Parish Council Meeting January 2026

 Draft Minutes of Denstone Parish Council Meeting 12^th January 2026 at 7.00pm

1. Attendees: Cllr Turner (Chair), Cllr Shermer, Cllr Mountney, Cllr Wright, Cllr S Owen, Cllr E Edmonds, Cllr M Flower, County Councillor Gary Hales. and J Sadler (Clerk)

Apologies – Cllr Oldroyd-Clarke, Cllr Ratcliffe, Borough Cllr Steve Sankey

5 members of the village present.

Cllr Turner opened the meeting by wishing everyone a Happy New Year. And announcing that items 7 and 8 would be swapped around as Cllr Hales had to leave the meeting early.

2. To receive declarations of interest – None
3. To approve the minutes of the 8^th December 2025 – The minutes were approved and agreed by all as a true record of the meeting. These were signed and dated by Cllr Turner (Chair).
4. Public Participation – It was raised by a member of the public that there was a need for a grit bin to be placed on College road opposite the Stone House if at all possible. The clerk said that she thought that the SCC didn’t supply new grit bins but she would look into it. The Councillors agreed to spend up to £250 on a grit bin if necessary. Action Clerk
5. Announcement by the chair – The Chair announced that she would like to give notice that she would be resigning from the Parish Council at the April meeting after the Annual Meeting. This meaning that the Parish Council would not only have a vacancy but would require a new Chair.
6. Matters Arising/Clerk’s report
   1. Correspondence Received – nothing to report at this meeting.
   2. Parking in Denstone – the clerk informed the meeting that both the chair and herself had written to the PCSO regarding this and had not received any response. They would once again chase the issue. It was also raised that a yellow car was continually parked on the pavement near to Heywood Hall. Cllr Turner agreed to see if it belonged to anyone living at Heywood Hall. Action Cllr Turner and Clerk
   3. Railway Line Leak – Cllr Hales stated that he had received an email from the ranger stating that he was arranging for a drainage engineer to come and survey the site and see if they can find where the drainage is running to / from. Once they have the report back, he will update us further. The clerk asked for the email to be forwarded to her for her records. Cllr Hales agreed. Action Cllr Hales
   4. Extra Defibrillator – Cllr Turner apologised that she had not sent the picture of the suggested lamppost where the defibrillator might be placed. She confirmed this would be done as soon as possible. Action Cllr Turner.
7. Highways
   1. Potholes – no further potholes were raised.
   2. Feasibility Report – Cllr Shermer confirmed that she had heard from Kayleigh Lees stating that it would be beneficial if the Parish Council could pay for the Feasibility report to be carried out. The cost of this would be £3000.00. It was agreed that the road humps would need to be placed from the Tavern up to Cllr Turners house and along Oak Road. It was unanimously agreed that the Parish would pay for the report but it was to be requested that Cllr Shermer would meet with the engineers before the report was to take place. Cllr Hales asked to be informed when this was to take place as, if possible, he would like to attend. Action Cllr Shermer
   3. Data B5031 – Cllr Shermer would send the clerk the dates of term time for the college, and coupled with when Alton Towers returned, the clerk was to send new dates for the data collection to the SCC. Action Clerk and Cllr Shermer
   4. New Pathway Oak Road – Cllr Turner raised the issue regarding the new pathway on Oak Road. Stating that this was too wide on a blind bend. Cllr Mountney agreed to take a picture and send it to the clerk. The clerk would contact Alan Harvey. Action Cllr Mountney and Clerk
8. Planning (Permitted & Refused are decisions by ESBC) – Cllr Turner
   1. NP Review – Cllr Turner informed the meeting that the Neighbourhood Plan review had gone through. She stated that she would like to thank everyone who came out to vote. She confirmed that it had already been a benefit to the village with regards to an application being refused due to it being outside the settlement boundary.
9. Playground – Cllr Flower
   1. Annual Report – the annual playground inspection took place in December. No significant issues were raised. The clerk sent a copy of the report to all councillors prior to the meeting. Cllr Flower sent a further report which included that the Turtle ride would be repaired week commencing 26^th Thank you to Cllr Flower for all his work on the play area.
10. Village Hall – Cllr Shermer
    1. Cllr Shermer stated that the village hall committee had agreed to erect a sign for the outside toilet. With regards to the noticeboards at the front of the village hall. It was agreed that the clerk would contact the SPCA for guidance. Action Clerk
11. Finance
    23. Precept – The revised details regarding the budget were sent out prior to the meeting. The councillors went through each item during the meeting and changed as required. It was unanimously agreed to increase the precept to £23.000.00 for the year 2026/27. The chair stated that this is the first increase in the precept for the last 3 years. However, the Parish Council felt that they could no longer take from the reserves to make up the shortfall. The clerk would send off the required documents to ESBC.
    24. New Laptop – The clerk issued an email to the councillors prior to the meeting stating that she required a new laptop as the old one was no longer working. It was unanimously agreed that a the new laptop costing £653.00 including VAT (details sent prior to the meeting) would be purchased. Action Clerk
12. Miscellaneous
    1. War memorial – Cllr Turner informed the meeting that she had spoken to the stone mason in the village and he had agreed to provide a quote for the stone at the war memorial. Hopefully this be available for discussion at the next meeting. Action Cllr Turner
    2. Strimmer for Lengthsman – Cllr Edmonds stated that the strimmer and the invoice would arrive before the next meeting. Action Cllr Edmonds
    3. Councillor Accountabilities – Accountabilities would be discussed at the next meeting, however in the meantime the clerk would send out the latest version.

Cllr Owen and Cllr Shermer stated that they would like to cover planning. It was agreed that they would both go on the training course planning for non-planners. Clerk to book them both on the course. Action Clerk

1. Parish Council Logo – Cllr Owen had sent out 3 suggestions for the logo after the last meeting. It was agreed that he would now send them again and the councillors would vote. They can only have one vote each. Action Cllr Owen.
2. Sign for Outside Toilet – Covered in item 10a.
3. Noticeboards on College Road – Covered in item 10a.
4. Cladding for the little shop – Cllr Turner informed the meeting that the new owner of the shop in the village is looking to put cladding on it. Details of the cladding are available for viewing in the Tavern. Cllr Turner will bring an example to the next meeting. Action Cllr Turner

13. Payments – To approve the following payments:

Cllr Turner went through the payments individually. The payments were proposed by Cllr Wight and seconded by Cllr Edmonds. All payments would be processed online. The online payments would be set up by Cllr Shermer and authorised by Cllr Flower. All invoices would be signed and would be returned to the clerk once actioned

25. Carolyn Hinton – Website – pay December £25.00 [LGA 1972 s142 & 144]
26. Clerk’s pay for December 2025 (Made by Standing Order) = Net Pay £577.71 [LGA 1972 s112]
27. HMRC – Clerk – Tax – December 2025 – £144.60
28. Clerk Employee National Insurance – December 2025 – £45.77
29. Clerk expenses – stationery – £24.96
30. N Power – 1^st November 2025 – 30^th November £57.76 – 1^st December 2025 – 31December 2025 £61.76 Total £119.92
31. Eon Lighting Maintenance – £114.18 + VAT £22.84 = £137.02
32. The Play Inspection Company – £114.00 +VAT £22.80 = £136.80
33. Julie Sadler – Purchase of Laptop – £653.00

1. items for Future Agenda
   1. Drones over Golf Course
   2. New position of chair
2. Date of next meeting – Monday 9^th February 2026 at 7.00pm Village