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Draft Minutes of the
FULL COUNCIL
21 APRIL 2015
MEETING 11
Present: Cllrs Griffiths (Mayor), Barker, Carter, Cox, Cummins, Derraugh, Eccleston, P
Lloyd, Loch, Marlow, Shipman and Wilkie.
PART 1: Items considered in the presence of the press and public
139 Questions to Council: None.
140 Apologies for absence were received from Cllrs Hughes, Kynaston, C Lloyd and
Sharkey and were accepted.
141 Declarations of Interest: None.
142 Elections to the Town Council, 7 May 2015
a The number of valid nominations received for each ward was as follows:
Little Neston 2 nominations, Ness 2, Neston 3, Parkgate 4, Riverside 3
and that as a consequence there will be 2 seats to be filled by co-option in Little
Neston, 1 in Neston and 1 in Riverside was noted.
b
Council authorised the Town Clerk to invite, as soon as practicable after 11
May, nominations from qualified persons to be considered for co-option by the
Council at its Annual Meeting on 19 May 2015.
143 Minutes of the last meeting
Resolved: To approve the minutes of the Council Meetings held on 17.02.15 and
25.03.15 as true and accurate records. The Mayor signed the minutes.
144 Mayor’s Report
The Mayor’s report was received by members.
145 Clerk’s Report
The Internal Auditor will be in attendance at the Council office on 20 May 2015.
146 Minutes and Recommendations of Committees & Working Groups
146.1 Human Resources (Cllr Griffiths)
The minutes of the meetings held on the 25.02.15 & 09.04.15 were noted and the
recommendation considered.
RESOLVED: Training- Statement of Intent (item 76) Amendment of the current
policy;
a) Training needs – Councillor
Removal of the words ‘at the Full Council meetings for approval’ at the end of
the sentence ‘That Councillor training needs ... etc’
146.2 Planning and Environment Committee (Cllr Derraugh)
Minutes of the meeting 03.03.15 were noted.
146.3 Finance and General Purposes Committee (Cllr Shipman)
Minutes of the meetings held on 17.03.15 & 30.03.15 were noted and committee
recommendations considered:
i. New Homes Bonus.
RESOLVED: Approval for the progression of the following projects and associated
expenditure from the New Homes Bonus allocation.
Chairman’s initial and date
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 The Performing Arts equipment £12,000,
 Raby Road/Neston Station environmental improvements £10,000,
 Decorative refurbishment of the Town Hall and Stage £5,000, and
 Play areas across Neston £25,000.
ii. Budget Management.
RESOLVED: Approval of Budget Management arrangements as set out in the
report REF/FGP001:
a) to set annual budget cycle
b) to set minimum level of general reserves
A request was made for recorded votes for items c - e
Vote For: 12
Against: 0
Abstained: 0
c) amend current responsibilities relating to budgets as specified in each
committee’s terms of reference
Vote For: 12
Against: 0
Abstained: 0
d) amend the F&GP committee’s terms of reference to allow a formal role to
monitor of each of the committee’s budgets in line with the strategic objectives
Vote For: 9
Against: 1
Abstained: 2
e) provide financial training within two months of the new Council year
Vote For: 11
Against: 0
Abstained: 1
iii. Effectiveness and efficiency of the council’s operation REF/FGP003: To adopt
the recommendations in the Committee’s report to Council
RESOLVED:
a standardised agendas, briefer minutes, the posting of all papers on the
council’s website prior to meetings of Council and Committees;
b
access to information
c
meetings,
i committees to consider how their remits might be fulfilled without
recourse to Extraordinary meetings and consider the introduction of small,
regular sub-committees to approve regular business;
ii greater delegation to officers
iii replacing working groups with task and finish groups A proposal to
amendment the recommendation:
To: ‘Committee Working Groups should be replaced by specific “Task and
Finish” groups where appropriate. The Council should permit these to be
established not just by Council and Committees, but also by an Officer or
individual member or groups of members in consultation with the Clerk to
enable groups to make proactive proposals for decision by Committee.’
RESOLVED to approve the recommendation as amended
RESOLVED:
iv the introduction of an eight-week council cycle
RESOLVED:
d communication with members – An amendment was proposed the
reduction in the number of emails forwarded to Members proposal
RESOLVED to approve the recommendation as amended
To ‘The Council should ask for individual members’ email addresses to be
Chairman’s initial and date
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added to an email exploder account set up by the Council’s IT consultant, to
allow automatic distribution to Councillors by those organisations regularly
emailing the council to relieve the necessity of these being forwarded by
officers.
146.4 Town Centre Committee (Cllr Barker)
Minutes of the meeting on 24.03.15 were noted.
146.5 Society and Culture Committee (Cllr Carter)
Minutes of the meeting held on 31.03.15 were noted.
146.6 S106 Working Group (Cllr Barker)
Report of the s106 working group meetings 10.03.15 & 14.04.15 were received.
147 Finance
147.1 RESOLVED approval of the expenditure of £28,116.05 net to 31.03.15 &
£32,851.99 to 15.04.15.
147.2 Noted income of £12,550.07 to 31.03.15 & £1,330.96 to 15.04.15.
RESOLVED: To suspend standing order 1z
148 Grants Table This item was deferred
To receive the grants table and consider the impact of the grants programme for
Neston residents.
149 Licensing Applications
Council considered and agreed there were no grounds for objection for the
application made under the Licensing Act 2003.
McColl Ltd, 13 The Cross, Neston; application for the grant of a premises licence
for the supply of alcohol off the premises.
150 Any other Items: A record of thanks was made to Cllr Hughes for his past
service and for his time spent as Councillor and Mayor along with thanks to Cllrs
Cummins, Derraugh and Sharkey for their past service as Town Councillors.
151 Exclusion of the Press and Public
RESOLVED that under the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 (as
extended by s.100 of the Local Government Act 1972), the public and accredited
representatives of newspapers be excluded from the meeting for the following
items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt
information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act
1972.
Part Two: Items considered in the absence of the press and public
152 Human Resources 25.03.15 (Cllr Griffiths)
RESOLVED: Approval of non-consolidated (one-off) payments to be made to
employees as outlined in annex 2 of the NJC agreement awards notification.
153 Finance and General Purposes Committee 17.05.15 (Cllr Shipman)
RESOLVED:Banking Arrangements: Approval of the recommendations in relation
to changing the council’s bankers, making on-line and card payments, and
regulating access to accounts and banking services, as outlined in the report
REF/FGP002.
154 Date and time of next meeting: Members noted that the next scheduled Full
Council meeting will be the Annual Meeting of the Council on Tuesday 19th May at
6.30pm.
Members gave thanks to Cllr Griffiths for her service during her time as Mayor.
Meeting closed at 8.37pm
Signed ____________________________________Dated _______________
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