Clerks Tasks
Meetings
Agendas: Are circulated a week before a meeting, eg. If the meeting is on a Wednesday, the agenda goes out on the Wednesday of the previous week. They are emailed and put on the website. The list of all the planned meetings for the Council are listed on each monthly report.
Attend the meetings with all the relevant paperwork. Attendance sheet to be circulated for signing and the attendance register updated on the website.
Minutes: As soon as completed draft minutes are uploaded onto the website. A Copy is emailed to all Councillors as an item on the next agenda for approval. As soon as the minutese are approved and signed at the next meeting they are uploaded onto the website and filed.
Accounts: Bank accounts are reviewed weekly. Exercise budgetary planning and control. VAT is claimed at the end of every financial year. Complete accounts for financial year as soon as possible after 31st March. Present accounts as per audit requirements to the Council for approval in the prescribed time period. HMRC returns due monthly and annually.
Community Infrastructure Levy: Received from Cannock Chase Council. Has to be reported to Parish Council and allocated against approved projects within five years. Annual report to Council and Cannock Chase Council entered on website.
Precept: The money that the Parish Council claims from the residents. The amount is notified to Cannock Chase Council and added to the Council Tax. It is paid in two instalments, April and October. A budget must be set and a precept must be set that is sufficient to keep the Council solvent taking into account potential expenditure and known income.
Inland Revenue: Returns and payments have to be made monthly. End of year returns have to be done as well as the appropriate forms sent to all employees.
Banking: The Council has accounts with the Unity Trust Bank.
Audit: The Council has an internal and external audit for each financial year. The audit is advertised and accounts provided on request as well. Results reported to the Council and put on website.
Pension Scheme: Legally, the Council has to abide by the existing legislation regarding membership of and contributions to approved pension schemes, including the Local Government Pension Scheme. Monthly returns, annual returns. Affect as per HMRC. Check annual rate change from 1st April annually.
Awards Scheme
Each year, an annual scheme for Person, Young Person and Business of the Year. Written nominations from any source considered and the winners invited to the APM for a certificate presentation. The YPOTY also gets a £25 voucher. Applications are determined at March's Council Meeting and awards presented at the Annual Parish Assembly in April.
Cannel Mount
The Council acquired Cannel Mount on a long term lease (100 years) in 2019. There is a need for ongoing management of the site and there are long term aims to improve the site as a public asset by adding pedestrian access to the site, audit the site for flora and fauna, to have a perimeter path, to have seating at appropriate locations, a car park and picnic area.
Christmas Lights
Cannock Chase Council stopped providing Christmas lights in 2017. This Council joined with Hednesford and Norton Canes to have joint group arrangements for the lights in the respective areas. Costs for the maintenance, checking and the electricity are divided up on a pro rata basis for the number of lights but each Council pays a Christmas Lights Co-Ordinator.
We have seven lights, six pole mounted on lampposts and one set of tree lights. A budget of £3,000 is set aside.
Defibrillators
We have four. HGCC, Community Life Church, St John's Church, Heath Hayes and Tasty Bites, Wimblebury. Check them monthly for battery life (indicator). Look for sources of funding. If another one is acquired, make sure WMAS has it on their database. Look at replacing batteries and other ancillary equipment when needed.
Started off in 2010 and was a very useful facility that has had to be moderated as membership grew. Now with over 3K members (February 2023), it is a useful way of disseminating information about the area and the Council but the posts have to be considered as any attempt at humor or explaining Council actions may result in complaints being made to the Chair of the Council!
Website
Fulfils the legal requirements. Administered by the Clerk as part of their duties. Update monthly for attendance and meetings and any other developments as and when required. Renewed annually.
Planning
The Council is a Statutory Consultee in the planning process and is invited to comment to Cannock Chase District Council, the Planning Authority. The Parish Council is not as some think, a sub-committee of CCDC and it is their responsibility to obtain residents' views and determine compliance with building regulations. The Parish Council is a consultee only. Members of the public who want to make comments should do so to the Planning Authority, IE Cannock Chase Council.
Heath Hayes Park. Cannock Chase Council removed two metal benches that were replaced by the two new memorial benches bought by the Parish Council.
Bench at Heath Hayes Library. The bench was placed as a memorial to Eileen Pitcher in 2018 and the Council has agreed to maintain it for 10 years till 2028.
Annual Parish Meeting. Public meeting, held in April. Has to be held by law. Awards to Citizen, Young Person and Business of the Year. Grants given out.
Annual General Meeting. Held in May and after election in election year. First business MUST be to elect a Chair.
Noticeboard Heath Hayes Library. This belongs to the Parish Council and was rebuilt in 2017. The keys are kept in the Library. Practice has been for the outward facing part to be used by the Parish Council and the pane facing down Hednesford Road is used by the library.
Best Kept Village. The Council entered from 1997 to 2018 and had entered Heath Hayes, Hawks Green and Wimblebury with three separate entries.
Chasewater Friends. The Council was a member.