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Earley Town Council |
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EARLEY TOWN COUNCIL
Minutes of a meeting of Earley Town Council held in the Council Chamber, Council Offices, Radstock Lane, Earley, Berkshire on Wednesday, 27th June 2007 which commenced at 7.45 pm.
Present
Chairman – The Mayor, Councillor N Jorgensen
Councillors Mrs A Ames, J Armstrong, Mrs L Chambers, T Chambers, Tania Christidis, M Deegan, Pamela Dunn, C Edmunds (from 8.45 pm), M Firmager, W Gothard, T Holton (from 8.35 pm), G Hughes, Mrs P Jorgensen, S Khan, Mrs J Lissaman, T Maher, K Miall, Carol Mitchell, N Preston and P Willis.
Apologies for absence were received from Councillors A Bradley, D Chopping and G Woods. _________________________________________________________________________________
23. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING
The minutes of the meeting of Earley Town Council held on 16th May 2007 were confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chairman.
24. MAYOR'S COMMUNICATIONS
24.1 The Late Diana, Princess of Wales
The Mayor advised that he had received a letter from the Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire advising that Princes William and Harry had indicated that they would be pleased if services were held across the country to mark the 10th Anniversary of their mother’s death.
As a result, the Royal County of Berkshire was holding Evensong at the Minster in Reading on 5th September at 6.00 pm. The letter indicated that the service would be open to all with no specific invitations issued and would be publicised in the local media across the County.
24.2. Homestart, Wokingham District
The Mayor advised that he had received an invitation from Homestart, Wokingham District for the Town Council to attend the organisation’s Annual General Meeting to be held on Monday, 9th July at 12 noon. Anyone interested in attending was asked to contact the Town Clerk.
24.2 60th Anniversary Celebrations
The Mayor advised that he had attended the 60th Anniversary celebrations of a couple who lived in Finch Road.
25. PETITION
Councillors were advised that petitions had been received in respect of the proposed Dog Control Order for Maiden Erlegh Local Nature Reserve, which were separate from the formal consultation. One petition, in support of the proposed Order, contained 45 valid signatures, and the second, opposing the Order, contained 165 names. It was
RESOLVED that the petitions be accepted and put to the next meeting of the Amenities & Leisure Committee.
26. TOWN COUNCIL COMMITTEES
26.1 Planning Committee
On the proposition of Councillor Mrs P Jorgensen, seconded by Councillor J Armstrong it was
RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Planning Committee held on 22nd May 2007 (Minutes 1-16) be adopted.
26.2 Amenities & Leisure Committee
In the absence of the Committee Chairman, the Minutes of the meeting of the Amenities & Leisure Committee held on 30th May 2007 were presented by the Vice-Chairman, Councillor T Holton.
The list of attendees to the meeting, detailed on page 1, was amended to delete the name of Councillor Bradley from the list of those present, as Councillor Bradley had tendered his apologies for the meeting due to prior engagement at a Borough Council meeting.
Attention was drawn to the resolution at Minute 10 on page 7 of the Minutes.
Whilst it was agreed that there had been some discussion during the debate of this item on seeking an alternative site for a skatepark, it was confirmed that the wording in Part 3 of the resolution was not correct, and that the Committee had resolved not to proceed with a skatepark at this site.
On the proposition of Councillor T Holton, seconded by Councillor M Deegan it was
RESOLVED that
1. the current wording under item 3 in the resolution be deleted and replaced with “the Town Council should not proceed with a skatepark at this site”
2. the main body of the Minutes should contain a paragraph indicating that, whilst the Committee were in opposition to the provision of a skatepark on the Riverside Park site, it was suggested that possible alternative sites for the skatepark facility should be sought
3. the Minutes of the meeting of the Amenities & Leisure Committee held on the 30th May (Minutes 1-16), as amended, be adopted.
Following discussion of this item, the Town Clerk was requested to send a communication to all Chairmen of Standing Committees, Sub-Committees and Working Parties of the Town Council reminding them of the protocol to be followed at meetings, and particularly with reference to formal voting on resolutions.
26.3 Policy & Resources Committee
The Minutes of the meeting of the Policy & Resources Committee held on 13th June 2007 were presented by the Committee Chairman, Councillor M Deegan. Councillors’ attention was drawn to a recommendation at Minute 3 concerning the constitution of the Service to Earley Award Panel.
Councillors’ attention was drawn to the discussions recorded at Minute 6.3, concerning the audit of the Town Council’s 2006/07 accounts. Councillors were advised that a further communication had been received from UHY Hacker Young, following which the Town Clerk had had a further telephone conversation with the District Audit, and details of the letter and conversation were relayed to Members of the Town Council.
On the proposition of M Deegan, seconded by Councillor M Firmager it was
RESOLVED that
1. the recommendation at Minute 3 be approved
2. Councillor J Armstrong be appointed as the fifth Member to the Service to Earley Award Panel
3. the Town Clerk be requested to contact the District Audit to request that an alternative auditor to UHY Hacker Young be appointed to audit the Town Council’s 2006/07 accounts
4. the Minutes of the meeting of the Policy & Resources Committee held on 13th June 2007 (Minutes 1-12) be approved. 27. ANNUAL ELECTORS' MEETING
Councillors noted the minutes of the Annual Town Electors' Meeting held on 16th May 2007, which had been circulated with the Agenda for their consideration.
28. REPRESENTATIVES TO OTHER BODIES 28.1 CResCent
Councillor J Armstrong reported that he had attended a meeting of the Trustees of the CResCent organisation, and had been asked to express the organisation’s thanks to the Town Council for the Set-up Grants which it had given to them in the past.
28.2 Wokingham Borough Sports Council
Councillors noted details of the report submitted by Councillor M Firmager, which had been circulated with the Supplementary Agenda.
29. STANDING ORDERS
Councillors were reminded that Minute 16 of the meeting of the Town Council held on 16th May resolved that the New National Code of Conduct, to include Paragraph 12 (2), be adopted by the Town Council. It was also resolved that the consequential changes to the Town Council's Standing Orders be considered at the next meeting of the Council. Councillors were advised that, due notice having been given at Minute 16, amendments to Standing Orders were now proposed for their consideration. It was
RESOLVED that Standing Order 54 be amended as follows:
After "or" in line 4 of sub-section (a), paragraph 2, to add (b) "Where a Member has a prejudicial interest in any business of the Council, they may attend a meeting but only for the purpose of making representations, answering questions or giving evidence relating to the business, provided that the public are also allowed to attend the meeting for the same purpose, whether under a statutory right or otherwise."
To re-letter old (b) as (c).
30. DRAFT TOWN PLAN
Councillors were advised that the Town Plan Working Party had met to consider the Draft Town Plan. The Working Party had made a number of amendments to the Plan, and the further Revised Draft, reflecting the input of the Working Party was circulated with the Agenda for Councillors’ consideration.
It was noted that, throughout the document, reference was still made to Wokingham District Council, and it was confirmed that this would be suitably amended, as would any other minor grammatical or typographical errors. The following further amendments were then proposed:
On page 1:
It was considered that there needed to be a paragraph contained within this section which defined the different roles of the Borough Council and Town Council.
On page 2:
Bullet point 6 - to remove the word “to” in the first sentence and on bullet point 7, to change the word “ensuring” to “ensure”.
Bullet point 5 - at the beginning of the sentence to include the words “to do everything we possibly can to”. Thus this sentence reads “to do everything we possibly can to ensure the preservation of the green wildlife corridors within Earley.”
Include a new bullet point which reads “Support sustainable development within the Town boundaries”.
A further sub-heading should be introduced under bullet point 2 which indicated that the Town Council would strive to protect the character of the unique buildings within the Town boundaries.
On page 3:
Add a new bullet point which reads, “Encourage by all possible means, the use of cycles within the Town” and a further new bullet point which reads, “Encourage the provision of safer crossings on routes to schools”.
With regard to bullet point 8 it was requested that this should be expanded to read “Support the proposal to build a third Thames Crossing if it also minimises the adverse impact to residents of Earley”. It was also felt that this section, in the introduction, should include a sentence which indicated that the Borough Council was the Highway Authority, and would, therefore, have the responsibility of implementing the majority of items detailed.
On Page 5:
It was requested that the second sentence in the introduction should be deleted.
On Page 7:
The first bullet point under ‘The Town Council Has’ section, the word “the” should be deleted and the word “Bulmershe” should be inserted before the word “Park”.
On Page 10:
Under the ‘Town Council Has’ section, it was requested that a third bullet point be introduced stating that the Town Council had achieved a satisfactory or better Ofsted report for its Playclubs.
It was
RESOLVED that
1. a draft of the paragraph to be included in the introduction section, relating to the different responsibilities of the Borough Council and the Town Council, should be circulated to the Chairmen of the Standing Committees, the leaders of the majority and opposition groups, and the Town Mayor for consideration and approval.
2. if agreement on the additional paragraph could not be reached, the matter be considered again at a future meeting of the Policy & Resources Committee.
3. the other amendments as detailed above be made to the Draft Town Plan.
31. ORDERS FOR PAYMENT
RESOLVED that the various accounts as set out in the list attached to these Minutes (Vouchers 105-146) be paid in the sums as stated and Imprest Vouchers (Vouchers 028-048) be noted.
32. PUBLICATIONS
It was noted that the following publications had been received and were available for perusal in the Council Offices:
33. QUEEN’S AWARD FOR VOLUNTARY SERVICE
Councillors were advised that, since compilation of the main Agenda, a letter had been received from the Vice-Lord Lieutenant for Berkshire, seeking nominations for the 2008 Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. It was
RESOLVED that
1. the Town Clerk be requested to circulate the criteria for the Award to all Members of the Town Council
2. the matter be further considered at the next meeting of the Town Council on 1st August.
34. PRESS RELEASES
It was
RESOLVED that the progress with the drafting of the Town Plan should be the subject of a special Press Release.
35. TERMINATION OF MEETING
The meeting was declared closed by the Chairman at 9.30 pm.
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