Essex Association of Local Councils
Executive Meeting
24th July 2014
42B High Street Great Dunmow CM6 1AH
Present
Cllr Mrs Sheila Jackman Chairman
Cllr David McPherson-Davis Treasurer
Cllr John Buchanan Vice Chairman
Cllr John Gili-Ross Vice Chairman
NAME / District / Name / DistrictCllr McPherson-Davis / Basildon / Cllr Sheila Jackman MBE / Epping Forest
Cllr John Buchanan / Basildon / Cllr Tilly Pink, CBE / Maldon
Cllr Tony Hayward OBE / Braintree / Cllr Roy Martin / Rochford
Cllr Helen Edwards / Braintree / Cllr Brian Hazlewood / Rochford
Cllr Peter Davey / Brentwood / Cllr Michael Talbot / Tendring
Cllr Richard North / Brentwood / Jennie Pettitt / Tendring
Cllr Alan Acott / Castlepoint / Cllr Hamish McIlwrick / Uttlesford
Cllr Stuart Berlyn / Chelmsford / Cllr Mel Sullivan / Uttlesford
Cllr John Gili-Ross / Colchester / Cllr Mick Page / ECC
Also Present
Joy Darby Chief Executive Officer
Carol Hartley Finance Officer
Pearl Willcox Training Officer
Angela Balcombe ECC (By invitation)
Agenda
1. Chairman’s Welcome and Announcements
2. Apologies for Absence
ApologiesMrs Linda Golding / Committee Officer and PA to the CEO / Karen Plumridge / Chelmsford
Mrs Kathryn Richmond / Epping Forest / Cllr Keith Miles / LLCF
Cllr Bryan Ledger / Maldon
3. Minutes
3.1 Minutes of the EALC Executive Meeting held on May 15th 2014 had two amendments to be made:-
a) Cllr Mel Sullivan name was added to the list of apologies.
b) Deprivation was substituted for the word depreciation on page 249.
With these two alterations the minutes were agreed by those present and signed by the Chairman.
3.2 Finance Minutes (18.07.14) were not available at the meeting.
4. Personnel Committee
Mrs Jackman made a short report on the expected continuation of the EALC being an apprentice employer for the future.
5. Finance
5.1 Update from Councillor McPherson-Davis (Treasurer)
Year End Accounts – EALC
· Final audit still waited.
· The meeting is asked to approve the accounts, subject to final audit.
· An addition £6000 to go on employee costs
· This will show close to a break even figure for the year
· The report will be completed for the AGM showing the comments from the Treasurer, the CEO and the Finance Officer.
· There are changes to the reserves including a new legal costs reserve.
· Changes to trading income
· Affiliation fees at a good level
· Office and premises costs up due to the new offices and move
The Treasurer asked that the minutes record EALC thanks to ECC for the grants
The Treasurer asked for questions – none were raised
Year End Accounts EA(2013)Ltd
The Treasurer explained the accounts for the new company.
Directors
Kathryn Richmond
Cllr Peter Davey
Cllr David McPherson-Davis
The Directors will be signing off the accounts in due course.
Budget report
Cllr McPherson-Davis explained the budget report
· Recharges to training from salaries and premises.
5.2 Affiliation Fee Report by Mrs Carol Hartley
Mrs Hartley reported that 8 Councils still had to pay their affiliation fees - 6 were expected and 2 were waiting to be contacted. This amounts to approximately £1,000 currently outstanding.
5.3 End of Year and Audit EALC Accounts
It was proposed by Cllr Davey and seconded by Cllr Buchanan to approve the EALC Accounts to go before the AGM.
All those present agreed and the motion was passed unanimously.
5.4 EA(2013)Ltd Account
All those present agreed that the EA(2013) Ltd Accounts should be presented to the Membership at the AGM.
5.5 LGPS – Discretionary Policies
Members were asked to consider the discretionary policies and approve them.
Members agreed that the Office should be congratulated on the report and policy. They also asked that the staff were congratulated on managing the course on this subject for Councils.
Cllr John Buchanan proposed to accept the policy and Cllr Peter Davey seconded the proposal. The proposal was carried unanimously.
The Policy was signed by Cllr McPherson-Davis as Treasurer.
6. Buildings Management
6.1 Water Quality Report
The report was noted
Cllr Mick Page asked that the EALC submit a grant application to the CIF fund if the Landlord is not liable. Angela Balcombe agreed it would be an ideal project to apply for a grant.
Cllr Stuart Berlyn, Cllr Tony Hayward & Cllr Peter Davey all agreed it should be the responsibility of the landlord and that this needed to be checked.
6.2 Fire Risk Assessment Update – Mrs Darby reported that work was ongoing.
7. New Initiatives and Other Matters for Decision
7.1 EALC Publication Policy
Cllr McIlwrick proposed that the meeting ask him to rewrite a part of the policy as he was unhappy with the wording, particularly the word “photograph” that had been used as opposed to “image”.
Mrs Darby asked Cllrs to consider carefully the risks to the Association by not adopting this at the meeting, pointing out strongly that the Association was at risk until such a policy is adopted. Jennie Pettit suggested that it should be adopted immediately & then adjusted when and where necessary.
After much debate, it was resolved to adopt the policy. Cllr McIlwick could submit an alternative version for consideration within 6 months.
The policy was subsequently adopted.
7.2 Report on Photographs
Members noted the report.
7.3 Advice to Councils
Members approved the advice to go to Councils
7.4 Health and Safety Policy
Members unanimously agreed to adopt the Health and Safety Policy as presented.
The policy was agreed and signed by the Chairman.
8. Essex Matters
8.1 Essex County Council – Update Cllr Mick Page
Mrs Darby wishes to record her thanks to Cllr Page, who signposted her to Cllr Rodney Bass to secure training on LGPS Discretionary Policy Statement.
Cllr Page asked his guest Angela Balcombe to update Members present on the process of application to the CIF. Angela Balcombe confirmed that last year’s CIF Fund was £2 million, with each District receiving £120 thousand.
The rolling monthly fund will still be available until Feb 2015.
Decisions on the funding will be made in November 2014.
Full application to be received by the end of September 2014.
8.2 Essex County Council – Cllr David Finch Report to the Parish Councils
This report was sent to Parish Councils in Essex, this was for information only.
Mrs Darby was asked to write and thank him for the excellent update and say how useful the EALC found it, and were hearing that Parish Councils were equally impressed.
8.3 ECC - Electric Vehicles & the Rapid Charge Network
- Market Acceptance of EVs – K Bevis
- Evalu8 newsletter
- Funding Opportunities and partnership working
- Sustainable Travel – Helen presentation
Cllr Peter Davey who attended this meeting explained the funding of the charging and some of the difficulties and issues surrounding charging. All the presentations were noted.
8.4 Partners Forum on Rural Crime
Report on the last meeting attended by Mrs Darby was noted.
8.5 Superfast Essex Broadband Board
Report by Cllr Gili-Ross for information was noted
The following was discussed
ECC has been successful in getting an additional £20 million for the rural enabler – this will push superfast out from 86 – 95% of all areas in Essex.
· There were issues over where the funding is being used.
· John Gili-Ross to request that the Board Meetings are open to the public.
8.6 EALC Training Officer
Report from Mrs Pearl Willcox for information was noted
It was agreed to write to NALC and SLCC – re the term Clerk as it was felt this did no longer accurately describe the role and work of the Clerk.
The following were suggested as future courses
It was suggested that the Roles & Responsibilities course be looked at and updated. It was also suggested running a course on Personnel Management and that a leaflet be produced “What it is to be a Councillor” that EALC or any Council could hand out to a new Councillor who joins a Council. Mrs Darby explained that this type of leaflet is already available from the EALC.
8.7 Apprentice Report
Report from Sian Morris for information was noted
8.8 Vine HR Report
Report from Cllr Roy Martin – noted.
9. Regional Matters – Update
None at time of print
10. National Matters
10.1 NALC Council member Update – Cllr John Buchanan
Quality Status
Process is being made, the name will be changing to ‘Standards of Practice Scheme’. There will be 3 levels of award
1. Foundation
2. Quality Standard
3. Quality Gold Award
The process for adopting the scheme will be considered.
There will be a regional Accreditation Panel – which was strongly opposed, the County one had worked well in Essex.
This report was for information and Mrs Darby would find out the timetable for the scheme.
A working group of:-
Cllr Stuart Berlyn, Cllr Tony Hayward, Jennie Pettitt, Kathryn Richmond and Cllr John Gili-Ross would look at the scheme to start to prepare a response.
10.2 NALC Policy Committee Bulletin 15th May 2014 – Noted
10.3 NALC Policy Review
This report is for information – Noted
10.4 NALC LLCF Committee Report – Noted
This report is for information
10.5 SLCC Working Hours Group Report – Noted
It was agreed that the communications coming from the New CEO were good and Mrs Darby was asked to write and thank him.
11. Next Meeting and Meeting Dates
11.1 Executive Meeting Dates for 2014
4th September 2014 2 pm
20th November 2014 10 am (Annual Executive Meeting)
AGM 18th September 2014
Please note start times may vary if the EALC Executive has a speaker.
12. Feedback and Next Agenda
Cllr John Gili-Ross is a member of the Police and Crime Panel, he was able to find out there will be changes to the NAPS in the future, with Police attendance changing.
PCSOs – Funding may be possible – but the Chief Constable is looking for other ways of securing ‘Specials’.
PCSO Contracts are too complicated
Highways Panel – Uttlesford working well, 2 schemes being recommended and these lacked Officer approval because they were outside of the policy. Concern because of the confidentiality of the report, the Panel will be taking this up with the Highways Authority.
Essex Resilience Forum – Excellent event reported by Cllr Roy Martin
Cllr Alan Acott praised Cllr Rodney Bass for turning the street lights back on during the night because of the flooding on Canvey Island.
Cllr Tony Hayward spoke about the Braintree Highways Panel inviting Cllr Rodney Bass to attend, explaining this had been beneficial.
Cllr Sheila Jackman requested that everyone needed to attend the AGM on the 18th September and that all Councils needed to be encouraged to be there.
13. Meeting Closure
The meeting was closed at 4.25 pm
Signature …………………………………………… Date ………………………
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