Introduction         Duties            Responsibilities     Councillors 

Posts                    Meetings        Declarations of Interest 

Parish Precept     Planning        Applicant advice

Introduction

Parish Council meetings are normally held at 1930 in the Parish Room, Romsey Road, Lockerley (just along from the church) on Monday evenings. All parishioners, and indeed anyone from any area, are welcome to attend the meetings.  Those attending are not usually accorded the privilege of contributing or debating within a meeting unless stated.  A parishioner is simply someone who lives within the parish and it does not signify or require adherence to any faith. Voting rights with respect to the Parish Council are simply determined by appearance on the Electoral Roll and this is maintained by TVBC and thus Hampshire County Council. Do look out for the occasional extraordinary meeting which may be advertised in parish notices.  The Parish Council should not be confused with the ecclesiastical institution called the Parish Church Council; they are separate entities with distinct plebiscites.

In addition to their general rôle as councillors the elected members of the Parish Council are allotted specific responsibilities - for example, footpaths, hedgerows and ditches, civil issues, comments on planning permissions, road markings and so on.  From time to time the Parish Council organises also events which reflect a community interest. The NALC model standing orders for councils can be read here (click for PDF document).  The standing orders for Lockerely are unlikely to be greatly different. 

To help keep parishioners informed the Parish Council maintains some records of its actions.  There is also a facebook book page known as spotted @ lockerley - do search it out if you are a user of facebook as it provides current socially interactive updates.     Go to Top

Some of the Duties of the Parish Council

Setting the annual precept for funds to support its activities and its duties including:
#  Bus shelter.
#  Maintenance of the Parish Rooms - the place where the council meets
#  Commenting on planning applications to Test Valley BC.
#  Ensuring Hampshire CC Highways Department is aware of problems with highways, including pot holes.
#  Lengthsman whose task is to keep hedges and ditches in good order.
#  Litter bins and organising the annual village clean up day.
#  Public seats.
#  Ensuring landowners maintain footpaths and bridleways.
#  Recreation facility Lockerley Green.
#  Village War Memorial.
#  Provision of anything to benefit the community not covered by anything above.  Go to Top

Responsibilities

Council responsibilities are broadly set out to illustrate how Lockerley Parish Council operates and targets its responsibilities. The area covered by the Council includes Lockerley, Carters Clay, Holbury, Pains Hill.

The broad responsibilities of parish councils are set out on the Government web site at http://www.localgov.co.uk/Parishcouncil-responsibilities/29135). In addition to those outlined above, for Lockerley these include:
#  Highways – lighting, parking places, right to enter into discussions about new roads and road widening, consent of parish council required for diversion or discontinuation of highway, traffic signs and other notices, tree planting and verge maintenance
#  Litter – provision of litter-bins and support for any anti-litter campaigns.
#  Planning in general for the benefit of Lockerley. This includes commenting on plans submitted to TVBC and which require comment.
#  Maintenance of the four major greens, the Glebe field and other tracts of land belonging to the Parish.
#  Rights of Way – footpath and bridleway maintenance
#  Seats - the public ones. There are some that have been donated also.
#  The Village War Memorial
#  In addition, the Parish Council can spend a limited amount of money on anything they deem of benefit to the community that is not covered by the other specific responsibilities described in this list.  Go to Top

Councillors

In addition to the Chairman and Vice-Chairman, there are currently (2021) seven councillors.
The Chairman and Vice-Chairman are elected annually at the Annual General Meeting (see paragraph 7.2 below).
Elections take place every five years. Vacancies between elections are advertised and, unless ten electors insist on an election, the Council will coopt volunteers to fill them.
Hampshire Association of Local Councils (HALC) runs various evening courses covering aspects of parish council work. The Clerk advertises these regularly and the cost is covered by the parish. A quorum consists of three councillors  Go to Top

Parish Council Posts

The Clerk can be contacted using the Contact the Parish Clerk form on this page.

Councillors fill a number of posts:

#  Highways representative who will liaise with Hampshire County Council Highways Department over the condition of roads in the parish.
#  Recreation ground monitoring for safety and repair
#  Village hall committee representative who will be a member of that committee though not necessarily a trustee.
#  Emergency plan representative.
#  Planning expert, who researches planning application received, providing the background for the Council when they consider it.
#  Lockerley representative from TVBC who attends Parish Council meetings.
#  School Liaison, responsible for liaising with Lockerley primary school.
#  A footpath warden, who reports on the state of the footpaths within the parish and liaises with Hants County Council and land owners
#  A tree warden, who advises on tree applications.  Go to Top

 

Parish Council Meetings

On the second Monday of each month, with the exception of August, starting at 1930. Meetings generally last an hour and a half.
The Annual General Meeting and the Annual Parish Meeting are held on the second Monday in May, starting at 19.00 and are followed by the monthly meeting.
Agendas for all meetings are emailed to councillors and posted on the village notice boards one week in advance of the meeting. Minutes are sent to councillors for comment within one week of the meeting and are then approved and signed at the next meeting. Then they are posted on the notice boards. The council may post these minutes at https://lockerleypc.wordpress.com/Go to Top


Declarations of Interest

All Councillors must complete and submit to TVBC annually a Declaration of Interest form.
At the start of each meeting, the Chairman asks councillors to declare whether they have an interest in anything to be discussed. Examples would be a planning application they had submitted or one submitted by a neighbour which might affect them. Having declared an interest, a councillor is not able to make any presentations but does not have to leave the room.

The Parish Precept

The Parish Council needs funds to support its activities and these are raised by adding an extra cost known as a “precept” to each householder’s Council Tax bill. The procedure is:

During September and October, the Clerk calculates the half yearly spend and makes a prediction for the remaining half year and an estimate for the following year.
At the November meeting, Councillors begin preliminary discussions on the following year’s precept. They will consider running costs such as insurance, staff wages, maintenance and subscriptions to bodies such as HALC and any donations the Council wishes to make.
At the January meeting, Councillors confirm the following year’s budget and any increase in precept necessary to cover the following year’s expenditure.
The Clerk then informs TVBC of the Parish precept by February. Go to Top

Planning

TVBC is the planning authority for the area and sends copies of all planning applications to the Parish Clerk. The role of the Parish Council with respect to planning applications is focussed around advising and listening to applicants, residents within the parish and other interested parties, before making a recommendation to TVBC. This recommendation will be taken into account by TVBC but it is within their remit to accept or reject the Parish Council view.  Go to Top

Planning Applications

In the case of a planning application that lies within the conservation area, involves replacing one house with another, is a major extension to an existing property, involves change of use to land/buildings or falls into the category of ‘new build’, the Parish Council advises that applicants should consider taking the steps set out below:
#  Consult informally with TVBC Planners on their proposals before initiating any formal application and/or drawing up plans (Check TVBC website for availability of planning duty officers).
   Consult informally with individual Parish Councillors and, if necessary, arrange site visits to help build understanding around the proposal. You may also choose to do this by attending the open forum session which is part of every Parish   Council meeting.
#  Consult informally with your immediate neighbours and any other interested parties so that there are ‘no surprises’ when the formal application is made.
#  Take up the option of the pre-planning consultation process with TVBC Planning office (there is a fee for this).
#  Attend the Parish Council meeting when your formal planning application is on the agenda (the Parish Clerk can advise when this is likely to happen)
#  The Parish Council discusses all planning applications at their monthly meetings and a record of the decision is minuted and forwarded to TVBC. As stated above, the Parish Council has no jurisdiction with respect to planning – our remit is merely to make a recommendation of support or not.
#  Recreation Ground.
#  Some greens are owned by the parish and some land is rented on behalf of of the parish.  Go to Top