FGPC 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

The minutes of the meeting of the Finance and General Purposes Committee held on Thursday 21 November 2019 at 7.45pm in the Meeting Room at The Institute.

Present: Councillors Blessett, Bowell, Gilbert, Halls, Hardy, Hosking, Shinkins-Hoppe, Stevens and Thomas

The minutes were taken by the Parish Clerk

35.20 To receive apologies of absence.

None received

36.20 To receive any declarations of interest.

None declared

37.20 To adopt the minutes of the previous meeting held on Thursday 24 October 2019

Agreed and signed

38.20 Clerks report.

A further meeting is to be arranged with the IT provider to move forward with the IT improvements and changes.

39.20 To review the media social media and communications policies including the combined policy agreed by this committee in November 2019 but not recommended to full council

A number of anomalies were noted within the combined communications policy that was adopted by this committee in November 2018. It is not the policy that the Parish Council has been working within as it has reverted back to the three original policies. As there is now a working party looking at alternative ways to engage and consult with the public by using the media, social media and community events it was agreed that their input should be received prior to any final recommendation of how the policy/policies should be worded.

40.20 To receive the 2019/20 income and expenditure report to date

The report raised no concerns and the contents were noted

41.20 To further consider the budget recommendations for 2020/21

The Clerk advised that South Kesteven District Council had written to the Parish Council asking for the Precept request to be with them by Friday 17 January 2020. The Clerk was asked to enquire with South Kesteven District Council as to whether this date could be extended to Friday 31 January 2020 so that the figure could be resolved at the council meeting scheduled to be held on Thursday 30 January 2020. If this was not possible an extraordinary meeting to agree the precept figure would be called earlier in January 2020 as this committee intended to recommend that the meeting scheduled to be held on Thursday 19 December 2019 should be cancelled

It was noted that the salary costs for 2020/21 still needed to be confirmed as did the grass cutting costs for the Riverbank, Woody Heights, Highway verges and the 4 pieces of land that had been offered to the Parish Council by the District Council

It was agreed to recommend that the following budgets should be agreed under LGA 1972 s137

Deepings Youth Group £7,500

Deeping Community Library £3,000

DSJ Community Skip £5,200

And that a figure of £10,000 should be included to cover costs associated with the Welland Footbridge project.

It was also noted that the Parish Council should be confident that budgets to cover any costs associated with work to trees protected by preservation orders and/or within the conservation area were in place.

42.20 To consider the Internal Auditors report

The report raised no concerns and the contents were noted

43.20 To consider investigating funding a PCSO to cover The Deepings

Councillor Bowell confirmed that the cost associated with employing a PCSO are approx.

£31,200 pa. He asked whether Deeping St James Parish Council should investigate funding an additional PCSO in conjunction with Market Deeping Town Council. This was not seen as an option as the PCSO would cover a wider area than Deeping St James and Market Deeping. After some discussion it was decided that the Clerk should contact the area Inspector firstly to request that the status quo be maintained and secondly if this was not possible how likely was it that a replacement second PCSO to cover this area would be trained when funding was available.

44.20 To review the Delegated Powers of this committee

Councillor Bowell provided a paper with a proposal that this committee be given delegated powers to deal with certain items and policies. It was agreed to recommend to full council that this committee should be responsible for the following:

Inventory of land and assets including buildings and office equipment,

Confirmation of arrangements for insurance cover in respect of all insured risks and,

Council’s and/or staff subscriptions to other bodies.

These changes to delegated powers would be adopted from May 2020 when the council next reviewed Standing Orders.

It was 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 matters.

45.20 To receive the minutes and any recommendations from the Staffing sub-committee meeting held on Thursday 14 November 2019.

Councillor Shinkins-Hoppe who had taken the minutes at this meeting updated this committee and advised that she would forward the minutes to the Clerk for circulation to all

Parish Councillors prior to the full Council meeting on Thursday 28 November 2019

46.20 To agree the date of the next meeting - 7.45pm on Thursday 23 January 2020