Minutes of the Extraordinary Meeting of Havercroft-with-Cold Hiendley Parish Council held remotely on Wednesday 25th November 2020 at 7:00 p.m.
Present: Councillors P Stockhill (Chair) R Massey (Vice Chair) E Brown, Mrs T Tams-Hedges, D Pointon, M Beecher and A Pointon, R. Cotton
In attendance: N Stansby, Ward Richards, Andrew Williamson, Maureen Cummings, Shawna TT (Press)
Minute 115 PUBLIC REPRESENTATIONS
Minute 116 To receive apologies and reasons for absence
116.1 Councillor Ian Sanders sent his apologies.
Minute 117 To confirm the minutes of the last meeting as a true record
117.1 The minutes of the last meeting were accepted as a true record, proposed by Cllr Brown and seconded by Cllr Massey.
Minute 118 Statement from the Parish Council regarding Unit 5 at the Havercroft & Ryhill Community Learning Centre
118.1 Cllr Cotton read out the following statement on behalf of the Council:
Dear Parishioners,
In light of recent events concerning the Havercroft and Ryhill Community Learning Centre (referred to henceforth as the “Learning Centre”) and, in particular, a mis-leading and inflammatory Facebook post by the Learning Centre on 16 November 2020, the Parish Council has deemed it necessary to publicise a statement.
The statement is sub-divided as follows:
1. Parish Council’s Objectives;
2. The Learning Centre’s Lease;
3. Notice to Vacate;
4. Attempted Mediation;
5. Events on 16 November 2020;
6. The Allegation: and
7. Next Steps.
We will explain each in turn.
Parish Council’s Objectives
In 2007 the Parish Council became the owners of various business units at Mulberry Place. It was, and still is, the Parish Council’s aim to allow local businesses and charities to lease the units for the purposes of providing services to the community.
One of the units, known as the “training room” or “unit 5”, had been leased by the Parish Council to a photographer until November 2019. Upon that lease ending, the Parish Council had already been exploring the possibility of unit 5 being used by the Parish Council as a central office. At present, the Parish Council does not have a centralised address whereby parishioners can send correspondence, nor does the Parish Council have a secure place to store all its records. The latter is particularly important given the data protection requirements brought in by the Data Protection Act 2018. Unit 5 was identified as the most suitable location.
The Learning Centre’s Lease
A lease was entered into between the Parish Council and the Learning Centre on 8 August 2012 (the “Lease”). Under the Lease, the Learning Centre was granted possession of a unit at Mulberry Place known as the “Community Learning Centre”. This is the unit which the Learning Centre operates the community library and its training services from. The lease granted to the Learning Centre also includes a corridor leading to double doors, but it does not include unit 5. The Learning Centre is therefore occupying a unit which it is not legally entitled to and did not ask the Parish Council for permission to use, it simply claimed it as its own.
Notice to Vacate
The Parish Council is very grateful for the work which the Learning Centre does in operating the food bank, and it is our aim to assist with the food bank so it can continue to be a vital lifeline for some parishioners. It brings us great sadness that the Learning Centre food bank is so widely used, and its popularity is only set to increase during these difficult and uncertain times.
That being said, the Parish Council sees no reason why the Learning Centre cannot operate the food bank from the areas which are granted to it under the Lease. Further, there is a large shipping container in the car park which the Learning Centre can use to operate the food bank from. This would enable the food bank to continue and would mean that the Parish Council would finally have a central office.
In October 2020, upon receiving legal advice, the Parish Council served on the Learning Centre a notice to vacate unit 5by 19 October 2020. At the request of a Learning Centre trustee, the Parish Council agreed to extend the deadline for vacating unit 5 until 12 November 2020. The Parish Council firmly believes that it has acted more than reasonably, and even offered to help the Learning Centre move its items into its unit and related areas.
Attempted Mediation
To resolve the unit 5 issue (and various other issues between the parties) councillors for the Parish Council, and a trustee for the Learning Centre, attended a virtual mediation on 3 November 2020 which was facilitated by professional mediators, Nova. Unfortunately, the mediation was not successful. The Parish Council cannot disclose what was discussed as the mediation was confidential.
Events on 16 November 2020
Upon expiry of the notice to vacate, and following a resolution by the Parish Council, councillors for the Parish Council attended the Learning Centre with professional security and a locksmith for the purposes of regaining access to unit 5 peacefully. It has been alleged that this action was taken for intimidation purposes however this could not be further from the truth. The presence of security was an appropriate measure to protect the safety of everyone. The Learning Centre refused to allow peaceful entry and so the Parish Council withdrew.
The Allegation
For the avoidance of any doubt, the Parish Council is not trying to close the food bank. The Parish Council would take this opportunity to point out that it makes decisions by way of majority vote by its councillors at council meetings. At those meetings, discussions and votes are accurately recorded, and those recordings are known as meeting minutes. The Parish Council is confident that its minutes show that its councillors have never voted, nor even discussed, attempting to close the food bank. The Parish Council’s meeting minutes are freely accessible to any members of the public.
The Parish Council respectfully requests that the Learning Centre withdraws its false allegation that the Parish Council is attempting to close the food bank. It is simply not true and only exacerbates matters.
Next Steps
The Parish Council sincerely hopes to resolve this issue quickly so that both parties can focus on doing what they do best, helping the community. The Parish Council would like to work with the Learning Centre, and will assist so far as able, to ensure that the food bank continues to operate. However, the Parish Council is resolute in that unit 5 must be vacated.
Please note that the Parish Council is open and transparent. Parishioners are encouraged to attend our monthly meetings to raise any queries they may have.
Yours faithfully,
Havercroft with Cold Hiendley Parish Council
118.2 Discussion commenced between Ward Richards (Trustee of Havercroft & Ryhill Community Learning Project) and members of the Council. It was agreed that inflammatory comments against the Council should be removed from Facebook, before the debate continued.
118.3 It was suggested and provisionally agreed that two representatives from the Council and two from the Learning Centre, would meet at the unit to further discuss a way forward. Mr Richards would propose two potential dates by 5pm Friday, 27th November 2020.
End
Paul Stockhill
Chairman to the Parish Council