pm
The Public and Press are cordially invited to be present.
The order of business may be varied at the Chairman’s discretion.
All members of the Council are hereby summoned to attend for the purpose of considering and resolving
upon the business to be transacted at the meeting as set out below.
Gail Stoehr, Clerk 03/04/17
AGENDA
Comments and observations on agenda items from members of the public and reports from the
County & District Councillors
1. To approve apologies for absence
2. To receive declarations of interests from councillors on items on the agenda
3. To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 13 March 2017
4. Co-option to fill casual vacancy – to consider any applications received or to consider how the
seats will be filled
5. To consider matters arising from the last or a previous meeting for info only unless detailed
5.1 (5.2) Bus shelter - to consider quotes for its demolition and new bench
5.2 (5.6) Website and proposed move to gov.uk website(JH)
5.3 (7.5) Manor Road yellow lines
6. Finance, procedure and risk assessment
6.1 To receive the financial report and approve the payment of bills
6.2 Clerk report on any actions taken using delegated powers or because of risk or health and
safety
6.3 To consider any matter that is urgent because of risk or health and safety
7. To receive reports and items from committees, working groups and members
7.1 Phone box at Victoria Terrace/London Road (DD)
7.2 To consider a date and arrangements for the Annual Parish Meeting
7.3 HDC Conference report (RW)
8. To consider correspondence/communications received
8.1 HDC Review of Tree Strategy for Huntingdonshire and consultation on Co-ordinator role
9. Closure of meeting
CLERK REPORT TO HEMINGFORD GREY PARISH COUNCIL MEETING 10 April 2017
Where I have info to support an agenda item this is below.
1. Apologies – none at the time of writing
3. To approve the minutes of the last meeting on 13 March 2017 – attached.
4. Co-option to fill casual vacancies – The Council should continue to consider each month how the
vacancies can be filled.
5. Matters Arising
5.1 (5.2) Bus shelter – to consider quotes for its demolition and new bench
Deferred at the last meeting pending a response to the article in the village newsletter.
5.2 (5.6) Website and proposed move to gov.uk website
Deferred at the last meeting. Cllr Hall to report.
5.3 (7.5) Manor Road yellow lines
Deferred at the last meeting pending a response from Highways.
6. Finance, procedure and risk assessment
6.1 To receive the financial report and approve the payment of bills – attached. Any late invoices for
payment will be brought to the meeting.
Also attached the budget reconciled to date.
6.2 Clerk report on any actions taken using delegated powers or because of health and safety – none at the
time of writing.
6.3 To consider any matter that is urgent because of risk or health and safety - Is the Council aware of
any?
7. To receive reports and items from committees, working groups and members
Planning Committee – minutes of the meetings should be available on the Parish Council’s website.
7. 1 Phone box at Victoria Terrace/London Road
Cllr Dew to report.
In response to Cllr Dew’s enquiry to HDC on behalf of a resident who wrote: “We were hoping to do
a community book box in the old phone box at the start of Victoria Terrace/London Road, but the
Council has accepted a removal order from BT. If the Council could please change their mind we can
do it…we have a lot of support, also we were hoping that if the order was revoked we could ask
permission from the BBC to make it into an iconic TARDIS.”
HDC have replied:
“We considered the request from BT for this and a number of other boxes under reference
16/02347/TELDET and have very limited grounds on which to object to the removal of public
payphones, with the important factors being the housing type in the area, number of households in the
area, usage, use for emergency calls and mobile phone coverage. We could not reasonably object on
any of these grounds.
We can only really suggest that the resident contacts btp.authorisation.team@bt.com should they
wish to purchase/maintain the telephone box for community use.”
Andy Moffat
Head of Development
Huntingdonshire District Council
7.2 To consider a date and arrangements for the Annual Parish Meeting
7.3 HDC Confenerence report (RW)
Cllr Waters writes “The agenda is attached. I attended the main sessions and also the Planning and
Communications workshops. There were also some stands for HDC departments, Hunts Forum (are
we members Gail?), CCC, etc.
Angie Dickinson opened the meeting as the new HDC Cllr with responsibility for liaison with Parish
and Town councils.
Robin Howe, HDC Leader, spoke about the ‘transformation project’ driving efficiencies and
specifically about how response time for all services are now being monitored and will be reported
quarterly. We are invited to input our expectations when we see what is currently being achieved.
Then, as the current chair of the ‘Combined Authority’ until a Mayor is elected on 4th
May, RH
explained that we (Cambridgeshire and Peterborough) are the only current ‘shire county’ devolution
deal up and running. The first year budget is £2.5M (cf £400k originally planned?) but £1M of that is
for the election and ‘setting up costs’. Ongoing administration of the Combined Authority is likely to
be £1.5M. Various figures for the likely money coming from central government started with the
£20M p.a. already promised. It seems this may be used to ‘leverage’ larger loans. The Market Town
Master Plans seem to be a key strategy and will start with St Neots.
Julie Farrow of Hunts Forum spoke passionately about voluntary organisations and how financial
support from councils was decreasing but consolidation into ‘Support Cambridgeshire’ led by Hunts
Forum would be more efficient in supporting organisations, projects and initiatives (e.g. the proposed
HG Goldies project). In fact I think she referred to Riva’s initiative without mentioning us by name!
The results of the parish survey to which we were asked to contribute will be released ‘soon’. There is
now a Service Directory of volunteer and not for profit organisations which should be on line at
www.supportcambridgeshire.org.uk though I cannot find it at the moment. Elaine Matthews from
CCC talked more about potential local initiatives for no cold calling zones, community hubs, green
spaces, etc. Personally I find the number of overlapping ‘support’ organisations VERY confusing.
The implication was that we have to do it ourselves if we want to do it at all.
The Planning workshop led by Any Moffat who explained the current status of the Local Plan to 2036
and the statutory consultation that should start in May. Although this is not a full public consultation
(the last one was in 2015) he claims that the strategies within it can be challenged but not the specific
sites. (This was my question prompted by our Chair). There are no development sites being proposed
beyond those already put forward. Wyton airfield is no longer in the plan and neither is a crossing of
the Ouse in our vicinity. HOWEVER it was clear that the plan will be revised every five years and
NO-ONE is certain of the impact of the Combined Authority which does have housing and transport
responsibilities across the CamPet region (I am getting fed up with typing Cambridgeshire and
Peterborough!). He also introduced the Design Guide which they circulated previously and which we
can use to reference in our comments on specific planning applications. It is a LARGE document!
The Communications workshop was led by Angie Dickinson and attended by Robin Howe. It was
useful to see similar problems across the district with handling on-line planning documents; email
communications; councils’ use of social media; and problems of clerks serving multiple parishes (!).
My impression was that RH and AD take these issues seriously and they will set up some sort of
working party with parish representation to take them forward. I specifically raised the non standard
nature and formatting of planning documents.”
8. To consider correspondence/communications received
8.1 HDC Review of Tree Strategy for Huntingdonshire and consultation on Co-ordinator role
Attached.
9. Closure of meeting
2commune Limited ● The Old Rectory ● Main Street ● Glenfield ● Leicestershire ● LE3 8DG.
t 0845 868 3975 www.2commune.com
.
Proposal for Hemingford Grey Parish Council
Year 1 Costs
‘Classic’ UKLC local council website setup and training: £650 + VAT.
Website hosting, support and annual licence: £400 + VAT.
Transfer, host and manage hemmingfordgrey.org.uk domain name: £50 + VAT.
Register, host and manage e.g. hemmingfordgrey parishcouncil.gov.uk: £150 + VAT. (renewable every 2 years).
Social Media Integration: £150 + VAT
Optional Extras
‘Modern’ template design: £250 + VAT.
Email accounts: £25 + VAT each per year. Year 2 Costs
Website hosting, support and annual licence: £400 + VAT.
Email accounts: £25 + VAT each per year.
Host and manage domain name hemmingfordgrey.org.uk: £25 + VAT
Payment terms: Year 1 (including optional extras) payable in advance. Year 2 payable on anniversary and annually thereafter. Notes: Proposal valid for 60 days from date of issue. All imagery to be supplied by the customer.
“We equip local councils with the tools and knowledge required to deliver high quality,
online information and services to the communities that they serve”.
14/02/17
Hello there, I am a councillor for Hemingford Grey Parish Council
(www.hemingfordgrey.org.uk) and we are looking at moving our website to a .gov.uk site
and perhaps having 2commune as a provider.
Are you able to provide any additional information regarding them, how they
helped/supported you with either moving to a .gov.uk website and/or updating your site?
Anything good/bad or indifferent would be really helpful
I am keen to hear about any features of your website that you think are beneficial - I have
seen the A-Z of services as well as the document management system and these lookreally
useful, likewise anything planning related would be great.
Many thanks
Jason
Email sent out to –
Huntingdon Town Council (no reply), Littleport Parish Council (no reply), Oundle Town Council (no
reply), Sawtry Parish Council (reply below), Upton Parish Council (reply below)
14/2/17 Sawtry Parish Council
Dear Jason We are still very new to this and I have not got everything inputted and set up as I would like, but I
would highly recommend 2commune. I am definitely not brilliant with IT and they helped me every
step of the way. We kept the same website and e mail address which was already .gov.uk but they
sorted out the transfer from the previous provider and we had a seamless switch over on the agreed
date. We have been with them since June 2016. I would recommend that you give yourselves plenty of time to input the data prior to your launch
date. We were on a tight schedule as the council did not agree to the expenditure until May and our
annual renewal was due August 1st
and we wanted everything transferred before then. I had a
couple of one hour training sessions with a phone call and interactive computer screen (fortunately
this was all set up by 2commune, I just had to enter a password when told to do so!). We started with a site from a different council the same size as ours so it was a case of changing
their information to ours rather than thinking what we needed from scratch. You will also need to
spend some time researching all the items for the A – Z search as you have to input all of that. All of
the updating is carried out before you go live so you do not need to worry about making any
mistakes. The various headings/contents of the website ensure you comply with the transparency code. As
you have identified there is a document system, you upload documents like adding an attachment to
an email. This means that all minutes, accounts, contact details of councillors etc are all available for
public access. You can also restrict documents to a particular group, so you could scan and attach all paperwork for
a meeting for councillors to access that could be blocked from the public access. The search facility on the documents allows for filtering of items, eg accounts, minutes, etc without
having to trawl through lots of documents. You can also link the documents to various parts of the
site. For example the agenda/minutes of each meeting can be linked to the calendar. The on-going support has been excellent – you get a manual which helps as a first port of call but a
quick email via the website is soon answered. All of the adding of information and updating is very similar to using word documents and after a
while soon becomes second nature. The only negative I can think of is that I did not realise that as soon as I had signed the release form
from our current website they would stop dealing with our emails – which was 6 weeks before we
were planning on going live. This resulted in all emails sent to us on the Friday were lost until I
realised on the Monday that the email was not working. And of course I had no way of knowing what
I had not received. Again, once this was identified it was easily rectified and I was back on emails
that same afternoon, but they could not recover the lost emails. I hope the above is helpful but please contact me if I can be of further help Regards
Diane Davis Clerk to Sawtry Parish Council Tel: 01487 831771 Office Open: 9.00 – 1.00 Monday to Friday
15/02/17 Upton Parish Council
Hi Jason, I have just taken over as Clerk so am not overly sure how it all works and what agreements were set
up as yet so cannot comment. I do know that the Council queried the cost of it at the last meeting as
it seemed expensive for what it actually did. On a personal level, it slows everything down
significantly on my system as it links through a server to me. Frustratingly at times. Gill Gill Wells – The Clerk Upton Parish Council PO BOX 1425 NORTHAMPTON NN1 9FN E: clerk@upton-pc.gov.uk M: 07703 755 469
Email sent out 02/03/17
Hello there, I am a councillor for Hemingford Grey Parish Council
(www.hemingfordgrey.org.uk) and we are looking at moving our website to a .gov.uk site
and perhaps having 2commune as a provider.
Are you able to provide any additional information regarding them, how they
helped/supported you with either moving to a .gov.uk website and/or updating your site?
Anything good/bad or indifferent would be really helpful
I am keen to hear about any features of your website that you think are beneficial - I have
seen the A-Z of services as well as the document management system and these lookreally
useful, likewise anything planning related would be great.
Many thanks
Jason
Duffield Parish Council (reply below), Shearsby Parish Council (no reply), Parwich Parish Council (no
reply) Newtown Linford Parish Council (reply below), Raunds Town Council (no reply) , Wootton
Parish Council (replies below)
02/03/17 Duffield Parish Council
Hi Jason, I co-ordinate and update the website content at Duffield Parish Council. I would happily recommend
2 Commune as the website provider, the basic website template that they use is straightforward and
easy to use, many of the links are automatic so you don’t have to worry about them (such as
Planning info, and A-Z of services which will link to the County or Borough Councils when required).
When you need to add content this is easy to do, considerably easier than some other web content
systems I have used, and I really like the ability to add news stories that automatically update to
Facebook and Twitter, (if you use social media) as it really helps to get communications out to
people. 2 Commune are generally very quick to respond to issues you have and answer queries. The only thing I would say is because of the way the website is set up as a template which is the
same for all parish council users, (eg. The same A-Z categories for all), occasionally there have been
times when I have wanted to change it specifically for our uses, but haven’t been able to due to this.
So if you’re looking for something very individual to your council, or have someone with expertise in
web creation and maintenance you might prefer to create something unique. But for parish
councillors and officers who are time-limited and possibly not expert in website design, I would go
with 2 Commune. Hope that helps! Kind regards, Jackie Jackie Clements Communications and Admin Assistant Duffield Parish Council Weston Centre, Tamworth Street, Duffield DE56 4ER (01332) 842740
02/03/17 Newtown Linford Parish Council
Hello, Newtown Linford Parish Council has always used 2commune and its predecessor (same staff)
Leicestershire Villages provided by Leicestershire County Council. That is since 2003. It was
provided free originally by the County Council until the Government cuts. We know no other and can thoroughly recommend it. Best wishes Pam
Pam A. McMorran Newtown Linford Parish Clerk and Registrar for Burials 76 Main Street Newtown Linford Leicester LE6 0AD Tel: 01530 242201.. M. 07711 0477 26
02/03/2017 Wootton Parish Council
Hello Jason I’m copying in Gareth Lloyd (Chairman) on this response as he works in IT and will be able to answer
your queries in much more detail than I can! All I would say is I find the website fairly easy to navigate and adding information is pretty
straightforward. Gareth will be better placed to add more detail. Kind regards. Sue Playford MILCM Clerk to the Council Tel: 07531 930788
16/3/17 Wootton Parish Council
Hi Jason
Sorry it has taken me so long to reply.
The good points of our web hosting solution
• Free
• quick and simple to get basic pages up and running (once you are familiar with
how the system works)
• The clerk who is not IT skilled is able to most things
• There are plenty of easy plugins like calendar, Surveys, etc
• We can store documents on our system. some are restricted to councillors and
the rest are available to the world.
• A good but basic report on number of visitors and which pages get viewed etc.
Bad points
• limited in desgin options. We want to put more info on the top green part of our
site but that isn't possible.
• Some things like rotating banners/pictures had to be coded in html/java and not
available via the GUI
• More complex designs require editing directly in HTML.
• It sometimes feels really slow when adding images and documents.
It is a good system, but if your parishioners are like ours we put a lot of effort in and few
people visit the site
Our site is http://woottonpc.bedsparishes.gov.uk/ Have a quick look around ours and
you can see what is possible. We don't use many of the features available, but our clerk
can easily maintain the website
Hope that helps
Gareth
As part of the investigation relating to a potential move away from Polar/OneAgency for our online
prescence to a new provider (2commune) I have been doing some investigation which is detailed
below.
2commune are a company who are a specific provider for websites and hosting for local councils and
are able to provide hosting on gov.uk websites.
All their sites have the UK Local Councils banner at the top which has a link to their website as well
as their own header (with a clean design) on every page.
In the example below we can see a logo for the Sawtry Parish Council as well as contact details
One of the main features is an A-Z of services with specific links to the appropriate
Parish/District/County page. This makes the website a useful source of knowledge for parishioners
who may want to know who is responsible for a particular service and presents a joined up approach
There is a Council Meetings Calendar which shows all the upcoming meetings, and also allows for
agendas, minutes and additional documents relevant to that meeting to be attached and available in
the calendar. It is also possible to add these to your diary as an .ics file
Planning applications can be shown on Google maps and links to the appropriate application portal
can be added as well
There is a Document Management System (DMS) that houses all the paperwork, which is broken
down into specific sections Minutes/Agendas/Governance (this is configurable).
This allows for all documents to be stored, but can allow some to be available for only authorised
personnel. This means users do not need to store documentation locally.
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