Policies and Procedures – Hackington Parish Council

Who we are and what we do.

The Council is composed of five members who are elected every four years. The members are elected under regulations and procedures specified in election law. The election is administered by the Chief Officer of Canterbury City Council.

A Chair and Vice Chair are elected annually at the May meeting of the Council.

The Council meets in open session at the Tyler Hill Memorial Hall in the evening on the second (usually) Thursday of the months of January, March, May, July, September and November. The Council always works to a published agenda.

The public are welcome to attend Parish Council meetings and can speak on a matter for no more than three minutes, as long as it is raised with the Chair under the agenda item “Matters raised by the public” .

A part-time professional Clerk, the Parish Clerk, serves the Council. All formal business is conducted through the Clerk who also keeps the minutes of meetings, maintains the records of the Parish’s financial affairs, publishes all formal letters and notices and maintains the Parish web-site.

The Council is responsible for raising appropriate funds and dispersing them so that various functions are competently and efficiently executed in a timely manner.

These functions include:

oversight of the condition of roads, footways and footpaths;
the upkeep of street lighting,
the oversight of proposed developments within the parish;
the maintenance of the characteristics of the buildings, open spaces, trees and hedgerows etc which gave rise to the designation of Conservation Area status for the village of Tyler Hill and for Alcroft Grange.

The Council also has a general responsibility to ensure, in so far is it is able within its powers, to promote an active, healthy and peaceful community.

The Council works with other Parish Councils in the District and across the county to further the interests of electors and to represent them on local, regional and national bodies concerned with Local Government.

What we spend and how we spend it.

In the autumn of each year the Council reviews its expenditure over the previous year and, based on the outcome of that review, submits to the City Council a bid for a budget and a precept to be raised on its behalf in the following year’s rates. It is the Council’s policy to seek to ensure that the amounts sought are kept to the minimum, take account of prevailing and projected financial conditions and are spent prudently and appropriately.

Expenditure on any matter has to be approved by resolution of the Council. All expenditure is recorded in the minutes of meetings and is provided for audit each year. The minutes and audited accounts are available for public inspection and are published on the two notice boards in the village, and on the Parish web-site.

What are priorities are and how we are doing.

In 2007 the Council undertook an appraisal of the views of residents (all ages), of the Parish and in response published in November 2007 a Parish Plan that highlighted the Council’s priorities for the period to 2012 on:

The built environment
Highways, footways and attendant issues
Public Rights of Way and attendant issues
The natural environment
Health, Safety and Security
Recreation and Leisure
Young people.

A copy of the Plan was delivered to each property in the Parish.

The Council immediately wrote to all those agencies and bodies that have responsibility for the maintenance and upkeep of the services concerned under the above headings. Some of the matters were speedily actioned or resolved but those concerning Highways, though agreed, are yet to be actioned.

The Council reviews the Plan every six months.

In addition to the Plan, the Council has prepared a Village Design Statement that it hopes will be incorporated into the Local Plan of the City Council as a general guideline for development within the parish. It is proposed that the Statement will contain a history of development on the several locales within the conservation area, describe each building and its environment, and set out clear recommendations on what would be acceptable in the form, size and materials to be used in any development within the conservation area. The last update to the village design statement was done in February 2023 and is a working document.

How we make our decisions.

All meetings of the Parish Council are open to the public.

The Council discusses all matters on the agenda or raised at meetings and they are resolved by agreement. In some cases, usually involving contentious issues, the matter is debated and resolved by formal vote.

All financial matters are resolved by formal proposition and vote.

As a statutory authority the Council receives and is invited to comment upon all planning applications within the Parish. Each Councillor has the opportunity to comment on the application on a circulating document. The Clerk summarises the views of Councillors and sends the summary to the City Council’s Development Control Committee. The circulating document is confidential amongst Councillors but the summary sent to the Development Control Committee is a public document and available for scrutiny.

Where a planning application is thought by any member to be contentious or too complex for consideration using the circulating documents method, a meeting of the Council’s Planning Committee will be called by the Clerk. The planning application will then be determined at a public meeting of the Council.

The Terms of Reference for the Planning Committee are set out as an addendum to minute 7.2 of the meeting of the Parish Council held on 5^th July 2012.

These arrangements are considered to be appropriate for the circumstances of our Council which meets every second month (i.e only six times a year) and the infrequency of contentious or complex planning applications.

The Parish Assembly.

The Parish Assembly always precedes the March meeting of the Council. This meeting is open to the public and members of the public are invited to raise and discuss any relevant parish topics.

Our polices and procedures.

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	ICO-model-publication-scheme.pdf Information Commissioner\'s Office (ICO) Model Publication Scheme application/pdfInformation Commissioner's Office (ICO) Model Publication Scheme Open Download Copy Link 293.03 KB 2026-02-12 12th February 2026 2026-02-12 12th February 2026	293.03 KB
	HPC-Standing-Orders-2018.pdf HPC Standing Orders 2018.pdf application/pdfHPC Standing Orders 2018.pdf Open Download Copy Link 306.99 KB 2025-01-17 17th January 2025 2023-04-25 25th April 2023	306.99 KB
	HPC-Model-financial-regulations-2024.pdf HPC Model Financial Regulations 2024.pdf application/pdfHPC Model Financial Regulations 2024.pdf Open Download Copy Link 255.47 KB 2025-03-21 21st March 2025 2025-03-16 16th March 2025	255.47 KB
	HPC-IT-Policy.pdf HPC IT Policy.pdf application/pdfHPC IT Policy.pdf Open Download Copy Link 138.27 KB 2026-03-12 12th March 2026 2026-03-12 12th March 2026	138.27 KB
	HPC-Grant-Policy-2025-signed-copy.pdf HPC Grant Policy 2025 application/pdfHPC Grant Policy 2025 Open Download Copy Link 150.75 KB 2025-01-17 17th January 2025 2025-01-17 17th January 2025	150.75 KB
	HPC-Grant-Agreement-form.pdf HPC Grant Agreement form.pdf application/pdfHPC Grant Agreement form.pdf Open Download Copy Link 108.73 KB 2025-01-17 17th January 2025 2025-01-17 17th January 2025	108.73 KB
	HPC-General-Reserves-Policy.pdf HPC General Reserves Policy.pdf application/pdfHPC General Reserves Policy.pdf Open Download Copy Link 143.99 KB 2026-07-12 12th July 2026 2026-07-12 12th July 2026	143.99 KB
	Hackington_Parish_Council_Pledge_Certificate.pdf application/pdfHackington_Parish_Council_Pledge_Certificate.pdf Open Download Copy Link 182.36 KB 2025-01-17 17th January 2025 2023-01-06 6th January 2023	182.36 KB
	Hackington-Code-of-Conduct.pdf Hackington Code of Conduct.pdf application/pdfHackington Code of Conduct.pdf Open Download Copy Link 163.42 KB 2025-01-17 17th January 2025 2025-01-17 17th January 2025	163.42 KB

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The Council has adopted the guidelines of the Model Code of Conduct *, published by the Standards Board for England. All Councillors are bound by the Code.

On taking office each councillor agrees to work within the guidelines of ‘The good councillor’s guide’ *, published by the National Association of Local Councils.

Upon election, the Chair and Vice-Chair agree in their signing of the Acceptance of Office to work to nationally agreed guidelines on ‘Standing Orders and Chairship’ *, published by the National Association of Local Councils.

The Parish Clerk is employed under the Conditions of Service for Clerks of Local Councils *, and is remunerated to the recommended salary scales that are negotiated with the Society of Local Council Clerks from time to time.

Lists and Registers.

All those documents mentioned above and marked with an asterisk, [*], are available for inspection. Anyone wishing to inspect any Parish held document should do so by contacting the Parish Clerk.

A copy of the Register of Electors is held by the Parish Clerk and is also available for inspection at the Canterbury City Council’s Offices.

The services we offer.

Each Councillor has agreed to make themselves available for consultation or conversation at reasonable hours during weekdays, (9.00 am to 6.00 pm) and their email address is available from the Clerk.

The Council has its own web-site, which is updated regularly. The site contains information about the parish, Parish Council meetings and minutes arising therefrom, local news, forthcoming events, useful contacts and provides a message centre on which correspondents can have their say on local issues. News articles posted on the website will be automatically emailed to those residents who sign up to the subscription service. Details of this are available from the clerk using the contact us page.

Under the patronage of the Parish Council a digital Community Magazine is published bi-annually six times per year. The magazine contains much of the information presented on the web-site but in addition has lively articles on parish, local and topical matters and we invite our residents to contribute to the articles.