HIGH BICKINGTON PARISH COUNCIL
Clerk: Mrs Di Carter, 20 Springfield, Four Seasons Village, Winkleigh, Devon EX19 8DP
E-mail: cartergrth@aol.com

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT

MODEL PUBLICATION SCHEME

Adopted by the Parish Council on:

Date:       10 DECEMBER 2008
Signed:   Myc Riggulsford - Chairman

Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act public authorities are required to adopt a model publication scheme making information available to the public as part of its normal business activities.

Who we are and what we do:

High Bickington is a Parish Council comprising of 8 Councillors. The main point of contact is the Clerk (contact details on letterhead). Meetings are held on the second Wednesday of each month, apart from August, in the Meeting Point, High Bickington at 7.30pm. Members of the public are welcome to attend and a period for matters raised by the public is put aside before the formal meeting is convened.

The Parish Council has appointed the High Bickington Community Property Trust as its agents to take forward the Parish Plan and an elected Councillor representative sits on the Community Property Trust Board. The Parish Council is responsible for setting an annual budget to cover administration expenses, repairs and maintenance, footpath management, and annually awards grants to local organisations. This budget forms the basis for the Parish Precept part of the Council Tax levied by Devon County Council. The Parish Council is also consulted by Torridge District Council on planning applications within the Parish.

What we spend and how we spend it:

The budget is finalised in December each year and itemises anticipated expenses. The audited accounts to 31 March each year are displayed on noticeboards in September/October.

What our priorities are and how we are doing:

1. The Parish Council is keen to promote a good community relationship and take forward any matters on behalf of the public.
2. To continually improve the quality of life of parishioners by improving community facilities. To achieve this by the on-going involvement of all parishioners so that community aspirations are identified and met where possible.

How we make decisions:

All decisions are made by the Full Council at their monthly meetings and fully reported in the Minutes. Urgent matters can be responded to by delegated authority of Chairman, Vice-Chairman or a nominated officer and ratified at the following full Council meeting.>

Our policies and procedures:

A written Code of Conduct is in place together with a Financial Regulations policy both of which are updated as and when required.

Lists and registers:

A list of Councillors and their business interests is recorded and kept by Torridge District Council to comply with the new Model Code of Conduct.

Services we offer:

The website – http://www.highbickington.org - contains information on the Parish Council and all minutes of meetings. These cover financial issues, planning applications and decision making, and as well as being displayed on the website are put on village noticeboards, and in Ramblings magazine.

Paper copies of minutes, budgets, accounts, and policies are available from the Clerk at a nominal charge of 10p per sheet. Copies of the Parish Plan are available for inspection.

Policy for dealing with Planning Applications

Planning applications are sent to the Clerk, normally with a 21-day response period. If a scheduled Parish Council meeting is due to be held within this period, applications are discussed and a response agreed at this meeting.

However, when there is no scheduled Parish Council meeting within this 21-day period, eg August, then it is necessary for alternative arrangements to be made for these plans to be dealt with, and the following policy is agreed:

The Clerk will obtain agreement if necessary from either the Chairman or Vice-Chairman that the plans are a) non-contentious or b) contentious.

1. Non-contentious – the Clerk will attach a response form to the plans and pass them first to the Chairman who will then pass them on to another Councillor – this arrangement to be followed until all available Councillors have commented. Any declaration of interest should be noted on this form. If there is agreement on the response, the Clerk will be informed of the decision and inform Torridge District Council accordingly.
2. Contentious – The Clerk will endeavour to secure an extended response date in order that the plans can be dealt with at a scheduled Parish Council meeting. If this extension is not agreed, an Extraordinary Parish Council meeting will be convened if felt to be necessary. In this case the plans may be circulated to Councillors in order that they have some knowledge of the matter to be discussed prior to the meeting, no form for response will be attached.

If felt to be necessary a site visit will be arranged.

Councillors should ensure, when passing plans on to another Councillor, that they are not left without first ensuring that the Councillor is available to take them.

Signed: MYC RIGGULSFORD (Chairman) Date: 8 JULY 2009

Policy on Domestic Renewable Energy

High Bickington Parish Council has adopted a policy in favour of domestic installations of renewable energy technology, including solar hot water panels, photovoltaics, wood fired boilers, ground source heat pumps, small scale domestic wind turbines and other sustainable technologies which will help to combat climate change and avoid the use of fossil fuels.

Individual cases will be considered on their merit with issues of noise and visual impact taken into account. In principle the Council will support all applications to Torridge District Council to install renewable energy technologies, including applications for listed buildings and within conservation areas, unless there are very good reasons why such technology should not be installed.