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February 2007
April 2007
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May 2007 AGM
June 2007
July 2007
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4 Sept 2007
19 Sept 2007
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6 November 2007
20 November 2007
27 November 2007
December 2007

PC Minutes 2007

Minutes of an Ordinary meeting
Held on Tuesday 9th January 2007, at 7:30 in the Village Hall

Present
Mr P Featherstone (Chairman)
Miss A Marshall (Vice Chairman)
Mrs H Wickham

Apologies
Mr R Wilson
Mr P King
Mrs K Kappler

No members of the public were present.
Kathryn Smith, Rural Officer, ACRE was present for part of the meeting.

800 Minutes of the previous meeting were signed.

801 Matters Arising

An advertisement has been placed on WIZ in an effort to fill the vacancy for PC Clerk. The Chairman has spoken to neighbouring Parish Councils in the hope that an existing clerk would be prepared to take on additional work. The Chairman of Helmdon will facilitate a meeting with their Clerk in the near future. The quoted NALC rate for Clerks is £7.98 per hour. When the rates paid by other local PC's are considered, it is likely that we shall have to pay in the region of £1,000 per annum.

An electronic copy of the VDS has been received by the Chairman from Colin Bullock. A copy will be held by each member of the PC for reference.

Jane Harries contacted the chairman to inform the PC that she now has 'share ware' software which enables her to produce the newsletter in an appropriate format for the printers (see last minutes).

No update available on whether Atkins are to deal with the outstanding issue on Highbridge Road.

The Chairman is in regular receipt of correspondence which still goes to the ex clerk. This will be re-directed once a new clerk has been appointed. Historical correspondence is on a disk which the Chairman expects to receive shortly.

802 Correspondence

Lettor of 11.12.06 requesting notice of our precept by 31.01.07. A confidential document, Register of Electors, has also been received and will be retained in the Minute Book.

Dianne Walsh has asked for copies of recent minutes for the website. AM will email most recent copies to her.

803 Pathfinder

Kathryn Smith joined the meeting and proceeded to complete the Parish Plan Monitoring document as the next step in this project.

She explained that the process involves all those parishes which have produced Parish Plans being monitored so that they may share successes and how they dealt with a range of issues. The Pathfinder villages will be the first in line for specific help with their plans.

The chairman outlined those parts of the plan which have been completed: the Village Design Statement, refurbishment of village hall (stage 1), village website and the church clock.

Of the issues still to be addressed, the retention of the village shop and post office is the most pressing. The Chairman asked Ms Smith to assist in this aim through any routes open to her. Ms Smith was also asked to help with other outstanding issues: Making a village rights of way map available to all households is prevented by copyright law; rural public transport provision is also an area of concern; the VDS still awaits adoption by SNC.
Village playground and/or pocket park: Ms Smith indicated that help may be available from the 'Green Infrastructure' worker now attached to ACRE.

Priorities for next actions summarised as:
1 Retention of shop/Post Office
2 Transport infrastructure
3 Guidance on Parish Council ownership of land
4 Housing needs survey
5 Village Hall

Mrs Wickham will write to Kathryn Smith thanking her for attending and for her interest in issues related to Wappenham.

804 Finance

Auditors have signed off the accounts. A financial risk assessment has to be on file by next year. The Chairman offered to see that this is done.

Auditors' invoice, £76.38 payable to BDO Stoy Hayward: Proposed by Miss Marshall, seconded by Mrs Wickham and passed unanimously.

Recent bank statements from Alliance and Leicester not on file. Mrs Wickham will request missing pages and take the Giro book to the Post Office for updating.

The draft budget for 2007/8 was discussed. An increase in the precept is planned to reflect the increase in pay which will be needed for the new Clerk. This will be partly offset by cash reserves (see attached). Mrs Wickham thanked the Chairman for preparing the budget and proposed acceptance of the figures. Miss Marshall seconded and the proposal was passed unanimously.

The chairman will submit the budget to SNC.

805 Any Other Business

None

Next meeting: Tuesday 20th February at 19.30

The meeting closed at 21.10