Clerk’s Report July 2024

Clerk’s Report to Sticklepath Parish Council July 2024

If any Member of the Public wishes to see details of the correspondence or matters mentioned please contact the clerk, details below.

General Tasks

• I have forwarded lots of emails to the councillors, and read others which proved to not be of interest to Sticklepath.
• A gentleman contacted me to enquire about where his parents lived in Sticklepath. I passed the enquiry on to Chris Walpole and Cllr Moore who both hold some historical records.
• I attended a free webinar about getting a .gov.uk domain. This would mean that our emails and website instead of having Sticklepath.org on the end could have Sticklepath.gov.uk on the end. The official advice on this is that “Community, Suppliers and partners will now reasonably expect a local council to have a .gov.uk domain”. It would mean an enhanced level of security, and an indication of good practice. This month the cost of having a gov.uk domain is being reduced by over 90%, it was not worth considering before as it was ten times the cost of any other domain name. The government are also offering a grant of £100 for this financial year only, taken off the bill from the registrar who sets up and transfers the domain for you. We would not need to change the website and could migrate the existing emails. I am not convinced that it would actually make much difference, and I think the main cost would be in the time taken to investigate the costs from the different suppliers. The hosting could also be moved at the same time, but would not need to be, and might incur higher costs. Councillors could consider adding this to a future agenda if they feel that it is important.
• I attended a free webinar about Biodiversity for councils. There is a duty on councils to consider biodiversity in their actions, although no formal report is required. This has applied since 2006, but was updated in 2021. Most councils have a Biodiversity Policy. In addition, a new planning policy, applicable nationwide, has been introduced which requires planning applications to prove that they will increase the biodiversity by 10%. It does not apply to housing extensions, only new dwellings, or commercial development over 1 hectare in size. Councils should review the calculation of biodiversity value done by the developer, and the accuracy of the habitat plan. It is possible to provide the net gain off-site or in the form of biodiversity credits! Councils could challenge this to ensure that their local environment gets the benefits. The gains should be measurable, and enforceable. This has only been in force since April. I can supply the recording, slides and other information if required. There was also a second webinar on 9^th
• I have asked the SLCC advice line about fund raising options for councils, but have not yet heard back. Searching the DALC and SLCC websites had not yielded any clear information.

Website

I have published the following pages/posts:

• A30 Closures Information
• May Rainfall Data
• Parish Council Minutes and associated reports.
• Agenda for Extraordinary Planning meeting 24^th June
• Planning meeting minutes.