MINUTES TO THE MEETING OF HARTFIELD PARISH COUNCIL STRATEGY COMMITTEE, HELD ON MONDAY 26th MARCH 2012 AT 7.30PM IN THE COMMITTEE ROOM IN GOODS YARD HOUSE, HARTFIELD.

Present: Cllr J Edwarde (Chair), Cllr K Hawes, Cllr N Holmes,

Cllr C Risby, Cllr A Higgins, Cllr D Maher, Cllr L Hatch;

Cllr N Postlethwaite, Cllr C Beare, Cllr C Tamplin and Cllr H Searle.

Apologies: Cllr J Smith and Cllr M Colenutt

In attendance: Mrs Fulham (Clerk)

1. To Accept Apologies for Absence

Cllr J Smith and Cllr M Colenutt,

2. To hear members’ Declarations of Personal and Prejudicial Interest in matters to be discussed

Members were reminded to declare all relevant interests if applicable during the course of the meeting.

Cllr Postlethwaite declared a personal interest in the Youth Hut.

3. To approve minutes of Strategy Committee meeting held on 26th September 2011

Cllr Postlethwaite proposed Cllr Higgins seconded and were unanimously approved as a true record.

4. To Report on Matters Arising from Strategy Committee meeting held on 26th September 2011

On point 7 the Chair reported the concert would be indefinitely postponed due to other commitments this year.

On point 14 the Chair reported the recent feedback to the Clerk on grass cutting arrangements from ESCC.

The Chair suggested the number of visits and quality of work was monitored in 2012 and any issues with photographic evidence if possible to be reported to the Clerk to refer to ESCC immediately.

The Chair also suggested it was possible to tidy up the work provided by ESCC at a supplementary cost to the Parish Council.

The Clerk would research the issues and Councillors should report areas of concern to the Clerk.

The Chair reported it would be an agenda item for the PC meeting in May.

On point 16 the fuel transfer scheme was being run now by the Church and appeared to a success.

On point 13 the Suffolk proposal was passed to the planning committee who had supported it and there had been some success and the Clerk had received a thank you note to Hartfield Parish Council for their support.

5. Financial Overview.

This was postponed till after agenda item 7.

6. Beliefs and values.

The Chair had circulated a paper to summarise these, there had been no written comments but at this meeting some amendments were made and there was a general discussion on the paper.

It was agreed the general summary was good but any amendments Cllrs wished to make should be sent to the Clerk and a final draft would be circulated to all councillors prior to publishing. It was agreed this information would be made public in the summer newsletter and on the website.

7. Youth Hut and Youth Questionnaire results.

The Chair outlined the results of the recent Youth Hut questionnaire. The general preference had been for a facility managed by HPC with the 2 year plan and 5-10 year plan having equal favour.

There were no further comments.

The Financial Review was then supplied. Cllrs had received papers showing the positive balance from the Goods Yard Project, Projected income from Goods Yard House for 2012/13 and the forecasted balance for the year ending April 2012. This amounted to approximately £22,000.

The Cllrs were then thanked for their thoughts and contributions on projects to consider for 2012/13 and beyond.

8. To consider projects for 2012 /13 and beyond. (Supporting papers provided.)

The Chair outlined how all the suggested projects could benefit from PC funding in the forthcoming year and how the funds could be split, some projects had minimal or had no cost whilst some would incur initial costs in 2012/13 and further funding if progressed. Councillors were then asked to discuss individual projects in more detail and finally after some discussion each project was reviewed and the following agreed:

Pavilion Fund £2000 to put toward grant funding for windows and roof or to pay for replacement windows if grant funding was not forthcoming.

Proposed by Cllr Postlethwaite seconded by Cllr Hawes and unanimously approved.

Youth Hut £2000 to pay for a survey and design costs

Proposed by Cllr Postlethwaite seconded by Cllr Risby and approved by majority vote with two votes against.

Broadband Project £2500 for future technical reports and meetings.

Proposed by Cllr Hatch seconded by Cllr Searle and approved by majority vote with one abstention.

If the broadband project is abandoned it was agreed these funds would move back to general reserves.

Neighbourhood Plan £2000 for consultation process and £3000 for referendum.

Proposed by Cllr Hatch and seconded by Cllr Maher and unanimously approved.

It was also agreed additional PC meetings would be required to progress the neighbourhood plan project.

Logo Project

£1000 Proposed by Cllr Edwarde seconded by Cllr Risby and voted on but dismissed with four votes in favour.

£500 was proposed by Cllr Searle seconded by Cllr Beare and approved by majority vote with five in favour two abstentions and three against.

£500 was allocated to the project.

It was agreed any new logo would go to a main Parish Council meeting for approval.

Inclusiveness Project

It was agreed there would be a meeting arranged to discuss in more detail.

£2500 Proposed by Cllr Tamplin seconded by Cllr Risby and approved by majority vote with two abstentions.

Signage for Town Croft

£2000 Proposed by Cllr Holmes and seconded by Cllr Tamplin and approved by majority vote with three votes against.

It was agreed any new signage would go to a main Parish Council meeting for approval.

Interpretation Board

£1000 Proposed by Cllr Hawes seconded by Cllr Maher and approved by majority vote with four abstentions.

Security Cage and Tools for the Croft Barn

£1100 Proposed by Cllr Edwarde seconded by Cllr Tamplin and unanimously approved.

All the agreed funds would feature as a proposal to move to earmarked reserves at the PC meeting on 2nd April 2012.

It was agreed to defer the item on telephone boxes.

It was agreed the matters of grass cutting and the jubilee would be deferred to a PC meeting.

It was agreed by the committee that all Goods Yard House matters would be discussed in future within the Finance Committee agenda as the building was a matter for all councillors.

It was also agreed that projects over £10,000 would be a matter for the whole Parish Council and not decided by committee.

9. Goods Yard - future use of the building and proposal for an additional opening time.

This item was deferred to the next meeting.

10. Spring newsletter.

It was proposed this should be colour and could be eight pages due to the importance of forthcoming events. Proposed by Cllr Higgins seconded by Cllr Maher and approved by majority vote.

Cllr Holmes abstained due to a prejudicial interest.

11. Matters for Reporting and Inclusion in Future Agenda

Cllr Maher reminded people about South East in Bloom and volunteers required.
Broadband and the interpretation board were requested to be included in future agendas.

12. Date of next meeting 24th September 2012.

Meeting closed at 10:10pm