Phone: 07741 284132
Email: LanghamCC@gmail.com
LANGHAM COMMUNITY COUNCIL
Minutes of a Finance Sub-Committee Meeting
held on 12th June 2017 at 7.30pm.

Present Alan Cadman, Liz Schofield, Liz Winter, Maureen Shouksmith.

This extra meeting was called to consider the question of rental payments from the Community Shop and to review salaries for Sue Armstrong and Cheryl Collins.

Community Shop
Gill Flack had asked that the LCC consider what would be considered a fair amount of rent for the Shop to pay when their two-year rental holiday comes to an end in June 2018.
This will enable them to plan ahead.

The suggested basis for rent would be based on buildings insurance, external maintenance, water rates, car park repair and the cost of drawing up the lease signed in January 2016 and its replacement in September 2016.

Discussion raised the following points:
• The cost of the leases £1032 had been covered by the rental paid between January and April 2016.
• Water used was almost negligible since the Shop only used it for their own “domestic” purposes.
• External maintenance was small as that part of the building was still quite new.
• The car park was used a lot by delivery vans and customers.
• We pay £190 per month buildings insurance of which a proportion covers the shop (but not its contents).

Taking all these considerations into account, it was agreed to propose to the Trustees that an appropriate rental just to cover our costs would be £40 per month commencing June 2018, if circumstances remain unchanged.

Salaries
We had awarded Sue and Cheryl a 2½ per cent salary increase last year having regard for the amount of work and responsibility which they undertake. This year’s percentage RPI increase is 3.24%. The meeting was reminded that we now pay 1% of Sue’s salary into a pension fund with NEST, an amount which will increase to 2% in April 2018 and 3% in April 2019 in line with Government regulations. (For clarification, the 1% is paid on Sue’s “qualifying earnings”, which are earnings above £5,824 per annum.) This is an extra expense to the LCC and Liz Winter was concerned about the ongoing cost.

After some discussion the meeting voted to offer Sue and Cheryl a 3% increase. Alan would write to them both. AC


Disabled Toilet upgrade
Andrew Craig had e-mailed to set out the choices facing the LCC regarding an architect to draw up plans for a new disabled toilet with outside access, since neither Graham Cutter nor Simon Burke was able to help in time for an August grant submission.

Other names were considered and it was agreed that the secretary would contact Homa Cherry, who had drawn the plans for the Shop extension, and report back immediately to the Finance team. EW

E-on
E-on were proposing to raise our monthly direct debit from £543 to £638, despite their estimating our annual cost under the new plan to be £6,182 (averaging only £516 per month). Last year our annual bill was £5883. It was agreed that the secretary would ring them and negotiate a lower increase. They were returning our credit balance of £504.11 “within ten working days”. EW

Pre-School meeting
The Pre-School were now suggesting Monday 3rd July at 12.30 pm as an alternative date to consider their current financial position. Alan is unable be there before 1.30 pm but could be available at 8.30 am. The secretary would e-mail Hayley Jakeman. EW

Banking Arrangements
Liz Winter had asked online for Maureen’s name to be added to the bank mandate. So far Barclays had not contacted Maureen, Liz or Alan. Liz would follow it up. EW

Any Other Business
Maureen had one or two queries arising from entering our May financial details on to the accounting spreadsheets but otherwise she was getting on well.

Date of Next Meeting
Monday 3rd July at 7.30 pm at Alan’s house.
Pre-School meeting – date and time to be agreed

The meeting closed at 9.15 p.m.
How To Find Us
Langham Community Centre, School Rd, Langham, Colchester CO4 5PA
Get In Touch
07741 284132
LanghamCC@gmail.com
About Us
The Langham Community Centre was opened in June 1988 and has been serving local village residents and other commercial hirers ever since.

We are based at the heart of Langham Village, with easy access from the A12.
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