Minutes if a meeting of the Finance and General Purposes Committee held September 28th 2016

Present: Cllrs Riddle, Alexander, Scott and Custance. Cllr Mynott (item 13 only). No members of the public.

Cllr Mynott was invited to attend the meeting for item 13. It was agreed to start the meeting with item 13. It was resolved that members of the public were excluded from this item and then were allowed in for the rest of the meeting.

1 / Apologies For Absence – Cllr Tuplin
2 / Minutes of Last Meeting Dated June 22nd 2016
3 / Matters Arising From Previous Minutes (for information only)
4 / Members’ Declaration Of Interest for items on the Agenda – Cllr Riddle item 10
5 / Property:
5.1 The clerk reported that the annual service of the fire extinguishers has taken place
5.2 An amendment to the upgrade of the CCTV system approved at Full Council on September 14th increasing the costs by £252 plus VAT was approved as installation is due to commence on October 13th.
6 / Financial Report:
6.1 Accounts – noted
6.2 To note date for next internal audit - October 11th– noted
6.3 Payment of urgent cheques:
  • To Hiscox – insurers for 2016/17 approved at Full Council – due date 1st October – amount £3,955.98
  • To canalbs ltd – internal auditor – unpaid invoice dated May 7th 2016 - £144.00
The above cheques had previously been approved and were signed as both were urgent.
7 / S137 Requests – referred from Full Council:
  • Sawtry Sports and Leisure Association – majority decision, Cllr Scott abstained – to recommend to Full Council that no grant to be made at this time, would like to see more active funding. Deferred to next grant application meeting in April 2017.
  • CARESCO – Sawtry Eye – it was agreed to recommend to Full Council that no grant be given. Costs could be covered by increasing advertising charges. The Parish Council already pay over £600 a year to have their update included.
  • East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices – it was agreed to recommend to Full Council that a grant of £500 is made.
  • East Anglian Air Ambulance – it was agreed to recommend to Full Council that a grant of £252 is made.
  • Cambridgeshire Lowland Search and Rescue – it was agreed to recommend to Full Council that no grant be given.

8 / Referral from Full Council – Request from The Hearing Dogs Association to have a small collection box in the Old School Hall for used stamps – will be emptied weekly – it was agreed to recommend to Full Council that the request is refused. The Parish Council support the work that they do but cannot accommodate this request.
9 / Referral from Full Council – Review of utility supplier.. The Clerk supplied updated quotes. Cllr Scott will look at actual useage and provide a comparison.
10 / Cllr Riddle left the meeting.
Cllr Custance chaired the meeting for the next item.
To consider increasing the Chairman’s Allowance to £1,000 – Cllr Riddle
It was noted that Cllr Emerick had asked for this item on the agenda but has since resigned. As Cllr Riddle had to leave the meeting she was unable to put forward reasons for the request.
It was agreed to recommend to Full Council that the allowance remains at £350 unless a paper on anticipated expenditure is presented.
Cllr Riddle chaired the rest of the meeting.
11 / Health and Safety Policies and Risk Assessments:
The Clerk handed out updated versions of:
Archive Policy – it was agreed to recommend approval to Full Council.
It was recommended that the Clerk purchase an additional external hard drive so that the two hard drives can be alternated for weekly back ups.
Freedom of Information – Publication Policy – Cllr Alexander to review and report back to Full Council
Assets Register with updated insurance figures – it was agreed to recommend to Full Council that the property owned by the Parish Council is re-valued, as the last valuation took place in January 2012.
12 / It was resolved that the press and public be excluded from the meeting because the business to be transacted contains sensitive information.
13 / Staffing Matters:
It was noted that a response had been received from AP Partnership and it was agreed to wait for a response from the Monitoring Officer before taking any action in relation to items raised at the Staffing Group meeting held on September 13th.
14 / Next meeting – November 23rd 2016 at 7.30pm