HARRINGWORTH PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of Annual Parish Council meeting held on Thursday12th May 2016 in Harringworth Village Hall
Meeting commenced at 19:55
Present;
Cllr S. McLean (Chairman)
Cllr S Milton (Vice Chairman)
Cllr S Chambers
Cllr L Boon
Cllr G Dolman
Cllr K Dove
Cllr A White
B Chambers (Clerk)
1 Apologies for absence
Cllr Heather Smith
2 Appointment of Officers
The Clerk took nominations for Chairman of the Council.
Cllr S. Milton proposed that Cllr S. McLean be appointed Chairman of Harringworth Parish Council for 2016/17. Cllr A. White seconded the proposition, there being no other nominations and Cllr McLean being prepared to take the office, Cllr S. McLean was duly elected Chairman for the ensuing year.
The Clerk took nominations for Deputy Chairman of the Council.
Cllr S. Chambers proposed that Cllr S. Milton be Deputy Chair of Harringworth Parish Council for 2016/17. Cllr G. Dolman seconded the proposition, there being no other nominations and Cllr Milton being prepared to take the office, Cllr S. Milton was duly elected Deputy Chair for the ensuing year.
The Chairman took nominations for Member Responsible for Finance.
Cllr S. McLean proposed that Cllr K. Dove be appointed Member Responsible for Finance of Harringworth Parish Council for 2016/17. Cllr A. White seconded the proposition, there being no other nominations and Cllr Dove being prepared to take the office, Cllr Dove was duly elected Member Responsible for Finance for the ensuing year.
The Chairman took nominations for Internal Auditor.
Cllr S. McLean proposed that Bill Waterman be Internal Auditor of Harringworth Parish Council for 2016/17. Cllr S. Milton seconded the proposition, there being no other nominations and Bill Waterman having indicated to the Clerk in advance of the meeting that he was prepared to take the office, Bill Waterman was duly elected Internal Auditor for the ensuing year.
The Chairman took nominations for Footpaths Officer
Cllr S. McLean proposed that Cllr L. Boon be appointed Footpaths Officer of Harringworth Parish Council for 2016/17. Cllr S. Chambers seconded the proposition, there being no other nominations and Cllr Louise Boon being prepared to take the office, Cllr Boon was duly elected Footpaths Officer for the ensuing year.
Cllr S. McLean proposed that Brian Chambers be confirmed as Responsible Officer, Finance Officer and Burials Officer of Harringworth Parish Council for 2016/17. Cllr S. Milton seconded the proposition, there being no other nominations and being prepared to take the offices, Brian Chambers was duly elected as Responsible Officer, Finance Officer and Burials Officer for the ensuing year.
3 Acceptance of Office/ Register of Interests
Councillors signed the “acceptance of office” forms provided by the Clerk and returned them to him,, these were countersigned by the Clerk.
Councillors were reminded to advise the Clerk of any changes required to the Declaration of Interest forms that had already been completed by Councillors.
4 Re-Affirm Code of Conduct
A copy of the Code of Conduct referred to in the Acceptance document signed by all Councillors was provided and councillors re-affirmed its adoption.
5 Approval of minutes of previous AGM
These had been approved and a copy signed by the Chairman at the July 2015 meeting of the Council.
6 Annual report of the Chairman
The Annual Report of the Chairman (shown at appendix A) was read by Cllr McLean.
7 Financial Report
The financial report given by the Clerk (shown at appendix B) was given.
The Clerk answered queries relating to the accounts.
The following financial provisions were approved by the Council
Provision for Church Yard maintenance to remain at £3,000
Provision for future election expenses to remain as £1,500
A new provision for replacement LED street lighting £1,500
Provision for General Funds to increase by £178 to £1,899
The accounts as presented were approved by the Council having previously been approved by internal audit. Minute reference 7.1.2016
Councillors approved the governance statement on the BDO submission form. Minute reference 7.2.2016
8 Any Other Business
The dates for future meetings were agreed as the second Thursday of July, November, January, March and May plus the third Thursday of September.
The regular items from the standing orders will be included in the calendar of dates for future meetings.
The meeting was closed at 8:20 pm
Signed ______Chairman
Date ______
Appendix A
Harringworth Parish Council
Chairman’s Report Thursday 12th May 2016
I am pleased to be here in person for this year’s AGM after missing last year’s due to a family funeral. In my absence I was delighted to be elected Chair for another year supported by Shirley Milton as Vice Chairman.
We were pleased to start our 2015/2016 council year with a newly elected councillor Keith Dove who filled the vacancy left by Cllr Kedge who did not re-stand in the May election. In December Cllr Beaver stood down, as his job was moving to the USA, and we were delighted to co-opt Andy White to fill the vacancy at our January meeting.
Planning applications received throughout the year included the usual selection of extensions and removal of or pruning of trees. There were also two applications for major conversions to barns to convert them to residential properties. Another application in Shotley went through at least three separate submissions over a 12 month period. There was also an enforcement notice served on 42 Gretton Road who decided to erect a long ten foot high fence without permission.
Unfortunately following financial difficulties with the company Donnelly and Chambers did not tender for the 2016 grass cutting contract for the village. After a review of new tenders received the Council awarded the contract to another local firm, CGD Contractors, who already undertake similar works for other nearby parish councils. Unfortunately their price is around £400 more (net of VAT) than we paid in 2015. Also, due to the exceptionally mild autumn last year we paid for an extra cut of the churchyard in November as the grass had continued to grow after our usual final cut in mid October.
As the Parish Council has maintenance responsibilities for the churchyard, the external construction works to install a “trench arch” waste system for the new church loo were monitored to ensure there was no resulting damage to the ground and graves. Following our regular safety inspection of headstones in the churchyard a memorial cross above one grave was safely lowered to the ground during this spring’s churchyard clear up. Apart from this both the churchyard and burial ground generally remain in good repair.
The last twelve months have been a year of bollards. Attempts to find replacements for the large oak posts around the church grass triangle have drawn a blank with NCC Highways failing to offer alternatives and a post style suggested by a villager was rejected by them as unsuitable. The search continues although Highways have told us that budget restrictions mean they will not fund any replacement scheme. Erosion of the verge by the Seaton Road pumping station, which not only looks unattractive but also leads to mud blocking the storm drains, was also addressed for a second time without our agreement resulting in the installation of a large number of plastic bollards. Not only are these too numerous and too far from the verge but the curve and height alignment is poor. This work will be corrected with half the number of bollards as part of the road resurfacing work later this month.
At the other end of the village, on our Gretton boundary, Highways informed us that contrary to an earlier assurance funds were no longer available in their budget to undertake the removal of the lay by. Although the £2900 cost of this work could partially be covered by County and District empowerment grants it was agreed at a Parish EGM in February that use of Parish Council funds to complete this work would not be the best use of our limited resources. On that basis the closure work will not now be undertaken. I am pleased to report that following requests the landowner has fully replaced the Shotley bungalows’ driveway and thus removed the road skid hazard for bikes and cars created by loose stones.
Over the year we have seen extensive routine maintenance work being undertaken on the viaduct and this current round of works is likely to continue until at least September if not later. Councillors have now attended two site meetings with Network rail and their contractors where a full explanation was given on the extent of the current and future work. A major piece of strengthening work on the bridge piers is still to be undertaken but due to the very high cost of this work funds will not be made available until the next 5 year budget cycle. Thus this work is unlikely to start for about 4 or 5 years.
Police Community Support Officers continue to attend most of our meetings keeping us informed on crimes in the village and surrounding area and also on what appears to be continual organisational change. Applicants for a Harringworth village constable are still being sought.
At our January meeting it was decided to raise the Parish Precept by 3% from its current level of £5665 to £5835. As previously mentioned there has been a large increase in the grass cutting costs although some of this has been offset by a substantial saving the clerk has obtained in our insurance premium which is now fixed at a lower level for three years.
Harringworth Superfast Broadband went live in September with BT laying fibre to the cabinet. Although a number have gone with this broadband option many are still waiting for the Gigaclear fibre to the home service after they just managed to obtain the requisite 30% of households signing up. Unfortunately it now appears the Gigaclear go-live target date has now slipped again until November.
Finally, it is sad to have to remind everyone that we are still without a pub. The White Swan was last open on 25th December and unfortunately there is currently little sign of a new leaseholder being found by the owner. Whether you imbibe there or not you will agree that a pub is a valuable part of our village community and we hope that it reopens soon.
In closing my thanks go to all my fellow parish councillors and our district and county councillors who continue to support us and provide financial help through their empowerment funds. My final thanks are to Brian our Clerk who continues to keep us all heading in the right direction.
Simon Mclean 12th May 2016
Appendix B
Finance Report
This financial report has been completed following the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2003 (SI 2003/533 reg9) as outlined in the Local Council Administration guidelines, that is to say
“Councils in the small council’ band with budget income or expenditure up to £100,000 must base their accounts on receipts and payments.”
These accounts have been prepared with the help of our internal auditor for whose help I am most grateful. This year the internal audit has already been completed so the figures I’m presenting have been signed off by Bill Waterman.
The spreadsheet on the first page will be familiar to Councillors as it is the same one that is reported on monthly, reconciled with the bank balance and approved at each regular meeting as well as monthly by the MRF. I have annotated some items with numbers shown in brackets, these relate to the relevant item numbers on the external audit submission form for BDO.
Top right hand corner item No1 is our starting balance for the year of £5,721
Bottom left of the sheet shows our precept receipts of £5,665
Reading across this bottom line we then come to item 3 which is £1,155 made up of the bank interest of £3 plus £205 receipts from the burial ground, and £947 of other receipts. Other receipts this year is exclusively made up of the vat reclaim.
This gives us receipts for the year of £6,820
Moving on to the payments;
Item 4 shows staff costs of £901; these include the clerk’s salary, PAYE paid by the employer and Thirsk payroll costs for payroll administration.
Item 6 are £3,741 of other payments, which is broken down into the items shown above it on the spreadsheet.
The payments this year significantly decreased from the previous year when we had two major items of work carried out (the Market Cross repairs (£1.301) and the tree works (£1,170) at the churchyard)
Our total payments for the year was therefore £4,642
We therefore started with £5,721
receipts of £6,820
payments of £4,642
Leaving a balance of £7,899 (allowing for rounding errors)
this being the figure at item 7, bottom right corner of the spreadsheet.
This reconciles with the bank balance at the 31st March of £7,898.73
The numbers from the spreadsheet have been transferred across to the receipts and payments account on the next page.
The receipts and payments figures align exactly as per the spreadsheet.
The Council this year are showing a significant increase in excess of receipts over payments. This has occurred for a variety of reasons the key ones being that;
- A significant increase in vat reclaimed following the two major capital works carried out last year
- A reduction in the level of vat paid out this year as the grass cutting contractor deregistered part way through the year.
- The Council has not used the maintenance budget allocation this year
You will see at the bottom of the Receipts & Payments account that the final balance of £7,899 is represented by a number of provisions that the Council need to approve.