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STANSTED MOUNTFITCHET PARISH COUNCILFINANCE & GENERAL PURPOSES
MINUTES of a meeting of the FINANCE & GENERALPURPOSES COMMITTEE held at 7.45pm on Wednesday 20 July 2016 in the Council Offices, Crafton Green House, 72 Chapel Hill, Stansted, Essex.
PRESENTCllr P L Jones (Chairman),Cllrs M Jessup,F Richards and G Sell
ATTENDINGMrs Ruth Clifford - Clerk
Mr Trevor Lloyd-Asst to the Clerk
One member of the public
146APOLOGIES- Cllrs J O'Brien, J Salmon and D Wallace-Jarvis
147DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST- None
148MINUTES
The minutes of the meeting held on18 May were approvedby the Full Council on Wednesday 15 June.
149MATTERS ARISING-none.
150CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
The Internal Audit Report Final Update has been received. No issues had been identified and the Internal Audit Certificate had been signed. The Chairman thanked the Clerk for her efforts.
151FINANCE
a) The list of payments for authorisation was approved.
b) Income & expenditure statement to 30.6.16 – deferred.
c] VAT return to 30.6.16 – deferred.
The Chairman reported on the budget review undertaken earlier in the week with Cllr O'Brien and the Clerk. The report will be circulated to all members ahead of next week’s Full Council meeting.
Cllr Sell commented that reserves were at their lowest level for some time. He felt that residents would accept a higher precept if it was made clear what the money was being spent on.
152 LIGHTING
a)Outage Report-nothing to report.
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b)New Maintenance Contract
The Clerk reported that she had invited three quotes for a new contract after Kier MG gave one month’s notice of their decision to withdraw from all street-lighting contracts. One company had declined to quote and the Clerk presented details of the other two quotes. There would be very little effect, if any, on the current budget but, if anything, there may be modest savings. After a brief discussion the Chairman proposed the following
RESOLUTIONThat the five-year maintenance contract be awarded to A and J Lighting Solutions for maintenance of the parish lighting stock.
This was seconded by Cllr. Richards and passed unanimously.
The Clerk then presented details of the structural test which has to be carried out every six years and falls due in October 2017. There is only one company in the region which has the necessary equipment to undertake this type of testing. The current cost of such a test is £3,160; there may be a modest inflationary increase between now and October 2017. The Chairman then proposed the following
RESOLUTIONThat the contract for electrical and structural testing be awarded to Electrical Testing Ltd.
This was seconded by Cllr. Richards and passed unanimously.
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153WINDMILL
Residents in a property that has access to their back garden from the windmill site have agreed to contribute 50% of the cost of a hard standing path that passes the front of the recently constructed storage facility.
154CRAFTON GREEN PROJECT
The Clerk reported that demolition work will start next week. The residents in Chapel Hill who have a property adjacent to the site have been consulted and currently have no issues.
155CAR PARKING-SeeHighways sub-committee minutes.
156YOUTH CENTRE
The Clerk has sent a letter to the Jack PetcheyFoundation confirming our financial support to the Youth Centre in order to facilitate a funding bid from Linda Barnes. Linda will be submitting a report on the term’s activities and the Summer holiday programme starts next week.
Meeting closed at 9.00 pm