The Council have got off to a bit of a slow start.  Following the sad passing of Cllr Jean Hodgetts in June, we have been working hard to co-opt our potential new councillors.  The good news is that we have four excellent candidates who will be recommended for co-option at our next council meeting.  This is the process we are required to follow.

Whilst we are still technically quorate (the number of councillors needed to legally hold a meeting – 5 in our case), we have one member who is working away and another who is on holiday.  This has meant that we have struggled to hold a council meeting.  We have sought the help of SMDC to try to enable this prior to September, however they are not able to help due to the fact that the Parish Council does actually have enough members, even if they are not available.  It is a bit of a catch-22 situation.

We have been informed that we will simply have to wait until all members are available, which means that the next meeting is likely to be the one scheduled for 9th September.  If we are able to arrange one sooner to enable us to co-opt the additional four members, we will.  Once this has happened we will then have 9 councillors, meaning this situation should be avoided in the future.

The notice of the vacancy for Jean Hodgetts position is currently displayed on our noticeboard and website.  If following 14 days (from Friday 19th July) 10 signatures have not been received by SMDC, requesting an election, we will also be able to co-opt to this seat.  This means that we will still have five more seats to fill.

If you are interested in joining the Parish Council and working to improve your community, please contact the Clerk for an application form.