FPPC 2023 Minutes

DEEPING ST JAMES PARISH COUNCIL
The Institute, 38 Church Street, Deeping St James, PE6 8HD
E-mail: clerk@deepingstjames-pc.gov.uk
Tel: 01778 343266
Webpage: //deeping-st-james.parish.lincolnshire.gov.uk
Facebook: Deeping St James Parish Council

Parish Clerk: Julie Fortnum

The minutes of the meeting of the Finance, Policy and Personnel Committee held in the meeting room at the Institute 38 Church Street Deeping St James PE6 8HD at 8.00pm on Tuesday 12 December 2023. 

Present: Councillors Bowell, Gilbert, Hosking, Shinkins-Hoppe, and Stevens.

24.36 To receive apologies of absence.

Apologies had been received and were accepted from Councillors Halls and Smith. 

24.37 To receive any declarations of interest.

None declared 

24.38 To adopt the minutes of the previous meeting held on Tuesday 17 October 2023.   

Agreed and signed. 

24.39 To receive the Clerk’s report.

Barclays have limited access to all signatories to view only. The Clerk continues to communicate with Barclays to resolve this situation. One of the issues is that Councillor Judy Stevens’ signature has changed over time and since the issue of the agenda for this meeting a letter has been received requesting that Councillor Judy Stevens contacts them to validate her signature. It was noted that last month cheques were raised to pay the staff salaries and transfer some money into the Unity Online account and it was agreed that this should happen again in December  

Two savings accounts were opened at Unity Trust in error. The Clerk continues to communicate with Unity Trust to resolve this. 

The Clerk continues to liaise with the Parish Council’s Solicitor, the Asset Manager at South Kesteven District Council and their Solicitors to finalise the transfer of ownership of Jubilee Park. 

A business rate bill has been received from South Kesteven District Council charging £698.60 for the Cemetery and premises. This is the first year that small business relief has not been applied and it appears to the due to the installation of the metal shed. SKDC cannot change this so the Clerk has contacted the Valuation Officer at the VOA to clarify. 

24.40 To receive a report of the current financial position. 

Noted 

24.41 To receive a report on the income and expenditure against budget for the period up to 6 December 2023. 

Noted 

24.42 To consider the quotations received for the grass cutting of the highway verges Woody Heights and the riverbank. 

The Clerk advised that 3 quotations had been requested but that the third contractor had advised that their pricing and specification would be based on 7 cut and drop grass cuts per annum between April and October  and 1 hedge cut per annum undertaken between October and February which was not in line with the Parish Council’s tenders of  8 cuts for the highway verges and 16 cuts of the Riverbank and Woody Heights. The quotation would not be available until January 2024 at the earliest.

Based on this information and the two quotations received the committee agreed to RECOMMEND that the quotation 1 should be accepted.   

24.43 To receive and consider the provisional budget and precept recommendations for 2024/25. 

The Clerk had shared the paperwork showing a budget and precept calculation which would lead to a 3.4% (£2.64 in monetary terms) increase on the band D charge. 

It was noted that to include the funding requests from the Deepings Leisure Centre Community Group and Citizens Advice South Lincolnshire would lead to the precept increasing by 18.1% (£13.93 in monetary terms) 

The Clerk referred the committee to the reserves stating that a figure of £5050 was earmarked for the Cemetery extension which had now been completed and £3500 was earmarked for culture heritage and amenity issues to assist with such things as legal and planning costs relating to the Welland Footbridge project and the Signal Box re-build which was not likely to be required. The committee agreed to RECOMMEND that if the Parish Council agreed to support the Citizens Advice South Lincolnshire funding application (50/50 spilt with Market Deeping Town Council) to provide a Debt Adviser one day a week based at Deepings Community Centre which was due to be considered on Tuesday 19 December 2023 the money requested (£4,250) could be withdrawn from these earmarked reserved pots. 

24.44 To agree the date of the next meeting – 8pm Tuesday 13 February 2024.