POLICY AND RESOURCES COMMITTEE
10th March 2008

Committee Members Present: Cllrs J Tucker, Mrs B Brown, D Brown, B Garlick, D Keeley, Miss A Moloney, L Withey

Council Members Present: Cllr J Atkins, Mrs D Crook, Mrs B Keeley, Mrs S Hunter (Town Clerk)

Members of the Public Present: Mr J Boyes, Mr P Hickmott & Mr D Laverty

1. Apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr C King, and Mrs S Boakes

2. Declaration of interest

Cllr Crook Chair of Community Assoc, Cllr Miss A Moloney Community Assoc, Member Secretary.

3. Matters arising from the minutes of the meeting held on 28 January 2008

3.1 Item 15 Kent Key Link (not Kink)
3.2 Item 8b Devonshire Rooms – We have not received a reply from the water company to our request to date.

4. Open Forum

4.1 Mr Laverty complained about the for sale boards on the grass by the Clocktower. The land belongs to the town council and therefore these boards should not be placed there. The Clerk will write to the various companies asking them to remove the boards, and will state that if they are not removed the council staff will remove them.
4.2 Mr Hickmott referred to item 14 on the agenda, and said any omissions from the plan could be lost to Snodland if they are not included.
Cllr Tucker said at this point extra items would be discussed under item 18 - ‘Key’ for the emptying of the dog bin’s in Nevill Park, Extension to the cricket pavilion at Holborough, portable containers and a KALC meeting., if any of the public would like to discuss any of these items.

5. Financial Review April – January 2008

The clerk gave a detailed report of the finances.
Capital Reserves: £74789
General Reserves: £63810
Bank reconciliation was presented to the Committee.
Cllr Atkins would like to see if we can change our code system, e.g. the cemetery heading would include maintenance, rates, staffing costs etc.
A sub committee consisting of Cllr Barbara Brown, Cllr Julian Atkins and the clerk will meet to discuss this. It is too late to change codes this year, as the end of the financial year is two weeks away. It would create problems carrying over the figures for next year.

6. Audit Trail – Paid Invoices February 2008

Several cheques were called out by various Cllrs, and the clerk produced the relevant paperwork to correspond with each check.

7. Requests for donations

A Request has been received from:
7.1 Try Angle Awards – RECOMMENDATION to give £100. (Sec 137)

8. Upgrade of the Cemetery footpaths (To sign Acceptance form)

Cllr Tucker signed the acceptance form. The paths were discussed and it was agreed that we would have to choose which paths to upgrade, as not to interfere with the extension of the cemetery.

8a. Conference link costing’s

Cllr Garlick has researched the costs to improve and enhance our web cam link.
The cost will be approximately £470. Once installed we will advertise the facility and how it will benefit Snodland.
RECOMMENDATION: To purchase the equipment to upgrade the web cam in the new financial year.

11. Tree in Nevill Park

There is a diseased, dying tree at the Saltings road entrance to Nevill Park.
A quote to remove the tree and clear all debris from site has been received for £390
RECOMMENDATION – To check with the Borough first, and then proceed

12. Annual Play Equipment Inspection Cost for April 2008

Craigdene Ltd have quoted a sum of £210 plus VAT for our annual play equipment inspection for 2008. This will include the new equipment at Potyns and Nevill Park.
RECOMMENDATION: To accept quote.

13. Audit Report for 2006-7

There were no concerns regarding our audit, with a favourable report.
A recommendation to look at our asset register was given. The Clerk will Liaise with our internal auditor with regard to this.

14. Response to Open Spaces Strategy

After discussion a site meeting has been arranged for Sunday 16 March 2008, meeting at 12pm at the Brookland Lake car park.
A response will be sent after this meeting.

15. Snodland Partnership

The Partners have accepted the constitution and this will be formally adopted at the AGM in June.
The Town Council will administrate the partnership until such time they decide otherwise. The partnership is a growing organisation with a new member ‘Southern Housing Group’.
The traffic calming schemes will begin in April, and we have some new Christmas Lights coming that we be funded by the partnership.
The Town Council will make requests to the partnership for assistance with the cemetery, Holborough Park and the extension of Potyns field.

18. Any other items which the chairman has decided are urgent owing to special Circumstances.

An operative from Veolia has requested a key for Nevill Park so he can have access to empty the dog bins. The council feel this is inappropriate.

The cricket club at Holborough are requesting STC permission to put in Planning permission to extend the cricket pavilion.
STC have no objections to this subject to planning permission and the girl’s football team being able to use the facility.

The next KALC meeting will be held at TMBC in the canteen area on 20 th March 2008 at 7.30pm.

The Chairman moved that the press and public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting because of the confidential nature of the business to be transacted