F&P 2019 Minutes

Finance and Personnel Committee

Minutes of a meeting held on Wednesday 27th November 2019, held at 7.00pm in the Community Centre, Market Deeping. 

Cllr Miss Collins (Chairman) presided over Cllrs Mrs Redshaw, Miss Moran, Brookes, Lester, Shelton, Hembrow and Davis. The Clerk was also in attendance.

29. Chairman’s Welcome

Cllr Miss Collins welcomed the members to the meeting

30. Apologies for Absence

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Broughton.

31. Declarations of Interest

None were declared.

32. Notes of minutes from the Finance & Personnel Committee meeting 25th September2019

Cllr Miss Collins asked the committee if they were to accept the minutes of the meeting dated Wednesday 25th September 2019. It was proposed by Cllr Shelton, seconded by Cllr Brookes and Resolved with 2 abstentions that the minutes could be signed as a true and accurate record of the meeting. The minutes were signed accordingly.

33. Clerk’s Report

The Clerk provided a report prior to the meeting which included the following updates:

1. The committee previously authorised the upgrade of the office pcs to Windows 10 as the current version is no longer being supported.  The clerk has been advised by our IT support company that it is not cost effective to pay for new licences and the specification of our current pcs means that they would work more slowly if it were to be installed.  The IT advisor believes we can still operate in the short term but would probably need replacing within the next 12 months.  Also, if the council is looking to use a cloud based system, we would need a very fast internet connection.

Update: RBS have advised that they will not support our accounting and cemeteries packages if we continue to use windows 7after support for Windows 7 ceases in January 2020.

Furthermore, the clerks had been advised by the SLCC that the Parish websites hosted by LCC are no longer compliant, and LCC will no longer be supporting them.

The clerk was asked to contact LCC to establish when the websites would cease to be hosted and also to look at other councils such as Mablethorpe to see what they use.

2. Digital council –our IT advisor, as above, advised that a fast connection speed is required for a cloud based system.  He said that due to this he uses Dropbox at a cost of £10 pm.   At the previous meeting, the clerk was asked to find out what Stamford TC do.  The clerk at Stamford advised that they use a networked system backed up with an external hard drive -ie not cloud based.  They use Googlemail to set up meetings and each councillor has a googlemail address eg CllrSmith@googlemail.com to keep council and personal emails separate and to comply with GDPR requirements.  Two of our councillors already use name.mdtc@gmail.com.

Cllr Brookes advised that unless the council pays for a website domain it may not be compliant.  A council domain would then mean the council would be independent of any provider.  It was agreed that councillors would ideally have their own device, which would access emails for their council email address only, and the device must be returned and wiped clean should the councillor leave.  The clerk was asked to contact SKDC to find out who provides their website and devices. 

In view of the imminent cessation of windows and website support the clerk was asked to contact providers to try and establish suitable pcs or laptops for the future.  There is money available in Ear Marked Reserves to fund the updates required.

34.  Correspondence 

35.  Review of Ear Marked Reserves

Members Resolved to deal with this in conjunction with agenda item 8.

36. Council Finances to include budgeting and precept preparation for 2020/21

The Clerk had issued members with an update on Council Finances and revised precept calculation sheets prior to the meeting.

Town Hall-Cllr Lester advised members that £20,000 of the money budgeted for Town Hall renovations could be taken from Ear marked reserves.  Councillors were in agreement.   This was the largest item affecting the budget.  Cllr Brookes suggested that extra columns be added to the calculation sheets to show the source of funding –ie precept or reserves, and members agreed this was a good idea.  Cllr Lester advised that the committee would request that a survey be conducted before any work is undertaken, and Cllrs Miss Collins and Miss Moran confirmed that the buyback clause would be deleted from the contract.  Cllr Lester advised that he would consult with the committee and that the precept request would remain constant with last year’s figures.

Cemetery –Members agreed to move the Cemetery Land purchase Ear marked reserve to the cemetery reserves account with CCLA for ease of admin as both funds were for the same purpose.  Again, Cllr Lester advised that the precept request would remain as close as possible to the previous year.  The clerk advised that our cemetery fees are far lower than Bourne or Stamford, and Cllr Lester suggested that fees be revisited as and when new cemetery land becomes available.

Amenities and Open Spaces–Cllr Miss Collins presented the budget for Cllr Broughton.  Members agreed that the contingency funding (needed for adverse weather conditions affecting trees/open spaces etc) could be sourced from Ear Marked reserves.  Cllr Mrs Redshaw advised that the WW1 memorial plaque money was no longer required so this item could be removed.  Cllr Brookes queried the allotment figure and Cllr Miss Collins agreed to discuss this and the reserve figure for the BMX track with the committee and report back to Full council.

Planning and Highways–Cllr Brookes confirmed that the budget for 2019/20 was £16,299 and not as previously stated.  He advised that the £4000 ear marked for grass cutting was not required and could be used elsewhere.  He also requested that an additional line be inserted in the spreadsheet to show the grass cutting rebate received.  This reduces the net figure by £1600.  Cllr Shelton advised that the rebate will also be received in 2020/21.  It was agreed to keep funding for an additional security camera as Cllr Davis advised SKDC offer match funding that will assist in crime prevention. An additional camera could then be considered for the play area.  It was then agreed to reduce the figure required for security cameras to a precept sum of £2500 plus the money already in Ear Marked reserves, making a total budget of £8500 with £6000 being allocated from ear marked reserves. It was further agreed to alter the name of the Street furniture budget to Street furniture maintenance. 

Admin–In view of the expenses required for replacement pcs and webhosting, members agreed to offset the Godsey Lane Hedge reserve, which was no longer required, against the Digital Council budget.  This would mean that only £1500 would be required from the precept request and £4000 remains in digital council reserves for future requirements.  Cllr Davis mentioned the Climate emergency policy previously agreed and members agreed that the play equipment/tractor and vehicle replacement ear marked reserve would be used towards electrical vehicles wherever possible.  Digital council reserves would also contribute to this initiative.

All of the above amendments are to be fed into the precept calculations for the December Full Council meeting.

37.  For members to consider adjusting the Committee Terms of Reference to include spending powers in line with the Council’s Financial Regulations

Members noted that the Council’s financial regulations indicate that ‘duly delegated’ committees could be awarded spending powers and these spending powers are not detailed in the current Committee Terms of Reference.  Members agreed not to adjust the Committee Terms of reference.  They also agreed that where an item or service is recommended by a committee to Full Council for purchase then the council should approve a spending limit of a set amount so that if a more suitable alternative is found then this may be purchased in place of the original item.

38. Review of Council Polices: – Financial Management Annual Estimates – Members agreed that no changes were required.

– Financial Management Internal/External – Section B1 – Members agreed to delete the reference to asset registers/risk assessments/risk management and managing resources.

39. For members to receive reports from the internal auditor

The clerk had issued members with copies of the reports prior to the meeting.  Sample transactions audited had all been handled correctly and members were satisfied with the reports. The clerk asked members if there were any questions and there were none.

40. For members to receive an update on the provision of Council email addresses

Members agreed that all points had been addressed in previous agenda items.

41.  Personnel –Consideration to go into Closed Session. To include Staff matters

It was proposed and unanimously Resolved to go into Closed Session to members of the press and public in accordance with the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960, which included: staff matters.  It was then Resolved to come out of Closed Session.

The Chairman thanked all members for their attendance and declared the meeting closed at 9.06pm.

The next committee meeting is scheduled for Wednesday March 25th 2019 at 7pm in the Town Hall chambers.