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 20 MAY 2004

PRESENT: Mrs A LOOKER Town Mayor,
Councillors: D ASHWORTH, M COHEN, D COMBEN, A GOFF, Mrs H HULL, E KYNOCH, Mrs B MOORE, R NORRIS, A SURSHAM, C VANE PERCY, G WILSON
Town Clerk: A J WELTON

APOLOGIES: Councillors: W D BUTTERWORTH Deputy Town Mayor, H R BUTCHER, D BROWN
There was 1 member of the public present.

TOWN MAYOR’S ANNOUNCEMENTS

The MAYOR advised the Council that she had represented the Town on 6 occasions since the last meeting. The DEPUTY MAYOR represented the Town on 2 occasions.

The MAYOR had attended to celebrations in the twin town of Szentendre marking the entry of Hungary into the European Union on 1st May 2004.

The Civic Ball had been a success and had raised approximately £600, which would be added to the £600 raised at the Mayor’s Quiz Night and donated to the Mayor’s Charity, The Hinchingbrooke Keyhole Appeal.

The MAYOR reminded all members that the Town Clerk had sent nomination papers for the election of a new Town Mayor and Deputy Town Mayor and, to date, he had only received two completed papers. The first business of the next meeting would be the election of a new Mayor and nomination papers should be with the Town Clerk prior to the next meeting (17 June 2004).

Cllr Mrs HULL arrived at 7.37pm.
Cllr GOFF arrived at 7.38pm.

04/027 MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 15 April 2004 were APPROVED and signed as a complete and accurate record.

04/028 MATTERS ARISING

The Outstanding Actions List dated 20 May 2004 was reviewed. HDC had advised that now that the work on Church Place was complete, the invoice for the Town Council’s contribution would be issued shortly.

04/029 CORRESPONDENCE

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

The letter from the Friends of QES had offered to pay for some of the cost of the new front door to QES. Additionally, it had proposed that the lapsed joint liaison working group with the Town Council be re-instated. It was DECIDED that this matter would be discussed at the next Town Council meeting in June.

The Godmanchester Senior Citizens Club had asked the Town Council to consider an increase in the quarterly subscription made towards the electricity bill for the Town Hall as there had been a sharp increase over the past two years. The Town Council APPROVED an increase from £50.00 per quarter to £80.00 per quarter with effect from the next payment.

Godmanchester Rovers Youth Football Club had requested the use of Judith’s Field as a car parking facility over the weekend of 5th and 6th June 2004. The Club had offered to pay for the facility. After some debate, it was decide that the standard conditions of hire for such events should be notified as £50.00 per day for the use of the tarmac and grass areas for vehicle parking. This was to be subject to the grass area being dry and fit for such use. Additionally, the user was to ensure that the use of the facility was properly marshalled. There would also be a £50.00 refundable deposit to cover the cost of having to employ the contractor to clear up after the event. There would also be additional charges to pay for any damage incurred, based on actual cost. It was proposed that, in this instance, the daily charge of £50.00 per day for the use of the facility would be waived. APPROVED. The Town Clerk was to write to GMC YFC to advise them of these arrangements.

The Wertheim “Feelings” Choir was visiting in June and the Huntingdon Town Mayor was hosting a reception for the choir. All Huntingdon and Godmanchester Town Councillors were invited to attend. As this was a joint event, funding in the usual ratio of 3:1 would be required. It was AGREED that Godmanchester would contribute up to a maximum of £400.00 towards the buffet lunch reception.

041/030 ACCOUNTS

The accounts set out in Appendix B were APPROVED.

04/031 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.

Cllr VANE PERCY arrived at 8.20pm.

The Town Clerk was to write to HDC confirming that the Town Council objected to the proposal for an industrial flue to be installed at The Exhibition public house.

04/032 WORKING PARTY (WP) REPORTS

CHUMMS and A14 . Cllr ASHWORTH reported that he had received a reply to his correspondence with the MP. The MP had undertaken to represent the views of GMC Town Council to GO-East.

Cemetery. As receipts and expenditure on the Cemetery had almost balanced over the past 12 months, Cllr COHEN proposed that the Cemetery fees for the coming year should remain as set. APPROVED.

Cllr COHEN advised that he would make a list of those grave spaces that were still to be cleared so that the Town Clerk could advise relatives that all spaces were soon to be turfed over. The Town Clerk was to arrange to meet with the contractor to discuss the collection of grass cuttings, following each cut. Currently this was not covered by the contract.

Environment. Cllr NORRIS advised that he had handed over the Environment portfolio to Cllr BUTCHER but, in his absence, he would present the report.

The footpath to the GMC lock had been completed and the fingerpost at West Street had been repaired. The annual Spring Clean had been carried out on 17 April and thanks were expressed to all who took part.

Following representation to HDC, the passageway between The Stiles and Pipers Lane had been cleaned. Similarly, re-surfacing of the Old Mill car park had been completed.

A recent report from Wicksteed Leisure had shown that previously reported faults had not been rectified. As the faults identified had been of a minor nature they had been deferred and a full evaluation of requirements would be carried out before the next Town Council meeting.

The four new benches had been delivered to Ashley & Foster but the second concrete base in Buttermel Meadow was still to be completed.

SITA had indicated that they were to extend the use of the site at Cow Lane until, possibly, 2009. Further details would be advised following the Site Liaison meeting to be held on 8 July 2004 and that would be attended by Cllr BUTCHER.

A letter from a firm of arboriculturists (OCA) had suggested that trees from Judith’s Field on the Nokia boundary were causing damage to their building and should be removed. Nokia’s insurers would fund the work. The Town Council had replied suggesting that if the trees in question were to be removed they should be replaced by a less aggressive species, funded by Nokia. A further letter from OCA had agreed in principle with the Town Council suggestions but advised that they had mistakenly stated that Nokia’s insurers would fund the work. A site visit did not confirm that the trees concerned might be causing damage and the Town Clerk had requested a second opinion from the HDC Arboriculture Officer.

The Town Council had also received a letter from a claims management company regarding subsidence related damage to 4 Thickwillow, allegedly caused by the roots of trees in the passageway between London Road and Grainger Avenue. As the Town Council was not sure of ownership of those trees, the Town Clerk had written to HDC for clarification.

Finance. The Finance WP met on 11 May 2004. A number of items were considered and Cllr Mrs MOORE, chair of the WP put forward the following recommendations for approval by the Town Council:

Tenders for the gates and piers at Chadley Lane and East Chadley Lane were considered and the WP recommended acceptance of the tender from A J Bernasconi Designs in the sum of £28780.00. Approximately £27000.00 was available from various grants, leaving the Town Council to fund approximately £2000.00 As there would probably be certain minor amendments needed, it was recommended that the sum of £5000.00 be set aside to cover these eventualities. APPROVED.

As stated in the Cemetery WP report, it was recommended that charges remained unchanged for the financial year 2004/05 but would be reviewed in February 2005 for the financial year 2005/06. APPROVED.

It was recommended that the period of probation for the Town Clerk’s Assistant be deemed satisfactory and the position be made permanent. The Job Description had been agreed by the WP, with some minor amendments. APPROVED.

It was recommended that the Town Clerk’s Assistant’s hours of work per week be raised from 15 to 16.5 and the salary scale made consistent with that of the previous Assistant, i.e. SPC4, spine point 5, for manual workers at £5.47 per hour from 1 April 2004. It was further advised that this amount would be increased and backdated when the new pay rates for 2004/05 had been agreed and published. APPROVED.

Cllr Mrs MOORE advised that the Town Council had received Health & Safety guidelines from NALC and that, whilst GMC met most of the suggested processes, it was necessary to formalise and record them more systematically so that any audit trail would be straightforward. A summary of some of the points was presented and it was recommended that a WP be set up to consider and set up appropriate procedures and recording mechanisms. It was further recommended that the new WP be set up once the new Town Council was in place. APPROVED.

A draft Financial Regulations document had been received from NALC for consideration for adoption by the Town Council. The document needed a more detailed consideration before being adopted by the Council but, in the main, did appear to fit well with existing practices. It was recommended that the detail should be more fully considered at the next Finance WP. APPROVED. Within the draft regulations were various issues that had previously been agreed by the Town Council but, in line with those recommendations to review them annually, a list of procedures for approval was submitted separately. Those procedures were considered and APPROVED.

Flood Defences. The WP had not met but Cllr Mrs HULL indicated that there was nothing to report at this stage.

Property/Judith’s Field. Cllr GOFF reported that the skate park ramps were still in need of painting. He had managed to get Mr Moller from the HDC parks department to meet with him at JF together with Ashley & Foster. Following discussions, Mr Moller had agreed to task Ashley & Foster with repainting the ramps. In the meantime resurfacing would be considered, following temporary repairs.

Cllr GOFF was continuing to pursue various contractors for quotations for the proposed kick-wall and hard-standing at JF. He confidently expected new quotations from both Twigdens and Pembrey Fencing to be within the previously accepted budgeted figure and undertook to keep the Town Clerk informed of progress.

Cllr SURSHAM advised the meeting that both Planning permission and Listed Building consent had been granted for the work on the gates and piers in both Chadley Lane and East Chadley Lane and the contractor would visit the Town Office on 24 May to sign the contract.

Other Representative Groups/Twinning/Inter Town Forum/Detached Youth Initiative. There was nothing to report under this heading.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS. The MAYOR suggested that it would be appropriate for the members of the Town Council who were intending to attend the discussion on the S106 protocol with officers of HDC to decide what information they wished to extract from HDC when they met on Tuesday 25 May 2004 at 7.30pm in QES. The MAYOR and Cllrs Ashworth and Cohen, together with District Cllr Looker agreed that they would attend.

The MAYOR expressed her thanks to Cllrs ASHWORTH, COMBEN, NORRIS, SURSHAM and WILSON who were retiring from office, for their valuable contribution to the community and for their support to her as Mayor and wished them well in the future.

THE NEXT COUNCIL MEETING WILL BE HELD ON 17 JUNE 2004 (GOWNED).

The meeting ended 10.05 pm Mayor

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