MEETING HELD ON MONDAY 8th MAY
AT 6.00PM IN THE READING ROOM, ST JAMES STREET
MINUTES
1.Welcome and Apologies
Present:
Ms Gussie Andersen (GA) (Acting Chair)
Mr Crispin Clay(Treasurer)
Mr Keith Maunder (KM)
Dr Dennis Cox (DC)
Mrs Val Bethell (VB
Miss Nick Mayo (NM)
Mrs Angela Abell (AA) Chairman and Mr Mark Whitby (MW) sent their apologies.
In attendance: Mr John Lavery (Clerk - JL).
2.Minutes of the Meeting of 13th March
The minutes were accepted unchanged and were signed by the acting Chair.
3.Matters Arising
There was some discussion regarding feedback from the Open Session held after the Parish Meeting on 28th April. A suggestion had been made by Mick Palmer that the land now planted by the Trust as an orchard should have been reserved for housing. CC had assured Mr Palmer that the area was too small for a house but that the trees could be removed if necessary. Despite seeking applications through the Council’s Gateway to Homechoice Scheme, the recent re-letting of 1 Barne Cottages had elicited only 2 applications, one of which had been withdrawn by the applicant.
John Cary had commented on the Trust’s support for organisations outside Dunwich and suggested that this was a departure from traditional use of funds.
It was agreed that these and other issues had been dealt with adequately by the Trustees who were present at the meeting, but there was concern that the Chairman of the Parish Meeting had not recognized that the DTT Open meeting should have been set apart from the main Parish AGM. This had caused a little confusion. If the Open Meeting were to be held after the Parish AGM in the future this would need to be clarified with the Parish Chairman.
4. Clerk and Chair's Report
There was further clarification of the procedure for selecting the new tenant for 1 Barne Cottages. This tenancy was designated as ‘affordable’, subject to a section 106 agreement with the District Council. This meant that people on the Council waiting list in the Dunwich area would need to be considered for the tenancy and NM had facilitated discussions with the Council regarding this. In the event, the Council had nobody on their waiting list who met the criteria and the choice that the selection panel had made stood. The written procedure for dealing with section 106 tenancies and liaison with the District Council was being updated. A.P. AA and NM to update this procedure.
5. Financial Report
The Treasurer commented on the Bookkeeper’s report. Everything was running very close to Budget. The only action that might need to be taken was to move some surplus cash from the current account to a COIF investment fund. The Acting Chair suggested that the meeting might want to defer deciding on this until the housing issues had beendiscussed as unexpected costs had arisen.
VB reported on the investment seminar that she had attended in Newmarket as a guest of CCLA. It had been both interesting and instructive. VB suggested that DTT could consider following an Ethical Investment Policy, although the Governing Documents did not impose any such requirement. Trustees felt that it would be useful to invite Nicholas Reid of CCLA back to discuss the ethical investment options available to the Trust.
A.P. JL / AA to invite Mr Reid to a future meeting.
6. Governance
Trustees discussed the issue of DTT providing warning signs regarding potential flooding of footpaths and the car park in the event of tidal surges etc. Concerns had been raised that placing signs might imply that the Trust held some liability in case of accident. Following receipt of a letter from Nicholsons about liability Trustees were minded to go ahead with signs on the basis that this was the responsible course of action. However, it was agreed that further discussions with the insurers would be held before taking action. A.P. AA/JL/NM to liaise with KTIB.
7. Grants
CC was concerned that at the Open Meeting it was apparent that some residents were still unaware that DTT offered grants. Ways of tackling this were discussed, in particular more targeted advertising. A.P. GA to discuss with AA on her return.
8. Housing
Reported in the Confidential Appendix.
9.AOB
NM reported that following the excellent response to the Gallows Field Detectorist finds that were exhibited at the Open Meeting they were now lodged at the Museum and would hopefully be on display at some stage.
There being no further business the Meeting was closed at 8-15pm.
Signed: ...... Dated: ......