Minutes of Finance Committee 1st February 2011
Present: J Harvey (chair), Cllrs A Seipp, E Hodgson, K Waterhouse, J McCall, A Ramwell. In attendance clerk M Crompton. Also present: Mrs J Wilson, Mrs Sylvia Swann, Mrs A Bowles.
1. Apologies for absence
None received.
2. Minutes of the last meeting.
Minutes of the meeting held on 24th November: proposed and seconded.
3. Chairman and clerk's report
The clerk reported that a member of staff would be taking maternity leave from 25th April. It was agreed that the Committee recommend to Council that a temporary vacancy be advertised. After discussion, it was agreed that funding for this would be taken from contingency reserves and not included as an addition to the precept.
4. Precept 2011-2012
The Committee discussed the precept options for 2011-2012 presented in the paper submitted.
Additional expenditure bids, assuming a zero increase in the precept, were as follows:
Debt repayment on loan for purchase of football field £2,300.00
Annual contribution to village hall running costs (recurring annually): £500.00
BEAC: bollards and mirror for Market Street: £1,000.00
Little Hayfield walling £1.000.00
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There was considerable discussion about the proposed ongoing contribution to Village Hall expenditure. Although it was generally supported, it constituted a new departure for the Parish Council, since existing policy was not to make donations, but to try and help organizations with their fund-finding. A donation ran the risk of prompting other village organizations to ask for funding or to complain about being left out.
After much discussion, the Committee decided to make the following recommendations to Council.
1) That a zero percent increase be recommended, and the precept stay as 2010-2011:
2) That the expenditure bids be aggregated as one sum, to be allocated after the May election by the new Council, and that
3) This proposed increase in expenditure be funded from reserves.
It was also pointed out that in the budget proposals a sum of £2,500 had been set aside for election expenses, when in fact £500 per annum had been earmarked for this over the past four years. This meant that an additional £2k would be available from reserves if required.
6. Date of next meeting: to be decided by the incoming Council after May 2011.
P M Crompton
Clerk to the Parish Council.
Financial Situation
January 2011
Current Account £50,943.49
Deposit Account £15,236.71
TOTAL £66,180.20
Of which: £30,000.00 to be kept in Reserve
£25,000.00 for the purchase of the Football Field. (HEC Contribution)
Leaving £11,180.20
Plus £ 8,130.00 payment from the Sustainable Development Fund
(Orchard Project)
TOTALLING £19,310.20
Minus £ 4200.00 payment for the Cenotaph paving
£ 2700.00 payment for the interactive road sign in Little Hayfield.
TOTAL £12,410.20
Expenditure December / January
Payments £ 4870.77
Credits £ 410.00
TOTAL £ 4460.77
Leaving £ 7949.43 for Jan/Feb, Feb/Mar and Mar/Apr. 3 months
If expenditure is kept to £3,500.00 per month for the next three months – totalling £10,500.00,
then there will be an overspend of:
£ 10,500.00
minus £ 7,949.43
OVERSPEND £ 2,550.57
HAYFIELD PARISH COUNCIL 1st February 2011.
FINANCE COMMITTEE
Agenda item 4)
Precept options for 2011/2012.
Reserves: are £30,000 less any overspend in 2010-2011. This is currently estimated to be £2,550.00, leaving reserves of £27,450.00 for 2011-2012
Restricted funds:
£2.5k: Election expenses
£2.5k: Sum held to meet maintenance obligations on Interpretation Boards (Kinder Rd).
£15k: Contingency fund
This means that there is £7,450.00 in the reserves that could be earmarked for other purposes.
Core budget 2011/12 excluding new projects and bids
The core Budget for 2011-2012 (excluding any new projects and bids, below, is projected at £63,047.00.
Income 2011-2012 (with a Borough Council grant of around £500 less than expected):
£64,456.00 (£44,041 precept, £19,615 HPBC , £800 other).
This gives us a surplus of £1,409.00 which can be added to reserves, increasing the total to £28,859, and the unallocated sum to £8859.
New projects and bids for 2011/12
Committed
Debt repayments on £30k loan for Bank Vale field: £2300.00
(Approximate revenue cost per full year, for 20 years; start date still uncertain. We may need only part of this sum in 2011-2012, or none of it, if purchase continues to be delayed. Nevertheless at this point we need to make provision for the full amount. If loan taken over 30 years the payment would decrease to just under £2000 per year.)
Bids
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Precept options
For Decision:
Select Option a), b) or c) above, or any other alternative option proposed.
John Harvey
Chair of Finance Committee.
27th January 2011.
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Summons - Notice of Meeting Open to members of the Public
25th January 2011
To: The Members of Hayfield Parish Council Finance Committee
Cllrs J Harvey (chair): E Hodgson, J McCall, K Waterhouse, A Seipp
Dear Councillor
There will be a meeting of Hayfield Parish Council Finance Committee to be held on Tuesday 1st February at 7.30pm in Parish Council Offices.
Yours sincerely,
Mike Crompton
Mike Crompton
Clerk to the Council
AGENDA
1) Apologies for absence
2) Minutes of the last meetings (24th November 2010) (to follow)
3) Chairman and Clerk’s report
4) Precept recommendations for 2011-2012
5) Date of next meeting: to be determined by New Council after May 2011.
Enclosures:
Minutes of Finance Committee 24th November 2010
Present: J Harvey (chair), Cllrs E Hodgson, K Waterhouse. In attendance clerk M Crompton.
1. Apologies for absence
None received.
2. Minutes of the last meetings
Minutes of the meeting held on 7th June: proposed and seconded.
Minutes of the meeting held on 3rd August: proposed and seconded.
3. Chairman and clerk's report
The chair reported that after a meeting in Nottingham with the Heritage Lottery Funders, the grant of £50,000.00 towards the Heritage Centre had been secured.
There was some discussion on the funding of the Football Field when the purchase is required. It was decided that it was not in the remit of the Finance Committee to decide this matter, and would be referred to the Council at the appropriate time.
It was reported that Sally Hodson of Plainsteads, Monks Road ran courses on dry stone walling Clerk to contact for information about possible grants for this sort of work. ACTION MC
The clerk reported a grant of £2000 had been received from Hayfield Development Trust as a donation for the Underbridge Project. The invoice now to paid paid for this work. ACTION MC
4. Precept 2011-2012
Nothing could be finalised until the Borough Council had decided on the level of support to be given in the Borough Council grant. Given that the Comprehensive Spending Review was likely to result in cuts to Council grants in 2011-2012, the Parish Council cannot be offered any recommendation as yet by the Finance Committee. A contingency plan would therefore be to plan for the normal increment, and possibly raise any shortfall by an increase in the precept.
5. Funding Bids 2011-2012
There was some discussion on funding the BEAC proposals for the Top o' the Town developments. It was considered that the Parish Council should seek some seed corn funding from the County Council with funding from Hayfield Parish Council as well.
The figures of £20k (DCC) and £30k(HPC) were mentioned. It was suggested that the MP Andrew Bingham should be contacted for any possibly help he could give.
The proposed funding bids were as follows:
Village Hall: £2,000 grant
BEAC: Bollards and Mirror: £2,000
Little Hayfield (walling): £1,000
Orchard Project: £1,000
Sustainable Hayfield: £500
Total: £6,500.
6. Date of next meeting; 5th January 2011.
FINANCE COMMITTEE
Minutes of the meeting held on 23rd September 2009 at 7.30 pm in the Parish Council Offices, Hayfield.
Present: Councillors J Harvey (Chair), Mrs Sue McCall, Mrs E Hodgson and Mrs K. Waterhouse.
In attendance: Clerk M Crompton, 1 member of the public.
1. Apologies for absence
Cllr J McCall, Cllr A Ramwell.
2. Minutes of the meeting held on 7th June 2009
Approved as a correct record.
3. Chairman’s report and actions taken
Documents on Treasury Loans had been received and circulated at the last Council Meeting.
Duke of Devonshire funding had not proved fruitful. However SDF funding had been achieved and funding now adequate. Orchard steering group had now been formalized with the addition of Mrs E Crompton to liaise with the School on Key Stages I and II. Budget re-structuring now completed and reported under agenda item 6. Spending outcomes in agenda item 7.
4. Orchard project financial management.
Largely covered in previous item. The terms of the Sustainable Development Fund grant are that items should be ordered and paid for by the Parish Council, against the list bid for, and then the Fund invoices for the appropriate amount.
5. Project funding update
The bid for the remaining purchase funds for the Bank Vale Field to DET had not been successful. The Parish Council and the Sports Club would now have to seek other funding. At the time of writing there had been no news of the National Lottery Bid for the Memorial Square project.
6. Budget re-structuring
The chair introduced a paper showing the proposed re-structuring of the way in which financial information is presented monthly. It was AGREED that this would be a clearer presentation of monthly financial information. In addition it would allow a monthly cash flow to be easily produced and allow overspends and under spends to be identified quickly.
7. Full year spending outcomes
It was agreed that this would be a natural outcome of the re-arranged financial information, to be implemented if possible by the next Council meeting, or if not by the November meeting.
A paper was also introduced to show the hours devoted each month to each activity of the gardener and handyman. A paper will be produced for the next Council meeting on the merits and finances of a full field mower for the Council, to replace the contracted services with County. It would also be possible to contract the mowing of the School premises and the Bank Vale Field. There was also discussion about a possible increase of employee hours for all the additional work accrueing, or the possibility of a third employee for gardens and repair work. Decision delayed pending further information.
8. Date of next meeting
18th November 2009.
Part II
9. Proposed changes to financial administration.
There was a discussion about the possibility of contracting financial administration in a different manner. The clerk to investigate and produce figures. ACTION: MC
10. Review of clerk’s conditions and contract.
Although more hours are worked than in the original contract, and the Council had agreed to review this, it was AGREED that the clerk’s contracted hours should remain the same, given this was the figure budgeted for the current financial year.
It was AGREED that the employees should received the revised pay scales published by SLCC, backdated to 1st April 2009. The increase was of 1% of hourly rates.
The meeting closed at 9.15pm.