Bolingbroke New Playground
Committee Meeting - held in the Methodist Chapel Schoolroom
Monday 14thSeptember 2009
Minutes
The meeting was opened at 7.30 pm by Trish
Present: Trish Wright, Genie Phillips, Billy Hague, June Irving (PC), June Scarff (PC)
1 Apologies:
Brian Grant, Pete Mitchell, John Owen
2 Minutes of previous meeting:
The minutes from the previous meeting were agreed.
As agreed with the Parish Council, the minutes were then signed as a true record.
Signed and dated by Trish and witnessed by June Irving.
The signed minutes were then passed to Billy, as Secretary. Three signed copies (for the Parish Council Records and notice boards) were also passed to June Irving.
3 Constitution:
Each member of the committee was handed a copy of the Constitution and it was agreed that June Irving would read through it and that Trish and Billy would sign it and that June would pass a copy to John Owen before 21st September, so that it can be added to the agenda for the Parish Council meeting on 28th September, as agreed with John Owen at the previous meeting.
4 Lease:
No draft lease was available for the Committee to discuss.
June Scarff advised that John Owen had spoken to her today and stated that only the play area would be granted under any lease from the Parish Council and not the field, as the Parish Council would not be happy to lease the field.
June Scarff advised that the Parish Council would not back any lease for the field.
Trish advised her that in order to obtain a lottery grant and a grant from ELDC, the Committee would need to show future stages (1,2,3& 4) of proposed usage and that the whole 6.63 acres under the Declaration of Trust (King George V Playing Field) would need to be included in the package for this to be possible.
June Scarff advised that she didn’t think that the area comprised of 6.63 acres.
Genie Phillips read out the relevant part of the Declaration of Trust stating the area of land. Trish advised that the Declaration of Trust had to be submitted with the last application for funding, along with a business plan showing stages 1,2,3& 4, as funding is given in stages. Stage 1 needs to be complete before stage 2 funds are allocated and so on until the job is complete.
June Scarff advised that Stickney Parish Council, of which she is also a member, was able to raise £50,000 for a play area.
It was mentioned that ELDC would support a grant application if the Committee could obtain an 18 year lease.
June Scarff advised that John Owen would be against including the field in the lease and that the Parish Council would back him.
June Irving disagreed that all the Parish Council would back him.
Genie and Trish advised June Scarff that, as the Declaration of Trust was for 6.63 acres, a lease was required on the whole area for funding purposes only and would be needed to be submitted with a business plan to the funding bodies, as funding is given in stages. Stage One would need to be completed before any funds were allocated for Stage Two.
Genie read out a breakdown of the funding application to ELDC and WREN to the meeting. June Irving said that she would advise the Parish Council that this breakdown was available, should they wish to view it. It shows the phases of Stage One to get the playground up and running. For WREN there were 3 stages, each with 3 phases.
Billy mentioned the suggestion from the last meeting regarding the insertion of a clause into the lease to the effect of:
“A lease to be agreed on the whole area for funding purposes only and only to be extended to include further usage after consultation with the village”.
Trish mentioned that she was happy to consult the village with Billy’s help to determine how they felt and to advise them that if the terms of the lease were broken by the Committee that the lease would be revoked with 24 hours notice.
June Irving said that she would report back to the Parish Council that after a heated discussion regarding the use of the field and not just the play area the Committee were happy to consult the village regarding the lease and that any lease should include the clause suggested above. She would also advise them that any funding applications would need to show the whole 6.63 acres, as shown in the Deed of Trust.
June Scarff then asked whether there was any other area within the village that could possibly be rented with a view to setting up a playground, as the field was not a good area for children.
Trish advised that she supervised her children at all times.
June Scarff then asked whether the toilets would need to be open for the picnic area.
Genie and Trish advised her that it was not a legal obligation for toilets to be open.
June Irving again said that she would report to the Parish Council regarding the suggested clause for the lease in the hope that the situation could be resolved.
June Scarff asked whether there was any way that the Parish Council could seek the funding required to set up the playground.
Genie said that this could be looked into if need be.
June Irving showed the Committee a provisional lease that had been drawn up by Keith Harmsworth when he was Chairman of the Parish Council, which Trish said that Keith was happy with.
June Scarff again said that the village didn’t want a 25 year lease.
Billy asked whether she meant all the village, to which she replied “Yes”.
Billy asked her when the villagers were asked , to which she replied “Three to four years ago”.
Billy asked whether the village could be asked again, as villagers and views may have changed in the intervening years.
June Scarff asked whether John Owen agreed to this. She was advised that he had agreed to the Committee canvassing the village at the previous meeting, when Brian had suggested it.
June Irving asked whether the Committee could come up with a simple draft to put to the village, outlining the proposals.
Genie advised that the Committee could draft a letter to show the proposals for the play area which canvassed them for their feelings and allowed them to either:
1) Agree to the changes.
2) For the area to stay as it is now.
3) No interest either way.
4) Signature.
She also agreed that the Committee would collect them.
Billy again advised the meeting that if the suggested clause were to be inserted into the lease then the villagers would not be signing anything away because it would defeat the object of the Committee’s purpose if the field were not to remain in use for the Pin & Candle, as this would pay for the maintenance of the playground.
June Irving invited Trish and Billy to the Parish Council meeting on Monday 28th September.
June Scarff advised Trish and Billy that they would not be allowed to speak at the meeting and that they would only be able to listen to the proceedings.
It was agrees that June Irving would address the Parish Council on behalf of the Committee regarding the lease.
Billy suggested that it may be a good idea to try to set up a short meeting with the members of the Parish Council after their main meeting to try to resolve the issue of the lease.
June Scarff advised the meeting that she would not go against the Parish Council Chairman’s wishes. This was questioned upon the grounds that each Parish Councillor has a democratic vote and is allowed to make up their own mind.
June Scarff then said that what she meant by this was that if the Parish Council voted on something and it was passed that she would not go against their wishes.
Trish advised June Scarff again that the Committee had no intention of taking away the
Pin & Candle land, because the income from it was need to maintain the playground.
It was agreed that this item would be discussed further after the next Parish Council meeting.
5 Grants:
This item was left in abeyance until the next meeting.
6 Any Other Business:
None.
7 Date and Time of Next Meeting:
Monday 19th October at 7.30 pm in the Methodist Chapel Schoolroom.
Trish thanked everyone for their attendance and closed the meeting at 8.50 pm.