Minutes of Finance & Scrutiny (F & S) Committee of Tetbury Town Council (Ttc)

MINUTES OF FINANCE & SCRUTINY (F & S) COMMITTEE OF TETBURY TOWN COUNCIL (TTC)

Held at the Council Chambers, Tetbury on Monday 18 th January 2016 at 7.00pm

PRESENT Cllrs S Hirst, S Ball, T Walsh, C Pearce, J Williams, M Hamlett & Town Clerk Natalie Haines. In attendance Mr Stevenson & Cllr Kevin Painter

FS1. 01/16 To Note apologies of absence – None

FS2. 01/16 To allow public consultations - Cllr Walsh formally asked committee and Chair whether Mr Stevenson would be able to contribute to item 6. On behalf of the Cricket Club all agreed. Cllr Painter raised concern over the closure of the Priory nursing home and asked that the item be added to council’s full council agenda. Clerk confirmed that the item would be added onto full council agenda for 25th January and asked that everyone forward any information they may have regarding the closure so that she can circulate to all Cllrs in the backing documents. Items to be forwarded to the Clerk by Friday 12 at the very latest.

FS3. 01/16 To receive Declarations of Pecuniary Interest in items on the agenda and not already noted on the Register of Interest Forms: Cllr Walsh non pecuniary interest however is a Governor and president of associations being considered for grants in items 6 and will abstain from voting on these items.

FS4. 01/16 Adoption of F & S Committee Minutes 9th November 2015: It was proposed by Cllr Walsh seconded Cllr Williams to adopt the minutes Agreed (2 Abstentions)

FS5. 01/16 Action Points from those minutes and not on the agenda:

Ref ACTION WHO STATUS FS7. 11/15 Organise D Hall grant payment of £5,000 from Clerk Completed clerk asked to reserves, St Mary’s day club £250.00 from FS request copy of ins Grants and £300.00 to Shaun the Sheep document for Shaun the Sheep FS11. 11/15 To consider impact of printing backing papers Clerk Ongoing and possible investment in IT tablets for Cllrs FS12. 11/15 To consider commitment to Goods Shed Clerk Completed can now be shortfall and recommendations to full council deleted FS10.10/15 Cllr Hamlett to discuss with clerk various Cllr Hamlett Ongoing delayed, Natalie approaches to Community development & Clerk to send dates over to Mel FS6. 11/15 Clerk to co-ordinate meeting with Barbara Clerk Meeting completed await Pond and Maggie re land Charities commission response to Maggie’s request for information, Natalie to chase Maggie for up date FS17. 11/15 Remind Cllrs of their responsibility to use clerk Circular issued completed their .gov email address appropriately now delete

FS6. 01/16 To consider grant applications – Cricket Club – it was confirmed that grant awarded would be ring-fenced for the purpose of the project, many fundraising events have been coordinated and Mr Stevenson confirmed that the club was being run with a professional approach and focussing on youth

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involvement. It was proposed by Cllr Hirst and seconded by Cllr Williams that a grant of £500.00 be awarded to the cricket club. The cricket club could reapply for further funding in the next financial year Agreed (one abstention).

Royal British Legion – Cllr Ball confirmed that she had received agreement from Cllr Heaven Chair of Dolphin’s Hall that they would fund refreshments for the event, in addition it was suggested that TTC offer to carry out any copying. It was proposed Cllr Walsh and seconded by Cllr Ball to pay a grant of £225 this year Agreed

St Mary’s Primary School – Cllr Pearce raised concern that the school had not altered their branding to include the “Dolphins” as previously discussed, however Cllrs felt this was a separate issue and not one that needed to be considered whilst looking at this grant application. After consideration it was felt that further detail needed to be gained concerning the actual costs of the project. Clerk to write to Helen for further information.

Note – Cllr Hirst felt that it was important to note that a lot of funds had been spent both on the sports clubs, youth, and dolphins Hall this year.

FS7. 01/16 To approve payment of TTC & TIC December 2015 & January 2016 accounts –

TIC – 18/11/2015 payment schedule £10 – Proposed by Cllr Hirst and seconded by Cllr Walsh Agreed TIC - 18/11/2015 payment schedule amounting to £2,881.91 – Proposed by Cllr Ball and seconded by Cllr Hirst Agreed

TTC – 18/11/2015 payment schedule amounting to £8,341.34 – Proposed by Cllr Walsh and seconded by Cllr Hirst Agreed TTC – 05/01/2016 payment schedule totaling £1,508.00- Proposed by Cllr Hirst and seconded by Cllr Ball Agreed (Cllr Williams Abstained) TTC – 18/01/2016 payment schedule totaling 26,144.31 – proposed by Cllr Hirst and seconded by Cllr Ball Agreed

It was noted that unfortunately December schedules for both TIC and TTC had not been included in backing documents, although these payments were approved by the clerk as no F & S meeting took place in December and they had subsequently been countersigned by Cllrs Hirst and Walsh, these schedules should have been included for this meeting in the circumstances they will be provided at February’s F & S for official approval.

FS8. 01/16 To note budget report to end of December – Budget duly noted.

FS9. 01/16 To consider staffing structure – The clerk provided an overview of the need for a link to businesses and tourism in the town and the importance of being proactive around event planning and community engagement, due to the precept calculation there was sufficient monies available to employ an addition team member for three days per week starting from 01/04/2016 which was felt the town could benefit from. It was proposed by Cllr Walsh and seconded by Cllr Ball that the new staffing structure be recommended to full council. Agreed

FS10. 01/16 To consider budget plans and precept request for 2016/2017 and agree recommendation to January’s Full Council – Cllr Hirst provided an overview of the precept request calculation and the impact both the revised tax base for 2016/17 and the small reduction in Local Council January 2016 Page 161

Tax Support Grant. Based on the budget detail it was felt that a 2% increase, an increase of £2.37 per annum per Band D household was necessary. It was proposed by Cllr Ball and seconded by Cllr Walsh that a 2% increase in precept Agreed.

It was proposed by Cllr Walsh and seconded by Cllr Williams that the draft budget be recommended to full council Agreed.

FS11. 01/16 To review Open Spaces Policy – It was noted that a lot of hard work had been put in by Tara to collate this document and thanks were to be extended to her for her hard work. Other than one small name change it was proposed by Cllr Hirst and seconded by Cllr Walsh to accept the document and recommend it to full council. Agreed

FS12. 01/16 To note quarterly financial audit and its findings – This quarters audit had been carried out by Cllrs Hirst and Pearce on 19/01/2016 (today) they reported verbally a clean bill of health with some small recommendations for the future i.e. refuelling vehicle and mileage document to appear on one form.

FS13. 01/16 To agree appointing GAPTC to carry out internal audit – It was proposed by Cllr Walsh and seconded by Cllr Ball to appoint GAPTC as our internal auditor Agreed (one Abstention).

FS14. 01/16 To consider any correspondence received to date – The clerk shared a letter received from Malcolm Philby raising concern of moral in the town, it was agreed that the item would be added to next week’s full council agenda.

FS15. 01/16 To receive brief Councillor reports – concern was raised regarding the installation of the second defibrillator it was suggested that the clerk go ahead and organise fitting outside the TIC as previously discussed.

FS16. 01/17 To suggest items for next agenda – longer term investments & emergency plan review

FS17. 01/17 To note the date and time of the next F & S meeting 8th February 2016 7pm

Meeting Closed at 9.10

Chairman ………………………………………………………………. Date ………………………………………..

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