Full Parish Council Meeting

Park House Hotel

22nd Jan 2026

BEPTON  PARISH  COUNCIL

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Chairman:             Mrs Rosalind Hart

Clerk:                     Mrs. Lorraine Grocott, BEM, BA Hons (Local Policy)

Tel. H:01428 741393 – M:07811 885572

Email: clerk.beptonparishcouncil@gmail.com      Website – www.bepton.org

 

MINUTES of BEPTON PARISH COUNCIL

Thursday 22^nd January 2026 in The Park House Hotel, Bepton

 

 

Present:   Mrs R Hart, (in the Chair), Mr J Beckett, Mr M Salmon, Ms S Port, Mr B Tyrrell-Evans

              Cllr Y Gravely, County Councillor

              Member of the Public – Mr C Steibelt of The Friends of Rother Valley Way (FoRVW)

 

363. Apologies/Absent – Mr P McCulloch, Cllr D Merritt, District Councillor.

 

364. 364. Casual Vacancy – CDC have advised that the Council can co-opt another person.

 

365. Declaration of Interests of Members – There were none.

 

366. Public Participation – Mr Chris Steibelt, Network Development Team, FoRVW

The Friends are volunteers working on behalf of SDNPA and their goal is to establish an accessible, shared-use, traffic-free path along the Rother valley, where possible following the line of the former railway between Midhurst and Petersfield in line.  Their mission is to plot the optimum route along or close to the original track bed, to promote the benefits of the project, to enable the SDNPA to execute the project.  The RVW will help people to be more physically active, improving their health.  It will provide a safe alternative to busy roads.  It will reduce car use and encourage local economic growth in a sustainable manner.  The project aligns with broader policy of the UK Government, South Down National Park, West Sussex County Council, Hampshire County Council and Petersfield Town Council.

 

367. Minutes of the meeting, 20^th November 2025. Agreed and signed.

 

368. Reports from the County Councillor and District Councillor.

 

Report from Cllr Y Gravely, County Councillor

1. Cllr Gravely provided a report which had been put together by one of her Councillor Colleagues. It covered decisions, actions, and developments by West Sussex County Council (WSCC) from October 2025 to January 2026 on the following topics: –
2. Local Government Reorganisation & Devolution
3. Budget and Financial Planning
4. Key Service Decisions and Actions

The document also set out Proposed 2026/27 budget savings.  As West Sussex County Council (WSCC) moves toward its final budget meeting on February 20, 2026, the focus is on bridging a £16.3 million funding gap for the 2026/27 financial year.  This gap remains despite the council already identifying a £26.6 million in planned savings and assuming a maximum 4.99% Council Tax increase.

 

1. b) Over the Christmas / New Year period amongst other things Cllr Gravely has been involved with chairing an appeals meeting at County Hall, attending budget and County Council meetings, attending training on data protection and responding to varied and sometime very challenging casework across the Division. She hopes to provide a further update on the fire damaged buildings in Midhurst for the meeting in March.

 

Minutes of Bepton Parish Council meeting 22^nd January 2026

 

369. 369. Matters arising from the Minutes – not covered by this Agenda
370. a) Local Government Elections in West Sussex have been cancelled for May.
371. b) Item 360a) Reinstatement of verge on Bepton Road – A formal complaint has been sent to WSCC.
372. c) Wine at the Annual Parish Assembly (APA)7^th May 2026 – Mr Salmon has spoken to the Events team at the Park House Hotel.  Park House have offered the room for free which would include teas and coffees but would charge for the wine.  Estimated cost for 30 people would be £300.

 

370. Chairman’s Items – Mrs R Hart
371. a) Speaker for the APA May 2026 – Following an interesting presentation by Mr Steibelt it was suggested that he should be asked to give a similar presentation to the meeting.               Action SP
372. b) Bepton Road Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) update – Mrs Hart advised that the TRO has passed all the necessary Highways requirements and it now going out for a 3-week local consultation. If there are no objections the 40mph speed limit will be reduced to 30mph from The Country Inn to Meadow View and from there 40mph along the length of Bepton Road.
373. c) Local government consultation on proposals for re-organisation – This will be discussed at the CDC Parishes meeting on 2^nd                                                              RH and JAB to attend.
374. d) Rother Partnership – 10-year Action Plan – They have developed an Action Plan with 45 active projects and 18 aspirational projects. Their long-term aim is to see the river Rother and its tributaries become the beacon of good river health within the National Park.
375. e) WSALC Training – The full range of courses noted.
376. f) Midhurst Health & Wellbeing Fair 20^th February from 10am-Noon at The Grange.

 

371. Finance Report – Mrs L Grocott
372. Payments for approval.

 

These payments were approved.

 

1. VAT Reclaim for 2025/2026 will be submitted in February.

Minutes of Bepton Parish Council meeting 22^nd January 2026

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372. Planning Report – Mr J Beckett

 

SDNP PLANNING RESPONSE TO APPLICATIONS: –

 

SDNP/25/04646/OHL Application for consent under Section 37 of the Electricity Act 1989 for a proposal to install or keep installed an electric line above ground consisting of upgrading 3 spans of overhead HV electricity cables from single to three phase by installing an additional cable between the 2 existing cables (ref: FEW709). Old Rectory Bell Lane Bepton West Sussex GU29 0HX

Raise no objection

 

SDNP/25/04457/SCREEN Request for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Screening Opinion for the replacement of the water main within the villages of Cocking, Bepton and Didling to reduce bursts in the area.

Not Required

 

SDNP/25/03044/FUL Solar panel installation. Woolbeding Cottage Whites Lane Bepton West Sussex GU29 0LY

Approved

 

SDNP/24/03049/FUL Change of use of Garden Cottage (annex) at Pitsham Gate to independent dwellinghouse. Garden Cottage (Annex) Pitsham Lane Cocking West Sussex GU29 9RD

Appeal Refused

 

OTHER PLANNING MATTERS

SDNP Local Plan Review Timeline

Review consultation Feedback                        Spring 2025

Further evidence gathering                              Spring – Summer 2025

Link to Consultation Report                             Agenda-Item-15_Appendix-1.pdf

Refine policies and allocations                         Autumn 2025 – Spring 2026

Public consultation Reg 19                               May – July 2026

Submit Local Plan Review for Examination    2026

 

373. South Downs Local Availability Assessment (LAA)

The LAA has assessed the suitability, availability and achievability of identified sites across the South Downs National Park which should be allocated for future development for housing, and the economy.  There are no sites approved in Bepton Parish.

 

374. CDC Discretionary Grant update – notice board. Mr Salmon has three quotes for the notice boards. The grant application form is now complete.  It is possible, that due to demand, the application is too late for this year.  The meeting discussed whether to fund the project itself, but it was decided to see if the application was successful.  If not, the council would fund the notice board.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minutes of Bepton Parish Council meeting 22^nd January 2026

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375. Website – Parish ONLINE – address Bepton-pc.gov.uk

The Council has agreed to accept development of the new website by Parish ONLINE (PO).  They have accepted their subscription quote for the parish website and email addresses of £350 ex vat per year and as they have agreed to switching to a gov.uk domain.  They will also qualify for their Parish Online switching fund taking £100 ex vat off their first year’s subscription making the first-year cost of £250 ex vat.  The subscription package includes: –

• Website – a modern, accessible and responsive website using the Government design guidelines.
• Email – up to 20 mailboxes with 5GB storage each which are accessed through the provided apps for windows, mac or phone, via webmail, or you can connect it to your own phone or computer mail apps.
• uk domain – they will register our new gov.uk domain and pay the fees instead of us having to pay for it. The domain is owned by the council, but they will manage it.
• The domain name will be Bepton-pc.gov.uk
• Other details such as the theme colour for the website, choosing a header image and mailboxes will be advised by Cllr Mike Salmon.

Other points from Parish Online: –

• The Council needs to ensure that the old site bepon.org is decommissioned properly.
• The council needs to speak to its current provider to explain that we are moving in Parish Online service and to confirm the contract exit date.
• Domain Name – They recommend retaining ownership of our existing domain name. This ensures it doesn’t become available on the domain market.  PO will host and maintain our old domain for £25 ex vat per year.  They will also set up forwarding information for our website and email, so everything points to our new gov.uk address.  Instructions are provided for this.
• Mailboxes – Our current provider may be hosting our emails. We might like to have this run alongside our new gov.uk emails.  They recommend setting them to auto-forward to our new address so that residents and contacts get used to the idea of our new address.

Mr Mike Salmon and the Clerk are overseeing this transition of the website and gov.uk domain.

 

376. Environment/Highways/Rights of Way

 

377. Other meetings

 

1. CDC All Parishes meeting 2^nd February 2026 – RH, JAB
2. Police Monthly Parish meeting – Next Zoom meeting 6^th February- RH
3. c) CDALC Meeting 6.30pm 10^th February – RH

 

378. Date of the next meeting 12^th March 2026 at The Park House Hotel, Bepton.

 

CONCLUSION – 8.30pm

 

 

 

Chairman …………………………………

 

These Minutes are unconfirmed until signed by the Chairman.