Minutes of the Staffing, Finance & General Purposes Committee held in the Council Chamber, Town Hall, Bideford on Thursday 18 October 2018 at 6.30 pm
PRESENT:
North Ward:
Councillor D Bushby (DB) (Mayor)
Councillor P Christie (PC)
Councillor T Johns (TJ) (Substitute for Councillor D Howell)
South Ward:
Councillor P J Pester (PP)
Councillor A T Inch (AI) (Substitute for Councillor M Langmead)
Councillor S G Inch (SI) (Chairman)
Councillor R Wootton (RW)
East Ward:
Councillor Mrs R Craigie (RC) (Substitute for Councillor D Brenton)
IN ATTENDANCE: Mrs H J Blackburn (Town Clerk)
Mrs L C Dixon-Chatfield (Asst to Town Clerk)
054. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Councillor M Langmead (East Ward – Personal)
Councillor Brenton (South Ward – Personal)
Councillor D Howell (South (Outer) Ward – Personal)
Councillor D McGeough (North Ward – Personal)
055. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST ON ITEMS ON THE AGENDA
Councillor D Bushby declared a non-pecuniary interest in agenda item 6 - (Families in Grief is the Mayor’s Charity this year.)
Councillor AT Inch declared a non-pecuniary interest in agenda item 6 - (Member of the Twinning Association, family member belongs to the Bideford Youth Pipe Band, and is a Member of the Bideford Rotary Club.)
Councillor S G Inch declared a non-pecuniary interest in agenda item 6 - (Family Members belong to the Youth Pipe Band, Member of the Carnival Committee and Member of the Twinning Association.)
Councillor T Johns declared a non-pecuniary interest in agenda item 6 - (Is a Member of the OAP Group.)
Councillor P J Pester declared a non-pecuniary interest in agenda item 6 - (Bideford and District Archive Council Committee member, President of the Carnival Committee, President of Port of Bideford Regatta Committee, and Member of BARC).
056. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION SESSION
Mr D Wright spoke in support of the Bideford AFC Youth grant application.
Mr D Withall spoke in support of the Bideford Street Pastors grant application.
057. CHAIRMAN’S ITEMS
The Town Clerk circulated a letter from Torridge District Council thanking them for their contribution towards the wheel park. Councillor Christie advised that a grant of £20,000 had been made from the Bridge Trust. Councillor Pester advised that there were still some planning issues to resolve, due to the proximity of the wheel park to residential properties.
058. ACCOUNTS
Members received the list of payments.
Councillor Bushby suggested that the payment for the Toyota Road Assistance was not required as the vehicle was unlikely to breakdown, and as it did not often travel beyond the parish of Bideford, local assistance would be forthcoming.
Proposed by Councillor Bushby, seconded by Councillor A Inch and
RESOLVED: That the draft list of payments is approved except for The Toyota roadside assistance.
(Vote – For: 8, Against: 0)
059. GRANTS TO LOCAL ORGANISATIONS 2018/19
The Town Clerk advised Members of the budgetary implications of making grant awards at the same level as last year. The Town Council will have increased expenditure in the coming year due to the election costs, coupled with the costs associated with the current Maintenance Operative works, and the increased liabilities assumed by the Town Council over the last year. If the total grant sum (including contingency) remains at the same level as last year, the precept will need to be raised by between 2.8 and 5% depending on the Council tax base level set by the District Council, unless Members decide to redistribute some funds from the earmarked reserves.
Councillor A Inch suggested that the grant allocation meeting should take place after the annual precept has been decided. The Town Clerk said that she would place this on a future agenda for discussion.
The Town Clerk suggested that Members agree to vote “in principle” on each application with a vote on the total grant sum once all grants had been considered. This would allow individual grant awards to be revisited at the end should this be required to stay within the agreed budget. This process was agreed by all Members.
The Councillors then considered each application received and made recommendations to Full Council for the award of grants from 1 April 2019, as detailed in the table below.
Recipient Proposers & amount vote Proposers & amount vote Amount Agreed
Atlantic Village TIC PP/AI 7/0/1 **£1,000.00
** To be taken from the Tourism Budget
2nd Bideford Scout Group PP/BW 8/0/0 £875.00
Bideford Amateur Athletics Club PP/DB 8/0/0 £1,500.00
Bideford Amateur Boxing Club TJ/PP 7/0/1 ** £1,250.00
**On the proviso that the funds are used for the junior members
Councillor A Inch questioned the cost of the pitch fees and Devon FA fines on the accounts of the Bideford AFC Youth. It was agreed to suspend standing orders, in order to be able to ask questions of Mr Wright, Representative of Bideford AFC Youth.
Proposed by Councillor Mrs Craigie, seconded by Councillor R Wooton and
RESOLVED: That Standing Orders are suspended in order to allow Mr D Wright to answer the questions put to him regarding the AFC Youth accounts.
(Vote: For: 8, Against: 0)
Mr Wright advised that although the pitch hire amounted to a considerable sum of money, The Bideford AFC Youth had negotiated a good deal with Bideford College. He said that as The AFC Youth did not have their own training facility, these costs were unfortunately unavoidable.
When asked about the Devon FA fines, Mr Wright advised that he was unable to give a breakdown for this cost centre but did know that the amount also included affiliation fees to the Devon FA.
Proposed by Councillor Pester, seconded by Councillor A Inch and
RESOLVED: That the meeting return to Standing Orders.
(Vote: For: 8, Against: 0)
Bideford AFC Youth PP/PC 8/0/0 £3,500.00
Bid Amateur Rowing Club DB/PC 8/0/0 £2,500.00
Bid Club for Disabled Learners PP/TJ 8/0/0 £400.00
Bideford Bike Show PP/PC 7/0/1 £3,000.00
Bideford Canoe Club PC/RC(£1,200) 5/0/3 PP/DB(£1K) £1,200.00
Bideford Carnival Committee DB/AI 8/0/0 £1,000.00
Bideford & Dist. Comm Archive AI/TJ (£1,250) 5/3/0 DB/RC(£1K) £1,250.00
Bideford Film Society PP/DB 8/0/0 £1,000.00
Bideford Gardners Club PC/SI 8/0/0 £500.00
Bideford Keyboard & Organ TJ/SI(£1K) 2/6/0 PP/AI (£500) 6/0/2 £500.00
Bideford/Landivisau Twinning DB/PP 7/0/1 £1,000.00
Bid Massed Pipes and Drums SI/DB 8/0/0 £3,000.00
Bideford Music Club TJ/RC(£500) 5/3/0 PP/AI (£400) £500.00
No. 1 Branch Bideford OAPs PC/RC 8/0/0 £500.00
Bideford Phoenix Morris Club PP/AI 8/0/0 £350.00
Bid Railway Heritage Centre PP/DB 8/0/0 £500.00
Bideford Street Pastors PP/DB(£1K) 3/5/0 TJ/AI(£2K) 5/3/0 £2,000.00
Bideford Sustainability Group PC/RW(£1.5) 4/4/0(CV) DB/AI(£500) £1,500.00
Bid Sustainability /Grow Well DB/RW 8/0/0 £500.00
Bideford Town Band DB/AI 8/0/0 £3,425.00
Bideford Youth Pipe Band DB/PP 8/0/0 £2,260.00
Ethelwynne Brown Art Club DB(£0) PC/AI(£100) 7/0/1 £100.00
Families in Grief DB/SI (£1,950) 3/3/2 AI/PC(£1K) 6/0/2 £1,000.00
Grow@ Jigsaw DB/PC 8/0/0 £1,000.00
Harbour Bideford PP/DB 8/0/0 £2,000.00
Intagr8 DB/AI 8/0/0 £500.00
Kenwith Company of Archers DB/AI 8/0/0 £1,000.00
Kingsley School Judo Club DB/RC(£1K) 7/1/0 AI (£500) £1,000.00
Northam Choral Society PP/DB(£250) 3/5/0 TJ/AI (£500) 5/0/3 £500.00
Northam Lions Football Club PP/DB(£400) 7/0/1 AI (£250) £400.00
Notham Lodge (Care Trust) DB/PP 8/0/0 £1,000.00
N Devon Forum for Autism PP/AI 8/0/0 £1,200.00
Northern Devon Foodbank PP/DB(£1K) 5/3/0 PC/RC(£4K) £1,000.00
Out of this World Events PP/DB (£13,475) 2/5/1 AI/TJ (£7k) 6/0/2 £7,000.00
Port of Bideford Regatta Comm DB/AI 8/0/0 £1,500.00
Rainbo Music Trust DB/PP (£1k) 4/4/0 AI/PC(£1.5k) 4/4/0cv £1,500.00
Rotary Club of Bideford DB/ (£2k) PP/AI (£1.5k) 7/0/1 £1,500.00
SW Event Management PP/DB 6/1/1 £13,500.00
Steamship Freshspring Society DB/AI 8/0/0 £1,200.00
TTVS DB/AI (£2k) 5/1/2 PP/RW (£3k) £2,000.00
TTVS Carewise DB/AI(£1k) 4/3/1 PC/RC (£1.5K) £1,000.00
The Maker Series CIC PP/DB (£200) 5/2/1 AI/RC (£450) £200.00
Torridge Male Voice Choir PP/PC (£600) 8/0/0 £600.00
Torridge CAB PC/RC (£3.5K) 5/0/3 DB/AI (£2k) £3,500.00
Torridge Ring and Ride PP/AI(£1k) 8/0/0 £1,000.00
Up Close Theatre PP/ (£0) PC/DB (£1k) 7/0/1 £1,000.00
Wicked Week DB/AI (£1.5k) 4/2/2 PP/RW (£500) £1,500.00
Proposed by Councillor Bushby, seconded by Councillor A Inch and
RECOMMENDED: That the grant allocation of £81,710 as detailed in the above table with a £10,000 contingency totalling £91,710 is agreed by Full Council.
(Vote: For: 8, Against: 0)
The business of the meeting having been completed, the Chairman thanked the members for their attendance and the meeting concluded at 7.55 pm.