FPPC October 2024 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 Finance, Policy and Personnel Committee meeting held in the meeting room at the Institute 38 Church Street Deeping St James PE6 8HD at 8.00pm on Tuesday 1 October 2024.
Present: Councillors Bowell, Gilbert, Halls, Hosking, Shinkins-Hoppe and Stevens.
The minutes were taken by the Parish Clerk
25.25 To receive apologies of absence.
Apologies had been received and were accepted from Councillor Halls.
25.26 To receive any declarations of interest.
None declared.
25.27 To adopt the minutes of the previous meeting held on Tuesday 13 August 2024.
Agreed and signed.
25.28 To receive the Clerk’s report.
- Councillor Stevens has been accepted by Unity Trust to authorise transactions.
- The agreed changes to Standing Orders have been applied and the revised document shared with all Councillors – for information.
- The external Auditors, PKF Littlejohn LLP, have contacted the Parish Council to raise a discrepancy in the figures in the 2022/23 box 9 figure on this year’s AGAR as it does not agree to the prior year signed AGAR box 9. The Clerk has acknowledged the error, provided the correct figures, and accepted that there will be a comment made in the External Auditors report and that a figure in the AGAR for period ending 31 March 2025 may be required to be restated.
- The Insurers have been advised of a change of location relating to where the Parish Council’s vehicle is kept overnight.
- Working from heights and Manual handling essentials courses are available via Nimble e-learning at a cost of £25 per person which can be booked via the Lincolnshire Association of Local Councils. The Clerk will arrange for the 3 maintenance workers to complete these courses.
25.29 To receive a report of the financial position as at 24 September 2024.
The report which had been prepared by the Clerk was noted along with the additional information that further income was due to be received from LCC Highways towards the highway verge cutting and from SKDC Community Cleaning grant
25.30 To receive a report on the income and expenditure against budget for the period 1 April 2024 to 24 September 2024.
The report from the Scribe accounting system was shared with members and the contents noted with no concerns raised.
25.31 To consider the purchase of a mobile phone.
Councillor Gilbert had approached Tesco Mobile where a sim was available for £10, £11 or £12 per month and a Samsung S21 or S22 was available for £180 or £200 respectively. It was noted that the mobile phone was needed for authentication to access various accounts, as a point of out of office contact for deliveries and for taking photos of events and issues in the Parish. It was proposed seconded and RESOLVED that a budget of £250 for the purchase of a mobile phone and of £12 per month for a Sim card is set.
ACTION: The Clerk to investigate options and purchase
25.32 To consider the findings of the additional personnel working party which met at 2pm on Tuesday 24 September 2024.
As all members had been present at this meeting no further discussion was necessary.
ACTION: the Clerk to arrange a meeting for the 3 Maintenance Staff to meet with Councillors Gilbert and Hosking.
25.33 To receive and consider the provisional budget recommendations for 2025/26 from the Allotments, Cemetery, Planning and Transport, Recreation and Open Spaces Committees.
Noted.
25.34 To consider all non-committee budget headings for 2025/26 in preparation for precept setting.
It was acknowledged that insurance, services and utilities would increase and noted that a rent increase had been mentioned by the Landlord.
Budget headings that could be removed included defibrillator purchase, land ownership and transfer and land/premises acquisition reserves (for one year only?)
A budget heading that could be reduced was the neighbourhood plan grant
However, following the decision to discuss with the maintenance staff increasing their hours and completing tasks in-house it was noted that the staffing budget would need to increase considerably and new budgets would be required for machinery and storage
It was agreed that the committee were not in a position to build a prospective budget this evening and would work with the Clerk to continue this at the December meeting.
25.35 To note the date of the next meeting – 8pm on Tuesday 10 December 2024.