19/02/2010 OGM Minutes

BARTON ON THE HEATH PARISH COUNCIL

MINUTES OF AN ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING

HELD IN THE VILLAGE HALL ON FRIDAY 19^TH

FEBRUARY 2010

 

Present: Councillors: Brigadier J F Rickett (Chairman), Lt Col J B Henderson (Vice Chairman), Mrs D Pelczynski, Mrs G Cathie, Mrs L Hayman-Joyce

 

Captain J Castle RN, (Hon Treasurer), Mr J Shipton (Internal Auditor)

 

Public: Mr D Poulsom, Mr J Hayman-Joyce, Mrs C Henderson

 

 

1. Minutes of the Ordinary General Meeting held on October 16^th

 

1. The Vice President stated that the Grant for the grass cutting for £300 had been applied for from Stratford District Council.
2. He further stated that the Precept for £870 for the year 20109/2011 had also been applied for.
3. He reminded the meeting that nothing had been done about the state of our road signs; they were still in a filthy state.  Both Councillors Saint and Gray had promised to help but nothing appears to have been done.

 

2. Finance matters

 

1. The Hon Treasurer gave an update on the village finances. Speaking from a copy of the Second Interim Financial Statement for the current year he reported that Receipts had been as forecast except for the welcome addition of a prize of £75 for the Best Village Competition (Environment) awarded by the Warwickshire County Council. Payments had also been as forecast including payment for the Bird Memorial Survey Report and transfer to the Village Hall of the £488.48 held on account for the Broadband Connection to the hall, which had now been installed.
2. Turning to the reconciliation of the funds in hand, which were £1264.07, £500 was held for an election if needed and £428.30 was still held on account by the South Warwickshire Neighbourhood Watch. This gave a sum of £335.77 available to the Council. He pointed out that, in addition, £110.41 was available to be reclaimed for VAT; and Stratford District Council had been asked to reimburse the village for the cost of grass cutting p- £300. The grand total, which could be available to the Council was therefore £746.18
3. The Council accepted the report unanimously.

 

 

3.  Warwickshire Awards Scheme

 

1. The Chairman asked Captain Castle to explain, on behalf of the Chairman of the Village Hall Committee, a suggestion that the village should submit an entry for the Warwickshire Awards Scheme. The Scheme includes a category for “Projects” for which the Village Hall Committee consider the village has a good record, citing the refurbishment programme and other activities, which had been completed during the current financial year.
2. After a short discussion the Council supported this unanimously.

 

4. Best Village Competition 2010

 

Last year the village came 2^nd in the competition and received a prize of £75. It             was decided to enter the Environment part of the competition again. The Chairman stated that he would issue a task table as in past years.

 

5. The Bird Memorial on the Green

 

a. Captain Castle reported that the report was in final draft. Andrew Baxter, the structural engineer, wanted to make one final inspection of the memorial before signing off the report. He had ascertained that the memorial fountain had been fed with water from the fountain in front of Barton House. The design had been to overflow the waste so that for many years the memorial had stood on water saturated ground, which had allowed the base segments to sink and spread. This had been arrested by fitting a steel band around the base. Andrew Baxter wanted, once the weather improved, to inspect the condition of the band and its securing bolts. Were either of these to fail he was concerned that the memorial would start to tilt again quite quickly. He therefore wanted to be able to advise the Council on the condition of the band and fixing bolts in case they were approaching the end of their useful lives and needed to be replaced.

b. The Council noted this update and congratulated Captain Castle on all the immense amount of hard work he had put in to achieve this favourable state of affairs.

 

6. AOB

 

1. The Vice Chairman gave out future dates of interest with reference to the      General Election, District Council Elections and Parish Council Elections. After a certain amount of discussion the Vice Chairman volunteered to find out the rules in the event of a Parish Councillor wishing to resign before the election date.
2. The Chairman wished that a note of thanks be recorded for the wonderful work, which Mr Antony Bristow had done to keep the bottom road open for village cars to get out during the recent bad weather.
3. The Chairman stated that Mrs Hanks felt that she could not carry out the duties of Parish Clerk owing to her recent illness and the enormous workload she had to carry out. He stated that he would endeavour to find a replacement.
4. The Chairman reported on the Webmaster’s work and urged everyone present to give Mrs Linda Graham any points of interest for her to put on our website.

 

7. Date of future meetings

      

Friday 21^st May at 1900 hrs: Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) and AGM, (Election date permitting).

Friday 25^th June: Extra OGM (to approve annual accounts for audit).

Friday 15^th October OGM (to set precept for 2011/2012)

Friday 18^th February 2011 OGM (to review annual accounts)

 

Friday 27^th May 2011 OGM and AGM