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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PRESENT: W D BUTTERWORTH Town Mayor, M COHEN Deputy Town Mayor
Councillors: H R BUTCHER, Mrs C A GODLEY, L HOLGATE, Mrs H HULL, C R HYAMS, E KYNOCH, Mrs B MOORE, Mrs E TREHARNE-JONES
Mace Bearer: M WILLIAMS
Town Clerk: A J WELTON
Chaplain: Rev A BARRETT

APOLOGIES: Cllrs: D BROWN, A GOFF, Mrs A M LOOKER, C VANE PERCY
ABSENT: Cllr J COXHEAD

There were 4 members of the public present.

OUTGOING TOWN MAYOR’S ANNOUNCEMENTS.

The MAYOR advised that he had represented the Town on 14 occasions since the last meeting. The MAYOR Elect had represented the Town on 2 occasions and the DEPUTY MAYOR had represented the Town on 1 occasion since the previous meeting.

The MAYOR announced that his Charity Ball on 6 May had been successful in raising almost £1000, making the total amount raised for his charities approximately £1200 over the period of his office.

The highlights of the year had been the Civic Service, which had been specially tailored to reflect the theme of the 400th anniversary of the granting of Godmanchester’s 2nd Charter in 1604; the Remembrance Day services, at which he had been pleased to see so many young people present and the Christmas Carol service held at the Town Hall car park.

The MAYOR had been pleasantly surprised at the greater than usual attendance at the Annual Town Meeting and was pleased that there was such interest shown in the activities and concern expressed by the youth of the Town.

He expressed his thanks to all the Councillors for their support during his tenure of office, to the Town Clerk’s Assistant and the Town Clerk and to the caretakers. He advised the Councillors that there had not been any interest shown in the post of caretaker for QES and asked Councillors to distribute flyers advertising the job.

Finally, the MAYOR said that it had been an honour and a pleasure to represent the Town.

INSTALLATION OF NEW TOWN MAYOR AND NEW DEPUTY TOWN MAYOR

Cllr BUTCHER, having been duly elected as Town Mayor for 2005/06, made his declaration of acceptance of office. Cllr COHEN, having been duly re-elected as Deputy Town Mayor for 2005/06, made his declaration of acceptance of office.

INCOMING TOWN MAYOR’S ANNOUNCEMENTS.

The Mayor then asked the Reverend Ally Barrett to lead the Council in prayers for the Town, the Mayor, Councillors and the Queen.

The new MAYOR announced that he had had no intention of becoming Mayor at this stage as he felt that he did not have the necessary experience, having been a Councillor for only two years but he promised to do his best to represent the best interests of the Town. He said that he would make himself available as often as possible but because his election had not been part of his plans he had pre-planned a number of holidays already. The DEPUTY MAYOR had indicated his ability to cover on those occasions.

The MAYOR expressed his thanks to Cllr BUTTERWORTH and his wife for so ably representing the Town during the past year.

He then expressed his thanks to his own wife and presented her with her badge of office.

Finally, the MAYOR announced that his chosen charities for the next year would be MAGPAS and the Air Ambulance.

05/033 MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING.

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

Cllr Mrs Hull arrived at 8.00pm.

05/034 MATTERS ARISING.

The Outstanding Actions List, dated 21 April 2005 was reviewed.

The Town Council was pleased to have received a letter of authority from the landlord of Judith’s Field in which it was agreed that the car parking area could be leased to a third party provided that half of the proceeds were donated, on behalf of the landlord, to the Alzheimer’s Association, the remainder being put aside for the development of Judith’s Field for the benefit of the Town’s youth. The Town Council AGREED to this stipulation.

The Town Clerk had received one estimate for the installation of Christmas lights both on the two buildings on School Hill and along The Causeway. The estimate had included for removing and storing the festoon lighting from The Causeway lamp standards and the Town Clerk was instructed to write for a revised estimate without that facility.

05/035 CORRESPONDENCE.

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

Muir Group had written to advise that they wished to use Judith’s Field on a Monday evening for a period of 12 weeks. The Town Council had already agreed the use of the facility but the Town Clerk was to write to confirm that the facility would be available free of charge for that period.

The letter from Ely Mothers Union concerning the cleanliness of QES, especially the toilets was discussed. The Town Clerk was asked to see whether the Judith’s Field caretakers would be interested in taking on the job, or whether they knew of someone who might be interested.

The outgoing Mayor had attended the Luminus Group invitation. He advised that the refurbishment of the homes in Anderson Crescent was outstanding.

The notification of the imposition of a 60mph speed limit along the A14, as notified by Carillion – URS required comments before 8 June 2005. The MAYOR invited Cllrs to forward any comments to the Town Clerk before 8 June so that he could send in a consolidated reply.

There was lively discussion of the letter from Mrs Nelson concerning the community swimming pool. It was AGREED that the Town Clerk would contact the Community School to suggest that a message could be left on the answer phone at the swimming pool advising of closures.

Cllr KYNOCH advised that he would be unable to attend the CALC AGM on 8 June 2005 and the MAYOR asked for a volunteer to attend.

Zurich Insurance had set up a series of seminars on the subject of Health & Safety. The Town Council APPROVED the cost of sending up to 2 representatives (£60 for the first and £30 for the second). Cllrs Mrs TREHARNE-JONES and BUTTERWORTH were to advise the Town Clerk of whether they were able to attend on 6 July 2005.

Whilst not listed in the correspondence, the MAYOR referred to an email received from CCC concerning the Cycle Routes and it was confirmed that Cllrs Mrs HULL and KYNOCH would represent the Godmanchester Town Council. The Town Clerk was to advise Emma Murden of the nominations.

Cllr Mrs Godley arrived at 8.30pm.

05/036 ACCOUNTS.

The accounts set out in Appendix B were APPROVED.

05/037 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 HYAMS, a member of the HDC Development Control Panel, advised that he had received clarification that he could comment and vote on planning matters provided he had no personal involvement.

HDC had written to the Town Council to ask for reconsideration of the refusal given on the planning application for the removal of the agricultural occupancy condition attached to planning permission 94/01513 and the schedule attached to the S106 agreement at Dexter’s Farm, Bearscroft Lane. The Town Clerk was to write to HDC to seek clarification of the implications of removing the conditions.

There was some discussion of the proposed development to the rear of the Cemetery and it was suggested that the Town Clerk should contact CCC to obtain a copy of the Definitive Footpath chart for Godmanchester to confirm whether the bridle way bordering on the proposed development was a public right of way.

05/038 DISTRICT COUNCIL REPORTS.

Cllr Mrs GODLEY advised that the Town Council would shortly receive a planning application from the Godmanchester Community Primary School Kids Klub to site a mobile behind the swimming pool to replace the mobiles that have a limited life remaining. This would be a temporary measure but it was expected that it would take 3 to 5 years to raise sufficient funds for a permanent building. The general consensus was that the Town Council would view any application sympathetically, subject to the extant planning regulations.

Cllr HYAMS circulated a letter he had received from CCC concerning the concreting over of a grass area at the corner of Tudor Road and Windsor Road. This was for information only.

He advised that there was to be a meeting at CCC on 25 May 2005 to discuss final proposals for the new A14.

Finally, he advised the Town Council of his various committee memberships at County level now that he was also a County Councillor.

The meeting was adjourned at 9.00pm to allow questions from the public.

One member of the public expressed concern about the toilet situation but had not appreciated that it was not the public toilets at School Hill that had been discussed earlier.

The MAYORESS, as a member of the public, pointed out that swimming pool closures were sometimes unpredictable because of unforeseen arisings during opening hours.

Cllr Mrs HULL advised that, when it was known that the swimming pool was going to be closed, the pool management did telephone those who had booked times in the pool.

The meeting was reconvened at 9.05pm.

05/039 WORKING PARTY (WP) REPORTS.

Cemetery. Cllr COHEN advised that although work had still to start on resurfacing the car park area, the Cemetery was looking good and the contractors were to be praised for their hard work.

There had been an incident where, due to a clerical error in 2003, a grave area that had been pre-purchased was used to inter a third party. A 100% check of records raised since the administration of the Cemetery had passed to Godmanchester Town Council in April 2002 revealed that this was an isolated incident. However, the matter had caused considerable grief to the original purchasers and, having sought legal advice, the Town Council had both apologised for the error and offered a possible solution to the dilemma. The Town Council was awaiting a response.

Environment. Cllr BUTCHER advised that there had not been a meeting of the Environment Working Party (WP) but that he and Cllr BUTTERWORTH had met with Wicksteed Leisure to discuss the replacement play equipment for installation at the Devana Close play area and he was awaiting a quotation.

Town Clerk’s Note. The quotation arrived on 20 May 2005 and will be discussed at the next Town Council meeting.

Finance. Cllr Mrs MOORE advised that there had not been a WP meeting. The draft of the re-write of the Conditions of Service for Clerks was to hand but there were a number of matters requiring clarification and she, together with the Town Clerk, would endeavour to clarify those before the next Town Council meeting.

Flood Defences. There had not been a WP meeting but Cllr Mrs HULL advised that the next Flood Forum meeting would be held on 9 June 2005 and she would welcome any input from either the Town Council members or members of the public.

Health & Safety. Cllr Mrs TREHARNE-JONES advised that the first meeting of the newly re-formed WP had met on 28 April 2005. She said that the CALC guidelines on Health & Safety (H&S) recommended that H&S should be audited along the same lines as the independent internal financial audit. The WP had tasked the Town Clerk with ascertaining what qualifications such an auditor would need and to whom he should report. Town Clerk’s Note. Advice from CALC is that the same auditor should conduct the audit and report to the Town Council.

The WP had decided that the H&S audit should cover the following categories: Finance (fraud, insurance and financial systems), Assets (a register, written assessment for each item, monitoring regime, confirmation of contractors policies and the maintenance of a H&S logbook), Activities (identification of hazards, identification of potential victims and extent of possible harm, categorisation of each hazard, setting review dates) and Safety Checks (gas, electrics etc). Cllr Mrs MOORE pointed out that there were already Financial Regulations in place, reviewed annually, that covered all aspects of the Finance audit. The Town Clerk was to provide a copy of the Financial Regulations to Cllr Mrs TREHARNE-JONES.

It was suggested that the Assets logbook could be electronic and designed by the Town Clerk’s Assistant. The contents would be reviewed twice a year.

The Town Clerk was to enquire into the cost and extent of electrical safety checks and report to the next H&S WP meeting, which would be held on 2 June 2005 when “Activities” would be discussed in greater detail.

Property/Judith’s Field. In the absence of Cllr GOFF the Town Clerk advised that there had been renewed vandalism at Judith’s Field. The dusk to dawn sensor had been torn from its bracket only a week after it had been repaired. He intended to seek advice on re-siting the sensor.

He reminded the Town Council that work on the refurbishment of the floor in QES was due to start on Friday 20 May and last for the whole weekend.

Other Representative Groups/Twinning/Youth Focus Group.

Twinning: Cllr BUTTERWORTH advised that the next Twinning meeting would be the AGM on 1 June 2005.

Youth Focus Group: Cllr Mrs HULL advised that there had not been a meeting but there had been a promotion of the “Live the Dream” scheme. Initial take-up had been good with 40 youngsters turning up on the first two occasions. However, there was a desperate need for adult volunteers, otherwise there was a danger of the scheme folding.
Cllr Mrs HULL had received draft letters from the Huntingdon Youth Service project leader in which he sought to formalise the facilities and financial resources offered by the Town Council. He had been advised to write to the Town Clerk to ask, formally, for this information but to date this had not been done. Cllr Mrs HULL indicated that she was sure that the Youth Service would wish to identify their need for storage space at Judith’s Field. In anticipation of that request, the Town Clerk was to write to Jack & Jill Pre-School to advise them that there was a need for storage space for other users of the facilities and that they were to be given until the end of the school year to remove their equipment from the outside storage rooms.

The Youth Service project leader had also advised Cllr Mrs HULL that there had been no progress on a Youth Council because it had been directed primarily at Year 11 students and, as they were approaching GCSEs consideration was being given to transferring the project to Year 10 students instead.

On a different note Cllr Mrs HULL advised that she had been made aware that CCC was about to repair part of the wall separating the Community School from the non-conformist burial ground behind the swimming pool.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS.

The MAYOR advised that the chairs from QES, now located in Cllr Mrs LOOKER’s barn, had been broken down into component parts after the serviceable ones had been removed for redirection to Belize. He asked all Cllrs to help to dispose of the parts by collecting a few and taking them to the tip. There were approximately 70 to dispose of and any assistance would be appreciated.

The MAYOR advised the Town Council that he would be on holiday from 22 May until 30 May.

The Town Clerk advised that he too would be on leave from 22 May until 30 May inclusive.

THE NEXT COUNCIL MEETING WILL BE HELD ON 16 JUNE 2005.

The meeting ended at 9.53pm Mayor

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