Minutes of the Town Council meeting held 17th July 2012

Minutes of a meeting of Amble Town Council held on Tuesday 17^th July 2012 in the Council Office, The Quayside, Harbour Road, Amble.

1. PRESENT: Councillors Hinson, Bilboe, Palin, Mrs Lewis, Mrs Dargue and Miss Morrison together with the Clerk, Miss Brown.

2. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE: Cllrs Arckless- other meeting, Cllr Weir – holiday.  These were proposed for acceptance by Cllr Mrs Lewis, seconded by Cllr Mrs Dargue and agreed.

3. ACCEPTANCE OF DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST: None.

Under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public will be excluded from the Meeting during consideration of the following items on the Agenda due to sensitive nature.

This was proposed by Cllr Hinson, seconded by Cllr Mrs Lewis and agreed.

PUBLIC/PRIVATE

4. Review of Council Services

a)    Grave digging – Various scenarios would need to be looked at e.g. cost of a mini digger, cost of outsourcing, remaining with hand digging, cost of hiring in a mini digger.  Two Operatives are employed for this task for health and safety reasons.  The Clerk would investigate quotes.

Cllr Bilboe proposed investigating all options, cost of a used digger, new digger, new shoring and outsourcing with contractor responsible for equipment supply on the assumption of a 3 year contract etc.  This was seconded by Cllr Mrs Lewis and agreed

b)    Ground works and Planting – An analysis should be done to look at what was more cost effective, i.e. growing own plants, buying ready to plant, buying plugs and outsourcing to be brought along.

Cllr Mrs Lewis informed a planting review was done approx. 7 years ago when it was determined that costs and time to grow inhouse were not efficient.  The Clerk should investigate  polyanthus and begonias, buying to be grown in cemetery, buying to be grown elsewhere, buying ready for planting, costs of outsourcing flower beds and the grass cutting of the Cemeteries, weeding, weed spraying, hedge trimming etc.

The West Cemetery would require cutting weekly from mid March to early October.  The East Cemetery would be cut fortnightly.  Mulching would be required.

c)    Health and Safety/ Risk Assessment – The Clerk would request quotes

Risk assessments were required for all jobs, both clerical and manual, done internally at present.  Cllr Mrs Lewis suggested the Clerk contact NCC and other firms.

d)    Personnel/ Training – The Clerical Assistant would continue investigating training courses and service level agreements. Employment service companies would be looked at for more specialist aspects and advice on personne/ employmentl issues.  NCC should be asked if they do service level agreements in this area and ACAS should also be contacted.

e)    Suppliers- e.g. Fuel; Equipment; Servicing; Personal Protective Clothing; Grass/ Soil/Pesticides etc.; Cleaning Materials; Admin. Items; Photocopier; Utilities

All were reviewed for best value at time of purchase. Costs of letter heads pre-printed should be investigated.

Date and time of next meeting: Following the meeting of the Finance Committee. on Thursday 27^th September 2012 in the Council Meeting Room

Remaining Items:

1.    Review of Employees and Salaries – would be done once all necessary information was collated.

2.    Other Items- Grant Funding Policy –  his would be deferred to the September Finance Committee meeting for review then to Town Council for approval.

The meeting closed a 7.25pm