Meeting Minutes 7 February 2018

745. Declarations of Personal and Prejudicial Interest

Age Concern - Cllr. J. Allin.
CCTV - Cllr. J. Allin.
Meden Vale the Future - Cllr J. Allin.
Welbeck Colliery the Future - Cllrs J. Allin, J. Kerr.
Warsop Town Hall Management Group - Cllrs J. Kerr, S. Moody and J. Allin.
Staff Management - Cllrs J. Kerr and J. Cockroft.
Warsop Carnival - Cllr S. Moody.
SOS - Cllrs S. Moody and J. Kerr.
Welbeck Colts - Cllr. A. Wetton.
Market Warsop Players - Cllr S. Moody.
Warsop Youth Club - Cllrs S. Moody and J. Cockroft.
Friends of the Carrs - Cllr J. Kerr.
Assoc of Labour Councillors - Cllrs. A. Wetton, J. Allin, J. Kerr and S. Moody.
Christmas Market - Cllr J. Cockroft.

734. Warsop Athletic FC

Cllr Barlow emailed the Clerk with a proposal. The proposal was for the Council to pay half of Warsop Athletic FC’s fees for one season, this would be £800. They have already paid the fees for this season. The Chairman and Cllr Cockroft were unsure about this request due to the Council’s finances. Cllr Kerr suggested the Parish Council pay £500.

RECOMMEND: The Council give £500 to Warsop Athletic FC to help towards season costs for next season.

735. Hanging Baskets

At January’s finance meeting, the Clerk was asked to find out details about the possible partnership project with MDC regarding hanging baskets for businesses in the Parish, the following information was provided by Andrew Chambers (MDC) –

Pricing structure for Hanging Baskets 2018: 1 – 10 baskets @ £50.00 each + VAT
11 – 20 baskets @ £45.00 each + VAT
21+ baskets @ £40.00 each + VAT
VAT charged at current rate.
Includes
Supply of self-watering hanging basket
Installation (usually first/second week in June)
Watering approx. 2 times per week during normal weather conditions but an additional watering day is added if weather conditions are very hot.
Fertilise x1 per week
Removal at the end of each growing season (dependent on weather but normally late September/early October)
Note all brackets to be installed by owner of the business/property and should be heavy duty brackets secured correctly to shop/business wall.
He recommended someone who makes brackets for the Mansfield town centre who gave us the following information –
The cost for supply of hanging brackets would be £30 each that is working on orders of 5 or more. Made as per picture enclosed and painted satin black. Fitting would be approx. The same cost depending on the height position and substrate of the wall. Again, I would want to do them in batches of 5 plus and would probably be on a Sunday when foot traffic is less.

RECOMMEND: Council to decide if they would like Parish Council Staff to communicate with local shops regarding this.

736. Payroll

Michelle Stevenson (Payroll Team Leader, MDC) has emailed to ask about pay increases that are due soon. Gemma Blagg’s increases are auto-renewed (November 2016-Parish Council meeting minutes). The Clerk’s is due to increase by £543.19 on 1st April, following the NALC pay scale. The minimum wage will increase to £7.83 on 1st April, so the cleaners wage will need increasing accordingly. Following the increases for the staff above, the Parish Council Receptionist should also have a pay rise to move her to £8.00 per hour.

RECOMMEND: To accept the increases stated above.

737. Church Yard Maintenance - Quotes

Three quotes were obtained for church yard maintenance.
Current contractor - £2,400
Warsop based firm – option 1 - £1,920 (the same spec as the current contractor), option 2 - £2,400 (Collect grass from around the graves as well as the vicinity of the church)
MDC - £2100+VAT

RECOMMEND: To accept the quote from Acer Grounds Maintenance (Warsop based company) as they are offering the exact same service as the current contractor, but the Parish Council will save £480.

738. Mike Johnsons Letter

Mike Johnson responded to the letter from the Parish Council regarding the increase in room rent. He has stated in the letter that the Infotech committee agreed that they can’t afford this increase as they don’t have any guaranteed income. They have moved their belongings out of the copier room and offered it back to the Parish Council to use as storage.

RECOMMEND: To reduce the Infotech rent by £1000 as they are giving the copier room back to the Parish Council. The room rental is as follows:
Infotech Suite 36.30m2 - £5,500
Room 2 12.00m2 - £1,500
Mike Johnson’s office 9.80m2 - £1,000
This would be a total of £8,000 and includes the rental for the rooms stated above, utilities, Warsop & District News adverts (totalling £2,900 per year) and the shared use of the store room. There will be 2 payments of £4000 a year and these payments must be paid in the same financial year (1st April – 31st March), the Parish Council will invoice Warsop Infotech at agreed dates that will be convenient to both parties.
Any Parish Council rooms rented, for example room 9, to Warsop Infotech will benefit from a 50% reduction.

739. Mike Johnsons car park proposal

Mike Johnson has complained numerous times about residents of Wood Street parking in the Town Hall car park because users of Infotech and his courses are unable to park. He has proposed to install some fencing and barriers on the car park. The cost for this is as follows:
Posts (16) - £168.00
Fencing - £82.00
Installation - £ 100.00

RECOMMEND: Not to accept Mike’s proposal due to the Councils financially situation and this is not considered a high priority.

740. Warsop Market Accounts

The Clerk received Warsop Markets accounts after a few weeks of requesting them from Stuart Whittle (Market manager on behalf of the Council. A number of questions were raised from the account’s so members requested Stuart Whittle attend a finance meeting, so these can be discussed in more detail.

RECOMMEND: Invite Stuart Whittle to the next finance meeting to ask questions about the management of the market and the market accounts.

741. Andrew Goodall – Community Point for Victim Care

Gemma Blagg met with Andrew Goodall who discussed the possibility of the Town hall being a Victim Care community point. Andrew explained that this would require staff to undertake training provided by victim care which will enable them to identify people who could potentially be helped by the victim care programme and signpost them to getting the help that they require via Victim Care.
Andrew also explained that by becoming a ‘community point’ will enable the Parish Council to use the Victim Care logo when exploring funding opportunity’s.

RECOMMEND: The Town Hall to become a signposting point for victim care and ask the staff to undertake the training. The Clerk is to ask Mike Johnson if Infotech would like to do the same.

742. Financial Regulations/Risk Assessments

The Financial Regulations/Risk Assessment policies were brought before members to view ready for the upcoming audit of 17/18 accounts.

RECOMMEND: To accept both the policies.

743. Precept

The Council’s current precept amount is £89,476.75. A discussion took place about the Councils finances between members. A working copy of the Parish Council’s expenditure and income were viewed, and members raised concerns about the £20,000+ maintenance figure. Cllr Kerr suggested a £5.00 increase to Band D to help with the Town Hall’s increasing costs.
The calculation is as follows:
Current Band D - £29.28
+ £5.00 = £34.28
X 3028.7 (Tax Base) = £103,823.84 Precept 18/19
That would be an extra £14,347.09 for the Parish Council to use on the Town Hall.
Cllr Moody asked the Council to take the public consultation answers in to consideration before deciding what to do in regard to the precept.

RECOMMEND: Cllr Kerr’s recommendation is to increase the precept by £5.00 on Band D.

744. Any Other Business

The Clerk informed members that she has received a request for work experience from a pupil from Meden School. She asked if this is something the Council would be interested in offering.

RECOMMEND: To accept pupils wanting to undertake work experience at the Parish Council.

These will be presented to Full Council on 19th February 2018.