DRAFT
CPALC Board Meeting
Saturday 21st January 2012 at 9.30 hours at
Sutton Parish Council Offices, the Glebe, 4 High StreetSutton, CB6 2RB
MINUTES
1 Procedural Matters.
Present – Brian Hayes, Roger Coxhead, Denis Batty, Rick Humphries, Ian Dewar, Michael Williamson, Graham Rhodes, Henry Clark, Hazel Williams Robin Carter
1.1 Apologies – Malcolm Reece, Linda Keppel Spoor
1.2 Election of Chairman – Hazel Williams was nominated and there being no other nominations was appointed chairman for the coming year
1.3 Election of Vice Chairman – Henry Clark was nominated and there being no other nominations was appointed vice chairman for the coming year
1.4 Draft minutes of the meeting of 12 November 2011 were distributed and accepted as read
1.5 Draft minutes of AGM had been distributed with the agenda and were accepted as read
1.6 Matters arising not included elsewhere on the agenda – these would be coved under item 7 Other Business
2 Reports
2.1 CEO
2.1.1 Monthly Activity Report – indicated the CEO had attended meetings with Houghton, Shepreth, Huntingdon, St Ives, Sutton and East Cambs District Council latter being with Brian Hayes, Peter Moakes (leader of the East Cambs District Council) and Andrew Killington (deputy chief executive ECDC)
2.1.2 Help & Support update – The website has changed and the Help and Support desk will also change. The budget for the current year has been substantially reduced and support needed will need to be assessed as the new format launches.
2.1.3 NALC/CPRE Project – meetings have taken place with CPRE and the project is intended to deliver two local session with in the county. National publications are due to support this and dates will be set in the new year.
2.1.4 Neighbourhood Planning –summary of meeting of 17th January 2012 – This was a joint meeting and presentations and input came from Dan Smith (HDC communities) Paul Mumford (HDC Planning) Ian Dewar (CPALC). 59 attendees from 32 Hunts councils attended. The key themes from the Localism Act were outlined as was the proposal to the parishes to engage in the development of a Charter with HDC and CCC. 10 councils agreed to be part of the charter working group as was Ian Dewar as the parish representative. A summary of the information from the session was distributed to the Board.
Brain Hayes raised the subject of the Police, Health, Environment, Housing and Youth service provision in relation to public involvement and the statutory requirements in the decision making process.This lead to comments on the workings of the different neighbourhood panel models and their effectiveness.
The CEO’s report also included a summary on core income. Brian Hayes indicated when he was chairman he met with the office staff and highlighted the need to make sure all councils were aware of the benefits of membership and for the office to promote membership of the organisation and attending training. Brian had suggested incentive payments to the office staff on the basis of the outcome of a membership and training drive. Targets were met with membership numbers up to 211, only 3 less than last year. Training income exceeds expectation. The year end financial position should potentially see in excess of £50,000 at bank.Given the change of chairman this offer needs to be resolved.
The CEO highlighted the need for the Board to address longer term sustainability and the need
- For an Action and Funding plan to support the business plan
- For larger courses to further boost training income (burial, allotments)
- For short courses to be promoted (accounts, HR)
- For a project to deliver income (15% management fee – like Future Jobs Fund)
- To promote advertising as a source of revenue
- To sell or promote goods or services to create income
- To investigate other funding options
There were also some unresolved issues for the Board to address
- Hours required to maintain the current level of service are greater that paid
- Time off in lieu – Admin up to date but disruptive – CEO not resolved
- Need to define what members want and how and what can be delivered
- Service level agreement – needs to be reviewed
- Need for a meaningful Engagement strategy (community, principal authority, neighbourhood planning)
- Board Secretariat volunteer had not been replaced
- Competition issues from other organisations that weakened the organisations financial sustainability
2.2Finance
2.2.1 Accounts – The Treasurer had produce financial summaries that had been distributed to the Board with the agenda papersin the form of CPALC accounts 2011/12 ending 17 January 2012 and CPALC accounts 2011/12 for the period ending 31 March 2012. In his absence any questions would be taken at the next Board meeting.
2.2.2 Affiliation subscriptions 2011-12 & 2012-3- membership for 2011-12 is at 211 as opposed to the previous year of 214. The challenge will be to retain this level in the face of another difficult financial year. A summary of non-member councils was distributed to the Board.
Rick Humphries commented that any funds had on deposit with Barclays could be better employed elsewhere.
2.3NALC
2.3.1 Report from CountyRepresentative – Hazel Williams announced she was no longer vice chairman at NALC but was still a member of the executive committee.
2.4 EEAPTC
2.4.1 Update – the next meeting was scheduled for February 2012.
2.5 District Meetings
2.5.1 District Association calendar for 2012-13 – with the website due to change this would be published as would agendas and minutes.
3 Staff and Resources
3.1IT – the CEO informed the Board that the CPALC website which had been operating for the last 4 years without any funding from the organisation was now moving in a different direction and would become a national site accessible to Community, Voluntary, Parish, Resident and other organisations.
The CEO had used the Community Website Kit software to set up a simple members site. This seem to be sufficient for the immediate needs with the CPALC site changing. The CEO was tasked to register Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Association of Local Councils.org.uk and capalc.org.uk and to use the latter for a website for the organisation.
3.2Hours–The CEO’ hours summary to date (over the last 4 years ) has averaged 32 hours per week against paid hours of 25 hours per week. Brian Hayes, Hazel Williams and Malcolm Reece had agreed at the September 2011 to look at this issue but the matter remains unresolved.
The CEO will gain some additional input hours through a work placement over the summer months.
4 Future Funding
4.1 Business Plan and Action Plan sub group -
4.2 Payroll services – the Board approved moving payroll services to KLM payroll from 1st April 2012.
5 Parish Charter
Councils in South Cambs have been consulted on the draft of the charter but the outcome of the South Cambs charter is still to be finalised. The plan for the Hunts charter is to complete the task in 6 months.
6 Localism
Update – Hazel is still in discussion with Mike Davey at CCC and other funding is being sought to try and continue putting in place this post.
7 Other business
The standards regime is still unclear but it is now expected only a voluntary code will come forward.
Brian Hayes gave a summary of the meeting He and the CEO had with Peter Moakes (leader of the East Cambs District Council) and Andrew Killington (deputy chief executive ECDC)
Linkage with cambs.net and the Shape Your Place project was also discussed with general agreement that cambs.net should be seen as a useful portal for council to embrace.
It was also noted that Districts and County were reviewing the frequency of meetings and the Cambridgeshire Together Board had not ceased to function.
Although the CEO has not been consulted directly by CCC, the Quality Parish Council officer has indicated she has been advised by CCC that funding for her post will cease at the end of March 2012.
8Future meetings
Locations,Dates, Times & Topics for Future Meetings – a doodle poll had been circulated.
Dates for the remainder of 2012 are agreed as 03 Mar 2012, 12 May 2012, 07 Jul 2012, 01 Sep 2012 and 17 Nov 2012 AGM
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