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East Hardwick Parish Council

Parish Council Meeting – 28 January 2026

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Present: Cllrs T. Hames, A. Lagden, J. Barker, E. Spurdens and Ms J. Kendall Clerk

Apologies: Cllr C. Wheatley, District Cllr. J. Craig

No members of the public attended the meeting.

 

  1.  Cllr Hames took the role of chair and welcomed all to the meeting.
  2. Minutes

The minutes of the Parish Council meeting held on 26.11.25 were approved: Proposed Cllr. Spurdens. Seconded Cllr Lagden.

  1. Matters Arising:

Signage for the new boundary: Cllr Barker reported that no price breakdown has yet been received, apparently it is the manufacturer who is not responding.

Village Hall land ownership: Cllr Hames reported that he continues to follow up requests for documentation from the solicitors. Two items are withstanding, a deed from 1967 to be collected from Wakefield archives and some probate details. He has obtained an estimated valuation for £42000 for land registration. Once the Parish Council has completed the work required for the solicitors to register the building and has paid for this stage of proceedings, it can be passed to the village hall committee to obtain charitable trust status and take the matter forward.

Signage on verge of Doncaster Road:  Cllr Hames reported that he had received a letter from WMDC stating that they have informed the owners that the sign must be taken down within 30 days with a deadline of 16th February. Dt Cllr Mayhew reported that he had contacted WMDC who had said they had had to investigate landownership before action could be taken.

Website: the Clerk reported that she had researched websites and costs. It will be significantly more for a .gov domain but this is now required. She was asked to take this forward.

  1. Accounts

Cllr Barker reported that the current balance is £10263.98. The CIL money balance is £7729.90, part of which must be spent by Autumn 2026. There were no unexpected expenses.

Rents were paid to the village hall with a 10% uplift.

It was agreed to raise the Clerks expenses by £10.

Precept: last year the submitted precept was raised by WMDC by 2%. Cllr Barker has finalised this year’s precept and has raised it by £282 to £3818. ACTION: the Clerk will submit the paperwork by the deadline.

Cllr Barker reported that the NIF grant previously suggested by Cllr Ayre is not available for PCs, however, she has been in discussion with a helpful funding officer at WMDC regarding a possible capital grant of £2500, which will enable the PC to fund the new signs, restore the telephone box and pay for the restoration of the village hall floor this year. Documentation needs to be submitted but the whereabouts of the Constitution, a copy of which is needed, is unknown. Committee members will ask their contacts asap.

  1. Highways

Cllr Wheatley was absent but emailed to say that she has been in touch with Yvette Cooper MP asking for compensation as a result of the extended works on the A1.

The Clerk reported both the missing chevron on the corner at the bridge and the 5 cars that have crashed in the ditch since Christmas to WMDC.

Cllr Mayhew reported that he is hoping to arrange a meeting with Highways to take this matter forward. The poor state of the local road also needs to be raised, together with the need for signage and upgrading of the speedbumps.

  1. Planning

Cllr Lagden reported that there have been 2 minor requests to which there were no objections and he circulated a plan of the proposed new build on the Potwells farm site. This was discussed and it was agreed that although the site is not within the parish boundary area, a comment should be made regarding the need for safe access from the development on to Sandy Gate Lane which is a single-track road.

  1. Correspondence

YLCA training courses and bulletins were forwarded to councillors as relevant.

Register of Electors.

The Clerk wrote to Mr Roy Donaldson to thank him for his work on the Commemoration events at the war memorial. He replied asking the Clerk to pass his thanks to councillors.

The Parish Statistics update identified 143 properties and 267 voters in the Parish.

Safe Places information was sent to WMDC.

YLCA was contacted to ask for advice regarding ownership of the village hall.

Information on defibrillators was forwarded to Mr Ralph Horn together with thanks from the Parish Council for his work in maintaining the defibrillator.

 

  1. AOB
  • A draft IT Policy was agreed and this will be uploaded to the website.
  • Councillors agreed to sign the Civility and Respect Statement of Assurance circulated by NALC.
  • Cllr Hames stated that potholes and speeding is an on-going issue and during the recent spell of poor weather this January there have been significant accumulations of water by the end of Water Lane by the main road and the junction of Station Road, indicating that the drains may have been affected by the increased volume of traffic over the last few years. He asked Cllr Mayhew to raise the request for an inspection of the roadside drainage with Highways.
  1. Date of the next meeting: 7.30pm Wednesday 25th March 2026.

The meeting closed at 8.35pm.

Committees

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