MenuMinutes of a meeting of Amble Town Council held on Thursday 15th March 2012 following the meeting of the Cemeteries Management Committee in the Council Office, The Quayside, Harbour Road, Amble.
1. PRESENT: Councillors Mrs Lewis, Arckless, Palin, Weir, Mrs Dargue and Mrs Morrison together with the Clerk, Miss Brown.
2. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE: Cllrs Bilboe – Illness, Cllr Hinson – Prior Commitment. These were proposed for acceptance by Cllr Mrs Lewis, seconded by Cllr Arckless and agreed.
Due to the absence of Cllr Bilboe and Hinson it was proposed that Cllr Mrs Lewis act as Chair for this meeting by Cllr Palin, seconded by Cllr Weir 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 Mrs Lewis, seconded by Cllr Weir 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 or 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.
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.
c) Maintenance Tasks – Cllr Weir acknowledged the staff have skills in certain areas, the council would expect unskilled and semi-skilled work to be done within the remits of the job descriptions. Skilled work such as electrics, plumbing would be left to professionals.
d) Clock – the Clock is a highly specialist niche with repair companies being based in Derbyshire, Edinburgh and Cumbria. Best Value is looked into bi-annually for servicing/repairs.
The regulating of the mechanism is done by the Clerk and various staff/Councillors are also familiar with this procedure. The key to the tower is kept in the Council Office
e) Lightning Conductor – repairs/servicing required a specialist firm to undertake works, this would be reviewed for best value at least bi-annually.
f) Shutters on West Cemetery premises – recently reviewed for best value, Operative to oil and clean on a regular basis.
g) Trees – A survey was recently carried out and all urgent work undertaken. Shrubs should be maintained to a 2m height; the next stage of the tree survey would be looked at in the new financial year in order to have a rolling maintenance programme.
h) Conservation- stone, marble, gates etc.- War memorials, gates required specialist firms to undertake works. Gates should be inspected regularly and at least one annual site visit to the East Cemetery should be covered by the Cemeteries Management Committee.
i) Insurance – The Clerk reviewed annually, quotes would be requested. Assets need to be updated then reviewed annually before renewal.
j) Health and Safety/ Risk Assessment – The Clerk would request quotes
k) 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.
The meeting closed at 8.40pm with the remainder of the agenda to be discussed at a future meeting.
Date and time of next meeting: 5.15p.m. on Thursday 5th April 2012 in the Council Meeting Room
l) Suppliers- e.g. Fuel; Equipment; Servicing; Personal Protective Clothing; Grass/ Soil/Pesticides etc.; Cleaning Materials; Admin. Items; Photocopier; Utilities
- 1. Review of Employees and Salaries
- 2. Other Items- Grant Funding Policy