Agenda and minutes

It was RESOLVED that the apologies for absence and the absences without apologies as listed above be noted.

(Under the Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012, made under s30 (3) of the Localism Act, councillors are required to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests which they may have in any of the items under consideration at this meeting)

No declarations of interest were made.

It was RESOLVED that the draft minutes of the last meeting be approved as a correct record.

It was RESOLVED that the order of business be amended to allow item 8 on the agenda concerning Coronation Hall to be dealt with next.

Members were reminded of the council’s previous decision made on 5 May 2022 (minute reference FC21/22-103) to take on the role of sole custodian trustee for Water Eaton Coronation Hall and noted a report from the clerk summarising communications and meetings between the charity, the council and the council’s legal advisors.

It was RESOLVED that the town council’s original decision to act as custodian trustee for the Coronation Hall property be confirmed. 

It was agreed that the town council’s solicitors would be instructed to act in this matter and the legal costs of the transfer of custodian trustees would be met by the council and recharged to the charity with their agreement.  It was further noted that the change of trustees would trigger first registration of the property with the land registry and again the town council’s solicitors would be instructed to effect the registration and the fees would be recharged to the charity with their agreement.  The legal fees were anticipated to be c £2,500 plus any land registry fees.

To receive representations from members of the public on items on the agenda and to hear questions from members of the public about council business which may not be listed on the agenda.

Members of the public who wish to present a spoken or written representation should contact the Clerk no later than 12 noon on the day before the day of the meeting in order to register to be heard.

The public speaking session will generally last no more than 15 minutes and individuals will be permitted to speak for a maximum of 3 minutes.

Requests to speak or ask questions will be dealt with in the order in which they have been received by the Clerk.

For more information or to register to speak please contact:

Delia Shephard

Town Clerk

01908 649469

clerk@bletchleyfennystratford-tc.gov.uk

Please be aware that meetings may be recorded including the representations made by members of the public.

There were no representations from members of the public.

(No recommendations for consideration.)

It was RESOLVED that the draft minutes of the meeting held on 11 October  2022 be noted.

Recommendations:

i       Minute reference FC22/23-35i    Investment policy

ii      Minute reference FC22/23-35ii   Procurement policy

iii     Minute reference FC22/23-36     Proposed scale of charges 2023-2024

It was RESOLVED that the draft minutes of the meeting held on 25 October 2022 be noted.

Recommendations:

i       Minute reference FC22/23-35i   

It was RESOLVED that the draft investment policy recommended by the committee be approved and adopted with immediate effect.

ii      Minute reference FC22/23-35ii

It was RESOLVED that the draft procurement policy recommended by the committee be approved and adopted with immediate effect.

iii     Minute reference FC22/23-36

 It was RESOLVED that the draft scale of charges recommended by the committee be approved and adopted with effect from the financial year beginning 1 April 2023.

Recommendations

i       Minute reference EPC22/23-17i Change to scheme of delegations

Please note that a further change to the scheme of delegations concerning the Community events sub-committee is also incorporated in the revised document attached and the council is invited to consider this change also.

ii      Minute reference EPC22/23-17ii  Adoption of draft environmental policy

It was RESOLVED that the draft minutes of the meeting held on 9 November 2022 be noted.

Recommendations

i       Minute reference EPC22/23-17i

It was RESOLVED that the scheme of delegations be amended to change the status of the Climate Change Subcommittee and the Community Events Subcommittee to that of working groups with immediate effect.

ii      Minute reference EPC22/23-17ii 

It was RESOLVED that the draft environmental policy recommended by the committee be approved and adopted with immediate effect.

Candidate: Uche Osimili

It was RESOLVED that Uche Osumili be co-opted to the council to fill the casual vacancy in the ward of Newton Leys

Cllr Osumili made his declaration of acceptance of office and was welcomed to the council by the chair on behalf of all members and officers.

(Under the current scheme of delegations there is currently only one vacancy which is on the Community Committee.  However, some members are on more than one committee and may wish to step down now that more members have been co-opted or the scheme of delegations  could be amended to permit 11 or 12 members on each of the main standing committees.)

Following discussion it was RESOLVED that the scheme of delegations be amended to increase the size of the Environment and Planning Committee from 10 members to 11.

It was RESOLVED that Cllr Hussein be elected to the Environment and Planning Committee and to the Sycamore Buildings working group.

It was RESOLVED that Cllr Elhasoglu be elected to the Community Committee and to the Community Events working group.

It was noted that Cllr Osumili had not yet joined a committee and that membership of committees would be considered again at the January meeting of full council.

A report had been provided by the Support Services Manager detailing funding requests made by the Bedford and Milton Keynes Waterway Trust.  The funds requested were to be drawn down from £5,000 allocated for the year for 2021-2022 and £5,000 allocated for the year 2022-2023 as part of a three year funding commitment of £15,000 towards canal based projects in Bletchley and Fenny which were to be undertaken in partnership with Bedford and Milton Keynes Waterways Trust. 

Following discussion it was RESOLVED that the following spending be approved

i       A sum of £5,000 to be contributed towards a feasibility study for a Fenny Stratford Eco Mooring

ii      A sum of £1,300 to be contributed towards a shore unit for the Electra Community boat at Campbell Wharf Marina

iii     A sum of £3,000 to be contributed towards biodiversity research studies from Fenny Lock and towpath usage research which would inform local heritage trails.

Members noted this left funding of £700 from the funding allocation for the first two years of the partnership unspent and an agreement to provide £5,000 in 2023-24 remained and had been included in the draft budget.

It was RESOLVED that correspondence from Milton Keynes City Council offering the town council funding of up to £12,000 as part of the City Council’s Cost of Living Plan be noted.  The funding was intended to  help local councils open ‘warm places’ and run pop up cafes and other informal social activities where people can meet up, as well as to be warm and enjoy a hot meal.

Since accepting the funding on behalf of the council officers had undertaken an online survey seeking residents’ views about what would be most helpful and some preliminary work had been done with partners to explore the best ways of using the funding.

It was RESOLVED that the acceptance of the funding be confirmed and that approval of the way this funding should be used be delegated to the town council’s community committee.

The clerk noted that there had been delays in completion of some of the planning application documents needed for submission of the planning application previously agreed at council on 4 October 2022.  The finalised drawings were now anticipated to be ready for submission to MK Council by 25 November and the following outstanding information

·         heritage statement

·         ecology report

·         statement of need

·         summary of visitor numbers and feedback from public consultation event

would be available in the next few days.  The chair noted that the feedback from the consultation event on the proposed plan to improve disabled access and link the two buildings had not resulted in any changes and residents had been supportive of the design.

It was expected that all the documentation would be ready for submission by the end of the week beginning 28 November 2022.  

It was RESOLVED that in view of the length of time required for validation the clerk would be authorized to submit the application and arrange payment of the necessary fee in consultation with the chair and the vice-chair once the documents were ready.  However all councillors would have the opportunity to view and comment on the application before this delegated authority was used.

A draft customer service and communications standards policy had been circulated before the meeting and this was discussed.

It was RESOLVED that the draft document be approved with one amendment which was to remove entirely the following sentence on page 4 in the section headed Payments

“Council officers are not authorized to accept cash in payment for council services.”

This policy replaces the version currently shown on the town council’s website at

https://www.bletchleyfennystratford-tc.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2022-10/Gov_2022-23EqualityPolicy.pdf

The difference is that an appendix has been added to provide more information about types of discrimination.

Following review it was RESOLVED that a revised version of the town council’s existing Equality and Diversity Policy be approved and adopted with immediate effect.  (The policy had been amended to include an appendix which described the different types of unlawful discrimination but was otherwise unchanged.)

Ad new draft community grant policy had been circulated before the meeting and this was discussed.

It was RESOLVED that the draft policy be adopted with immediate effect with one amendment on page 3.  The sentence reading “The community grant funding scheme cannot be used to fund running costs, accommodation or staff salaries.” would be amended to read “The community grant funding scheme cannot be used to fund running costs, accommodation or staff salaries unless these costs relate directly to the project being delivered.”

Members discussed the council’s aspiration (included in its current delivery plan) to achieve accreditation under the Local Council Award Scheme.

It was RESOLVED that all documentation and information was now in place to meet the requirements for the Quality Award. 

 Specifically the council had published the following documentation on its website:

1      standing orders

2      financial regulations

3      code of conduct and link to councillors’ registers of interests

4      publication scheme

5      Last annual return

6      Transparent information about council payments

7      Calendar of all meetings including the annual meeting of electors

8      Minutes for at least one full year of full council meetings and committee and sub-committee meetings

9      Current agendas

10   Budget and precept information for the current or next financial year

11   Complaints Procedure

12   Accessibility Statement

13   Privacy notice

14   Council contact details and councillor information in line with theTransparency Code

15   Action plan for the current year

16   Evidence of consulting the community

17   Publicity advertising council activities

18   Evidence of participating in town and country planning

19   Draft minutes of all council and committee meetings within four weeks of the last meeting

20   Health and safety policy

21   Policy on equality

22   Councillor profiles

23   Community engagement policy

24   Grant awarding policy

25   Evidence showing how electors contribute to the annual town meeting

26   An action plan and related budget responding to community engagement and setting out a timetable for action and review

27   Evidence of community engagement, council activities and the promotion of democratic processes

28   Evidence of helping that community plan for its future.

29   A scheme of delegations

and confirmed by resolution that the town council has the following in place:

30   A risk management scheme

31   A register of assets

32   Contracts for all members of staff

33   Up to date insurance policies that mitigate risks to public money

34   Disciplinary and grievance procedures

35   Policy for training and development of staff and councillors

36   Record of all training undertaken by staff and councillors in the last year

37   Clerk who has achieved 12 CPD points in the last year

38   At least two thirds of its councillors who stood for election

39   An annual report actively shared with the community

40   Evidence of customer service in how the council handles correspondence with the public

41   A qualified clerk

42   Formal appraisal process for all staff

The clerk was instructed to make the submission for accreditation at the next possible opportunity.

The chair of the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group gave a short oral report on progress with the development of the plan and drew attention to the scoping document prepared by the Steering Group’s planning consultants and circulated before the meeting . 

It was RESOLVED that the document and the report be noted.

It was RESOLVED that the clerk’s written report be noted.

The clerk advised that there had been delays with completion of the lease documentation for the town council’s depot building which were no fault of the town council’s solicitors.  It was hoped that the lease would be ready for completion by 13 December and it was RESOLVED that authority to approve the lease document be delegated to the Finance and Governance Committee.

It was RESOLVED to note the revised 2022-23 NJC pay scales which had been implemented in accordance with the council’s contractual obligations.  Back pay due from 1 April 2022 had been included in the November payroll.

It was RESOLVED that the list of payments made or due to be made by the town council be ratified.

It was RESOLVED that the financial report showing income and expenditure against budget be noted.

A draft budget for the year 2023-2024 was tabled for information and discussion followed.  Officers noted that further information was still awaited, and the draft budget would be discussed in detail at the meeting of the Finance Committee on 13 December which all councillors were welcome to attend. A revised draft would then be presented to full council for adoption and agreement on the setting of the precept on 24 January 2023.