Minutes of the meeting of the Policies and Finance Committee held in

The Stevenson Centre on Monday 23 February 2009

Present         Councillors         H.N.Todd                    Chairman

                                                    P.K.Beer

                                                    Mrs F.A.Jackson

                                                    M.D. Newman

                                                    D. Thomas

                                                    R.I. Wade

           Council Manager           M.J. Fitt   

1)  Apologies for Absence

Cllr. N.H.T. Proctor

2)  Declarations of Interest, Gifts or Hospitality

     Cllrs H Todd and M Newman declared that they are Babergh District Councillors.

     Cllr P.K.Beer declared he is a Sudbury Town, Babergh District and Suffolk County

     Councillor.

     These members also asked that it be noted that their views expressed at

     this meeting would be based on information available at the time and might not be the

     same as those expressed at meetings involving other councils.               

3) Confirmation of Minutes of the Meeting  26^th January 2009

    The Minutes of the meeting of 26^th January having been ratified by full council, were signed by the Chairman.  

 4) Chairman’s Announcements

     None

5)  Items Brought Forward

a) Match funded PCSO

The Chairman, Cllr Todd, together with Cllr Beer and the Council Manager had attended a meeting at Sudbury police station with Inspector Paul Crick and Mr Leigh Jenkins. All the points raised on the SLA had been successfully answered and the Council Chairman and the Council Manager had, therefore, signed the SLA on behalf of the Council.

      b) Village Hall Working Party

The Council Manager has requested D.Lambert, the Architect re-visit the plans for The Stevenson Centre extension.

       c) Bottle/Clothing Bank at the Stevenson Centre

            The District Council had responded and would be carrying out a site visit and sending the Council Manager the necessary forms for signature

6)  To consider an estimate for the repair of the hedgerows village sign.

The village sign had originally been the advertising sign which was left in situ by the estate developers at the request of the residents. It had subsequently been provided with a better roof by the parish council and the sign had been designed and painted by pupils at the Upper School. Currently a volunteer from Chaplin Walk keeps the sign itself painted, but the wooden surround was now in need of repair.

The Council Manager had received a quotation for the repairs of £250 however it was AGREED that Councillors would take the opportunity to have a look at the sign and the discussion would be adjourned until the next meeting.

9) Financial matters

    a)  cheques issued/credits paid in      

b)     Expenditure to date

Members had been circulated with a copy of expenditure compared to budget as at 13^th February 2009.

The figures were discussed in some detail, particularly those indicating possible excess expenditure.

Cllr Beer queried the expenditure annually on the printing of Cornard News, and where it appeared in the accounts.

The amount paid to date was £1,290 (with one further edition to pay for at £440) and was included in the figure for Administration, under a sub heading of publicity. (This was where it had always appeared in the accounts)

The Committee AGREED to write again to Cornard News to request a copy of their January 2009 accounts as soon as possible, together with a Grant Application form; and to advise them that there may be problem authorising further expenditure without the accounts being available. Hopefully the accounts would be available for the Council meeting on 9^th March or the Policies and Finance Committee meeting of 23^rd March.

In the meantime this item would be added to the ‘Brought forward’ list and the Manager was asked to show the expenditure as a separate line on the accounts.

Meeting Closed 8.50pm

Signed…………………………………………

Cllr H.N. Todd, Chairman