Full Council Meeting – 15 October 2024

The full minutes can be found below, however, these are the meeting highlights:

Street signs: We discussed the state of the signs within the village and whilst a number of them have been reported in the past, we are going to look again at getting North Yorkshire Highways to revisit replacement or refurbishment. Depending on the answers and timeframes, we will also investigate self help and see if the Parish Council is allowed to fund refurbishment given they are owned by highways.

Extra ordinary meeting: We will be having an extra meeting on the 23rd of October in order to sign off policies and accounts so that we comply with our auditor deadline. This is an open meeting and the agenda will be posted soon.

Councillor Brown’s forum: Ward Councillor Brown has initiated a forum to bring together a number of parish councils and the council is pleased to be supporting him in that endeavour through help with secretarial functions. Cllr Brown was keen to say that he expects North Yorks Council to pick up that function in time. For our part, we expect to be able to share best practice and good ideas around what a council can do for their parish and bring that into Bishop Monkton.

Sandbags: North Yorkshire council has released a note on flooding response. See the note below, we’ll also be putting this on the website as an article by itself

“North Yorkshire Council is simplifying its approach to supporting communities who need access to sandbags during a flood incident. The offer that was available to communities from the previous District and Borough councils was inconsistent, so this has been updated to ensure there is a single offer across North Yorkshire.

From the beginning of October 2024 if a member of public requires access to sandbags they should Google Sandbags North Yorkshire or use this link (the link will be active in the posted article). If there is an immediate need for sandbags then they can call 0300 131 2131 and either say Sandbag when prompted or follow the instructions.

If your community requires additional support in a flood incident then please contact the Elected Member from your affected Electoral Division who will be able notify the Council. If you are unsure of your local member please use this map (link will be active in the posted article).

If you have any questions regarding your community emergency plan or you would like to discuss about creating a plan, please email emergency@northyorks.gov.uk and one of the Resilience and Officers will contact you.

Defibrillator: We had a quick presentation today from Sue Edmond, the Guardian of our defibrillator, on the requirements to both ensure that there is a functioning battery available (the Parish Council is funding replacement batteries), and also that the defibrillator can be seen in the dark! To that end, the council will investigate, fund and install a lighting system that will allow people to clearly see and open the device without unduly disturbing neighbours.