November 2023 Minutes
North Thoresby, Grainsby & Waithe Parish Council
North Thoresby Village Hall, The Square, North Thoresby, DN36 5QL
Minutes of the Meeting on 13 November 2023 at 7pm
Statement
The minutes of the meeting held 13 November 2023 that were approved at 4 December meeting were modified by the clerk and posted without council approval. That copy of the minutes is published here in full and includes the unredacted notes that were circulated and approved on the 4 December meeting.
Follows:
1. Unredacted notes – approved on 4 December 2023 – circulated at the meeting to both councillors and members of the public.
2. 13 November 2023 minutes, previously published.
From 13 November Meeting - Minutes Corrections
3 The first question asked by a member of the public was relating to the validity of the public EOM meeting.
The chair confirmed the notice was on the board on Thursday Morning, 19 October. The meeting was held Monday 24 October.
In item 3 section c of our standing orders it states;
b) The minimum three clear days for notice of a meeting does not include the day on which notice was issued, the day of the meeting, a Sunday, a day of the Christmas break, a day of the Easter break or of a bank holiday or a day appointed for public thanksgiving or mourning.
Consequently Thursday 19 and Monday 24 October doesn’t count. Sunday 23 October doesn’t count. That leaves Friday 20 and Saturday 21 October. That’s two days. Consequently the meeting was not valid. This isn’t my opinion, it is as laid down in our standing orders.
I propose the records show that the meeting held 24 October be designated as an informal meeting and consequently no formal notes of order are valid.
Clerk Question - Why did you take on this role?
You said you are a qualified accountant - This is not verified
You said you are a qualified clerk –yet you have not completed all the qualifications to make that statement.
Chair:
You allowed the clerk to make these wild allegations regarding a closed Social Media group. You have not fact checked this with the group have you? But you have allowed it to go in the minutes with no evidence for doing so.
The group to which Mr Baxter refers is a closed group and they are not happy that Mr Baxter has breached the rules of the group and furthermore they have no history to what Mr Baxter is claiming.
Once again, I will state it is totally wrong for Mr Baxter to criticise anyone in this forum where that individual or group is unable to respond to the allegations. Therefore this paragraph should be removed from the minutes.
Table top sale Leaflets
Quite clearly on the video ( position 11.08 mins in) I state that I am not allowed to publish anything on behalf of the parish council.
Continuation.
See from video 14 30
I have found hard evidence. Not alleged. Hard evidence backed up by Police, Justice of the Peace, at least 5 parish councils and around half a dozen respected clerks. I have made an offer for any member of this council and of the parish to come forward and I will share this information with them. In the last month I have had a healthy number of parishioners make enquiries. Not one member of this parish council have taken up my offer.
I made it perfectly clear that I do not have the authority to hand out information on behalf of the parish council.
Please ensure that the minutes are corrected properly. I have a hard copy so you can take it down correctly.
Budgets came next goes to item 19
Broadband Electric kilowatts
Land line – internetty free
Overtime hours – how many hours September
6 Last line of note
Irrelevant. Was put up as a hypothetical scenario.
7 Approval of minutes
From approx. minute 29.00 of the recording I pointed out that the minutes as presented could be seen as libel. Consequently, should the other councillors agree to them, that would put them into a position of being held responsible – not the clerk, them.
From 29.47 The Chair recognised I had made my point regarding the sign off the minutes
This has not been documented. I would like this put into the minutes as I stated at the time.
8 Closed Session
I clearly stated that a paper copy should have been provided to me. There is no enforcement that mail has to be electronic, this is something the clerk has made up. It has nothing to do with confidentiality.
Your leaving this out of the minutes proves once again that you cherry pick what you record.
Please minute this correctly and send me a copy of the appropriate documents.
9 I would like to confirm that the Monitoring Officer has been informed of the invalidity of this meeting.
To be clear, the clerk has made the mistakes but the councillors are held responsible.
12 Anti Fraud and Corruption Statement by Cllr Marshall.
Last line on page 5
“Something that the previous admin didn’t follow.” Libelous. The previous admin had procedures that they followed. They used the Scribe system and transactions were all clearly allocated a ledger code. The Clerk ditched Scribe as part of his modernisation plan and did not properly assess the information to be brought over. It may be up to us to continually improve our systems but once again this is an incorrect statement that can only provoke and provide ammunition for the previous administration to raise complaints.
Take the line out and stop knocking people.
13 Telephone Access item g
Its been missed out that discussions are going to be held between The Chair, the clerk and a member of the community who may be able to get a free line.
13 Fencing – Item i
Its been missed out that discussions are going to be held between The Chair, the clerk and a member of the community who may be able to source competitively priced fencing.
13 Defib Machine – Item k
It’s been missed out that a statement was going to be made publicly so the village have an understanding about what is happening and also that it is out of use.
Have any supporting papers come through with a definitive proposal? What about the adverts that came through?
What about training to use it?
What about contacts of authorised users?
I have sent an email to all councillors regarding this and the only response from the Chair is that we won't be able to talk about it. Why not? Why is it not on the agenda?
14 The vote has been recorded wrongly. I abstained due to not receiving the papers in time for me to ready them fully. I would like the vote to be recorded properly
15 The clerk states he is a qualified accountant – This is not verified.
16 In the general expense’s grid, it shows the clerks travel as Sept – Oct and Oct to Nov and then on this agenda as Nov. Please can we have the specific date range, for example 2 October to 4 November ETC as this is confusing to the reader.
You agreed for the hours of the clerk to be documented separately.
Specifically the clerk. Both contract and overtime. This is an expense that is of use to the public in terms of the great transparency we proclaim to share. It does not breech GDPR rules as it is relevant to the running and costs of the Parish Council. We are not disclosing the specific value. Just a component part.
Items for next meeting
Proper contingency for when people are on holiday as per Code of conduct and standing orders. Need procedures for email, phone.
Data Recording sheet – monitor for data/docs loaded onto the website – example attached
FoI Monitoring. Register available to all Councillors – example attached. We have a duty to record all FOI And SAR
Procedures for corrections on website – I have submitted various corrections. All ignored. What is the procedure please?
How do we stop standing orders at the bank?
