Godmanchester Town Council Minutes.

The Minutes of the Godmanchester Town Council are provided simply to increase ease of access for fellow residents here in GMC. The content does not necessarily reflect the views of the webmaster (Stuart Bond) or Godmanchester Community Association. The Minutes are released to the public once they are approved.

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MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD IN THE GODMANCHESTER TOWN HALL ON THURSDAY 18 AUGUST 2005

PRESENT: H R BUTCHER, Town Mayor, M COHEN Deputy Town Mayor
Councillors: D BROWN, J COXHEAD, Mrs C A GODLEY, A GOFF, L HOLGATE, Mrs H HULL, C R HYAMS, E KYNOCH, Mrs A M LOOKER, Mrs B MOORE, Mrs E TREHARNE-JONES

Town Clerk: A J WELTON

APOLOGIES: Cllrs: W D BUTTERWORTH, C VANE PERCY

There were no members of the public present.

TOWN MAYOR’S ANNOUNCEMENTS.

The MAYOR advised that he had represented the Town on 9 occasions since the last meeting. The DEPUTY MAYOR had not represented the Town since the previous meeting. The MAYOR had attended various events related to Huntingdon’s 800th anniversary celebrations.

Since the last meeting, the position of Town Clerk’s Assistant had been advertised in the press. A number of applications had been received and it was proposed to interview those who had been short listed on Tuesday 23 August 2005. The interviewers would be Cllr Mrs MOORE, Cllr BUTTERWORTH and the Town Clerk. In the meantime, thanks for a job well done by Miss Nicol were formally recorded.

The MAYOR announced that he had received a letter of resignation from the Town Clerk. His proposed last working day would be 28 October 2005. Because of changes to the job description for the Town Clerk, the Town Council AUTHORISED Cllrs Mrs MOORE and TREHARNE-JONES to draw up an amended version that would be sent out to applicants for the post.

The MAYOR reminded all Cllrs that the Civic Service would take place at the parish church on Sunday 18 September 2005 at 11.15am and he would be grateful for their support.

05/054 MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 21 July 2005 were APPROVED and signed as a complete and accurate record.

05/055 MATTERS ARISING.

The Outstanding Actions List, dated 18 August 2005 was reviewed.

05/056 CORRESPONDENCE.

The correspondence listed at Appendix A, not covered by the WP reports, was addressed.

Referring to the letter from the Society of Local Council Clerks, it was AGREED that the new Town Clerk, when appointed, should be encouraged to join. This should be mentioned at the interview stage.

The MAYOR mentioned that he had received a quotation for the proposed medallion for the Deputy Mayor and had asked the Town Clerk to query the cost as it was more than expected.

In response to enquiries about the introduction of a “Smoke-Free Godmanchester”, Cllr Mrs TREHARNE-JONES confirmed that no local councils had so far taken any action.

In discussing the request for the re-instatement of the Curfew fee, it was DECIDED that the Town Clerk would seek further information.

Referring to the letter from Mrs Kenyon, the MAYOR suggested that discussion on matters related to traffic calming would be deferred until the December meeting when a review of the effects of the scheme relating to Godmanchester would be carried out.

05/057 ACCOUNTS.

The accounts set out in Appendix B were APPROVED.

05/058 PLANNING APPLICATIONS AND CORRESPONDENCE.

The applications and correspondence set out in Appendix C were considered. The Town Clerk was to advise HDC of the Council’s recommendations.

05/059 DISTRICT COUNCIL REPORTS.

Cllr Mrs GODLEY announced that the new mobile for the Kids Club had been erected and would open on 16 September 2005.

05/060 WORKING PARTY (WP) REPORTS.

Cemetery. Cllr COHEN advised that the tap in the Cemetery car park needed replacing. The Town Clerk advised that action was in hand.

The Town Clerk had written to the Huntingdon Town Council concerning the Primrose Lane Cemetery and had been advised that they had carried out the work of creating the lines of concrete bases for headstones. The Town Clerk was asked to write to HTC, once the unused portion of the Godmanchester Cemetery became close to being brought into use, to ascertain whether their Parks Manager would carry out the work as a contractor.

There were a number of grave spaces that needed turfing. Cllr COHEN suggested that it would be appropriate to carry out this work next spring. The Town Clerk was to write to Fergusons instructing them to carry out the work at that time.

A number of headstones were becoming insecure. Locating living relatives was becoming more difficult and the Town Council would need to decide a strategy for the future.

Following the damage to a headstone by irresponsible car drivers, it was suggested that the installation of removable bollards should be investigated.

Cllr COHEN noted that the land bordering the Cemetery had now been sold and, once they were known, he would discuss what type of fencing was proposed with the developers.

Environment. The MAYOR, in his capacity as Chair of the Environment Working Party, advised that, apparently a vehicle had smashed the “Welcome to Godmanchester” sign at the entrance to the town on Cambridge Road. The matter had been reported to the Police but it appeared unlikely that the culprit would be apprehended. The Town Clerk was to contact Lane & Son for a replacement. APPROVED.

Ashley & Foster had replaced the paving on the riverbank at QES.

Work on the willow trees along Coronation Walk had been completed. The contractor had identified two more willows at the back of the play area in the Recreation Ground that needed some attention. The estimate was £400 and this sum was APPROVED.

The MAYOR reported that he had carried out a survey of the drains along London Road and had produced photographic evidence of those that were blocked. Following upon this, the Town Clerk had written to the West Highways Division and the MAYOR was pleased to report that all the blocked drains had been cleared within a week.

Agents acting for Nokia at Chord Business Park had written once again to advise that they believed that a tree in Judith’s Field was responsible for ground subsidence causing cracks in the building known as Headland House. The report forwarded with their letter had addressed all the concerns suggested by the HDC arboriculturist and the Town Clerk had forwarded the report to HDC once again for advice.

Following on from the letter written by the Town Clerk into various concerns about Cycle Route 51 from Cow Lane to 25 Cambridge Road, the MAYOR advised that CCC had advised that there was currently no budget available to make the improvements needed and, as a result they would not be proceeding with the change in the legal designation for the time being.

The MAYOR advised that he had received a letter from the Environment Agency concerning the creation of a riverside amenity on The Causeway and that he had been told that there were no funds available for such a scheme.

Additionally, there had been another letter from the Environment Agency concerning water flow. Cllr KYNOCH suggested that assistance might be sought from the Great Ouse Boating Association.

Subsequent to the road resurfacing, many of the side roads had been left with a surplus of stone chippings. In particular Pipers Lane was in need of sweeping and the Town Clerk was instructed to contact the West Highways Division to ask for the appropriate action to be carried out.

Cllr Mrs TREHARNE-JONES reported that there had been a recent spate of vandalism in the allotments. After some discussion Cllr Mrs TREHARNE-JONES was advised to inform the Allotment Association that if they were to submit a properly costed security scheme for consideration by the Town Council it might be possible that a grant could be made under S137 when they were next considered in December.

Cllr Mrs GODLEY left the meeting at 9.28pm.

Finance. Cllr Mrs MOORE advised that the WP had met on 10 August 2005 and had discussed the new contract of employment for the Town Clerk. The WP recommended that the revised contract be accepted and brought into being. AGREED. However, it was suggested that the current job description was in need of amendment as previously discussed during the announcement of the Town Clerk’s resignation.

The WP had also considered the tenders for the Grounds Maintenance contract for the period 2006-2009. Of the three contractors invited to tender only two had done so. There was a considerable difference in the value of the two tenders considered and, in light of the fact that Fergusons, the existing contractors, had given excellent service during their current contract, Cllr Mrs MOORE recommended that the Town Council accept the tender from Fergusons. APPROVED.

Flood Defences. Cllr Mrs HULL reported that, at last, she was beginning to receive positive feedback on the proposed flood alleviation scheme for Godmanchester. She had attended a Flood Forum in June and had been advised that surveying for the proposed scheme was delayed until 2007/8. Anecdotally, she had been advised that a number of properties in Godmanchester had been placed on the “at risk” register because of possible flooding. This not only affected possible house sales but also had an effect on insurance premiums. She had asked for the planned dates and had been advised that the scheme was being brought forward because some money had been found but completion was unlikely to be in the current financial year.

Health & Safety. Cllr Mrs TREHARNE-JONES advised that meetings on the subject were on hold because of staff changes. She and Cllr Mrs MOORE asked for copies of the current job descriptions pertaining to the Town Clerk’s Assistant and also the Town Clerk so that these could be up-dated.

Cllr GOFF advised that West Anglia Training was an appropriate establishment to provide the training for the new Town Clerk and his/her assistant.

The Town Clerk advised that electrical safety checks had been carried out in QES and he expected the relevant certificates to be forwarded to him shortly.

Judith’s Field. Cllr GOFF reported that some wooden pallets had been burned on the tarmac by the skate park ramps. He had distributed letters to the various units in the Roman Way industrial estate, exhorting them to place their pallets in secure storage each day.

He further reported that he had repaired the fence next to the A1198.

Cllr GOFF had been trying to identify suitable barriers to install around the Judith’s Field building to discourage the kicking of footballs against the walls and windows. So far he had been unsuccessful but had decided to obtain an estimate for the manufacture of appropriate barriers from B E Welding.

Other Representative Groups/Twinning/Youth Focus Group.

Twinning. Cllr Mrs LOOKER reported that the Huntingdon 800th anniversary celebrations had been an outstanding success and that representatives of the Twinned Towns had attended the weekend’s celebrations.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS.

Cllr Mrs TREHARNE-JONES felt that some of the equipment in the various play areas was either not safe or inappropriate. She undertook to send specific details to Cllr BUTCHER in his capacity as Chair of the Environment WP. She also mentioned that there was an amount of graffiti appearing on the equipment. It was also suggested that there should be signage at each play area giving details of who to contact in the event of damage to equipment giving telephone numbers and also notifying the age range for which the equipment was intended. The Town Clerk was to contact Wicksteed for their recommendations.

Cllr KYNOCH advised that the swing in the play area on Coronation Walk was in need of greasing again.

Cllr Mrs HULL advised that there had been little interest shown in the summer youth activities programme.

Cllr HYAMS suggested that the chip shop on The Causeway should be encouraged to provide a waste bin for the disposal of chip paper and polystyrene containers so that they were not thrown into the water.

He also advised that he had seen a booklet, produced by the St Neot’s Town Council, which provided details of local activities available to youngsters and commended the idea.

THE NEXT COUNCIL MEETING WILL BE HELD ON 15 SEPTEMBER 2005 AND WILL BE GOWNED.

The meeting ended at 10.00pm Mayor

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