E.G.P.C. 10.12.14
EAST GOSCOTE PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of a Full Council meeting held on Wednesday 10th December 2014 at 6.30pm in the East Goscote Village Hall.
Present: Ms S Lander (Vice Chair)
Mrs M Cadle Mr K Jones
Mr D Eden Mrs C Duffy
Mr J Malpus Mr E Vardy
11 members of the public
14/150 a) To confirm the three Borough Councillor appointments and receive declarations of Office for Councillor Duffy, Vardy and Jones.
The Vice Chairman confirmed that she has received a Section 91 Order of the LGA 1972 from Charnwood Borough Council to confirm the appointment of temporary councillors until May 2015 or until such time as the vacancies can be filled to re-establish a quorum.
Cllrs Duffy, Vardy and Jones signed their declaration of office and were given the register of interest to complete and return within 28 days.
b)Co-option of new Member – Mr J Malpus
Mr Malpus has written to the council to ask that they consider his co-option. His questionnaire was copied to all Councillors for their consideration. RESOLVED that Mr Malpus be co- opted. He duly signed his declaration of acceptance of office.
Cllr Malpus was issued with his register of interest to be completed within 28 days.
14/151 Election of Chairman.
The current Vice Chairman had written a letter of resignation in order that she may stand for the position of Chairman. Cllr Lander was proposed and Seconded and accepted the position of Chairman. She signed her declaration of acceptance of office. This now left the position of Vice Chairman vacant and the Chairman proposed Councillor Eric Vardy to act as Vice Chairman which he accepted and signed the declaration of office.
At this point the Chairman adjourned the meeting to allow any statements to be made from members of the public.
14/152 Apologies for Absence:
The Chairman read out 4 letters of resignation; Mr Walton and Mr Black resigned from their position on 19th October 2014 due to confidential reasons, Mrs Loseby and Mr Merry-Howe resigned on 11th November, Mrs Loseby felt she could not act as Councillor as the council was too fragmented and Mr Merry–Howe felt that the council did not adhere to its own policies, did not observe standing orders, and was too easily influenced by a tiny minority of residents to the potential detriment of the majority. Cllrs Resolved to accept the resignations.
14/153 Declarations Of Interest:
Cllr Lander regarding preschool taking ownership of santa event.
Cllr Duffy regarding employee matters.
14/154 To confirm the minutes of the last full council meeting (08.10)
The minutes held on 8th October was agreed as a true and accurate record of the proceedings.
14/155 Matters arising from the minutes
· 14/134 Training on Section 106 funding – unfortunately no councillors attended this event, although our Borough Councillor did. We are awaiting new dates.
· 14/140 Youth offending impact report – Councillor Lander continues to work with the youth team regarding this issue.
· 14/146 The office now has a new laptop
14/156 Proposed Accounts
The Council accepted accounts for September (£6537.40), October (£4599.59) and November (£12,124.00).
14/157 Correspondence
§ Public satisfaction survey – Highways and Transport – respond by Friday 19th Dec – sent to email distribution list.
§ LCC operational meetings – Thursday 15th Jan 10 – 12 – The council asked that the clerk attend this meeting.
§ LCC – 10 new trees planted – another 14 to be planted in the spring
§ Woodland Trust – encouraging tree and hedge planting – Possible application to extend hedge planting along bottom of mound – Applications by January 30th
§ LCC website provision extended to August 2016
§ Precept demand by 16th January – grant £2830
§ Parish election cost £1650 contested/ £73 uncontested
§ Network cables request to put on parish land – next agenda
§ Syston Police station to close in February 2015
§ Scout group – lease – no progress to date – next agenda
§ Staff pensions – free training course – LRALC – Thursday 12th February – details to be sent to members of the staffing committee.
§ Clerks new national salary award – details to be sent to the staffing committee
§ Increase in trains – letter to be sent to Network rail to confirm the situation
§ Resident concern re excessive cutting of mound grass – reply agreed
§ Resident concern re blocked drain 2 Countrymans Way – reported to LCC
§ Resident concern re turnover of Councillors – reply agreed
14/158 a) To approve new Cheque Signatories
RESOLVED that Councillor Lander, Malpus and Cadle be added to the cheque signatories. The councillors who have resigned will be removed.
b) To make emergency arrangements for payments prior to Dec 20th if signatories are not approved by that date.
Details
Our Current situation is that we do not have any Councillors who are listed as cheque signatories, therefore we are unable to make any payments.
New financial regulations were issued for members to consider and updated in October 14. Unfortunately our Council has not yet considered or adopted this new set of regulations.
This new set of regulations included the recent repeal of section 150 which removed the statutory requirement for 2 members to sign cheques, and allows on-line payments. Within these regulations were also measures to safeguard public money as shown in appendix 10. We are aware of these risks and in order to act as best we can in accordance with appendix 10 the following proposals are suggested for Councillor consideration.
PROPOSAL
· As financial officer I would like to proposed that the payments are authorised
· The financial officer will create the payment list
· The vice chair will check all invoices against the list
· The chairman will supervise the clerk whilst the banking system approves and processes the payments online.
· This emergency procedure to be enforced during December and January until the new financial regulations can be adopted by this Council or cheque signatories are in place.
There are also a number of uncashed cheques – one to the inland revenue which appears to be have lost in the system, one for the mowing contract and one for dog bags – I would like to cancel these cheques and make payments again to avoid any fines. Payments agreed at this evenings meeting will also be paid if necessary.
RESOLVED that the above proposals be agreed and implemented.
14/159 Christmas Update A) to approve the quote for installation and removal of
Lights.
A local builder has written to the council to offer his services free of charge. He has installed the lights and issued the council with his licence and public liability insurance.
In terms of removing the lights, he has yet to offer a quote. RESOLVED to send a letter of thanks to the local builder for his kindness and community spirit.
b) To request the East Goscote Preschool take ownership (for this year only) of the Santa Event.
Due to the lack of Councillors and the inability to purchase items for this event it was RESOLVED to pass the ownership onto the Preschool (for this year only) who have managed to secure a donation to purchase the Santa gifts and enable the event to go ahead. The preschool staff have worked extremely hard, are CRB checked and the group itself has public liability insurance. The council discussed the charges for the hall hire and cleaning and it was RESOLVED that the parish council would cover the cost of this to a maximum of £50.00.
Councillor Cadle said that Councillor Lander and her staff had done an excellent job in ensuring the village children did not miss out on this event whilst the council were in quorate, and she wished to record her personal thanks. All members of the Council gave a vote of thanks.
14/160 To arrange a meeting to prepare the precept for consideration in January. The chairman advised that a meeting will be held on Thursday 18th December at 1pm for a maximum of 1 hour. All councillors can attend to work on preparation for next year’s precept which will be on our next agenda for full council consideration.
14/161 To appoint a working party to a) Review Financial regulations b) Review Standing Orders.
The Chairman stated that she and the clerk would review both documents for approval at the meeting in February.
14/162 To consider the quote for a village tree inspection and works to a tree in Huntsmans Dale
The clerk issued all councillors with a quote for the village tree inspection and a photograph of the tree which is very close to a property in Huntsmans Dale.
RESOLVED to authorise both the tree removal and village tree inspection at a cost of £500.00.
The tree budget is only £350 so money will be moved from the environmental improvements budget to cover this expenditure.
14/163 Bus Shelter Funding – to approve consultation letter and cost
The Clerk issued all councillors with a copy of the suggested consultation letter, a copy of the confirmation of 50% funding from Leics County Council and a copy of the plan. It was RESOLVED that we go ahead with the consultation letter, approve the 50% cost which equates to £1030 and place the item on our next agenda in January.
The Clerk confirmed that a lot of work has been put into this project by ex-Councillor Loseby and it was agreed that a letter of thanks should be sent to Mrs Loseby.
14/164 To appoint a Staffing committee
Currently there are Michelle Cadle and Sally Lander on this committee, however the quorum is three and ideally four councillors would be preferential.
RESOLVED that Councillor Vardy and Malpus become members of this committee. All members will be issued with the terms of reference associated with this committee.
14/165 Employee Matters
Standing order 17 was invoked and members of the public and staff were asked to leave
14/166 Maintenance
Sheets will be issued to Councillors to bring to the January meeting.
Councillor Cadle agreed to carry out the playground checks and bring to the January meeting.
Councillor Lander confirmed that there is a problem with the village noticeboards which she
has reported to our caretaker.
14/167 Items approved for expenditure
Proposed Accounts/village tree work/bus shelter/Christmas event
14/168 Urgent items by permission of the Chairman
The Chairman asked that a letter of thanks be sent to all resigning councillors for all their hard work serving the village.
Councillor Vardy asked that co-option of new members be included on future agendas
and that we advertise/promote the Councillor vacancies
Councillor Malpus said that the County Council have now released all the documentation regarding the East Goscote Library and guidance for those groups seeking to run the libraries. They have asked that any groups interested in running the library come forward and register their interest by January 16th 2015. He requested that a full council meeting be held prior to this date so we can discuss this possibility. The Chairman said that the clerk was writing a report regarding all the consultations and it would be highly unlikely that this report would be ready for the council to consider.
The Chairman suggested that Councillor Malpus ask for an extension to this date as we will not have the necessary information to make an informed decision, and it is a very short deadline. The Chairman asked that the Library consultation be included on the next agenda.
The meeting closed at 8.15pm
L Pizer
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