Sandy Town Council
To: All Members of the Finance and General Purposes Committee, Sandy Town Council
You are hereby summoned to attend a Meeting of the Finance & General Purposes Committee of Sandy Town Council which will be held in the Council Chamber at 10 Cambridge Road, Sandy, Bedfordshire on Monday 12 December 2011 at 7.30pm for the purpose of transacting the items of business below.
Delia Shephard
Town Clerk
6 December 2011
A G E N D A
1 / Apologies for absence2 / Declaration of Interests
To receive declarations of interests from members
(Members of the Committee are invited to declare any personal or personal and prejudicial interests they may have in any items on the Agenda for this meeting, in accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct for Members)
a) Personal
b) Prejudicial
3 / Planning Applications received for comment by Sandy Town Council
To receive any Planning Applications submitted for comment by Sandy Town Council. (Any plans received for comment will be on display in the committee room from 7.15 pm onwards and Members are requested to view these prior to this item).
See list attached.
4 / Minutes of the Previous Meeting
To consider the minutes of the Finance & General Purposes Committee held on 7 November 2011 which have previously been circulated and to approve them as a correct record of proceedings.
5 / Position of outstanding authorised contracted works
To note the outstanding authorised contracted works. See list attached.
6 / Calendar of Town Council Dates Year beginning 1 April 2012
Members are asked to consider adoption of the proposed calendar subject to revision should the committee structure be amended as a result of the ongoing review of committee structure and scheme of delegations being undertaken by the policies sub-committee.
7 / Code of Recommended Practice for Local Authorities on Data Transparency
To note the publication of the code on data transparency which applies to Sandy Town Council and to consider the clerk’s report and recommendation.
8 / Minutes of Committees and Working Groups
1. To receive the minutes of a meeting of the Policies Sub-committee 11.10.2011.
2. To receive the minutes of a meeting of the Premises Sub-committee 28.11.2011 and to approve the recommendations therein as follows:
3 Key Holding Alarm Response
that consideration of the key holding and alarm response for Cambridge Road and Stratford Road premises are considered by F&GP Committee
4(a) Facilities for the Hearing Impaired
that the Finance and General Purposes Committee should consider facilities for the hearing impaired in the Town Council chamber.
5(a and b) Stratford Road Depot
that a new cap should be installed at Stratford Road Depot above the storage room at a cost of £477 + VAT
9 / Replacement of Pump Housing for Sandy Bowls Club
To approve replacement of pump housing at a cost of £500 and to agree which accounting code should be used to fund this expenditure.
Report to be tabled at meeting. (A report will be tabled at the meeting.)
10 / Town Council Offices
To consider a report and recommendations from the Premises Sub-Committee and Officers to undertake repairs to plastering and to repaint council chamber, foyer, ladies, gents and disabled toilets at 10 Cambridge Road, Sandy.
11 / Estimates Priorities and Planning
To receive reports on the budgeting process and to consider priorities for Sandy Town Council for the financial year beginning 1 April 2012.
12 / Debtor
To approve the writing-off of Sandy Town Council Invoice No 3287 in the sum of £94.40 as it is believed that the debtor is deceased and there is little realistic prospect of recovering the debt.
Information supporting Agenda Items
F&GP Committee Meeting on 7 November 2011
3 Planning Applications
DATE/REF / APPLICANT / DETAILS OF DEVELOPMENT30/11/11
73/11 / CB/TPO/11/00364
Mr M Ablitt
3 The Cloches
Beeston
SG19 1PY / Works to trees subject to a tree preservation order: Fell one Sycamore tree located close to boundary of No 2. On TPO MB/01/0036 at 3 The Cloches, Beeston, Sandy, Beds.
Near neighbours 2 The Cloches, 1 & 2 The Green, Beeston notified.
30/11/11
74/11 / CB/11/04194/ FULL
Mr T Swift
1 Brook End
Hatch
SG19 1PP / Erection of side/rear extension at 1a Brook End, Hatch, Sandy, Beds.
Near neighbours Hall Farm, 2,3,4 Brook End, Hatch, Sandy notified.
03/12/11
75/11 / CB/11/04246/ FULL
Mr & Mrs R Pollard
8 The Green
Beeston
Sandy
SG19 1PF / Demolition of existing double garage and erection of a replacement two storey garage with granny annexe on first floor at 8 The Green, Beeston, Sandy Beds.
Near neighbours 4,6,12 The Green, Beeston, Sandy notified.
05/12/12
76/11 / CB/11/04251/ FULL
Mr J Tillisch
Rose Cottage
School Lane
Broughton
Huntingdon
PE28 3AT / Erection of single storey side extension at Park House Nursing Home, Mill Lane, Sandy, Beds.
Near neighbours 29, Bridge House, New Park House, Mill Lane, 1,2,3,4,5 Heron Close, 15 Park Court, Sandy notified.
5 Position of outstanding authorised contracted works
(a) Special Items from the Revenue Account
Election costs £6,000.00
Work completed, invoice awaited.
Mobile CCTV monitoring £1,200.00
Contract approved, invoice awaited.
Grants and Donations £2,007
for future grant allocations is still available at this stage of writing the agenda.
Swimming Scheme £2,000.00
Sum of £240 paid to Sandye Academy in respect of the young people’s swimming scheme as part of a grant of up to £480 allocated for this purpose. A further sum of £180.45 has been committed to Sandy & District Senior Citizens Community Support Group. Financial and attendance details of the project are still awaited so that the £180.45 can be paid to the Senior Citizens Group and the appropriate balance of the remaining £240 can be paid to the Youth Club. The maximum expenditure will be £660.45 leaving a balance of £1,339.55 unspent. This sum has been vired to the training budget.
(b) Capital Account
Chamber heaters £1,000.00
On 3.10.2011 authorisation to spend was given for two Evovector low level heaters subject to satisfactory quotations. Additional quotations awaited.
6 Proposed Calendar of Dates for the year beginning 1 April 2011
2012Sun 01.01 / New Year's Day
Mon 02.01 / Bank Holiday
Mon 09.01 / Planning Parks & Open Spaces
Mon 16.01 / Town Council
Mon 23.01 / Town Council (Estimates)
Mon 30.01 / Finance & General Purposes
Mon 06.02 / Staffing
Mon 13.02 / Planning Parks & Open Spaces
Mon 27.02 / Town Council
Mon 05.03 / Finance & General Purposes
Mon 12.03 / Extra Meeting
Mon 19.03 / Planning Parks & Open Spaces
Mon 02.04 / Town Council
Fri 06.04 / Good Friday
Mon 9 04 / Easter Monday
Mon 16.04 / Finance & General Purposes
Mon 23.04 / Annual Parish Meeting
Sun 29.04 / Civic Service
Mon 30.04 / Planning Parks & Open Spaces
Mon 07.05 / May Day Bank Holiday
Mon 14.05 / Town Council (Annual Meeting)
Mon 28.05 / Finance & General Purposes
Mon 04.06 / Bank Holiday
Tues 05.06 / Extra Bank Holiday
Mon 11.06 / Planning Parks & Open Spaces
Mon 18.06 / Audit
Mon 25.06 / Town Council
Mon 9.07 / Finance & General Purposes
Mon 16.07 / Staffing
Mon 23.07 / Planning Parks & Open Spaces
Mon 13.08 / Town Council
Mon 20.08 / Finance & General Purposes
Mon 27.08 / August Bank Holiday
Mon 3.09 / Planning Parks & Open Spaces
Mon 10.09 / Extra Meeting
Mon 17.09 / Town Council
Mon 1.10 / Finance & General Purposes
Mon 15.10 / Planning Parks & Open Spaces
Mon 22.10 / Extra Meeting
Mon 29.10 / Town Council
Mon 5.11 / Staffing
Mon 12.11 / Finance & General Purposes
Mon 19.11 / Audit
Mon 26.11 / Planning Parks & Open Spaces
Mon 3.12 / Town Council
Mon 10.12 / Finance & General Purposes
Tues 25.12 / Christmas Day
Weds 26.12 / Boxing Day
2013
Tues 1.01 / New Year’s Day
Mon 7.01 / Planning Parks & Open Spaces
Mon 14.01 / Town Council
Mon 21.01 / Town Council (Estimates)
Mon 28 01 / Finance & General Purposes
Mon 4.02 / Staffing
Mon 11.021 / Planning Parks & Open Spaces
Mon 25.02 / Town Council
Mon 4.03 / Finance & General Purposes
Mon 11.03 / Extra Meeting
Mon 18.03 / Planning Parks & Open Spaces
Fri 29.03 / Good Friday
Mon 1.04 / Easter Monday
Mon 8.04 / Town Council
Mon 15.04 / Finance & General Purposes
Mon 22.04 / Annual Parish Meeting
Mon 29.04 / Planning Parks & Open Spaces
Mon 6.05 / May Bank Holiday
Mon 13.05 / Town Council
Mon 20.05 / Finance & General Purposes
Mon 27.05 / Spring Bank Holiday
7 Code of Recommended Practice for Local Authorities on Data Transparency
The Government released this Code of Practice on 29 September 2011 under the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 s2 and it can be accessed at: http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment/pdf/1997468.pdf.
It requires local councils to build and maintain an inventory of public data which should be registered on data.gov.uk to support a single point of access for all public data from national and local government. Public data is defined as the objective factual data on which policy decisions are based and on which public services are assessed or which is collected or generated in the course of public service delivery.
The code will apply to Sandy Town Council as our income/ or expenditure is over £200,000. At the moment the code is not mandatory but is a code of “recommended practice”. SLCC and NALC advise all larger councils to comply voluntarily.
As a minimum the public data that should be released are:
· Expenditure over £500 (including costs, supplier and transaction information, the sum of £500 is a cumulative one, once £500 to an individual supplier is reached the information must be published)
· Senior employee salaries and names, JDs, budget and numbers of staff (not applicable to Sandy as senior employees are defined as having a salary over £58,200)
· An organizational chart of the staff structure including salary bands and details of any vacant posts
· The “pay multiple” – the ratio between the highest paid salary and the median average salary of the whole of the workforce
· Councillors allowances and expenses
· Copies of contracts and tenders to businesses and to the voluntary community and social enterprise sector
· Grants to the voluntary community and social enterprise sector should be clearly listed and itemized
· Policies, performances, external audits and key inspections and key indicators on the councils’ fiscal and financial position
· The location of public land and building assets and key attribute information that is normally recorded on asset registers
· Data of democratic running of the council including election results, committee structure, committee minutes, decision making processes and records of decisions.
As can be seen the whole purpose of the code is to ensure that provision of public data becomes integral to local council engagement with residents so that it drives accountability to them. The availability of public data should be promoted and publicised so that residents know how to access it and how it can be used. Presentation should be helpful, accurate, accessible and where practical councils should seek to publish in real time. Where errors are discovered these should be corrected when they are known.
Public data should be published in a format and under a licence that allow open re-use including for commercial and research activities in order to maximize value to the public. The recommended standard is the Open Government Licence. Publication should be in open and machine readable formats and there is a 5 star rating system designed to help authorities move from 1* (available on the web whatever format with an open license) to 5*(available on the web with an open license, plus machine readable structured data eg Excel instead of a table and non-proprietary format eg CSV and XML, plus open standards from the WWW consortium, plus link to other people’s data to provide context.)
The Clerk recommends that Sandy Town Council should work towards complying with the code as far as is reasonable practical as soon as is possible. This would mean publishing the minimum public data as described above in 1* format and working towards 3* ie machine readable data in non-proprietary format in the medium term. This will have several implications for the Council:
1. Changes to administrative procedures and to the structure of the website. At present Sandy Town Council does not publish its annual accounts or the estimates on the Council website, nor are the financial reports which form part of the minutes regularly posted to the web, land ownership, assets etc are also not shown on the website. There will be additional work for the staff team eg maintaining the inventory, monitoring cumulative supplies, posting addition information etc. The refresh of the website should include capacity for the necessary data and encourage the public to engage with the council.
2. All suppliers must be made aware that the details of contracts etc will be accessible. A strong risk management approach will be necessary to reduce the risk of any payment fraud as a result of publishing public data