Special Council Meeting, 18 January 2008

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HELMDON PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the Extra Ordinary meeting of Helmdon Parish Council held on Friday 18th January 2008
in the Reading Room, Church Street, Helmdon at 7:30pm
Present: Councillors Burns, Crouch, Coatsworth, Duncombe, England, Thorne, Turner
Parish Clerk: Liz Hart
Four members of the public were present; County Councillor Andrew Grant was also present.
Action
1 Apologies
Cllrs Stothard and Barnes had sent apologies.
2 To consider the response of NCC regarding proposed amendments made to the draft lease for the Playing Field Area at Helmdon Primary School by Helmdon Parish
Council
Cllr Turner briefed the meeting on the issues surrounding the lease; NCC had not liaised with Helmdon Primary School regarding the ongoing negotiations between Helmdon Parish
Council and NCC but the school was now aware of the situation. Cllr Turner will attend a th Governor’s meeting on Thursday 24 January to feed back the decisions of the meeting.
Cllr Turner
The meeting considered all amendments previously proposed by Helmdon Parish Council which had not been accepted by NCC and resolved action as follows:
Amendment
3.
Contest or accept Reason
Para 4.2 Contest
Para 4.10
Para 4.11
Accepted
Contest
Para 6.1.2 Accepted
Felt that this was from an “off the shelf” lease and was not applicable
Agreed that Premises covered Areas 1 and 2
Felt to be too woolly and too harsh – needs to be redefined
Felt to be a minor issue
Para 7.1 Contest
Para 7.2 Contest
Para 9 Contest
Need to seek clarification as NCC had not commented upon it.
Contest removal of “unless actually caused by the landlord”
Seek clarification over the meaning
To determine further action plan regarding the Draft Lease
The Clerk will feed back the issues to NCC, copying in Helmdon Primary School and suggest a meeting to speed up a resolution.
4. To consider the next steps to take regarding the proposed refurnishment of the Play
Area with regard to
Clerk a) submitted tenders b) the funding required to meet its cost a) Cllr Turner confirmed that the projected tender, given the three tenders would be £6295
(to include extra flooring around the swings)
b) Cllr Grant offered to release funding of £3972.25 from the Empowering Councillors
Scheme to cover almost 50% of the cost. This news was warmly received by the meeting and Cllr Burns thanked Cllr Grant for his support, highlighting what a well used facility the area was. Cllr Crouch had undertaken several fundraising activities in aid of the playground; the Playground Committee will provide a total figure raised to the next meeting.
The meeting closed at 8:30pm.