FGPC March 2019 Minutes
Deeping St James Parish Council
The Institute, 38 Church Street, Deeping St James, Peterborough PE6 8HD
e-mail: clerk.dsjpc@btconnect.com Tel: 01778 343266
Webpage: parishes.lincolnshire.gov.uk/deepingstjames
Parish Clerk: Julie Fortnum
Minutes of the meeting of the Finance and General Purposes Committee held on Thursday 21 March 2019 at 7.45pm in the Meeting Room at The Institute.
Present: Councillors Barber, Blessett, Bowell, Gilbert, Halls, Shinkins-Hoppe, Stevens and
Councillor Dilks as a non-voting member
The minutes were taken by the Parish Clerk
42.19 To receive apologies of absence.
None received
43.19 To receive any declarations of interest.
None received
44.19 To adopt the minutes of the previous meeting held on Thursday 22 November 2018
Agreed and signed.
45.19 To receive a report of matters arising from the minutes not dealt with elsewhere on the agenda.
None
Councillor Stevens arrived
46.19 To receive the most recent income and expenditure reports
The contents were noted and no issues were raised
47.19 To consider adopting a Strategic plan setting out the Parish Council's vision for the parish, its purpose, values, objectives and key priorities for the next four years
After discussion it was agreed to recommend to Council to send the draft plan back to each committee to confirm that it was reflective of what they expected. Once this had been confirmed it should be considered again by finance and general purposes committee who would make a recommendation to Council.
48.19 To consider and agree a revised communications policy
It was agreed to recommend to Council that Councillor Gilbert and the Clerk would meet and do more work on this to ensure that it covered all the important points from the 3 policies it was merging after which it would be brought back to Finance and general Purposes.
49.19 To receive an update regarding adopting a new committee structure
After discussion it was agreed to recommend to Council that the committee structure would remain the same for the time being however the following would be looked at:
- Amending the term as of reference and delegated powers of each committee
- Change the name of Youth and Community committee to better reflect what it is responsible for
- To restrict numbers sitting on each committee to seven
- The Chairs of each committee would to form a working party to do this
50.19 To consider the following Information Technology issues
a) To consider purchasing external IT support
Councillor Barber had been in discussions with a local provider and it was agreed to recommend to Council that an agreement be arranged to provide support from May 2019 onwards
b) To consider purchasing Publisher
Councillor Barber advised that this could be purchased for £110 and he would install it. It was agreed that this should be purchased and installed as soon as possible
To resolved to move into closed session in accordance with The Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 due to the confidential nature of the business to be discussed in relation to the following agenda item.
51.19 To consider the issues discussed at the staffing sub-committee on Tuesday 19 March 2019
Councillor Gilbert confirmed that the applications received for the Maintenance Worker position had been considered and interviews had been arranged
The sub-committee also recommended that the parish council’s standing orders should make reference to the parish council’s adopted policies and the Chairs of each Committee should meet to do this
The sub-committee also noted that the parish council did not have a policy in place relating to the conduct of Councillors although one was in in place for staff. Councillor’s Shinkins-Hoppe and Hosking had prepared a draft document which should be circulated among members of this committee prior to the next meeting where it would be considered a recommendation made to Council.
52.19 Date of next meeting
23 May 2019
Meeting closed at 9.30pm