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.

Please note that the financial details are not held on this website and that only the entire Minutes as recorded in the Minutes Book have legal standing. Hard copies are posted around the town on the noticeboards and also sent to Huntingdon Library. If you have any queries please contact the Town Clerk by e-mail or telephone / fax 388 870.

PRESENT: W D BUTTERWORTH Town Mayor, M COHEN Deputy Town Mayor
Councillors: D BROWN, Mrs C A GODLEY, C R HYAMS, J COXHEAD, A GOFF, L HOLGATE, E KYNOCH, Mrs A M LOOKER, Mrs B MOORE, C VANE PERCY
Town Clerk: A J WELTON

APOLOGIES: Cllrs: H R BUTCHER, Mrs H HULL

There were 3 members of the public present.

TOWN MAYOR’S ANNOUNCEMENTS.

The MAYOR informed the meeting that he had represented the Town on 4 occasions since the last meeting. The DEPUTY MAYOR had not represented the Town. Cllr KYNOCH and Cllr Mrs LOOKER had both represented the Town Council on one occasion each.

05/001 CO-OPTION OF TOWN COUNCILLOR.

Mrs E Treharne-Jones addressed the meeting, giving her reasons for wanting to become a Town Councillor. She said that she had benefited from all that Godmanchester had to offer and felt that she wanted to put something back into the community. She had attended the previous Town Council meeting and had been enthused by the active and effective attitudes displayed. The MAYOR thanked Mrs Treharne-Jones for attending the meeting and advised her that the Council would let her know their decision as soon as possible. As Mrs Treharne-Jones had left the meeting the MAYOR invited the Town Council to vote on whether to accept her application to become a Town Councillor. The vote to accept her was unanimous. The Town Clerk was to write to Mrs Treharne-Jones to invite her to join the Town Council.

05/002 MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 16 December 2004 were APPROVED and signed as a complete and accurate record.

05/003 MATTERS ARISING.

The Outstanding Actions List, dated 20 January 2005 was reviewed. The matter of the ASBO leaflet had become divisive and the consensus was that there would be no point in taking the matter further at this time. Cllr Mrs. LOOKER, referring to a Crime and Disorder Reduction meeting that she had attended, advised that the objective was to provide a balanced view and reduce the fear of crime. It was DECIDED that the Town Clerk was to publish the Police contact number on the Town Council notice board, on the web site and to ask the Godmanchester Community Association to publish it in the Bridge Magazine.

The Freemen of Godmanchester had welcomed the plan to replace the two seats on The Avenue. The Town Clerk was to contact Ashley and Foster to arrange for the installation.

The Christmas lights on QES and the Town Hall were not in a good condition, were a possible H & S issue and would probably have to come down. There was concern that there would be a requirement to obtain planning permission and the Town Clerk was asked to make an informal approach to the enforcement officer at HDC to seek his views on whether the lights should be repaired or replaced. (Cllr HYAMS declared an interest, as he is a member of the HDC Planning Committee). It was suggested that the Town Clerk should also enquire about possible sponsorship and also to enquire of the company, Gala Lights, for an estimate. Additional lights along The Causeway might also be considered.

The willow trees on Coronation Walk were in need of treatment and the Town Clerk was instructed to ask Burleigh, the tree surgeons, to give an estimate for the work, having first contacted the tree officer at HDC. The trees in the area alongside Coronation Walk were younger and it was suggested that they should be trimmed back to a reasonable height and that a path should be developed from the Mill Yard Car Park, round the back of the play area and joining up with Coronation Park. The matter would be referred to the Environment WP.

05/004 CORRESPONDENCE.

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

Referring to the letter from the Huntingdonshire NHS PCT, it was suggested that it might be appropriate to invite the CEO to deliver his presentation at the Annual Town Meeting. The Town Clerk was to write, inviting Mr Lynch to the Annual Town Meeting on 7 April 2005.

Additionally, the Town Clerk was to liaise with the Police Sector Commander to invite him to address the Town Council on the subject of Street Wardens. At the same time, the Housing Manager of HHP, Nigel Finney, was to be invited to contribute to the same presentation.

The Fergusons quotation of £330 for the disposal of soil from the cemetery was APPROVED. However, Cllr BROWN advised that MoD at RAF Wyton had a community projects organisation and might be prepared to carry out some other work, such as clearance of the redundant play equipment, at no cost to the Town Council. He would liaise with the projects co-ordinator and report back to the Town Council. The Finance WP would consider the cost of spoil disposal at £45 per m³ when next reviewing Cemetery charges.

Cllr GOFF advised that he had received a revised estimate from Ashley and Foster for the roof work to be carried out at Judith’s Field. The Town Council accepted the lowest tender and APPROVED the expenditure of up to £3552.

The Environment Agency had finally responded to hasteners from the Town Clerk concerning the status of the proposed flood alleviation scheme for Godmanchester. Provision made been made for the years 06/07 and 07/08. The matter was to be deferred for 4 months and the Town Clerk was then to hasten a more detailed update.

Campbell Rees Associates had advised that their consultation fee for the upgrading of the entrance to the Town Hall to facilitate use by the disabled would be £750. This sum was APPROVED.

The Godmanchester Community Association had requested the use of the Recreation Ground facilities for the staging of a Viking settlement re-enactment. Additionally they had requested the use of the public toilet facilities on School Hill. The Town Clerk was to liaise with HDC to ensure the toilets were not locked during this period and was also to investigate the purchase of a RADAR key for access to the disabled toilet facility. The Town Clerk was to advise the Chairman of the Community Association of the Town Council’s support for the project.

05/006 ACCOUNTS.

The accounts set out in Appendix B were APPROVED.

05/007 PLANNING APPLICATIONS AND CORRESPONDENCE.

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

05/008 DISTRICT COUNCIL REPORTS.

Cllr Mrs GODLEY advised that she had attended the Scrutiny Panel but there was nothing related to Godmanchester for discussion. She also attended a meeting of the Kids’ Club at the Community Primary School. The Club was currently housed in mobile classroom buildings and were seeking ways of trying to fund a permanent building.

Cllr HYAMS reported that he had had discussions with the Cambridgeshire Police Chief Constable who had advised that he was planning to shift targeting of Police activity to cover Godmanchester more and that the community should notice an improvement in the next 12 months.

05/009 WORKING PARTY (WP) REPORTS.

Cemetery. Cllr COHEN notified the Town Council that Fergusons had carried out the turfing of the remaining grave spaces and the Cemetery was now looking good. Although the Town Clerk had sent 3 invitations to tender for the resurfacing of the Cemetery car park, only two contractors had responded. The tender from Ringway was APPROVED in the sum of £11009.64.

Environment. There had been no meeting of the WP and other environmental matters had been dealt with under Correspondence.

Finance. There had been no meeting of the WP.

Flood Defences. There had been no meeting of the WP.

Health & Safety. As there was currently no Chairman for this WP, there had been no meeting.

Property/Judith’s Field. Following the construction of the kick wall area, flooding of the tarmac in the far left corner was giving rise to concern. Cllr GOFF had contacted Breheny, the original contractor, who had come up with a suggested solution to provide a soak away at a cost of £895. This sum was within the original budget of £10600 already approved but the Town Council asked that the order be placed on the condition that it would pay the agreed sum to resolve the problem. This was to avoid the possible situation of the work being proposed by Breheny not being successful and the Town Council having to pay for further remedial work.
Cllr GOFF mentioned that the corrugated roof of the dugout at Judith’s Field had lifted at one end. Cllr BROWN suggested that this could be another project for the MoD community working project and he would investigate and report back to the Council.

The Town Clerk advised the Town Council of the plumbing repair work that had been carried out in QES and at JF.

Although Princebuild had carried out remedial work on the chimneybreast in the Town Office, there was still evidence of damp staining. The Town Clerk was to write to Princebuild to ask them to confirm whether the chimney was capped.

Cllr Mrs GODLEY left the meeting at 9.40pm.

Other Representative Groups/Twinning/Inter Town Forum/Detached Youth Initiative.

Cllr Mrs LOOKER recommended the holiday opportunity to Salon de Provence sponsored by the HGTA and suggested that members might like to take advantage of it.

Cllr Mrs LOOKER advised that the Community Safety Partnership run meetings previously chaired by that organisation now considered that their task was complete and that future meetings should come under the aegis of the Town Council. The Town Council ENDORSED the principles of creating a Godmanchester Town Youth Forum. Cllr Mrs Looker said that she and Cllr Mrs Hull would agree to continue their work to encourage continuation of this initiative

Cllr KYNOCH produced examples of youth activity programmes at Witchford and Sutton and the Town Clerk was asked to provide copies for Cllrs Mrs LOOKER and Mrs MOORE.

Cllr Mrs LOOKER advised that the Godmanchester Problem Solving Group would next meet in QES on 14 March 2005 starting at 3.00pm and would be re-named the Godmanchester Youth Focus Group. It was suggested that the MAYOR should chair this meeting.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS.

The MAYOR advised the Town Council that the Town Clerk would be on leave from cease work on Monday 7 February 2005 until start work on Monday 14 February 2005.

The MAYOR advised that the workload on the QES caretaker had increased significantly and suggested that the Town Council should consider whether to employ a second caretaker on a job-share. All Cllrs were asked to let the Town Clerk know of any suitable candidates.

There was a buoy missing from one of the marker posts in the water at The Causeway and the Town Clerk was to advise the Environment Agency.

THE NEXT COUNCIL MEETING WILL BE HELD ON 17 FEBRUARY 2005.

The meeting ended at 10.00 pm Mayor Mayor
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