Minutes ofExtraordinary meeting of the Parish Council

held on Thursday 22 June 2017

Present: / David Goodman / Peter Markham / Brenda Bell
Pam Hedge / Colin Clark / Catherine Alborough (Clerk)
David Bills / Members of the Public x 4 / June Tucker (Village Hall Committee)
1. / Apologies
Philip Quinn / Mark Tudor
2. / Declarations of Interest
None
3. / Discussion of the purchase of playground equipment by the Parish Council on behalf of the Parish Council, Village Hall Committee and Playground Committee
The Playground Committee came together as an off-shoot of the Village Hall Committee to raise funds to provide a zip wire for the playground, in the grounds of the village hall. This land is owned by the Parish Council.
Kate Smallwood told the meeting that as there was so much work involved in this small purchase and the present playground equipment was getting old, it was decided to go ahead with funding for a new playground and zip wire on the site.
A grant was applied for and awarded by South Norfolk Council, with the help of Councillor David Bills, amounting to £5,000.00. Bawburgh Youth Group have donated£300.00 and £100 was raised at the Bawburgh Fete and Duck Race. This enabled the Playground Committee to make an application to Biffa Awards for a grant of £49,671.96.
To enable this grant £5,118.68 was transferred to Biffa Awards in order for them to offer this grant as 10% needs to be raised from 3rd party funding. Biffa Awards requires that the application for a grant is not made public knowledge until later on in the process, hence the requirement for more details not being available until now. The process has taken over a year to complete.
In April 2016 a community consultation was held to gather ideas for what people would like to see in their park, as well as organising discussions and activities at the Baby and Toddler and Youth Club groups to get the opinion of the children themselves. Subsequently designs and quotes were sought from three separate play companies, and Kompan were selected as the provider of the new play area.
All the equipment is new. ROSPA have always passed the old equipment as being safe, albeit critical of the wear and tear, and this will now be sold.
Once the equipment has been installed and passed by ROSPA a 3-minute video will be taken and forwarded to Biffa Awards to show how the grant has been spent. If Biffa Awards are happy with this they will release the grant monies.
4. / Payment of grants to the Parish Council
The Parish Council own and maintain the Village Hall and Playing Ground area. The new equipment will be bought by the Parish Council and then maintained by the Village Hall Committee.
In June 2016 a letter was written by David Goodman, Chairman of Bawburgh Parish Council, regarding the review of playground equipment and supporting this initiative, in particular backing the playground committee and also considering offers of financial support.
The order for the new playground equipment and installation was made on behalf of the Parish Council. The invoice for £50,000.00 will be sent to the Parish Council on completion of all works, all monies being paid in one transaction.
Once the monies are received from Biffa Awards this will be transferred to the account of Bawburgh Parish Council.
The invoice will include VAT amounting to £10,000.00. A claim will be made to HMRC for VAT refund as soon as the invoice is received and the work completed and passed by ROSPA. However the Parish Council does not have funds to cover this expense, whilst waiting for the refund, and this will be discussed at the Village Hall Committee meeting on 6 July 2017.
The Vice Chairman of Bawburgh Parish Council, Peter Markham, proposed that the Parish Council purchase play equipment and installation of up to £50,000 plus VAT. The Village Hall Committee to continue to manage the Playground on behalf of the Parish Council in the future. The proposal was unanimously carried.
5. / Date of next meeting
Thursday 20 July 2017, 7:30 pm, Bawburgh Village Hall.

Dates of meetings in 2017

21 September 2017

16 November 2017