held at 7pm on
Wednesday 12th April 2017 at
Hodge Lea Meeting Place, Hodge Lea Lane, Hodge Lea, MK12 6JS /
Councillors present: Cllr Hussain (Chair), Moss (Vice-Chair), Bryant, Marklew, Mukadam, Gates, Johnstone, Hepburn, Graham, Bakare, Fensome and Saunders.
Also present:Sally McLellan-Town Clerk
Absent:Cllr Sebastian Jackson-Brooke
TC16/257 / ApologiesApologies for absence were received and approved from:
Cllr Holroyd-personal
Cllr Advani- maternity leave
TC16/258 / Declarations of interest on any matter on the agenda
Cllr Lerant declared a personal interest in the Old School House project as his wife works at Slated Row School.
Cllr Marklew declared a pecuniary interest in the Old School House project as she is a board member for Future Wolverton.
TC16/259 / Minutes:to approve the minutes of the Full Council Meeting held on 9thMarch 2017–
It was RESOLVED to approve the minutes of the Full Council meeting held on 9thMarch 2017 as a true and correct record.
TC16/260 / Public question time-members of the public may ask questions on any matters dealt with by Full Council included on this agenda. (Questions must be submitted in writing in advance in accordance with the Council’s Standing Orders)-
No questions were received in writing.
TC16/261 / Old School project- Receive an update on the project and agree to provide £1,375 upfront, to support the process of getting the Community Shares scheme to tender stage-
Cllr Marklew left the meeting due to her pecuniary interest.
It was RESOLVED to provide the £1,375 upfront to Future Wolverton to fund a quantity surveyor,to support the process of getting the Community Shares scheme to tender stage.
Cllr Marklew returned to the meeting.
TC16/262 / Neighbourhood Policing- Discuss any concerns to be addressed by Thames Valley Police-
No officers were present from Thames Valley Police.
TC16/263
TC16/264
TC16/265
TC16/266
TC16/267 / Finance:
Agree the accounts for the month of February 2017. (papers enclosed)
It was RESOLVED to approve the accounts for the month of February 2017 as presented.
Consider taking out a Unity Trust Multipay Card to replace the Alto Card-
It was RESOLVED to take out a Unity Trust Multipay Card to replace the Alto Card.
Agree to add into the Financial Regulations that in the absence of the Clerk the Assistant to the Clerk will do the following: ‘When the Finance Officer adds new Beneficiaries, or enters payments, a listing is printed off and given to the Clerk for their review. The Clerk should sign the listing as evidence of review and approval. The Clerk should email a pdf of the signed listing to the payment authorisers for their review prior to payment. The original signed listing should be kept on file in the Council offices.' –
It was RESOLVED to add into the Financial Regulations that in the absence of the Clerk the Assistant to the Clerk will do the following: ‘When the Finance Officer adds new Beneficiaries, or enters payments, a listing is printed off and given to the Clerk for their review. The Clerk should sign the listing as evidence of review and approval. The Clerk should email a pdf of the signed listing to the payment authorisers for their review prior to payment. The original signed listing should be kept on file in the Council offices.
Agree the remit for the Internal Auditor for 2016/2017 including his roles and responsibilities as raised by the Internal Audit Review-
It was RESOLVED to agree the proposed remit for the Internal Auditor for 2016/2017 to include:
1.The guidance notes from the Governance and Accountability for Local Councils Guide. We have attached a copy of Section 4: Non-statutory guidance for internal audit at smaller authorities and AGS assertion 6: internal audit for your reference.
2.With reference to the Council’s Financial & General Risk Assessment for this financial year, we would like you to focus on the risks marked as ‘M’ (medium) as part of your internal audit. We have attached a copy of the Financial & General Risk Assessment for your reference.
3.Our Internal Systems Review has also identified a need to provide finance training for new councillors. This has been booked though BALC. A copy of the Internal Systems Review is attached for your reference.
It was RESOLVED to agree the following roles and responsibilities for the Internal Auditor-
IAC Limited will conduct the internal audit work for your Council in relation to the 2017
Annual Return and such subsequent Annual Returns as required by the Council.
The work undertaken will specifically relate to the Annual Internal Audit Report, and aiding
the Council to fulfil its obligations under Section 1 of the Annual Return. In conducting this
work IAC Limited will comply with the requirements of
●‘Governance and Accountability for Local Councils – A Practitioners’ Guide
(England)’
●The Accounts and Audit (England) Regulations 2015 (as amended)
●Such other guidance and best practice that may be prevailing from time to time.
Additional internal audit work in relation to the Council's obligations under the regulations
may also be undertaken by separate agreement.
Audit planning
IAC Limited will plan our audit with due care to ensure that the appropriate level of resources are made available to conduct our work, and that the council is able to meet it statutory
reporting obligations.
Reporting
IAC Limited will prepare a summary report on areas of non-compliance where such
non-compliances are limited in nature and result in an unqualified internal audit report.
Where it may be necessary to qualify an internal audit report IAC Limited shall prepare a detailed report on those areas of noncompliance which have led to a qualification.
Where necessary IAC Limited will attend council meetings, or other meeting with officers or
councillors to discuss our audit report and findings. IAC Limited reserve the right to raise an
additional fee in relation to attendance at such meetings, but will agree this fee, if any, in
advance of such a meeting.
Independence and competence
IAC Limited will ensure that staff conducting and supervising audits are appropriately trained and qualified for the level of work undertaken.
IAC Limited will ensure that we maintain independence from the day to day activities of the council.
IAC Limited will not provide additional consultancy or advisory services to the council which may compromise their audit independence.
TC16/268
TC16/269
TC16/270
TC16/271 / Mayor-
Consider establishing a Town Mayor with civic regalia-
It was RESOLVED to adopt the title of Mayor, but the council will not look at updating the Regalia at present and look at options acceptable to the public.
Adopt the proposed Mayor protocol-
Councillors to email any changes on the protocol to the Clerk for the document to be reviewed at the next meeting.
Set a Mayors allowance-
It was RESOLVED for the expenses incurred by the Mayor to come out of councillor expenses budget of £1,000.
Agree the purchase of the Civic Regalia for the Mayor and whether a robe for the Mayor and Clerk is required to be purchased-
It was RESOLVED not to update the regalia or purchase the robe at present and look at options acceptable to the public to update the regalia.
TC16/272
TC16/273
TC16/274
TC16/275 / Update on the council plan- Receive the merged and updated 2018-2021 and 2015-2018 council plans-
It was agreed to add into the objective to set up a pop up café, to explore having a café and councillor surgeries at Hodge Lea Meeting Place.
Remove any aims which are no longer required to take forward-
It was RESOLVED to remove the objective to create roof top gardens and change vertical parking to create on street parking. Options include looking into angled parking and one way streets. Councillors to look into the actions highlighted in blue and report to the next on any which need to removed or propose clear actions to progress these aims.
Receive an update from the working groups and the Planning Committee on the delegated tasks from the council plan-
The following updates were received and noted.
Community Engagement Working group
- A pop up café is being considered for Wolverton Library. The Café would be provided in the form of a cart run by Milton Keynes Community Foundation, serving drinks and snacks. This cart could be transported and then used in parks and community events. The café in the Library could be used as a drop in service for councillors weekly, to enable residents to ask questions to their local councillors as well as ward councillors. This pop up café would be provided at no cost to the council and will improve the footfall to the library. As the café would be run by the Christian Foundation all drinks and snacks served would be healthy and affordable. This café provides another outlet of opportunity to train as part of the Christian Foundation scheme.
- Support for local businesses is being explored through offering promotional space in the newsletter free of charge. Ruth’s Floral Design were chosen to run this trial to see what impact it had on their business. Discussions are still taking place on this scheme with Ruth’s.
- The production of Wolverton and Greenleys News has been trialled with Travisbead, based in Wolverton for the month of April.
Provide quiet spaces with wildlife, greenery, communal area and roof gardens. These could be vertical gardens to promote green space in areas where there is a lack of space-
-Britain in Bloom provides planters to residents on Cambridge Street, Buckingham Street and Radcliffe Street to brighten up these streets from ground level. It was deemed that only bus users would benefit from seeing roof top gardens, which could be placed on Foundation House and bus shelters. It was agreed not to pursue this option and request to Full Council that it removed from the council plan.
-Britain in Bloom still requires more volunteers to assist with planting and route clearance before the judge’s visit for inspection. This requires removing litter. The clean-up day was popular in March, and if linked to Britain in Bloom could assist with tidying the route before judging day.
-The Britain in Bloom team are planting the bed into the cemetery and war memorial to improve the look of the town. £250 was contributed by the co-op funeral care for this work. The remaining money is being deducted from the Britain in Bloombudget.
-Knorr Bremse has agreed to provide £750 to purchase lavender plants for the bed outside the works, which the caretakers and Britain in Bloom will replant.
Less rubbish- support Don’t rubbish Wolverton to enable them to expand. Provide free litter pickers to residents
-‘Pick up after your dog’ and ‘don’t be a litter bug’ posters to be purchased to be displayed on lampposts in affected areas. Thirty in total to be purchased. Councillors to provide a list of areas in their parish where these posters could be erected to address these issues in their parish.
-A stall to be held at MK50 by Jo and Jill Kitchen to promote anti littering and anti-dog fouling. A badge making machine to hired to print ‘Pick up after your dog’ and ‘don’t be a litter bug’ on a sticker which can then be coloured in by children.
-Great Linford use an environmentally friendly spray paint to hi-light dog poo to create awareness of dog foul.
-The next clean-up day is scheduled for the week before the Britain in Bloom judges come to town, which is 24th June 2017, 10am-11.30am, starting at the Community Orchard. The Community Officer to be involved in the organising of this event and attend on the day.
-The feedback received from the last clean-up event is that people need to be allocated particular routes and tasks at this clean-up day.
Other allocated tasks
Look into energy saving for council properties-
-Old Wolverton allotments water charges are higher than Stacey Hill allotments, which is a much larger allotment site. After checking the meter with Anglian water, providing meter readings and checking for leaks for over year, it has been determined that the high water bill is generated from one allotment holder who uses the water to fill his duck pond. The water charges for Old Wolverton allotment exceeds the rent received for the site. The bills are around £50 per quarter. The supply of water is similar all year, except for the peak growing season, July to October when the bills rise to £60 for this quarter.
-Sally obtained a quote to change the lighting at the town hall to lower wattage to conserve electricity. The cost of replacing these lights out weighed the benefit that the council would receive from this outlay.
-As the bulbs go, the bulbs are now changed to lower wattage as a matter of course.
-The heaters at the town hall should be replaced with thermostatically controlled heaters when they break to be more energy efficient.
No further energy saving improvements can be made to the town hall.
Planning Committee
Background
Per Minute reference TC16/176 10 November 2016 it was agreed that in order to maximise S106 funding The Planning Committee would decide on how best to use the funding that was available to us within the parish.
MKC provide us with a spreadsheet which lists all funds available via S106. (see attached)
Current Situation
We are currently in the process of applying for the large chunk of funding for improvements to the allotment sites at Old Wolverton and Hodge Furze to the value of £51k. There is also a request £8k to be used towards improving the library service here at the Town Hall.
There has been some difficulty in trying to understand the large spreadsheet that contains all of the data relating to S106 spending and what funds are actually available attempts to simplify this have been made and passed on requesting feedback.
Some of the ideas which have been suggested to allocate the funding are as follows:
- Signage for dog and litter bins
- Assistance towards Healthcare
- Improvements to the Stratford Road Roundabout
Full Council to provide further suggestions and ideas as to what the funding can be spent on
Consider submitting match funded applications to Milton Keynes Council for the Parish Partnership Investment Fund (PPIF), Play Area Improvement Scheme (PAIS),Community Parking Partnership Scheme (CPPS) to further the council objectives set out in the council plan-
It was RESOLVED to apply for-
The Community Parking Partnership Scheme to create parking in Furze Way.
The Parish Partnership Investment Fund to fund activities in the library to develop the facility into a community hub.
TC16/276 / Litter and Dog fouling signs
Consider the suggestion by Cllr Fensome to ask local artists to create litter and dog fouling signs for around the community using available budget from recycling money-
It was RESOLVED to purchase signs to educate against dog fouling in streets anddropping litter, working with schools to create the artwork with local artists. This would be funded from the recycling scheme funds.
It was RESOLVED for the recycling scheme money to be used to for community activities to promote recycling.
TC16/277 / Town Hall: Agree the white lining of the car park and the prospective agreement for the Town Hall car park usage with Antep-
It was RESOLVED to white line the car park up to the value of £700. It was RESOLVED for the Clerk to put in place an agreement with Antep where theyto contribute to the maintenance of the car park to enable them use this facility when the town hall is not in use.
TC16/278 / MK50 Working Group – Consider appointing two further Cllrs to join the working group-
It was RESOLVED Cllrs Holroyd and Bakare to be appointed to MK50 working group.
TC16/279 / Charity Beneficiary for the 2017 Fireworks display – To approve the beneficiary as reported by the Working Group-
It was RESOLVED to appoint Harrys Rainbow to be the beneficiary for this year’s Fireworks Display collection.
TC16/280 / MKALC Conference: Receive a report from Cllr Marklew on the devolution conference organised by MKALC-
Cllr Marklew provided an update on the devolution meeting. There are still issues surrounding the communication on devolved services from Milton Keynes Council. A clear plan on how these services are to be devolved from MKC to parishes is still yet to be determined.
TC16/281
TC16/282
TC16/283
TC16/284
TC16/285
TC16/286
TC16/287 / Items to note:
A summary of staff appraisals-
The summary on the staff appraisals, produced by the Clerk was received and noted.
Update from the Library Working Group on the discussions to improve Wolverton Library and generate income to help fund the service through office rental-