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.

MINUTES OF THE TOWN COUNCIL MEETING HELD IN THE
TOWN HALL ON THURSDAY 21 OCTOBER 2010

PRESENT: A WELTON: Town Mayor
Councillors: Mrs S WORTHINGTON (Deputy Mayor), R BUTCHER, Ms J MacLEOD, A MARTIN; Ms D MIDDLETON, N PAULEY, C RICHARDSON, D TAYLOR, N WELLS, G WILSON

Town Clerk: Mrs M LIDDIARD
Mace Bearer: Mr F CARTER

2 members of the public were in attendance

10/150 TO RECEIVE APOLOGIES AND REASONS FOR ABSENCE

CLLR HYAMS: holiday; CLLR VANE PERCY: attending GMC in Bloom AGM; CLLR BROWN: ill (apologies received after meeting) CLLR MRS HULL: previous engagement (apologies received after meeting) CLLR Mrs FLETCHER: ABSENT

10/151 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST:

CLLR WILSON: any item relating to Environment Agency as he is an employee of the EA, item 10/154 as he is a member of the Twinning Association and any items relating to CCC. CLLR Ms MIDDLETON: any item relating to Wood Green as friends work at Wood Green. CLLR BUTCHER: item 10/154 as he is a member of the Twinning Association. CLLR PAULEY planning application relating to 15 White Hart Lane as he knows the applicant. CLLR WELTON: item 10/154 as he is a member of the Twinning Association.

10/152 MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING

THE MAYOR suggested the words in item 10/148 (paragraph 3) be amended to say “The Town Council discussed personnel issues and financial matters related thereto” and the paragraph starting “CLLR WILSON recorded” and ending “to confirm this is correct” be deleted from the record. As this change would make reading the official minutes difficult, the Town Clerk would reprint and recirculate this page of the minutes and the Mayor would be asked to sign this page again at the next Town Council. In the meantime the amendment was made and initialled by THE MAYOR and Town Clerk. The Minutes of the meeting held on 16th September 2010 were duly APPROVED and signed as a complete and accurate record.

10/153 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION SESSION:

Mr Morgan, a resident from West Street addressed the Town Council on Twinning and suggested that as the Town looks forward to celebrating 800 years of the Town Charter, that consideration is given to forming a twinning link with Godmanchester in Quebec.

The Mayor drew the numbers for the 800 club October draw.

10/154 TWINNING

Malcolm Lyons, Chairman of the Huntingdon and Godmanchester Twinning Association gave a presentation on the links between Huntingdon and Godmanchester with Salon de Provence, Wertheim am Main and Szentendre. He asked the Town Council to consider the proposed 4 year budget and whether it would support a formal twinning arrangement with Gubbio in Italy. Mr Lyons was thanked for his attendance, and advised that a formal response would be provided once the Town Council had considered its budget for the forthcoming year.

10/155 TOWN MAYOR’S ANNOUNCEMENTS:

THE MAYOR asked for condolences to Martin Williams on the death of his mother be recorded and thanks to Fred Carter for presiding as Mace Bearer at the Civic Service and today’s meeting.

THE MAYOR thanked those who had attended the Civic Service which had gone well. He also thanked those who had supported his quiz night by attending or making a donation. £685 had been raised in support of his chosen charities.

THE MAYOR reminded Cllrs that two services would be held on Remembrance Day and all were asked to attend at least the morning service. The Town Clerk had provided details of both services.

THE MAYOR confirmed that Cllr Tim Cant had resigned with immediate effect from his position as Councillor and thanks for his participation in the past were recorded. A casual vacancy now exists and it was suggested we put notices in local shops to encourage interest. Unless an election is called for by the public, the Town Council may co-opt to fill this vacancy in November, but it was AGREED to allow more time to advertise the vacancy and interested applicants would be invited to attend the December Town Council meeting.

THE MAYOR confirmed a Finance working party would be held in the Town Hall on Thursday 4th November. For those who could not attend, their views and comments and requests for allocation of funds should be forwarded to the Town Clerk before the meeting.

THE MAYOR advised the next open meeting for members of the public and local groups to meet the Town Council would take place on Saturday 6th November. It would be good to see some more Cllrs present.

THE MAYOR represented the town on 14 occasions since the last meeting, and CLLR BUTCHER and CLLR WILSON had represented the town on one occasion each since the last meeting.

10/156 TOWN CLERK’S REPORT ON MATTERS ARISING:

Cllrs were advised on progress on outstanding matters. CLLR PAULEY pointed out that in respect of disabled access fishing platforms, the Offords may be a better location as access to the fishing area was far easier than in Godmanchester.

10/157 DISTRICT/COUNTY COUNCIL REPORTS

No report received on District Council matters.

CLLR WILSON advised the AJC had determined the location of the proposed disabled parking bay in the Causeway had been deferred pending a decision from the Town Council. CCC had stated our preferred location at the Pinfold Lane end of the lay-by was too narrow and the disabled parking bay could not be located here without additional costs involved to alter the road/pavement layout. The Town Council still felt the space directly outside One-Stop was inappropriate as that end of the lay-by was prone to flooding and One-Stop delivery vehicles were liable to block the vehicle in during deliveries. CLLR WILSON AGREED to invite Emma Murden from CCC Highways to the December Town Council meeting to explain and discuss this issue and to provide a breakdown of possible additional costs involved in locating the disabled parking bay where we wanted.

CLLR WILSON confirmed he had spoken with Inspector Ford who confirmed we would have the three temporary road closures (or traffic stopped) for our morning Remembrance Day Service. CLLR WILSON had spoken with Alan Hooker of the Community Association asking that stewards be provided on the day to assist with safety measures.

CLLR WILSON confirmed that the 3 new sets of pelican traffic lights installed in Godmanchester had cost £59k each. Concerns had been expressed about the brightness of the new lights, the heights of the poles which took the actual lights far higher and the extraordinary costs involved.

CLLR WILSON had made enquiries regarding pension funds as the Town Council now has 5 members of staff and is obliged to provide access to a pension scheme. If this were required by members of staff, CCC operates a scheme which has been opened to 20 other parish councils. This, and other personnel matters, would be discussed at a Personnel Working Party (time and date to be confirmed).

10/158 CORRESPONDENCE - (Appendix A)

Huntingdon CAB have requested financial assistance and CLLR MacLEOD was asked to establish how much they were asking for bearing in mind the Town Council had AGREED that grants would not be offered to any organisation during this financial year.

CLLR PAULEY advised that Peter Irving, on behalf of the 800 Committee Town Sign group, would send a letter to Ms Fitzgerald at HDC Planning to address the confusion that seems to have arisen. All Cllrs were provided with a copy of the proposed sign and were asked to give their feedback and comments to CLLR PAULEY at their earliest opportunity.

10/159 FINANCIAL/ACCOUNTS

10/159.1 The list of payments to be made in Appendix B was approved.
10/159.2 Councillors received a copy of monthly salary information, the Petty Cash Reconciliation for the period to 21st October 2010, a copy of the budget report on the year to date, and a copy of the monthly bank reconciliation as verified by THE MAYOR, and a quarterly bank reconciliation to 30th September 2010.
10/159.3 CLLR BUTCHER advised 3 quotes had been received for the removal of a large horse chestnut and hollow trunked lime tree in St Mary the Virgin churchyard. Cllrs were provided with a note of the figures and it was AGREED that Mr Kidman would be appointed to carry out the work at a total cost of £4000.00.
10/159.4 Cllrs were asked to approve the cost of a valuation of the Godmanchester Civic Regalia at a cost of £300. This was AGREED.

10/160 PLANNING APPLICATIONS AND CORRESPONDENCE

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

10/161 WORKING PARTY REPORTS

10/161.1 In the absence of CLLR BROWN, the Town Clerk confirmed a specialist roofing company had attended the Queen Elizabeth School and provided a quote for work they believed needed attention. CLLR BROWN had discussed part of their quote and suggested provision of a rainwater hopper was not an urgent or immediate requirement, and he cautioned immediate repair of the crack to the chimney, suggesting it would be prudent to establish whether the crack was still growing or whether it was a one-off event, before effecting repairs. The repair to the sundial was confirmed as needing urgent attention and the company had been asked to re-submit their quote. In the meantime, how the water was getting into the building had not yet been established although the condition of the floor was still a major concern. Jacowe Joinery had recommended removing the skirting board along the centre wall in the small hall and large hall, and cutting back part of the abutting floorboard in each hall to allow the swollen and raised boards room to ease back into place. The skirting would be re-used where possible but if water damaged may need replacing. Although this does not solve the problem of how the water is getting in, it will prevent the halls from becoming unusable under health and safety grounds. It was AGREED that up to £1000.00 was approved to undertake this work. Meanwhile further investigations would be made to establish how water was getting into the building.

CLLR MRS WORTHINGTON confirmed a further meeting had been held with Mr Bussingham of CCC regarding ownership of the boundary wall between the Community Primary School and the non-conformist burial ground. It was anticipated that Mr Bussingham would confirm our view, that the wall was owned by CCC. It is then our intention to take over responsibility of the non-conformist burial ground.
CLLR MRS WORTHINGTON confirmed that she, THE MAYOR, and Town Clerk had met with representatives from HDC who had confirmed, in principle, to manage the public toilets in Godmanchester, as long as they continued to manage and run the public toilets at the bus station in Huntingdon, providing the Town Council took financial responsibility. It was AGREED that discussions should be pursued with HDC with a view to their continuing to run the toilets with financial input from the Town Council. It was AGREED that up to £5k can, if necessary be made available in this financial year to re-open the toilets. There is sufficient money in the budget to cover this, comprising £1k unspent from the youth budget and £4.6k originally allocated to the unsuccessful Sweetings/Crowhill JFMIB. It was AGREED that a provisional sum of up to £15k be allocated to running the toilets in 2011/12 but of course the aim would be to spend less than this. It was AGREED that the views of the public would be sought at the next open meeting, but it was also AGREED that the strength of public feeling on this matter had already been expressed and it was the task of the Town Council to set the budget and the priorities for the year ahead.

CLLR WILSON left at 10.10pm

MISCELLEANOUS

CLLR Ms MIDDLETON advised the Youth Club were seeking funding to have a graffiti artist repaint the kick wall at Judith’s Field. They hoped to receive additional funds through their bid, which could be used for additional play equipment at Judith’s Field.

CLLR BUTCHER confirmed two new bins had been installed in The Styles and Pinfold Lane. We have written to HDC to request an additional litter bin be provided in the Crowhill/Bayliss area. While on the subject of litter, the Town Clerk would write to the grocery shops in Godmanchester asking for their on-going support in litter picking around their premises.

The Town Clerk asked Cllrs to call into the office perhaps once a week, to collect their post or to get someone to do so for them.

CLLR RICHARDSON advised that Hawthorn Ward at Hinchingbrooke Hospital was due to close in January 2011 but he was concerned to note that staff for the ward were being laid off in November 2010.

THE NEXT COUNCIL MEETING WILL BE HELD ON 18 NOVEMBER 2010 IN THE TOWN HALL

The meeting ended at 10.18pm Mayor

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