Myland Community Council
Minutes of the meeting of the Community Council held on Wednesday 26th October 2016, 7.30pm, at Mile End Methodist Church Hall, Nayland Road, Colchester.
Present: / Cllr Martin Goss (Chair)Cllr Pete Hewitt / Cllr Adrian Ellis
Cllr Richard Beauchamp / Cllr Carolyne Hurst
Cllr Catherine Clouston / Cllr Alison Jay
Cllr David Clouston / Cllr Robert Johnstone
Cllr Jean Dickinson / Cllr Peter Pipik
Cllr John Dickson / Cllr John Stewart
There was one member of the public and County Councillor Anne Turrell present.
136-16/17 Apologies - to receive and accept
Apologies were received and accepted from, Cllrs Gray and King.
137-16/17 Declarations of Interest
There were none.
138-16/17 Have your say
There were no comments.
139-16/17 Minutes of the Meeting of the Council held on 28th September 2016 to be approved as a true record and signed by the Chairman.
The minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 28th September 2016 were approved as a true record and signed by the Chairman.
Proposed: Cllr Hurst Seconded: Cllr Johnstone (9 For; 4 Abstensions)
140-16/17 Update on progress of resolutions made at the last meeting
The Chair said Items 120, 122 and 124 – responses to consultations had all been completed.
141-16/17 Chairman’s Report
The Chair said he would like to thank everyone who had sent condolences following the loss of his dad.
142-16/17 Clerk’s Report
The Clerk said the office reorganisation was ongoing.
The Clerk said another document required for LCAS Quality Gold status was on this agenda, Item 144, and she was working on all the others required.
The Clerk said she had started work on figures for the budget/precept and she was hoping more information would emerge from the discussion under Item 145 to help with this process.
The Clerk said draft meeting dates for 2017 had been sent to all Chairs of Committees and Working Groups for preliminary agreement. All Chairs confirmed the dates appeared to be satisfactory. The Clerk said the proposed dates would be on the November agenda for all Members to agree.
The Clerk said she would send out an updated Working Group/Committee list for all members to confirm the revisions were correct.
The Clerk said she and the Assistant Clerk had started looking at re-organising the web site to make it easier to locate information.
143-16/17 Finance
To consider and possibly resolve to authorise invoices for payment, receive copy Bank statements and details of expenditure to date.
It was resolved to authorise invoices for payment, receive copy Bank statements and details of expenditure to date.
Proposed: Cllr Stewart Seconded: Cllr Dickinson (12 For: 1 Abstention)
Income
Date / Amount / Received from / Type06-Oct-16 / 314.94 / Pauls Catering / Fete Income
21-Oct-16 / 135.00 / Trevor Cordwell / Mylander
31-Oct-16 / 376.00 / Colchester Borough Council / Other Income
Expenses
Date / Amount / Description / Type10-Oct-16 / 273.00 / BNP Paribas / Office Equipment & Mtce
17-Oct-16 / 20.00 / Contract Services / Cleaning
20-Oct-16 / 151.18 / CNG / Gas
20-Oct-16 / 16.97 / E-on / Electricity
26-Oct-16 / 18.62 / Titan Telecom / Phone
27-Oct-16 / 320.00 / Churches Together / Community funding
27-Oct-16 / 320.00 / Mile End Art Group / Community funding
27-Oct-16 / 320.00 / Mile End WI / Community funding
27-Oct-16 / 320.00 / Gt Horkesley Table Tennis / Community funding
27-Oct-16 / 320.00 / Colne Endeavour Band / Community funding
27-Oct-16 / 1,264.47 / Community Centres a/c / Community funding
27-Oct-16 / 23.00 / Mile End Methodist Church / Meetings
27-Oct-16 / 90.00 / M&K Gardens / Gardening
27-Oct-16 / 82.37 / Copy IT / Office Equipment & Mtce
27-Oct-16 / 96.27 / E&J Fire and Security Ltd / Building & Mtce costs
27-Oct-16 / 85.00 / EALC / Councillor Training
27-Oct-16 / 30.10 / J Stewart / Councillor Training
27-Oct-16 / 9.00 / H Harris / Building & Mtce costs
27-Oct-16 / 5.98 / H Harris / Stationery
27-Oct-16 / 50.00 / H Harris / Stationery
27-Oct-16 / 4,187.79 / Various / Staff costs
144-16/17 To consider and possibly resolve to adopt the MCC Equality & Diversity Policy – Issue 1 – October 2016
It was resolved to adopt the MCC Equality & Diversity Policy – Issue 1 – October 2016
Proposed: CllrBeauchamp Seconded: Cllr Stewart (Unanimous)
145-16/17 To discuss the 2017/18 Precept and Budget including possible projects requiring funding
Cllr Hewitt opened the discussion and read from an email received from Cllr David King.
Cllr Beauchamp said contingency funding was more important than ever.
Cllr Goss said he was concerned about the precept percentage increase and the resident’s perception. He said that MCC authorised a bigger increase for the current year to start building funds for the Community Centres but he felt 2017/18 increase should be in line with RPI or inflation unless there were good reasons e.g. maintenance of the proposed village green in Mill Road. He also said MCC should be mindful of the Governments proposals to cap Parish Councils precept increases.
Cllr C Clouston said there had been an increase in population which meant more money. Cllr Goss said this also increased MCC’s expenditure e.g. the Mylander.
Cllr Hurst said that any increase should be presented to the residents in real terms. Cllr Goss said information could be given to residents via the Mylander, web site and Facebook.
Cllr Johnstone asked if an information leaflet could be included with the Council Tax demand sent to all residents. Cllr Goss said he would look into it including costs.
Cllr Dickinson said she did not empathise with the need for caution. She said services to the community were getting less and MCC would need to look at ways of filling the gaps. She said the planning process was nearing the end and the Neighbourhood Plan projects would need to be funded. She said MCC needed to look at what it was going to do and how the Neighbourhood Plan would be implemented.
Cllr Johnstone said he tended to agree with Cllr Dickinson and added that despite the talk of austerity there still seemed to me money available for funding. He said to do what MCC wanted to do funds were needed in the coffers.
Cllr C Clouston said she agreed with Cllr Dickinson that services were down.
Cllr Hewitt said we need to tell residents what we are doing and the costs involved. Funds need to be accumulated for some projects e.g. Community Centres in order to get match funding.
Cllr Ellis asked where MCC was compared to other Parishes. The Clerk said Myland was the largest Parish in tax base terms but remained the 7th cheapest with regard to precept.
Cllr Goss said it was difficult to make comparisons as somewhere like Mersea provided a lot of services and places like Wivenhoe had a lot of buildings.
Cllr D Clouston said he was not sure why there was any conflict with points of view. He said the community was ending the development phase and a view of how the Parish would look was known. He said it was known that the population would increase and also what the community wanted was known as a result of the Neighbourhood Plan and therefore there was no speculative work to be done. He said MCC should not be frightened to increase the precept to achieve the aims of the Neighbourhood Plan. He said MCC should consider what would be provided and should not be worried about putting a cohesive proposition together.
Cllr Ellis said MCC should make it clear to residents that Myland is one of the cheapest Parishes and what it aimed to do with the precept. He agreed that funds were needed in the coffers to achieve those aims.
Cllr Stewart said that if residents challenged any increase in precept then MCC should have a good answer.
Cllr Hewitt agreed with Cllr Stewart and said any precept increase would have to have a good, easily understood case. He said that he and the Clerk had tried to get some up front funding, especially for the Community Centres, but most grant opportunities either needed match funding or had to be spent within a certain period and MCC was not yet at that stage. He added that there were known individuals who would challenge any precept increase, last year he received only two/three queries.
Mrs White said Myland was an urban Parish and probably the richest. She said it would be unfair if Myland residents subsidised facilities for the whole Borough.
Cllr Dickson said this was the resident’s money and MCC was guardian of it. He said income, expenditure and proposed expenditure should be made clear.
The Clerk said she could produce budget/precept figures for 2017/18 based on anticipated 2016/17 expenditure/income but she needed details of any projects, including cost estimates, in order to build a complete budget for 2017/18. She said this was why it was important that Working Groups and Committees produced papers showing their intended aims, including costs, for the next financial year. She said this was why it was important to have an up to date Action Plan and Business Plan as these could help form the basis of any funding requirements for the next year and until 2021.
146-16/17 To receive reports from Councillors including updates from Champions
Cllr Stewart said he had attended an EALC training course on Greens, Commons and Open Spaces. He said it had given him a good insight into what to do regarding the Village Green.
Cllr Johnstone said he and Cllr Beauchamp had attended the Best Foot Forward (BFF) legacy meeting 17th October. He said BFF had received further funding which would enable them to continue until at least March 2017.
Cllr Johnstone said he had attended the Essex Local Access Forum 11th October where the main topic was Network Rails proposals to close Public Right of Way access across railways.
Cllr Johnstone said he and John Gilli-Ross had attended a meeting on behalf of CALC with Paul Smith and Pamela Donnolly, CBC, to discuss problems Parishes are having with CBC. He said although officer support for Neighbourhood Plans was excellent and the relationship with the Zone Teams was good there were still many highway problems and there seemed to be a relationship problem between CBC and ECC.
Cllr Hewitt said he had met with the Severalls consortium regarding the Chapel. He said the organ was a good example but at 15 feet high MCC did not have the facilities to look after it. He said the expert had agreed to broadcast it’s availability to his contacts to see if anyone else could take ownership and restore it. He said the windows, as long as they could be removed undamaged, the bell and the cross would all be donated to MCC.
Cllr Hewitt said he, the Clerk, Cllr Stewart and Ward Cllr G Oxford had attended a preliminary meeting with CBC regarding the Mill Road Village Green.
Cllr Hewitt said meetings had been held with the Chesterwell and Severalls developers to keep up to date with progress.
Cllr Beauchamp said meetings were ongoing regarding the Colchester PRoW orbit and connecting with bus services.
147-16/17 To receive reports from Working Groups – maximum two minutes each
Cllr Hurst said the Community Group did not meet in October. The next meeting would be 21st November.
Cllr Hewitt said the Neighbourhood Plan Group was looking for another Cllr to join the Group. He said work had begun on mapping out what needed to be done - an update would be available following the next meeting, 14th November. (Cllr D Clouston offered to rejoin the Group)
Cllr Johnstone said the Myland Access Group had set dates for working parties – third Saturday of the month starting in the New Year. He said they had discussed the budget and felt they may need £500 for safety equipment. He said the Boxing Day walk would be going ahead. Cllr Johnstone said he had responded to a recent planning application regarding land adjacent to Cambian Hospital as no mention had been made to a condition included in permission for a previous application regarding PRoW access and improvement. Cllr Stewart said the PD&P Committee would also include reference to this in its response.
148-16/17 Report by Ward Councillor
Cllr Goss said he visited Rosewood and found the play area covered with litter and one of the bins had been ripped out. He said residents had experienced some anti-social behaviour. He said there were still problems with the management company.
Cllr Goss said there were still issues at Northfields especially with roads being incomplete.
Cllr Goss said he had called in the Equity House planning application and had lodged an official objection with 14 issues. Cllr Stewart said the last application there had included the restoration and donation to CBC of the murals in building two but this one did not mention them.
149-16/17 Report by County Councillor
Cllr Turrell said highways were the main issues she had been dealing with:
Noise complaints Mill Road, NAR and Bergholt Road – ECC refused to improve.
Mill Road between NAR and Nayland Road – ECC looking to schedule resurfacing 2017/18.