Minutes of the Staffing, Finance & General Purposes Committee held in the Council Chamber, Town Hall, Bideford on Thursday 20 February 2020 at 6.30 pm
PRESENT:
North Ward:
Councillor D Bushby (Chairman)
Councillor P S Christie
Councillor D McGeough
South Ward:
Councillor R Wootton
East Ward:
Councillor J Craigie (Substitute for Councillor Mrs L Hellyer)
Councillor Mrs R Craigie
Councillor Mrs J Gubb (Vice-Chairman)
Councillor J McKenzie
West Ward:
Councillor D Ratcliff
IN ATTENDANCE:
Mrs H J Blackburn (Town Clerk)
Mrs L Dixon-Chatfield (Town Clerk’ Assistant)
124. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Councillor Mrs L Hellyer (East Ward – County Council Commitment)
125. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST ON ITEMS ON THE AGENDA
Councillor J Craigie declared a non-pecuniary interest in agenda item 6 (Member of Railway Heritage Group)
Councillor Mrs Gubb declared a non-pecuniary interest in agenda item 6 (Bideford Massed Pipes and Drums Committee member, Chair of the Carnival Committee, Member of the Port of Bideford Regatta Committee, and Member of the Youth Pipe Band).
Councillor McGeough declared a non-pecuniary interest in agenda item 6 ( Steamship Freshspring Society – he has provided works to the boat free of charge, and Northam Lions Football Club – he has provided business sponsorship).
126. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION SESSION
No Members of the public were present at the meeting.
127. CHAIRMAN’S ITEMS
The Town Clerk advised that Maggie Curtis had been in contact regarding the plaque for the Art School. She has almost finished the drawing for the plaque and needs to make it larger than the size originally requested. It will be a maximum of two feet in any direction, and will be more of an oval shape, but not a uniform oval, as the seaweed depicted on the plaque has a trailing aspect. The drawing is based on the illustration provided and also depicts other aspects of the story. There will be a linen fold at the bottom of the plaque for an inscription. Members were asked to consider the wording, which was agreed as follows:
Charles Kingsley’s Water Babies
Bicentenary 2019
128. ACCOUNTS
Members received the list of payments.
Proposed by Councillor McKenzie, seconded by Councillor Ratcliff and
RESOLVED: That the draft list of payments is approved.
(Vote – For: 8, Against: 0)
(Councillor McGeough joined the meeting)
129. GRANTS TO LOCAL ORGANISATIONS 2020/21
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 2020, as detailed in the table below.
Grants_to_Local_Organisations_2020-2021.pdf
Following discussions the preliminary amount awarded totalled £91,387.00. As this exceeded the grant budget of £80,000, a 15% reduction to all preliminary grant amounts was calculated, which reduced the total to £77,678.95. The final recommended grant sums to be awarded are shown in the last column of the table, and include the 15% reduction required to keep the grant award within budget
Proposed by Councillor J Craigie, seconded by Councillor Bushby and
RECOMMENDED: That the grant allocation of £ 77,678.95 as detailed in the above table with a £2,321.05 contingency totalling £ 80,000 is agreed by Full Council.
(Vote: For: 7, Against: 0, Abstentions: 2)
The business of the meeting having been completed, the Chairman thanked the members for their attendance and the meeting concluded at 8.00 pm.