WESTERHAM TOWN COUNCIL
and Crockham Hill Ward
Russell House, Market Square, Westerham, Kent TN16 1RB
Annual Meeting
Tuesday 16th April 2013 at 7.30 pm at Westerham Hall,
Quebec Avenue, Westerham
A G E N D A
1. Apologies for absence
2. Minutes of the meeting held on 2nd May 2012
3. Guest Speaker – Mrs Alice Early, Head Teacher- Churchill School
“Putting Churchill on the map”
4. Chairman’s Report — Cllr Alan Wesley
5. Community Reports
i) Police Report - PCSO Simon Humphreys
ii) Westerham Town Partnership—Mr James Millard
iIi) Westerham Residents Forum—Mr Peter Cashmore
iiv) Westerham Society—Mr John Bell
6. 2012/2013 updates to Annual Reports from Committee
Chairs:
i) Cllr John Bryant – Planning and Development
ii) Cllr Reg Buckley – Highways and Lighting
iii) Cllr Nick Moore – Youth and Community
iv) Cllr Chris Hanson – Allotments, Playing Fields and Open Spaces
7. Open Session
Please join the Councillors for light refreshments
and to recognise the retirement of our Assistant Clerk,
Mrs Christina Wilton
POSITIVE PARTNERSHIP PAYS OFF - SDC press release
Sevenoaks District Council is ahead of the curve with its innovative partnership working model recommended in a report released by Government. The document entitled ‘50 ways to save in local government’ suggests ‘Share back office services’ as its first recommendation in the report and goes on to cite that, ‘over a third of all local authorities do not share any services at all.’
But Sevenoaks District Council was one of the very first authorities to reap the financial rewards of joint working. More than a decade has passed since Sevenoaks District Council pioneered partnership working with an innovative scheme to share its financial management system with neighbouring Tandridge District Council. This shared service between the two Councils is still going strong today and marked the beginning of a flood of shared partnerships saving significant sums of tax payers’ money.
Around £1.5m has been saved by the Council’s shared arrangements to date and these savings have helped safeguard the organisations frontline services. The proceeds of these efficiencies go towards its core services such as running a weekly refuse service.
The opening of a new Police station in the Council’s Argyle Road offices late last year marked the latest in a long-line of partnerships saving local tax payers hundreds of thousands of pounds every year. This brought the total savings generated by partnerships to around £650,000 a year. £400,000 of this total has been saved through our two largest and most ambitious partnerships, sharing our Revenues and Benefits department and Environmental Health service with Dartford Borough Council.
Without these savings the Council would be forced to reduce the services it provides to the public after suffering cuts in government grant of a 40% reduction over the last three years. In addition to the savings made through partnership working Sevenoaks District Council was praised for its savvy financial management in a positive financial report carried out last September. This audit was undertaken by the external independent body the Audit Commission during the Council’s annual Audit of Accounts.
Most importantly, the Audit Commission found that that the Council manages money well to provide services and provide good value for money for residents.
The Council’s Cabinet member for Finance, Cllr Brian Ramsay comments: “Partnership working promotes the sharing of good practice and pooled resources mean this saves a considerable sum of tax payers’ money every year. It is essential we protect frontline services in the face of cuts in government funding and we are constantly exploring different ways to provide the same high quality services.”
LOCALS CAN VOTE FOR THEIR COUNTY REPRESENTATIVE
Residents can make their vote count on Thursday 2 May when the Kent County Council elections will take place to decide who will run Kent’s services. Kent County Council is responsible for many valuable local services, including roads and highways, schools and education, libraries, social services, buses, the tip and many, many more.
Kent is made up of 84 councillors and one or more Councillor represents a ‘division’.
The Sevenoaks District area has seven ‘divisions’ and locals can have a say on who represents their area and becomes their Kent County Councillor. These elections take place every four years. Polling cards indicating where and when to vote will be sent towards the end of March.
Registering to vote
Residents whose names do not appear on the register of electors will need to re-register to vote. This may be for a number of reasons, for example, if there has been a change of address since the register update last autumn.
Voter registration forms can be downloaded on the Council website at www.sevenoaks.gov.uk/elections or alternatively residents can contact the Council on 01732 227000 and ask for a form to be posted to them.
The deadline for registering to vote is 17 April.
Postal voting
Residents can vote by post rather than attend the polling station. Contact the Council to request a postal vote application form. This form is not available on the Council’s website.
If there has been a recent change of address after re-registering to vote a postal vote must be re-applied for.
The deadline for registering for a postal vote is 5pm on 17 April.
For more information contact Sevenoaks District Council by e-mailing or calling 01732 227000.
ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETING –
Wednesday 22nd May 2013 at 7.30 p.m.
Crockham Hill Village Hall
Local democracy in action is coming to Crockham Hill for the very first Annual Council meeting of Westerham Town Council and the ward of Crockham Hill.
This is the meeting when the chair and vice-chair are elected (always a close run event!), and the Council organises itself for the year ahead.
At the start of the meeting time is given to allow questions from attendees and to hear your views on relevant issues.
The Agenda will be on our web site at www.westerhampc.kentparishes.gov.uk and posted on notice boards.
We look forward to your attendance and support.
Alan Wesley
Chairman
FORTHCOMING TOWN COUNCIL MEETINGS
Thursday 11th April Planning
Monday 15th April Youth and Community
Thursday 25th April Planning
Monday 29th April Highways and Lighting
Thursday 9th May Planning
Members of the public are very welcome to attend these meetings. The first ten minutes of every meeting are available for members of the public to raise any issues with Councillors. All meetings start at 7.30 p.m. - except Planning which is held at 9.30 a.m. They take place in the Town Council Chamber in Russell House.