Approved minutes of meeting of Full Council Tuesday January 13th, 2026, at 7.15pm Shenstone Community Library

113a Register of members in attendance

Cllrs David Salter (Chair), Simon Fisher, Chris Callow, Mick Cox, Lesley Edgley, Louise Hawes, Chris Jones, Martin McQueen, Gail Nicholls, Alan Pugh, David Smith, David Thompson, Phil Whitehouse.
Staffordshire County Councillor: Cllr Alex Farrell
Clerk: Odette Ghent

114a Acceptance of apologies.

Cllr Salter introduced himself as the Chair of Shenstone Parish Council and welcomed everyone to the first meeting of 2026 and wished everyone a Happy New Year.
He noted the absence of Cllrs D’Ambrosio and Harrison. Absence was approved and accepted.

Introductions were made to the newly appointed Parish Clerk.

115. Public Participation.

Agenda Item 119 was brought forwards to allow Cllr Farrell to speak due to time constraints.

Cllr Farrell discussed the progress of the local plan that is quite close to a situation where they can effectively nominate some parcels of land to be on that local plan with the next stage being the planned LDC Green Belt review, to ascertain what is Green or Grey Belt land.

This is part of a wider Councils review of land, once the results are available, they will be used to effectively put together our local plan.

Cllr Fisher commented on the ongoing weather issues and the impact on road maintenance, specifically pothole filling. Cllr Farrell responded explaining the adverse weather conditions had diverted teams onto priorities jobs like delivering grit, but priority jobs are still being done.

Cllr Smith mentioned, following a call from a resident whose house is very close to flooding caused by a long-term problem at Hilton, regarding a storage area for agricultural produce, which uses considerable amounts of water, that is released down into a dip, there is a culvert onto the road, aimed to take everything away and put it into a ditch on the other side of the road. Something has gone wrong there, possibly the sheer volume of water recently.

Cllr Farrell mentioned the positive a walkaround at the end of last year with Cllrs Whitehouse and McQueen to address various highways issues, he confirmed the white line marking outside the Railway Public House have been done and the other jobs highlighted are in hand.

Cllr Thompson asked for clarity regards the parcels of land, Cllr Farrell confirmed there are a variety of sites that you can choose from to go and put on the local plan. The preferred method for the district is to go to a new settlement approach and build larger settlements to have all the infrastructure needed in place.

The Greenbelt review has been carried out by a company who are looking across various councils as a whole, at parcels of land that might be considered Green or Grey Belt.

That information will be used to look at the specific sites that fall within those parcels.

Cllr Farrell added he has been working with the Little Aston residents as they’ve been trying to extend their conservation area on Little Aston Park that’s still ongoing.

116 Declarations of interest.

None to declare

117 To accept and confirm minutes of the last Full Council meeting on Tuesday December 9^th 2025

Proposal: To adopt the minutes

Resolved: The minutes approved unanimously and signed

118. Clerk’s update on outstanding issues from last meeting:

Tree survey in St John the Baptist Cemetery, the work has been booked awaiting a date.

119 To receive reports from County and District Councillors.

Cllr Whitehouse mentioned the bin collection issues due to the recent bad weather and the timing of Christmas, plus the upcoming food waste initiative starting at the end of March, there will be training sessions for Parish Councils via Teams.

Cllr Smith raises concerns about the impact of missed collections on Church Road and suggests prioritising certain areas, Cllr Whitehouse explained the challenges faced by the collection team and the efforts to catch up.

The Link Bus Service has been extended to March 2026,

Cllr Thompson raised concerns about the Westgate nursery and Shenstone surgery, mentioning the MP’s efforts to address the issues in the House of Commons. She is taking the petition to the Department of Health.

A letter will go to the Practice Manager inviting them to attend the February Parish Council meeting.

Cllr Smith discussed the marketing strategy of the Westgate practice and its impact on the community and emphasised the need to call out any manipulation of demand gaps and the importance of keeping the five GPs.

120. Finance.

Link to Financial Transactions spreadsheet from 1st to the 13th January 2026

1. Cllr Edgley presented the current financial position of Bank balances at 31 December 25. 

Nat West Current: £904.30

Nat West Reserve £38,851.81

Unity bank: £11,698.32

Nat West Liquidity manager (ring-fenced) £85,655.22

To note the unity account balance at 8 January 2026 was £8,993.96 all other balances remained the same.

There were no questions.
Proposal: to accept the accounts
Resolved: approved unanimously

Consideration of current financial position against budget and forecast

The Clerk to provide the Qtr. 3 year to date accounts vs budget at the next meeting.

Agree precept recommendation 2026/27

Gross Precept increase of 18.40% to £251,000 as approved at December 2025 meeting was noted and Chair to sign the Parish Precept Analysis for submission to LDC by 22nd January 2026

Approved and signed.

121 Planning.

Councillor Thompson lists the planning applications received, any comments or responses to be forwarded to the Clerk for submission. Link to planning applications spreadsheet.

Planning App Link to LDC Planning applications summary 25/01398 Brooklands Nurseries 144 Aldridge Road objection made by Parish Council

Planning App Link to LDC Planning applications summary   25/01600/COU 118 Aldridge Rd was discussed but no objection to be made at this stage.

Next meeting of the Neighbourhood, Planning & Property Committee Meeting:
Tuesday Jan 27^th, 2026, at  5.30pm Shenstone Parish Office

122 Neighbourhood plan reviews:

Shenstone NP – this is complete; next is the upcoming test of public opinion about priorities.

Stonnall NP – this has been made; next steps are to arrange a meeting with residents to share the plan and look at some projects and move forward.

Little Aston NP – Imminently it will be at Reg 14 for a 6-week period.

123. Banking.

Following the recruitment of the New Parish Clerk Odette Ghent the banking mandates and online banking for Unity Bank and Nat West banks require updating. This section of the minutes minute ref (123) will be signed by the Chair Cllr David Salter, Vice Chair Cllr Simon Fisher and Chair of the Finance, Legal & Health Committee (FLH&S Committee) Cllr Lesley Edgley.

Unity Bank

The Key Contact is to be Odette Ghent Parish Clerk

The signatories are to be Odette Ghent, Cllr Simon Fisher and Cllr Lesley Edgley

For Online banking all users to have View Permissions.

Odette Ghent is to be the Administrator with Submit and Authorise permissions

Cllr Lesley Edgley is to have Submit and Authorise permissions

Cllr Simon Fisher is to have Submit and Authorise permissions

The levels of authorisation to be changed from Single to Dual Authorisation

The above was unanimously approved at full council and signed as below.

Cllr David Salter (Chair)

Cllr Simon Fisher (Vice chair)

Cllr Lesley Edgely (Chair of FLH&S Committee)

Nat West Bank

The Key contact to be Odette Ghent Parish Clerk

Odette Ghent is to be a signatory and have access to online banking.

124. Quotations

– to consider the purchase of a laptop for the newly appointed Parish Clerk.

The Clerk to obtain quotes up to the delegated authority level and present to the FLH&S Committee.

CLOSED SESSION

Under the public Bodies (Admission to meetings) Act 1960, a resolution was made for the public and press to be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items 125/126

125. Admission of Parish Clerk to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) Staffordshire Pension Fund

Resolution: Admission of Parish Clerk to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) – Staffordshire Pension Fund

The Council considered the matter of pension scheme membership for the Parish Clerk.

Resolved that:

1. Shenstone Parish Council confirms its agreement that Odette Ghent, in her capacity as Parish Clerk, shall be admitted as a member of the LGPS – Staffordshire Pension Fund.

This was duly proposed, seconded and a unanimous ‘in favour vote.

126. Shenstone Playing Fields Management Committee – to consider the request for additional financial support in completing their new Trust Constitution

Declarations of non-pecuniary interests were reconfirmed by Cllrs D Slater, D Thompson, S Fisher, A Pugh, Cllr D Salter left the room for part of the discussion and was not present when the vote took place.

This was discussed and RESOLVED to approve £700 + vat Proposed Cllr M Cox seconded Cllr C Callow.

127. Next meeting of Full Council:10 February 2026, Little Aston Village Hall 7.15pm

The Chair concluded the meeting at 8:57pm