Hassocks Parish Council

Minutes

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

Attendees: Parish Councillors Frances Gaudencio (Chair), Kristian Berggreen, Peter Richardson, Paul Shepherd, Alex Simmons , Don McBeth, Ian Weir, Maria Angelaki-King, David Bunting, Leslie Cruikshank-Robb, Bill Hatton and Sue Hatton.

Clerk: Ian Cumberworth

Visiting Cllr: Cllr Chris Hobbs (MSDC).

Prior to the meeting some tributes were paid in commemoration of former Cllr Leslie Campbell who sadly passed away recently. Leslie had served on the Council for many years. Members observed a minutes silence as a mark of respect.

MINUTES

PC24/141 APOLOGIES. Cllrs Bob Brewer.

WSCC Cllr Kirsty Lord

Absent without apologies

Cllrs Kate Bailey, Angus Neil

PC24/142 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.

PC24/143 MINUTES. The minutes of the Parish Council meeting held on the 11th February 2025 were ACCEPTED as a true and accurate record of the meeting.

PC24/144 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION. One member of the public was present but did not wish to speak.

PC24/145 MINUTES.

PC24/145.1 Planning Committee – Members AGREED the minutes for the 10^th February 2025 and to note the minutes for the 3^rd March 2025.

145.2 Policy & Resources Members NOTED the minutes for the 18^th February 2025.

PC24/146 FINANCE Members considered the finance reports and the supporting bank statements and reviewed the payment list for payments totalling £27,077.37 for the period ending 31st January 2025 as set out in Appendix 1.

PC24/146.1 Members APPROVED the payments list totalling £27,077.37 for the period 1st to 31st January 2025.

PC24/147 Reports

PC24/147.1 West Sussex County Councillor – Cllr Lord sent her apologies but submitted a brief report which the Clerk read out:

‘Work at Clayton Hill on drainage is ongoing. The pedestrian improvements via the Community Highways Scheme are to be delivered later this year, timing TBC but likely to be the autumn.

I have received the good news that the drainage works I have been lobbying for over several years are due to take place this summer. The works are to alleviate flooding by the railway bridge, reduce flood risk to businesses by Parklands Rd junction and undertake repairs to the network.

These works will be disruptive as they are expected to take up to 9 weeks and cover the area from Ockley Lane to the railway bridge. There will need to be traffic management and some night time working as well as parking restrictions. WSCC are looking to utilise the summer holidays for the works.

As I receive more information I will communicate this to the parish council.’

PC24/147.2 Mid Sussex District Councillor report. Cllr Hobbs provided an update to members

On Wednesday 26^th February the Full Council met and after a long evening, the Councils’ budget was passed. Once more outgoings exceeded income in early drafts and so the budget will be supported with a draw from reserves and investment income. The precipice of a substantial drop in business rate income still faces this council and we foresee deficits of over £1m per annum from next year. A number of people have asked why the Council continues to need to produce a balanced budget but it must be remembered that (a) the council is still a sovereign body and has a legal requirement to produce a balanced budget (b) the budget setting process is a long one and can’t just be upended on the basis of potential future change. (c) any discussions about local government reform are not even at a proposal stage and therefore we must continue with business as usual.

This budget will see the full roll-out of the Council’s waste collection service, to all houses from November this year. A new depot, plus investment in bins and vehicles is underway and fully funded

• In order to help deliver the balanced budget, the council has made £750,000 of operational savings across a number of departments.

As part of the 2024-25 budget the Council started to implement the long awaited parking strategy agreed back in 2020, and this included further study in to solving problems with parking in the villages. The identified issues to resolve were:

Illegal and inconsiderate on-street parking requiring enforcement. In Hassocks it’s particularly noticeable the number of vehicles that park on single yellow lines, and on the pavement, making it difficult for pedestrians and other vehicle users. This is most noticeable opposite Orion Parade, and on Keymer Road opposite the Grand Avenue junction, and around the station. Over 600 requests per year are made to MSDC for enforcement support by residents.

• Abuse of both the short-stay on street parking and the parking in both the short and long stay spaces operated by the Council.
• A need to balance the needs of all the MSDC car-park users. Parents dropping their children off, short-stay grab and go parkers, shop workers, those who are staying for lunch or a hairdressing appointment, residents who want overnight or daytime parking, and commuters.
• Driving churn in our parking spaces to ensure that the vitality of our village shopping environment remains.
• That parking “discs” are outdated, difficult for non-regular users to understand, and not a flexible solution for our different users. More modern technologies now exist to help manage and police parking.
• Recognising that each MSDC car parking space costs around £400 per year to operate, and that additional enforcement costs Mid Sussex District Council money to provide, the introduction of a set of tariffs that would help contribute towards these costs.

Firstly, the officers and cabinet would like to thank Hassocks Parish Council for its contribution to the exercise. The interim report came to Cabinet on Monday, 10^th March and we will be taking forward a programme of reform which will be implemented in the 2025-26 financial year for the 4 large villages – Hassocks, Hurstpierpoint, Cuckfield and Lindfield. In summary these are:

A digital “disc” available for £4 each year, allowing users to park for 1 hour a day, for free, in the carparks.

1. A tariff regime for the carparks of 60p for the first hour, up to £1.80 for 4 hours, charged from 8am to 6pm.

2. Heavily discounted season tickets, including a residents overnight cost (4pm – 9am) of £52 per annum.

3. Additional enforcement visits to the villages.

The proposals will now be worked up more fully and go to formal consultation before coming to Cabinet again in September for ratification.

Finally, at the Cabinet Grants panel on Monday, locally grants were approved for Keymer and Hassocks Cricket Club for £2,689 for a new mower and the release of s.106 contributions to Adastra Hall Hassocks Community Association for the extension to the toilets.

In response to a question from Cllr McBeth, Cllr Hobbs (MSDC) provided a brief update on devolution and reorganisation of Local Government, County are in the process of setting out how they plan to merge the respective district councils later this month to government so at this current time it remains early days. It’s anticipated that the process may take longer than initially planned due to the complexities of the different organisations. It’s believed that County will be required to provide Government with a developed business plan later this year setting out more detail.

Cllr Hobbs also provided further clarification on the parking strategy and agreed to take forward a query with the relevant department regarding the sweeping of pavements within the parish.

PC24/147.3 Police Report. – None

PC24/147.4 Rail matters. – None

PC24/147.5 Youth Initiatives – None

PC24/148 Report from Councillors on meetings of outside bodies where the Council is represented. Nothing to report.

148.1 Cllr Richardson updated members on the Speed working group’s recent meeting with representatives from WSCC, which has now enabled the group to clarify the principle of where the project is going it’s proposed to use a Hassocks Life article and a clipboard survey at the next farmers market (22/3) to consult with the public.

148.2 Cllr Richardson also advised that he had recently met with an informal group in Ditchling who are also exploring speed reduction/traffic calming options; although in east Sussex the road leading from Ditchling runs to the Hassocks village speed limit. The purpose of the meeting was primarily to establish a communication between the respective groups.

148.3 Cllr Bunting advised members of a recent meeting with Ditchling Parish Council representatives to discuss PROW’s. The meeting was also attended by Cllr Richardson and Weir. Again the focus of this group was to improve dialogue between the parishes in respect of PROWS that adjoin/connect our respective parishes.

148.4 Cllr Sue Hatton provided an update on Adastra Hall

On Monday 10th March MSDC approved the release of s.106 funds to fully fund the construction of the toilets extension. Planning permission was granted for this work in 2023.

This ties in nicely with the tender deadline the hall had set with the local builders to come back to us, which was Friday, 7th March. The committee will now select a builder to undertake the works. The outline timings set as part of that tender process, and as previously shared with the Parish Council are as follows:

• June & July 2025 – build the extension from the outside whilst the hall remains open.
• August 2025 – the front of the hall – the main hall and committee room will be closed whilst the internal works are completed, as well as other internal works not directly associated with the project.
• Monday 1st September 2025 – the hall will reopen.

It is intended that hall representatives will meet the new Clerk with the selected builder in April 2025 to go through the schedule of works and details of how it’s intended to keep the park users safe during the build period.

Bookings.

Hall bookings remain extremely buoyant, finishing the first quarter (Jan – March) with 361 bookings, up 25.3% year on year. Adastra Hall is very much bucking the trend with many halls reporting flat year on year bookings at best and many struggling to operate. At the request of our regular hirers, we are now opening bookings for 2026.

Repairs and Maintenance. 

This week the hall is changing the locks on the front door, which is quite an effort to co-ordinate as we have 42 regular hirer key holders. We are obtaining quotes for the upgrade of our fire alarm system, further works on the fire escape passage parallel to Orchard Lane, a new power fuse board to replace the original installed in 1987, and additional redecoration works. A project creating a map to show the history of the development of Hassocks is being completed for us by the U3a history group and will be installed in the lobby in the summer.

Cllr Gaudencio thanked Cllr Hatton for the update and wished to encourage regular updates on the hall and will take guidance from the Clerk as to which meeting they should be considered at going forward (Grounds & Environment or Council).

PC24/149 CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT – The Chair informed Members that this would be the last Full Council meeting our current Clerk will clerk who has been with the Council for eight years. She wished to place on record her thanks and appreciation for his work during that period and in particular putting and keeping the Council on a sound financial footing.

PC24/150 CLERK’S REPORT

PC24/150.1 SDNP Plan (Regulation 18) Consultation document

The Clerk introduced the paper which was set out in Appendix 2 detailing the proposed response to the current public Regulation 18 consultation.

Members views are sought on the proposed response and once agreed authorise the Clerk to submit the paper on behalf of the parish council.

Further details on the paper were provided by Cllr Weir and members discussed various elements of the proposed consultation submission. After careful consideration Members RESOLVED to APPROVE the proposed submission subject to para 7 being deleted in respect of SDXX and to renumber the remaining response.

Members also AGREED that subject to this amendment that they authorise the Clerk to submit the response on behalf of the Council.

PC24/150.2 Grants this item was to advise Members to note that the Council had received emails/letters of thanks from recent grant recipients.

St Peters & James hospice

St Catherine’s hospice

Members were also advised that since drafting this paper the Council had received thanks from Age Concern. Noted

PC24/150.3 WSCC Flood Risk Management Strategy Consultation (WSCC) Members were advised that this was a high level document and the item was seeking members views on delegating responsibility to the flood action group to determine whether there is merit in responding and secondly if so authorising them to construct a response.

Members discussed the consultation paper and expressed various views on its content. It was indicated that although Hassocks was occasionally mentioned in the paper it did not specifically deal with flooding issues pertaining to Hassocks.

Members indicated they would like more time to review the paper and AGREED that Cllr Gaudencio (Chair of the Flood Action Group) review the document further with a view to constructing a response if appropriate to be submitted to WSCC by the Clerk on behalf of the Parish.

PC24/150.4 Bank mandate Amendment – Authority was sought to amend the mandate to authorise the new Clerk to become a signatory on the account to enable the account to be managed by the appropriate officer.

Members RESOLVED to APPROVE that Elaine Clarke be added to the signatory list and authorised the current Clerk to action this request.

PC24/151 URGENT MATTERS AT THE DISCRETION OF THE CHAIR. No items of urgency were raised, however members were reminded in light of a recent occurrence to be cautious of receiving unsolicited emails purporting to be from fellow members via non parish accounts. If Members did receive emails of this type they should be reported to the appropriate authority, guidance for which has already been sent to Members.

PC24/152 DATE OF NEXT MEETING. Tuesday 8^th April 2025.