Minutes of the Meeting held on 16th April 2026 at 8.15pm
Present: Cllr Mrs Bobbie Coe (Chairperson)
Cllr Will Bevan
Cllr Barbara Cooper
Cllr Ben Holland
Cllr Peter White
Sharon Brown (Clerk)
Also present: District Councillor Tumi Hawkins, Chris Morton, Skylark editor and 1 member of the public.
120 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
County Councillor Lucy Nethsingha.
121 OPEN FORUM
No items were raised.
122 MEMBERS’ DECLARATION OF INTEREST FOR ITEMS ON THE AGENDA
None received.
123 TO SIGN AND APPROVE MINUTES OF LAST MEETING
The Minutes of the last Parish Council Meeting were by proposed by Cllr White, seconded by Cllr Holland and approved.
124 REPORTS FROM COUNTY AND DISTRICT COUNCILLORS
a) District Councillor Tumi Hawkins – April Report received. Cllr Hawkins highlighted the impacts of LGR (Local Government Reorganisation) and E-W Rail. The latter may provide opportunities for local active travel connections.
Tumi noted that she was standing down as councillor at the May elections and the chair, for the Parish Council, thanked her for her contributions as District Councillor.
125 MATTERS ARISING/TO REPORT FROM PREVIOUS MINUTES (FOR INFORMATION ONLY) TO REPORT THE FOLLOWING
MVAS update: Cllr White and the Clerk have had a site meeting with LHI implementation staff. Five positions for the MVAS posts have been agreed: Old North Road/A1198 by the entrance to Anglian Water / just north of the entrance to The Dene / School Lane opposite entrance to church / High Street just east of the bus shelter / High Street on verge opposite the Post Office. (Noted, a couple of the suggested positions were too close to a 40 or 50 mph signs or the crossroads to be effective). Highways will now contact underground and overground services to check they will not be affected.
126 FINANCE
a) Accounts update mid-Mar – mid-Apr 2025: Noted.
b) Contribution to Sportsfield insurance from Village Hall & Sportsfield Committee
£224.93: Received.
c) Eyelid Productions – annual fee website management £170.00: Noted that the invoice had increased back to £170 after two years at £100. A query will be raised with Eyelid Productions.
d) Clerk’s Pay and Expenses mid-Sept – mid-Oct 2025 £267.96 and HMRC £56.00: Agreed.
Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR) 2025/26 and other financial statements:
a) AGAR Section 1 – Annual Governance Statement 2025/26. Agreed.
b) AGAR Section 2 – Accounting Statements 2025/26. Agreed.
c) Certificate of Exemption, if agreed by Internal Audit. Agreed.
d) Analysis of variances. Agreed.
e) Bank Reconciliation. Agreed.
f) Other Financial statements: Cash Book, Asset List. Agreed.
127 TO CONSIDER PLANNING APPLICATIONS RECEIVED
None received.
128 TO CONSIDER OTHER MATTERS
a) Councillor email addresses/ website – costings:
Cllr Coe presented a Report (Appendix 1) of proposed costings for the move to the .gov.uk domain and email addresses through Cloud Next with the migration managed by Eyelid Productions the LPC website provider.
Agreed, the costs of:
Year 1: Eyelid Productions £270.00
• Migration to go.uk domain
• Set-up of gov.uk email accounts
• Website update and migration to new Cloud Next hosting environment (no major website changes are required, just fixes and minor improvements).
Year 1: Cloud Next £ Free.
Year 2: Eyelid Productions £170.00
and subsequent years
Year 2: Cloud Next £50.00 domain name
+ £80.00 fee (x 6yrs)
Also agreed the fee for 6 years in order to obtain the 20% reduction.
b) Village Hall update: Regular use continues by the Afternoon Teas, Parish Council and the History Group. An anonymous donation for upkeep has been received.
129 CORRESPONDENCE RECEIVED
A list of correspondence received is printed in the Agenda; details are available from the Clerk.
No items brought forward for discussion.
a) Local Residents Glider Flying Evening: The proposal by the Gliding Club was positively received.
b) East -West Rail – consultation and consultation events 14 April to 9 June 2026: Noted.
130 SKYLARK – TO CONSIDER ANY EDITORIAL ISSUES
Items for inclusion in the next (June) Skylark: Townlands Trust information;; Gliding evening; new dog walking law; bin collection days; new opening hours for The Stove.
131 DATE OF NEXT MEETING, THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE PARISH COUNCIL:
THURSDAY 21ST MAY, AT 7.15PM, AT LONGSTOWE VILLAGE HALL
Signed by: Date: May 2026
Chairperson
Appendix 1:
Report to Longstowe Parish Council re the .gov.uk domain name
March 2026
From the details attached, I make the cost of changing to .gov.uk the following extra
expense:
Year 1: £270 to eyelidproductions.co.uk (who wrote and look after our web site)
Year 1: Free from cloudnext
Year 2: £50 domain name + £100 fee to cloudnext
This is in addition to the annual fee of £100 to eyelidproductions
There is the possibility of a reduction of the £100 fee to cloudnext of the following:
sign for years 2 3 6
reduction 10% 15% 20%
FROM: Longstowe PC website provider.
We’ve reviewed the Longstowe Parish Council website and, as you mentioned, the site itself is in good shape.
The main issues relate to the domain, email setup, navigation and accessibility, rather than the overall design.
We can support the Council with the following:
• Migration to a .gov.uk domain
• Setup of the required gov.uk email accounts
• Resolution of a few menu and accessibility anomalies
• Migration of the existing website without changing its look or structure
We use Cloud Next for all our council hosting. They are currently offering a free-of-charge hosting and .gov.uk domain package, which significantly reduces the overall cost.
The total cost for the work outlined above would be £270, which includes:
• Migrating your current domain
• Configuring it to work alongside the new .gov.ukdomain
• Updating the website and ensuring everything points correctly
Mark, who currently hosts your website, would migrate the full site into the new hosting environment and carry out the necessary updates.
No major changes would be made, just targeted fixes and improvements.
FROM: Cloud Next Sales
For a limited time, eligible Parish & Town Councils get the first year FREE. Any email/hosting package AND a GOV.UK domain free for the first year. Cloud Next are an Approved Parish Council Domain Helper Service (PCDHS) Registrar.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………