Hassocks Parish Council

Minutes

Draft Minutes of the Meeting of the Parish Council held on 11 February 2025

Attendees: Parish Councillors Frances Gaudencio (Chair), Kristian Berggreen, Peter Richardson, Paul Shepherd, , Don McBeth, Ian Weir, Maria Angelaki-King.

Clerk: Ian Cumberworth

Visiting Members: WSCC Kirsty Lord

MINUTES

PC24/126 APOLOGIES. Cllrs Bill Hatton, Bob Brewer. David Bunting, Sue Hatton, Angus Neil, Leslie Cruikshank-Robb and Alex Simmons

Absent without apologies

Cllr Kate Bailey

PC24/127 DISCLOSURE OF INTERESTS.  Disclosure by Councillors of personal interests in matters on the agenda, and whether the Councillor regards their interest as prejudicial under the terms of the Code of Conduct. There were no disclosures of interest.

PC24/128 MINUTES. The minutes of the Parish Council meeting held on the 14th January 2025 were accepted as a true and accurate record of the meeting.

PC24/129 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION. One member of the public was present but did not wish to speak.

PC24/130 MINUTES.

PC24/131.1 Planning Committee – Members NOTED the minutes for the 2^nd January 2025.

131.2 Policy & Resources Members NOTED the minutes for the 21^st January 2025

131.3 Grounds & Environment Committee Members NOTED the minutes for the 30^th January 2025.

PC24/132 FINANCE Members considered the finance reports and the supporting bank statements and reviewed the payment list for payments totalling £45,851.74 for the period ending 31st December 2024 as set out in Appendix 1. Members asked a number of questions which the Clerk responded to, Members were satisfied with the explanations provided.

PC24/132.1 Members APPROVED the payments list totalling £45,851.74 for the period 1st to 31st December 2024.

PC24/133 Reports

PC24/133.1 West Sussex County Councillor – Cllr Lord updated Members on a number of issues:

Highways – Cllr Lord had followed up on a matter raised previously regarding the re-establishment of  white lines on Ockley Hill and is currently awaiting a response.

North/South crossing – Stone Pound crossroads this was initially put on hold due to the Air Quality Monitoring Area, however since this status has improved this scheme is hoped to be revisited.

Cllr Lord also raised a number of areas that the Parish may wish to consider as part of their work being undertaken by the Speed Working Group covering the area near the garden centre (A273), a bend near Shepherds Walk (30mph) zone and the 30mph zone further north near Friars Oak. Cllr Richardson indicated this was currently outside of the terms of reference of the group which was focused on specific areas within the village.

Members indicated that it may be possible to revisit these at a later point but remain outside of the scope of the current group.

School places it was not anticipated to have any concerns in relation to infant places with sufficient places being available within the Hassocks school area.

Cllr Lord also confirmed that the WSCC timeline to exercise the option decision allocated for the school on the Ockley Park site runs to June 2034.

Devolution – Members were advised that WSCC, ESCC and Brighton & Hove have been selected by the government on the priority devolution programme.

As a result this selection County elections planned for this year will be cancelled, with the intention of holding Mayor Elections in 2026, with the wider ‘new’ unity elections being held in 2027. The government are suggesting each unitary should represent a population of around 500,000.

Devolution will result in the abolition of the current district and borough councils which will be absorbed within the respective new unitaries.

The proposed unitary plans will need to be brought forward by September 2025 prior to going out to public consultation.

Budget County will deliver a balanced budget this year (24/25) with the intention of applying a 4.99% increase to Council Tax for 2025/26.

PC24/133.2 Mid Sussex District Councillor report. Cllr Berggreen provided a brief update to members on two items

Street parking Consultation is currently underway with key stakeholders. This matter was to be discussed later on in the agenda.

Council Tax – Mid Sussex have approved an increase of 2.95% for Council Tax for 2025/26

Adastra Hall – In Cllr Berggreen’s capacity as a MSDC representative on the Adastra Hall board he updated members as the Parish council who are the landlords, and had entered into a new lease with the hall in 2023.

It was indicated that bookings have increased since the extension to the hall and continue to grow.

The hall has a number of planned improvements and have allocated a capital sum to achieve this with a phased programme of works.

It’s expected that the toilet extension will be completed later this year as they are shortly to go out to tender with the total cost of this work being met from s106 contributions.

Members discussed the relationship with the hall and the Parish council as landlords, and agreed that hall updates should be considered by members periodically. Members indicated that they felt Grounds & Environment Committee was probably the best forum for these updates.

PC24/133.3 Police Report. – None

PC24/133.4 Rail matters. – The Clerk advised Members that the Rail Group had advised that it was the 200^th anniversary of railways this year and in recognition of this the GTR were making some funds available to support celebration events.

The Rail group have submitted an application for funding with a view to holding an event to be held around September 27^th 2025.

Members were advised the Rail group indicated that there may be an opportunity for the Parish council to participate, however the rail group are at very early stages of ideas at present.

PC24/133.5 Youth Initiatives – None

PC24/134 Report from Councillors on meetings of outside bodies where the Council is represented. Nothing to report.

Cllr Berggreen informed members that he had recently attended a MSALC meeting (group representing Mid Sussex parish/town councils); the meeting covered a number of areas including policing and the way in which crime can be reported on social media that can sometimes distort the facts. Police representatives present reaffirmed that Mid Sussex remains a relatively safe place.

Other matters discussed centred around communication with MSDC and the parishes, the changes/impacts in relation to the new Planning framework and the emerging impacts of devolution.

PC24/135 CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT – The Chair briefed Members on the current SDNP Plan briefing and the need for the Council to consider submitting a response. The consultation document is around 260 pages long. It was proposed to invite members who currently sit on the Neighbourhood Plan Committee to review the document and come forward with a proposed response for Council to consider. In any response the Chair emphasised the need to have regard to the Parishes Neighbourhood plan and Priorities statement.

PC24/136 Speed Working Group – Cllr Richardson provided a brief update and advised members that the group are in the process of setting up a meeting with WSCC to discuss matters further prior to progressing the application process. Consideration is also being given as to how the group will obtain the views of the public in regard to various sites identified for consideration to provide evidence to support any application. This will be considered at Policy Resources & Communications Committee next week.

PC24/137 CLERK’S REPORT

PC24/137.1 Grants

The Clerk introduced the paper which set out details of the grants paid to date in phase one together with details of the six grant applications received for consideration as part of phase 2.

The details of the scheme and the application forms for each submission were set out in Appendix 3 and 4 which members are requested to consider when considering the grant.

Members were informed that some of the applicants representing smaller organisations have struggled to obtain bank accounts from the high street banks, however there are some financial institutions that still do provide this service. To counter this those groups which did not currently hold accounts at the time of application have either subsequently set up an account or partnered with existing community groups with existing accounts to administer their financial transactions.

The Clerk reinforced the need to ensure that public funds are accountable, therefore should not be payable to individuals.

Members were advised that the current grant application policy may need to be reviewed at some future point and if this was the case it would fall to the Policy Resources & Communications Committee to consider.

Members were then invited to consider each application in turn. After careful consideration Members Recommended the following:-

No.	Applicant	Funding Sought
1	St Catherine’s Hospice	£600
Members RESOLVED to award the sum of £600
2	St Peters & James Hospice	£600
Members RESOLVED to award the sum of £600
3	Angels Knitting Group	£300
Members RESOLVED to award the sum of £300 conditional on the bank account issue being resolved
4	Adastra Junior Stool ball Club	£300
Members RESOLVED to award the sum of £300
5	Community Veg Patch	£354
Members RESOLVED to award the sum of £354
6	Age Concern	£150
Members RESOLVED to award the sum of £150

 

Members were advised that as a result of the grant awards budget being underspent this year by £1,846 this will be returned back to general reserves.

PC24/137.2 Parking Consultation – Cllr Weir introduced this item together with a paper setting out the proposed response from the Council and sought Members views. The Clerk also advised that the Council had just received confirmation of a one week extension to respond therefore the Council has up until 28^th February to respond.

Members were supportive of the proposed response to modify the response slightly to ensure it reflected concerns on the impact on the Adastra Park car park if MSDC were to introduce further restrictions/charging particularly in light of its close proximity to MSDC car parks.

Members RESOLVED to agree the consultation being submitted subject to some minor amendments that were discussed and that the Chair and Clerk approve the final version prior to submission.

PC24/137.3 Path Network – Adastra Hall the Clerk informed Members that Grounds & Environment Committee considered an item last week to undertake some interim improvements to draining the water away from the path alongside Adastra Hall. As there was no allocated budget for these works Council were being requested to consider releasing £1,130 (net) from General reserves to fund these works.

Members RESOLVED to APPROVE the release of £1,130 from General Reserves to undertake these works.

PC24/138 URGENT MATTERS AT THE DISCRETION OF THE CHAIR. None.

PC24/139 DATE OF NEXT MEETING. Tuesday 11 March 2025.

Confidential

PC24/140  Confidential minutes

PC24/140.1 The confidential minutes of the Parish Council meeting held on the 14th January 2025 were accepted as a true and accurate record of the meeting.