Agenda (Please note that reports are not attached to electronic agendas)
AGENDA, MEETING OF THE FINANCE & GENERAL PURPOSES COMMITTEE, 25TH JANUARY 2010, 7.30PM
Admission of the Public and Media
Members of the Public and Media are welcome to attend in accordance with the Public Bodies (Admission to Meeting) Act 1960
Public Participation
Public Participation will be in accordance with Standing Order No. 11
1. Apologies
2. Declarations of interests. Members are reminded to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have on any item on this agenda in accordance with Didcot Town Council’s code of conduct.
3. To receive the SOLL report for Willowbrook Leisure Centre – report attached.
4. To agree the Minutes of the Meetings held on:
(a) 26th October 2009 (not attached, sent out with Council agenda for 9th November 2009).
(b) 2nd November 2009 (not attached, sent out with Council agenda for 9th November 2009).
(c) 23rd November 2009 (not attached, sent out with Council agenda for 14th December 2009).
5. Questions on the Minutes as to the progress of any item. Update report on the following is attached:
(a) Minute 253, PCSO Summary Report.
6. Financial Statement – report attached.
7. Oxfordshire Fire Authority’s Integrated Risk Management Action Plan 2010-11 – report attached.
8. CCTV monitoring statistics - report attached.
9. PCSO monitoring report – report attached.
10. Civic Hall Project Update – report attached.
11. Appointment of Internal Auditor for 2009/2010 – report attached.
12. The Annual Review of the Effectiveness of the Internal Audit - report attached.
13. Correspondence.
Dominic Stapleton
Town Clerk
20th January 2010
Minutes
329. PRESENT
Councillors:
- Mr P Hayward (Chair)
- Mr R Hawlor (Vice-Chair)
- Mrs M Davies
- Mr B Cooper
- Mrs L Hood
- Mr W Service
- Mr T Harbour (for Mrs J Murphy)
Officer:
- Mr D Stapleton (Town Clerk).
330. APOLOGIES
Mr B Griffiths (Business) and Mrs J Murphy (Personal).
331. DECLARATIONS OF INTERESTS
Members were reminded to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have on any item on the agenda in accordance with Didcot Town Council’s code of conduct.
(a) Councillor Mr P Hayward declared a personal interest in item 332 referring to Willowbrook Leisure Centre, as he is a Management Committee Member at Didcot Town Football Club (DTFC) and they have shared use of the centre and lease the land it is built on to the Town Council.
332. RESOLVED that the meeting is adjourned for the next item.
SOLL WILLOWBROOK LEISURE CENTRE QUARTERLY REPORT
The quarterly monitoring report was circulated and presented by Stuart Mundy, Leisure Centre Duty Manager. Wayne Hawkins, SOLL Contracts Manager, gave a verbal update on the accounts.
Members expressed disappointment that copies of the latest accounts were not available, either in advance of or at the meeting.
There followed a question and answer session.
RESOLVED that the meeting is reconvened.
NOTED
333. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
RESOLVED that the meeting is adjourned for the next item
Firefighters Jon hardy and Richard West addressed the committee on the proposed changes to the crewing at Didcot Fire Station as part of the Oxfordshire Fire Authority’s Integrated Risk Management Action Plan (IRMP). They both stressed concerns over the impact of the changes on Didcot and the increase in response times within the Didcot area.
RESOLVED that the meeting is reconvened.
Under Standing Order 11(v) it was RESOLVED to take the following item next.
334. OXFORDSHIRE FIRE AUTHORITY’S INTEGRATED RISK MANAGEMENT ACTION PLAN (IRMP)
It was reported that the IRMP had been launched for consultation with a deadline of 31st January 2010. One of the major issues was the review of day crewing at Abingdon and Didcot fire stations. The matter had been discussed by the Major Issues Working Group who had recommended the attached response.
Due to the deadline of 31st January 2010, and the next Council meeting not until 8th February 2010, it was:
RESOLVED that the response at appendix A is sent before the deadline of 31st January 2010 as the Town Council’s response under Standing Order 36 (delegation of urgent and routine matters).
335. MINUTES
RESOLVED that the minutes of the meetings held on 26th October 2009, 2nd November 2009 and 23rd November 2009 are approved and signed as a true and correct record.
336. QUESTIONS ON THE MINUTES AS TO THE PROGRESS OF ANY ITEM
An update was given on minute 253, PCSO Summary report, following a meeting on 8th December 2009 with Inspector Nick Cain.
Clarification of the number of PCSOs for Didcot was given, in that 5 was the correct established number for the town, which included the extra PCSO which is part funded by the Town Council.
NOTED
337. FINANCIAL STATEMENT
The following documents were circulated:
a. Detailed income and expenditure budget report as at 31st December 2009.
b. Financial Statement report for the Council as at 31st December 2009.
It was noted that the estimated CCTV funding contribution for the current year was £9530 against a budget of £9000, and that there was another meeting in this financial year when the matter would be considered once a confirmed figure had been received.
NOTED
338. CCTV MONITORING STATISTICS
The monitoring statistics for quarter 2, covering July to September 2009, were circulated. It was reported that the statistics appear on the Council’s website and in the Didcot Dynamo.
NOTED
339. PCSO MONITORING REPORT
The PCSO Key Performance Indicators summary report for quarter 2, covering July to September 2009, were circulated.
NOTED
340. CIVIC HALL PROJECT – UPDATE REPORT
It was reported that following Council’s decision on 14th December 2009 to fund the project, an application for borrowing approval was submitted on 15th December 2009 and a decision was still awaited.
Copies of the Civic Hall Working Group meeting on 16th December 2009 were circulated.
NOTED
Clerks Note: Borrowing approval was received on 29th January 2010 for £500,000 in the current financial year, 2009/2010, as requested. Borrowing approval would be granted in the next financial year, 2010/2011, for the other amounts up to £1.33m as and when required.
341. APPOINTMENT OF INTERNAL AUDITOR FOR FINANCIAL YEAR 2009/2010
RECOMMENDED that the current internal auditor, Mr Brian Rollerson of BR Consulting Ltd, is appointed for the financial year 2009/2010.
342. THE ANNUAL REVIEW OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE INTERNAL AUDIT
It was reported that the Council is required to undertake a review of the effectiveness of the internal audit.
RECOMMENDED that the annual review of the effectiveness of the internal audit at appendix B (word doc) is agreed.
The Meeting commenced at 7.30pm and closed at 9pm
Chair
Appendix A
Didcot Town Council
Response to
Oxfordshire Fire Authority’s Integrated Risk Management Action Plan 2010-11 – Consultation Document
Project 1 – Day Crewing Review at Didcot and Abingdon Fire Stations
The Town Council are concerned that, as acknowledged on the County Council website, “there could be potentially marginal increases in our response times to the Didcot and Abingdon area during periods of low incident rate i.e. night times and weekends”. This would be unacceptable for a town such as Didcot which:
(a) along with Abingdon includes areas of major and increasing risk such as the A34, railways lines, Didcot Power Stations, Harwell and Culham Atomic Sites. Existing low off-peak incident rates cannot forecast the social and economic impact of a major incident in any of these areas, which do all function at night and weekends.
(b) has an increasing number of sheltered housing sites and vulnerable residents who, by policy, have been concentrated in our urban setting to be able to use facilities and reduce their isolation
(c) the pattern of employment is that the town lacks a single large employer and that commuting in and out of town means that it is harder to recruit retained firefighters living and working near the Fire Station.
(d) the planned large scale development of Didcot and the science areas surrounding the town obviously requires more Fire and Rescue support, not less. It will therefore be difficult for the public to understand this proposal.
(e) should there not be a project to redouble the efforts on recruitment rather than just accept longer response times in a major growth point such as Didcot.
(f) In conclusion, we reject the plans for Didcot Fire Station and ask the Chief Fire Officer to have another look at the proposals regarding Didcot.
Dominic Stapleton
Town Clerk
25th January 2010
