MenuMinutes of a meeting of Amble Town Council held on Thursday 8th Decemebr 2011 at 6.30pm in the Council Office, The Quayside, Harbour Road, Amble.
1. PRESENT: Councillors Bilboe, Arckless, Hinson, Palin, Weir, Rev’d Nicholson, Mrs Lewis and Mrs Morrison together with the Clerk, Miss Brown.
Journalist James Willoughby.
2. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE: No apologies had been received.
3. ACCEPTANCE OF DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST: None.
4. PUBLIC QUESTION TIME: (maximum 15 minutes)
5. MINUTES: TOWN COUNCIL:
5.1: Minutes of Town Council Meeting held Thursday 10th November were proposed for acceptance by Cllr Bilboe, seconded by Cllr Mrs Lewis and agreed.
6. CLERK’S REPORT:
6.1: Email to Anna Kruk (NCC) stating Cllr Arckless’ wish to attend site visit with contractor re: the works at the top of Queen Street. 11/11/11.
6.2: Email to Amble 1st School enquiring about dates and subjects for Members during ‘Amazing Amble’ week 11/11/11.
6.3: Telephone call to St. Mark’s United Reformed booking place for Town Council at ‘Treefest’ 11/11/11
6.4: Letter to mobile caterer informing that Town Council has no objections to trading from present location. Licencing department also informed. Licencing Department replied stating they will keep note on file 11/11/11
6.5: Maroon rocket firing for 11th November successful in coinciding with bells on clock. 11/11/11
6.6: Email to NCC stating willingness to display details of library consultation in noticeboards/website 11/11/11
6.7: RNLI donation presentation; pictures taken at Lifeboat Station with Mayor 14/11/11
6.8: Conservation Officer informed of stonework attached to rear of Radcliffe memorial; project halted 15/11/11
6.9: AONB Partnership – Cllr Bilboe nominated by Clerk for consideration as Parish/Town Council representative 15/11/11
6.10: Digital Newsletter forwarded to Members 16/11/11
6.11: Christmas Food Hamper put together to be raffled on behalf of Amble Christmas Lights; £118 raised. The winning ticket was number 104 Christine Mather 20/11/11
6.12: Record of all listed buildings requested from NCC 17/11/11
6.13: Councillors invited to JCSC Christmas Review, to attend on 9th December
6.14: Disintegrating kerbing on Leazes Street(outside Harbour Fish Bar) reported to NCC. Telephone call from Highways 02/12/11, kerb will be repaired on 02/12/11.
6.15: Town Council joined Amble e-business forum and Cllr Weir and Clerk to attend their next meeting
6.16: Expression of Interest for Grant sent regarding Radcliffe Memorial restoration project
6.17: Informed from NCC that repairs to bus shelters have been undertaken.
Cllr Mrs Lewis queried details of the repairs which had been done to the bus shelters as sh could find no evidence of any. The Clerk was asked to request details of specific repairs.
7. AGENDA ITEMS FROM CLERK’S REPORT: None.
8. BUSINESS EXPRESSLY REQUIRED BY STATUTE:
8.1: Timetable for Central Ward by-election still awaited.
9. CHAIRMAN’S COMMUNICATIONS and REPORT:
9.1: Mayor’s Christmas Reception – Invitations sent out; raffle to take place
9.2: Invitation to Alnwick Civic Christmas Carol Service
9.3: The Chairman gave his report which is available on request.
10. REPORTS FROM COUNTY COUNCILLORS:
10.1 County Councillor Arckless gave his report which is available on request.
Cllr Mrs Lewis enquired for an update on the request for the 518 to travel via the estates. Cllr Arckless explained that this service was not subsidised by NCC so this may not be possible, however all services were under review.
10.2 County Councillor Watson was not in attendance
11. REPORTS FROM REPRESENTATIVES ON OUTSIDE BODIES & REPORTS OF MEETINGS ATTENDED BY MEMBERS AS PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS:
Cllr Weir had attended a Jubilee Steering Group meeting. The Clerk would circulate the notes of meeting to Members for information.
Cllr Weir had also attended a Business Group meeting which was well attended and very productive.
Cllr Hinson had attended a meeting to discuss the funding of new Harbour Lights through the Public Realm scheme. The conservation officer was involved.
12. AGENDA ITEMS:
12.1: Consideration of East Cemetery Info for website was proposed by Cllr Ms Lewis, seconded by Cllr Bilboe and agreed.
12.2: Review of Remembrance Day Service and suggestions for next year – The Clerk had received a lot of positive feed back from the service and suggested that in the future a programme be circulated to those involved in the service. Apologies were extended to the Northumbrian Pipes player who was not make aware of which stage to play during the service.
The Council formally thanked the Clerk and Clerical Assistant for their hard work in making the service a success.
Cllr Mrs Lewis whilst praising the arrangements suggested that Members line up behind wreath layers for future services and the lowering of the flag to half mast be investigated.
Cllr Hinson praised the Clerk and the volunteer for their work on co-ordinating the clock chime and rockets.
12.3: NCC Local Councils Charter consultation – The Clerk noted the Councils comments- mainly lack of support services, the usage of the general public telephone number and e-mail- and would respond to NCC.
12.4: Consideration of participation in June 2013 Festival of the North East – The Council agreed to express an interest and request more information. It was noted that time may be too short to produce the 1000 word plan.
12.5: Consideration of Draft Town Budget – Cllr Mrs Lewis explained the budget to the Members. Increase was due to service handovers and a fund to celebrate the Jubilee and the Olympic torch. After a discussion it was proposed to remove the relocation cost, reduce the matched grant funding and the grants/donations budgets to cover the town celebrations by Cllr Arckless, seconded by Cllr Nicholson and agreed with one abstention. Cllr Hinson declared an interest in removing the relocation budget.
13. REPORT FROM THE CEMETERIES MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE:
13.1: The Minutes of the Meeting held Thursday 17th November 2011 were agreed on the proposal of Cllr Bilboe, seconded by Cllr Mr Hinson.
14. REPORT FROM THE FINANCE COMMITTEE:
14.1: The Minutes of the Meeting held Thursday 24th November 2011 were agreed on the proposal of Cllr Mrs Lewis, seconded by Cllr Bilboe.
Cllr Mrs Lewis suggested it would be prudent to carry out a review of all services starting in January in order to check if there were any savings to be made by doing things differently. All thought this a good idea.
15. REPORT FROM THE ALLOTMENT AND PLAYGROUNDS COMMITTEE:
The next meeting will take place on Saturday 7th January at 10.00am
16. REPORT FROM THE PLANNING COMMITTEE:
16.1: The planning report for the month on November 2011
16.2: The Minutes of the Meeting held Tuesday 22nd November 2011 were agreed on the proposal of Cllr Hinson, seconded by Cllr Mrs Lewis.
17. COMMUNICATIONS:
17.1: Invitation to JCSC Christmas Review; the Clerk informed of details; Cllrs Bilboe, Hinson, Arckless, Weir and Rev Nicholson would attend along with the Clerk
17.2: The Coal Industry Welfare Organisation; leaflets to be put on display
17.3: Amble Social History Group – re: Radcliffe Memorial. The Stone artefact was to be positioned approx. 1 foot away at the reverse of the Radcliffe memorial. The base stones were also to be removed.
17.4: IMB – Notice of vacancies for Independent Monitoring Board for HMP Northumberland. The Clerk would advertise on notice board.
18. INFORMATION ITEMS AND ITEMS FOR CIRCULATION:
18.1: Digital Switch over newsletter 16/11/11
18.2: NCC Regeneration Bulletins 43-45
18.3: CAN News Autumn 2011
18.4: Canny News November 2011
18.5: NALC e-news November2011
18.6: Marine Conservation Society Winter 2011
18.7: Archaeology in Northumberland Volume 20
18.8: NCC Highways Services in Winter Leaflet
The information items were received en bloc.
(All items will be placed on information table for interested Members)
Information items are not to be taken away from the Meeting but photocopies can be made, if required.
19. DATE & TIME OF NEXT MEETING:
19:1 The date & time of the next Meeting will be on Thursday 12th January 2011 at 6.30pm. in the Town Council Meeting Room, The Quayside, Amble
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 on the proposal of Cllr Bilboe, seconded by Cllr Arckless and agreed.
PUBLIC VERSION OF PRIVATE
P01. Report from Town Council
Minutes of Town Council Meeting held Thursday 10th November 2011 were circulated and adopted on the proposal of Cllr Bilboe, seconded by Cllr Mrs Lewis and agreed.
P02. P02. Report from Cemeteries Management Committee
Minutes of the meeting held Thursday 17th November were circulated and adopted on the proposal of Bilboe, seconded by Cllr Weir and agreed.
P03. Cemetery Staff Appraisals
The Clerk detailed the Superintendents Appraisal Summary.
The Clerk detailed the Grounds man’s Appraisal Summary.
Cllr Mrs Lewis commented that working methods were appropriate to the manual nature of the job but agreed diagrams and clearer instructions should be given. Stock assessments should be carried out regularly to avoid shortages of supplies and an urgency for ordering. Cllr Mrs Lewis agreed with the Clerk that staff should be wearing the uniform supplied on all occasions and that third party work should be checked.
Cllr Bilboe proposed the earlier suggestion of a review of services to be discussed in January and a letter in the mean time to be sent to the staff stating that as reasonable and responsible employers we take every step to provide relevant training and ensure the safety of our employees; seconded by Cllr Weir and agreed.
P04. Pay review request
The Clerk informed of a request for a pay review. Cllr Arckless proposed deferring the reviewing of pays to run alongside the review of services in January. This was seconded by Cllr Mrs Lewis and agreed.
The meeting closed at 8.20pm