July 2020 Minutes
MINUTES TAKEN BY THE CLERK AT THE FISHTOFT PARISH COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON WEDNESDAY 22TH JULY 2020 VIA VIDEO CONFERENCE1 COMMENCING AT 6.10PM
Present: Cllrs. M. Ordway, J. Williams, J. Skinner, P. Skinner & H. Crawford
Cllrs. E. Armstrong (Chairman) & R. Lenton joined the meeting later due to connection issues Mrs. V. Clark, Clerk to the Council
Mrs. K. Partridge (Former Clerk & Responsible Financial Officer)
Also present Boston Borough Cllr. J. Noble
PUBLIC FORUM: 2 No public in attendance
Due to the absence of both the Chairman & Vice Chairman it was proposed by Cllr. J. Skinner and seconded by Cllr. H. Crawford that Cllr. M. Ordway take the meeting, Cllr. Ordway agreed and there were no objections.
The meeting started at 6.10pm
33.1 CHAIRMANS REMARKS
Cllr. Ordway as the Chairman of the meeting welcomed everyone to the first video conference meeting via zoom of Fishtoft Parish Council, and wished the Chairman Cllr. E. Armstrong a Happy Birthday, also remarking that this was her own 25th year on the council.
33.2 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE To receive and accept apologies where valid reasons for absence have been given to the Clerk prior to the meeting
Cllr. O. Snell and Cllr. H. Staples (Vice Chairman) with reasons previously given to the clerk – On proposal from Cllr. P. Skinner & seconded by Cllr. J. Skinner, with no objections all resolved to accept the reasons given.
33.3 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST (if any) To receive declarations of interest under the Localism Act 2011 – being any pecuniary interest in agenda items not previously recorded on Members’ Register of Interests
None received
33.4 ANNUAL GOVERNANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY RETURN (AGAR) 2019/20 PART 3 – Previously sent to members of the council
a) To approve the Annual Governance Statement (Section 1 of the Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR) Page 4 of Part 3) for financial year 2019/20 and authorise signing by the Chairman of the meeting and former Parish Clerk, Mrs. K. Partridge 3
On proposal from Cllr. M. Ordway and seconded by Cllr. P. Skinner, with no objections all resolved to approve section 1 and authorise the Chairman & former Clerk to sign 4
Cllr. E. Armstrong and Cllr. R. Lenton entered the meeting
b) To approve the Accounting Statements (Section 2 of the AGAR) page 5 of part 3, for financial year 2019/20 and authorise signing by the Chairman and former Responsible Finance Officer
On proposal from Cllr. P. Skinner and seconded by Cllr. H. Crawford, with no objections all resolved to approve section 2 and authorise the Chairman of the meeting and former RFO to sign, the Chairman of the meeting will sign at a later date when received via post
c) To approve bank reconciliation as at 31st March 2020
On proposal from Cllr. P. Skinner and seconded by Cllr. R. Lenton, with no objections all resolved to approve the bank reconciliation
34.1 NOTES OF THE PARISH COUNCIL MEETINGS HELD ON 16TH MARCH AND 23RD MARCH 2020
To resolve as a correct record and to authorise the Chairman to sign the official minutes
On proposal from Cllr. R. Lenton and seconded by Cllr. E. Armstrong, with no objections all resolved to accept the notes of the 16th March 2020 as a correct record of the meeting and gave permission for the chairman of the meeting to sign them.
Cllr. J. Skinner questioned the notes from the meeting dated 23rd March 2020, item 30.3 the community resilience budget & the amount agreed. The clerk confirmed that at that time it was unknown what sum would be needed and to whom it would be assisting and also confirmed that no unbudgeted amounts were spent. Cllr. M. Ordway requested that Item 30.3 the resilience budget be rescinded and that item 32.1 be set to the original spending limited of any item below £500
On proposal from Cllr. R. Lenton and seconded by Cllr. E. Armstrong, with no objections all resolved to accept the notes of the 23rd March 2020 as a correct record of the meeting and gave permission for the meeting chairman to sign them
On Proposal from Cllr. J. Skinner and seconded by Cllr. R. Lenton, with no objections all resolved to rescind the Community Resilience Budget.
On Proposal from Cllr. J. Skinner and seconded by Cllr. E. Armstrong, with no objections all resolved to set the original spending limited for the clerk to any item below £500
34.2 REMARKS FROM FORMER CLERK/RESPONSIBLE FINANCIAL OFFICER
Mrs Partridge had some questions for the clerk, Mrs Clark
Mrs Partridge had previously signed and dated section 2 of the AGAR and asked the Clerk to clarify if that was the correct. The Clerk advised that if Mrs Partridge had done this in the past then it must be OK.
Had an extension to the auditor been requested & if so, what was the new date. An extension had been requested which was approved, the extension is now to the end of August.
What date should the exercise of public rights start, the clerk advised that as the AGAR had been approved then starting them in 2 days times would be OK.
34.3 REPORTS FROM BOSTON BOROUGH COUNCIL & LINCOLNSHIRE COUNCY COUNCIL MEMBERS Cllr. J. Noble
2020/2021 Council Tax went up
2020/2021 Business Rates went down
Alcohol Licence had been taken away from the Rose of Bengal
Cllr. J. Skinner
The Environment & Performance Committee discussed the last quarter performance report of the work programme at the last meeting & will discuss Quarter One at the next one.
Boston’s Alternative Energy Facility (A.E.F) will go out for consultation
Cllr. P. Skinner
The Strategic Alliance between B.B.C & E.L.D.C was voted to go ahead which will save £15.4m over the next 10 years between the two councils.
Q. Cllr. M. Ordway asked what costs i.e. redundancies would be in the first year & could the council have the figures so far?
A. These can be found on the B.B.C website 5
Cllr. M. Ordway stated that more responsibilities will come down to Parish Councillors that do not get paid and requested that this be noted at the Borough’s meetings and payment discussed
Cllr. P. Skinner
Highways contractors changed during lock down
34.4 NEXT MEETING – The next meeting of Fishtoft Parish Council will be published on the council’s website
It was discussed whether to have face to face meetings, this would not be easy as the halls are not yet open and Both NALC and SLCC still strongly advise local councils to continue to meet remotely, without the need for face-to-face contact
It was discussed whether to go back to the scheduled meeting dates, on Proposal from Cllr. E. Armstrong and seconded by Cllr. P. Skinner, with no objections all resolved to have regular scheduled meetings via video conferencing until Government or other changes are made.
The next meeting will be held via Zoom on Monday 17th August starting at 7pm.
It was noted that there were technical issues for some members of the council
THE MEETING CLOSED AT 6.56PM
1 Video conference under “The Local Authorities (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority Meetings) (England) Regulations 2020”
2 Members of the public & press were invited to join the meeting by contacting the clerk before 3pm on the day of the meeting.
3 The Former clerk, Mrs K Partridge was Responsible financial office until 31st March 2020 and prepared the audit papers 2019/2020
4 The Chairman of the meeting, Cllr. M. Ordway was present at this Parish Council video conference, Parish Council meetings and the change to legislation due to Covid-19 allows for a signature to be added after the meeting date.