Tim Prater

16
Apr
2024
Parish Council Meeting Agenda 22-04-2024

Parish Council Meeting Agenda 22-04-2024

The agenda for the Sandgate Parish Council Full Parish Council meeting, to held on Monday 22nd April 2024, in Sandgate Library at 6.30pm.

Agenda-council-meeting-22-04-24-002

The Council meeting is open to press and public. If you would like to attend this meeting, please notify clerk@sandgatepc.org.uk in advance. Letting us know allows us to make sure we have sufficient seats for you and allow reasonable spacing.

We keep a full list of previous Sandgate Parish Council Meeting Agenda and Minutes on this website. We publish those agendas a few days before each meeting, and will also post draft minutes in the week after a meeting.

Most of our meetings are broadcast live on our Facebook page. We’ll then leave those recordings on Facebook for a few months after the meeting so you can watch them back later.

Minimum Notice

We issue agenda’s at least three clear days before a meeting. We display them on the noticeboard in the library, Parish noticeboards on the Village Green and by Enbrook Valley shops, and on our website.

The minimum three clear days for notice of a meeting does not include:

  • the day of issue of the agenda, or;
  • the day of the meeting, or;
  • a Sunday, or;
  • a day of the Christmas break, or;
  • a day of the Easter break, or;
  • of a bank holiday, or;
  • a day appointed for public thanksgiving or mourning.

Meeting in Public

All meetings of our Council are open to the public, except in limited defined circumstances. We can only decide, by resolution, to meet in private when discussing confidential business or for other special reasons where publicity would be prejudicial to the public interest.

Those reasons might include, for example, discussing the conduct of employees, negotiations of contracts or terms of tender, or the early stages of a legal dispute.

Posted by Tim Prater in Agenda, Council
15
Apr
2024

Sandgate Community Garden: Update 14 April 2024

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 14th April: All hands on deck and only time to chat if we were busy with a job as well. 

Things have picked up at a great pace this week with some lovely sunshine and warm days; we managed to get in two whole sessions at the garden.   Where we used to have plenty of time to chat and pack away early if all the tasks had been completed, this week it was all hands on deck and only time to chat if we were busy with a job as well. 

One of our gardeners had a sort out at home and brought some garden chairs up to the plot so that it was sheer luxury to sit in the sun on a proper chair sowing the courgette and squash plants.  More trays of radishes and spring onions got sown as well as more pots of leeks.  The calabrese, lettuces, spring onions, bulb fennel, and a few onions got planted. We were delighted to see that the potatoes are showing through the soil. The gooseberry bushes are in full flower as well as the honey berries.  The time sped by this week and there are still outstanding tasks which will have to be moved into next week.

On Thursday there was a visit from two of the Green Councillors, Rebecca Shoob and Polly Blakemore to our hot composter situated in the grounds of Folkestone College.  They were interested in finding out how the composter works.  We are always pleased to show off our great composter and are looking forward to the day when we have lots of compost to share with the wider community. 

What’s Next?

  • Repot lots of the pot plants
  • Take up much of the lemon balm overtaking the orchard area
  • Sow more seeds
  • Lots of flowers to prick out and pot on
The luxury of proper garden chairs to sit on
A new helper this week!
Visitors to our fabulous composter

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Posted by Tim Prater in Sandgate Community Garden
12
Apr
2024
Financial Reports March 2024

Financial Reports March 2024

Updated financial reports for Sandgate Parish Council for March 2024, and the financial year 2023-24 to date.

Payment and Receipts Summary

Summary-report-01.04.23-to-31.03.24

Receipts in Month

Receipts-up-to-31.03.24

Payments in Month

Payments-up-to-31.03.24

Reserve Balances

Reserves-up-to-31.03.24

Bank Reconciliation

All-banks-rec-up-to-31.03.24

VAT Summary

VAT-summary-31.03.24

Previous Sandgate Parish Council Resources Committee Agendas, Minutes and Financial Reports.

Sandgate Parish Council uses (the excellent) Scribe Accounts to manage our Council accounts and generate reports.

Sandgate Parish Council’s finances are governed by our Financial Regulations and Standing Orders. Every Town and Parish Council has similar rules. Those rules govern our financial management, and we can only amend or vary them by a Council resolution.

The Council’s Standing Orders require that we report quarterly on receipts, payments and balances. For instance, they say at 17.c:

The Responsible Financial Officer shall supply to each councillor as soon as practicable after 30 June, 30 September and 31 December in each year a statement to summarise:

i. the council’s receipts and payments for each quarter;

ii. the council’s aggregate receipts and payments for the year to date;

iii. the balances held at the end of the quarter being reported

and which includes a comparison with the budget for the financial year and highlights any actual or potential overspends.

We are now publishing our reports monthly to exceed that requirement. We then consider those reports at the next Parish Council Resources Committee meeting.

Posted by Tim Prater in Agenda, Resources
08
Apr
2024
Finance Committee Agenda 15-04-2024

Finance Committee Agenda 15-04-2024

The agenda of Sandgate’s Parish Council Finance Committee meeting. We will hold the meeting on 15th April 2024 at 6:30pm. It will be held in Sandgate Library.

Finance Committee Agenda

Finance-Agenda-15-04-24

Our Finance Committee meeting is open to press and public. Please could any member of the public who wants to attend notify us via clerk@sandgatepc.org.uk in advance. This allows us to ensure we have sufficient seats and allow reasonable spacing.

We publish our financial reporting on the “in-running” budget monthly. So at this meeting we will consider the reports since the last meeting.

Previous Sandgate Parish Council Finance Committee Agendas, Minutes and Financial Reports.

We use (the excellent) Scribe Accounts to manage our Council accounts and generate reports.

Sandgate Parish Council’s finances are governed by our Financial Regulations and Standing Orders, and every Town and Parish Council has similar rules. Because those rules govern our financial management, we can only amend or vary them by a Council resolution.

The Council’s Standing Orders require quarterly reporting of receipts, payments and balances. For instance, they say at 17.c:

The Responsible Financial Officer shall supply to each councillor as soon as practicable after 30 June, 30 September and 31 December in each year a statement to summarise:

i. the council’s receipts and payments for each quarter;

ii. the council’s aggregate receipts and payments for the year to date;

iii. the balances held at the end of the quarter being reported

and which includes a comparison with the budget for the financial year and highlights any actual or potential overspends.

We’re now publishing our reports monthly, exceeding that requirement. Consequently we will consider the reports at the next Parish Council Resources Committee meeting.

Posted by Tim Prater in Agenda, Resources
08
Apr
2024
Planning Committee Agenda 15-04-2024

Planning Committee Agenda 15-04-2024

The agenda for the Sandgate Parish Council Planning Committee meeting, to held on 15th April 2024 at 7pm (or the end of the preceding Finance Committee meeting, whichever is later).

Planning-Agenda-15-04-24

The Planning Committee meeting is open to press and public. If any member of the public wishes to attend, please can they notify clerk@sandgatepc.org.uk in advance. This allows us to ensure we have sufficient seats and allow reasonable spacing.

Previous Sandgate Parish Council Planning Committee Agenda and Minutes. We publish agendas a few days before a meeting. We then post draft minutes in the week after a meeting.

Most of our meetings will be broadcast live on our Facebook page. Recordings of the meetings will be left on Facebook for a few months after the meeting so they can be watched back later. Comments left on Facebook broadcasts during the meeting are not be monitored and are not a way of feeding back to the Council.

Minimum Notice

We issue agendas at least three clear days before a meeting. We display them on the noticeboard in the library, Parish noticeboards on the Village Green and by Enbrook Valley shops, and on our website.

The minimum three clear days for notice of a meeting does not include:

  • the day of issue of the agenda, or;
  • the day of the meeting, or;
  • a Sunday, or;
  • a day of the Christmas break, or;
  • a day of the Easter break, or;
  • of a bank holiday, or;
  • a day appointed for public thanksgiving or mourning.

Meeting in Public

All meetings of our Council are open to the public, except in limited defined circumstances. We can only decide, by resolution, to meet in private when discussing confidential business or for other special reasons where publicity would be prejudicial to the public interest.

Those reasons might include, for example, discussing the conduct of employees, negotiations of contracts or terms of tender, or the early stages of a legal dispute.

Posted by Tim Prater in Agenda, Planning
08
Apr
2024
Planning Committee Minutes 18-03-2024

Planning Committee Minutes 18-03-2024

The minutes of Sandgate’s Parish Council Planning Committee meeting, held on 18th March 2024, in Sandgate Library.

Planning-Minutes-18-03-24-1

You can find previous Sandgate Parish Planning Committee Agendas and Minutes on this website. We publish agendas a few days before a meeting. The Clerk then posts draft minutes in the week after a meeting.

We broadcast our meetings live on our Facebook page. Those meeting recordings are then left live for a few months after the meeting, giving you the chance to watch it back later!

The next suitable meeting will formally approve the draft minutes of this meeting. When approved, the Chairman of that meeting then signs them.

The signed minutes of the meeting serve as the legal record of what has taken place at the meeting. Before a meeting approves the draft minutes of a preceding meeting, the meeting may, by resolution, correct any inaccuracies in the draft minutes. The attendance (or otherwise) of the Chairman or those voting in favour to amend or approve of the minutes is irrelevant.

Only if meeting minutes are found to be inaccurate after they have been signed can they then be altered. Inaccuracies in signed minutes can only be amended by resolution at a subsequent meeting.

Posted by Tim Prater in Minutes, Planning
08
Apr
2024

Sandgate Community Garden: Update 7 April 2024

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 7th April: The rainfall for March was another massive number, 148mm.

It continues to be wet and windy with a few sunny periods.  We dodged the rain on Wednesday morning to plant out the early cabbages, beetroot, spring onions, and kohlrabi.  Saturday saw the planting of the coriander plants and the sowing of many zinnias.  The carrots and parsnips got sown in situ, being the only seeds we put directly into the ground unless you count potatoes as a seed!  With the amount of rain showers we have been getting, at least we are saved the job of having to water all the new plants in.  Some of the new plants got a covering of fleece to keep out the wind and give some protection from pigeons. 

Not surprisingly there is a massive amount of slugs and snails on the plot, hiding in all the nooks and crannies; however it seems we must have a thrush on site as there is a place strewn with many broken snail shells, so it is pleasing to know that nature is trying to help us out at times.

We had a small patch of celery which did very little last autumn and so we left it there as a cover crop, but it seems to have suddenly woken up and got growing again after a long winter slumber, and so before it goes to seed we cut it out and rescued what there was to eat.  It is surprising how some things have come through the winter and are proving to be still alive; even the lemon verbena has just begun to sprout new shoots.  The hops are really starting to climb, and so we have to pinch out many of the surplus shoots.  Instead of composting them, they will be steamed and eaten as apparently they are similar to asparagus which will be a bonus if true!

Apart from all the planting and sowing of seeds we are STILL tackling the millions of sycamore seeds.  Below is a photo taken of one sycamore seedling sprouting out of the wall at the brook end of the park, which only goes to prove quite how resilient they truly are.  The battle continues.

What’s Next?

  • If the weather is good, start to sow the squashes
  • Sow more spring onion seeds
  • Sow more leeks
  • Pot up and remove lots of lemon balm
Evidence of a thrush in the garden?
Beautiful deadnettle flowers
Bonus celery stalks
Sycamore seedling growing on top of a wall

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Posted by Tim Prater in Sandgate Community Garden
08
Apr
2024
Finance Committee Minutes 18-03-2024

Finance Committee Minutes 18-03-2024

The minutes of Sandgate’s Parish Council Finance Committee meeting, held on 18th March 2024, in Sandgate Library.

Finance-Minutes-18-03-24

You can find previous Sandgate Parish Council Finance Committee Agendas, Minutes and Financial Reports on this website. We publish agendas a few days before a meeting. The Clerk then posts draft minutes in the week after a meeting.

We broadcast our meetings live on our Facebook page. Those meeting recordings are then left live for a few months after the meeting, giving you the chance to watch it back later!

The next suitable meeting will formally approve the draft minutes of this meeting. When approved, the Chairman of that meeting then signs them.

The signed minutes of the meeting serve as the legal record of what has taken place at the meeting. Before a meeting approves the draft minutes of a preceding meeting, the meeting may, by resolution, correct any inaccuracies in the draft minutes. The attendance (or otherwise) of the Chairman or those voting in favour to amend or approve of the minutes is irrelevant.

Only if meeting minutes are found to be inaccurate after they have been signed can they then be altered. Inaccuracies in signed minutes can only be amended by resolution at a subsequent meeting.

Posted by Tim Prater in Minutes, Resources
04
Apr
2024
Seaside Award 2024 and Sandgate Parish Council

Seaside Award 2024 and Sandgate Parish Council

An open letter from Sandgate Parish Council to:

  • Keep Britain Tidy
  • The Environment Agency
  • Southern Water
  • Folkestone & Hythe District Council and
  • Neighbouring coastal Town and Parish Councils

Sandgate has been proud to receive the Seaside Award for the last ten years. In 2023, just 128 beaches in England won the Award, with only 24 in the South-East region. Keep Britain Tidy’s Seaside Award is the nationwide standard for the best beaches across the UK and it celebrates the quality and diversity of England’s coastline. The flag is a symbol of quality which ensures visitors are guaranteed to find a clean, safe, attractive, and well-managed coastal stretch.

Sandgate Parish Council has reluctantly decided not to apply for the award this year due to our concerns about the quality of the bathing water after heavy rain and stormy conditions.

The information on water quality for the Seaside Award comes from Environment Agency (EA) data and the sampling point for Sandgate is at Seabrook Point – a mile west from where people in Sandgate tend to swim, which is by Granville Parade. The EA test point at Seabrook Point is 50 metres to the west of a sewage outfall pipe. The prevailing current in this area runs west to east and testing therefore fails to pick up pollutants which are dissipated in an easterly direction towards Sandgate and Folkestone. Testing at this point has shown an excellent rating for the last 4 years for the prescribed Sandgate Beach area.

There is a Southern Water sewage outfall pipe located at the western end of Granville Parade (some 100-150 metres out to sea, depending on the tide), as well as the Enbrook Stream storm overflow and the Enbrook Stream outfall pipes on the beach. The popularity of Granville Parade as a swimming location has increased with the introduction of a sea sauna at the Rowing Club. The popularity of sea swimming has also increased considerably over recent years.  

Because of concerns about the accuracy and reliability of the data published by the EA and Southern Water, the Parish Council decided in September 2023 to use an established independent testing laboratory to provide sea water testing kits to test the water at Granville Parade. Sea water testing was undertaken on twelve occasions between October 2023 and January 2024.

From the results of these tests, and data from Surfers Against Sewage, the Parish Council concludes that generally the quality of the sea water under normal weather conditions is good and, sometimes, excellent. However, the testing did show very high levels of contaminates on one occasion after heavy rain.

Based on this information, the Parish Council took the view that it would be inappropriate for us to apply for the Seaside Award. We have decided that we should reach out to other coastal parishes and district councils to explore best practice during the period that water companies have to ensure their infrastructure is fit for purpose (2050).

We have the following three recommendations arising from our sea water testing:

  1. The Environment Agency’s sampling point for Sandgate should be at Granville Parade as this is where most people swim;
  2. Southern Water should update their wastewater handling so it no longer requires discharge of sewage to sea at Granville Parade (and elsewhere). In the interim, the sewage outfall pipe at Granville Parade should be extended further out to sea by Southern Water to help keep sewage spillage away from the bathing area and beach. (For example, the outlet pipe from the Hythe sewage treatment works extends 4km out to sea); and
  3. As a Parish Council, we should issue advice to sea users on best practice so that they may enjoy the sea in a safe manner. Information should be provided by the Parish Council and others to advise people to be cautious about the quality of the beach and the sea water for up to 48 hours after heavy rain and stormy conditions, with a link given to check the water quality (e.g. Surfers Against Sewage www.sas.org.uk).

A more detailed report with the results of the seawater testing is available on Sandgate Parish Council’s website (https://sandgatepc.org.uk/2024/03/12/sandgate-beach-sea-water-bathing-quality-testing-report-2024/)

Signed by

Tim Prater, Chair of Sandgate Parish Council and Susan Claris, Chair of the Environment Committee, Sandgate Parish Council

***

Seaside Award Water Quality Criteria: https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/the-seaside-awards

  • The beach must fully comply with the water quality sampling and frequency requirements
  • The beach must fully comply with the standards and requirements for water quality analysis
  • No industrial, waste-water or sewage-related discharges should affect the beach area
  • At designated bathing waters from 2016 the water quality should be graded as ‘sufficient’ as set out in the Bathing Water Directive. (In 2015, bathing beaches should of mandatory standard.)
Posted by Tim Prater in Environment, News
04
Apr
2024
Vacancy on Sandgate Parish Council for Sandgate Village ward

Vacancy on Sandgate Parish Council for Sandgate Village ward

If you are passionate about your local community, we need you. Councillors make a huge difference to the quality of life of local people and how local issues are dealt with. We need people from all backgrounds and experiences who reflect the communities they serve to put themselves forward.

Are you interested in becoming a Councillor?

Following the recent resignation of Tracy Stephens we have a vacancy for one Councillor to join  Sandgate Parish Council.

This vacancy will be filled by a process called co-option. The person co-opted will hold the position until the next Parish Council elections in May 2027.

We are now inviting applications from local people to join Sandgate Parish Council. In terms of eligibility, you must be a British, Commonwealth or European Union citizen, over 18 years old and are registered to vote in the area; or have lived, worked, or owned property here for at least 12 months.

Responsibilities of the Parish Council

The Parish Council is responsible for running Sandgate Library, maintaining Sandgate and Fremantle Parks and other green spaces in the Parish and is a consultee on local planning issues. It also determines how much money to raise through the council precept to deliver these services to the residents of the parish.

What kind of person do we need?

You should have an active interest in local issues and things that affect local people and a willingness to represent the views of the community. You should be able to commit the time and effort to the role and to attend as many monthly Council meetings as possible, and you will be required to join one or two of the Committees or working groups and attend their meetings.

How to apply

To apply, please send a letter of application to the Parish Clerk, Gaye Thomas at clerk@sandgatepc.org.uk by noon on Thursday 18th April or drop off at Sandgate Parish Council & Library, James Morris Court, Sandgate High Street, Sandgate, Folkestone CT20 3RR. In your letter you may wish to include your connection to the parish, why you want to be a parish councillor and what skills / experience you can bring to the Council.

Applications will be looked at by Councillors and voted on at a meeting of the Full Council on 22nd April at 6.30pm, in Sandgate Library. You will be invited to attend and say a few words, and ask and answer any questions with the Councillors prior to the meeting.

Posted by Tim Prater in News