Full Council Minutes 3rd December 2014
MINUTES of the Meeting of the HARWICH TOWN COUNCIL
held at
The 1912 Centre, Cow Lane, Harwich
on Wednesday 3rd December 2014 at 7.00pm
| Present: | Councillors Brown, Calver, Fowler, I Henderson, J Henderson, King, McLeod, Morrison, Nicholson, C Powell, F Powell, Thompson and Thurlow |
| In the Chair: | Councillor Day |
| Clerk: | Mrs Lucy Ballard |
| Also present: | 2 members of the public and 1 member of the press |
| 111/14 | APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Cllrs Flavell and Todd |
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| 112/14 | DECLARATIONS OF MEMBERS’ INTERESTS None |
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| 113/14 | PUBLIC QUESTIONS Betty Holbrook thanked Council and Acting Inspector Russ Cole for the great efforts taken to have the street lights kept on overnight on both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. |
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| 114/14 | MAYOR’S ANNOUNCEMENTS The Clerk, on behalf of the Mayor, gave an account of some of his engagements since the last meeting, which included a meet and greet with Swedish Students at the Guildhall on 5th November, attending the Cambridge University Royal Navy Unit 20th Anniversary dinner, Remembrance wreath laying and civic service, “Tunes from the Trenches” for the Choral Society at St Nicholas Church, Christmas lights switch on, opening of Home Bargains, “Zumbathon” in aid of Battens Disease and a Community Carol Service at St Nicholas Church. The Deputy Mayor attended the Annual Sausage Festival on 8th November. |
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| 115/14 | MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the meeting of the Town Council held on 22nd October 2014 (previously circulated) be approved by the Chairman and signed as a true record with a correction to min93/14, replacing ‘£10-£15 per person’to ‘£10-£50 per person’. FURTHER RESOLVED: That the Minutes and Confidential Minutes of the Extraordinary meeting of the Town Council held on 12th November 2014 (previously circulated) be approved by the Chairman and signed as a true record. |
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| 116/14 | MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
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| 117/14 | MATTERS ARISING FROM MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS
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| 118/14 | HARWICH FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS The Chairman appealed to members for a new representative to sit on the Harwich Festival of the Arts Committee since Cllr Flavell was unable to continue in this role. RESOLVED: To elect Cllr C Powell to replace Cllr Flavell as HTC representative on the Harwich Festival of the Arts. |
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| 119/14 | HARWICHTOWN COUNCIL MEETINGS Members considered whether to refrain from holding any Council meetings during the month of August from 2015 and considered how this would work. The Clerk confirmed that HTC is not obliged to hold Planning meetings and submission of comments can be delegated to elected members and the Clerk but would need to amend the Standing Orders to facilitate this. Cllr Calver feels it’s wrong not to hold the Planning meeting and retain this is normal, proposed that when the meetings are scheduled can due consideration be given to this. RESOLVED: To review the timing of meetings when the draft schedule is submitted to members by the Clerk in Spring 2015. |
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| 120/14 | CHILD POVERTY IN HARWICH Cllr Calver said any statutory responsibility for these issues that lie with local government would be either at district or county level. RESOLVED: Defer consideration to the next meeting as Cllr Flavell was unable to attend the meeting so Council did not know the points he was seeking to raise. |
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| 121/14 | HARWICH MAYFLOWER PROJECT Members considered a request from the Mayflower Project to select a representative to sit on their committee. RESOLVED:To elect the Mayor of HTC |
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| 122/14 | MINUTES OF THE LAST ALLOTMENTS COMMITTEE MEETING RESOLVED: that the Minutes and Confidential Minutes of the meeting of the Allotments Committee held on 29th October 2014 (previously circulated) be received. |
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| 123/14 | MINUTES OF THE LAST ENVIRONMENT & COMMUNITY COMMITTEE MEETING RESOLVED: that the Minutes of the meeting of the Environment & Community Committee held on 18rth November 2014 (previously circulated) be received. |
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| 124/14 | ACCOUNTS Payments and receipts, current balances, financial activity against budgets and earmarked funds were noted. Cllr I Henderson asked for clarification on the earmarked amounts for the Town Centre Christmas lights and this was confirmed by the Clerk. She also confirmed that the first invoice had been received and there had been no report of any additional costs for which the earmarked funds had been allocated. Cllr Calver proposed to thank the Clerk for the hard work put in to facilitating consideration of this item and the measures taken to ensure the Council acted legally and within the terms of the Financial Regulations, in a timely manner. RESOLVED: to authorise payments as presented. |
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| 125/14 | BRIEF REPORTS BY MEMBERS. Cllr King attended the Harwich and District Community Association AGM and reported they had made a lot of headway over the last year and their new constitution is in place and accepted by the Charities Commission and they will soon be able to renegotiate their lease with TDC. She also noted the committee have decided to contact the Council to seek a new representative as the current rep has not been attending. But she and Cllr Thurlow clarified that this is the TDC representative and not the HTC representative. They mentioned the assistance by HTC for the refurbishment.
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| 126/14 | CORRESPONDENCE RECEIVED IN THE POST OR RAISED BY MEMBERS Members noted a letter of thanks for a grant from the Harwich Fireworks on the Quay Committee. |
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| 127/14 | DATE OF NEXT MEETING The next meeting of Harwich Town Council will be held on 14th January 2015 at The 1912 Centre, Cow Lane, Harwich, at 7.00pm, or at the rise of the Town Planning Committee, whichever is the later. |
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The Chairman closed the meeting at 8.03pm.