Minutes of the Finance & General Purposes Committee held on Wednesday 7th December 2011 at 7.00pm in the Town Council office, The Library, Church Street, Hungerford.
Present: Cllrs Rupert Thompson, M Crane, M Wilson, R L Thompson, D Benneyworth
Also the RFO
1. Apologies for absence: Cllrs J Hutchings and C Bumbieris
2. Declarations of interest: Cllr R L Thompson re JOG Community Centre
3. Minutes of Meeting held on 13th September 2011: Cllr Crane proposed these as a true record and seconded by Cllr Wilson, all in favour. Outcome of previous actions: Training to be added to next agenda, and update on T&M Lease re football club. Also, for the next R & A , an agenda item re changing rooms and project manager/architect. Minutes of meeting Part 2 on 12th July 2011: Cllr R L Thompson proposed and seconded by Cllr Benneyworth, all in favour. Minutes of meeting held on 10th October Cllr Crane proposed and seconded by Cllr Wilson all in favour. Minutes of meeting on 8th November: Cllr Crane proposed and Cllr Wilson seconded rest abstained as not at that meeting. Outcome of previous actions: Lock on swimming pool house – has this been actioned? Town Clerk to check.
4. Finance: Propose finalised budget and Precept to be ratified at Full Council: After much discussion it was agreed to keep the precept the same as last year £186036 and the budget to be £191586. The shortfall would be covered by drawing on reserves . Reserves were reviewed and it was concluded that we had over £100k of available reserves due to years of prudent management, but it was agreed that we wished to maintain healthy reserves for several years because of the uncertain economic climate, so would continue to manage our annual expenditure carefully to try to stay as close to the annual precept as possible. This was proposed by Cllr Rupert Thompson and seconded by Cllr Benneyworth, all in favour.
The main discussions were related to the Christmas lights which all agreed were excellent, but were concerned about the costs of the lights at c £29k gross and £24k net of contributions. It was agreed that the H & T Committee should check the actual costs for this year when we have them available in January. It was noted that in light of the frozen precept and other increasing costs H & T would appoint a sub-committee to review the lights and provide a report for H & T to discuss in February with costs and possible income and how we might make savings. The long term target for this spend being no more than 10% of the precept – how could this be achieved? It was noted that currently local traders contribution to the lights are relatively small in relation to costs and yet they gain a lot from them commercially - in many other towns the traders pay all or most of the costs – so it is entirely reasonable to expect the Chamber of Commerce to contribute more, perhaps by helping HTC get commercial sponsorship. It was also noted that capital costs this year were £6.5 k and we have nearly replaced all the old lights with new, robust LED’s so capital costs will reduce significantly in future. H and T sub committee to consult with Rod and ask if he knows a suitable person to support him in his work. The main changes to the first draft budget was that the cost of new Christmas lights should be included at £2000 and not the original £5000.
Ratify Wickam Fees: as proposed £1244 up to 31st December 2011, £1089.12 including tournament £350 from January 2012 to end of season and ratify purchase of Goal posts at agreed price of £1120. Cllr Rupert Thompson proposed and seconded by Cllr Crane, all in favour.
Agree Contractors Rates: After some discussion it was suggested that R & A review what the contractors actually do to ensure that each contractor is paid fairly in relation to each other, and in line with market rates.. Cllr Rupert Thompson proposed that in the meantime we accept the terms proposed by each of the contactors and this was seconded by Cllr Wilson, all in favour.
5. Review of standing orders/financial regulations/Code of Conduct – Deferred until next F&GP meeting.
6. Emergency Plan & Flood Policy (Gel Bags MOU) – Deferred until next F & GP meeting.
7. JOG Community Centre Funding – Update Cllr R L Thompson reported on a meeting he had with Sue Da Costa in which he was informed that the baseline costs for services and admin were around £15,000 with another £5,000 needed for staff, prior to any costs from West Berks, and the income relating to venue hire was £2500 at present which currently goes to West Berks. There had been a meeting with Stuart Tagg of Greenham Common Trust who indicated that if they were to support this on a 3 year basis, before going into partnership with all the groups who could be included he would need to see a “proper business plan”. He would also feel more comfortable if the lease were between HTC and WBC with user groups set up separately. This would mean the partnership would be underwritten by the Town Council and if the council took the lead this would look good but would need to be clarified as to how it would work. David Holtby had agreed to set up a further meeting with all the parties who could/would be involved – Town & Manor, HTC, Greenham Common Trust, West Berks and maybe the police. With the costs involved we may need to underwrite £7,500 which is more than the budget but reserves could be used to make up the shortfall. Cllr R L Thompson to circulate the detail he has to all F & GP Cllrs regarding costs.
8. Tourism & Jubilee Working Party – Update: Cllr Crane said that he nothing further to report at present.
Meeting closed 8.00pm