LANGHAM COMMUNITY COUNCIL
Minutes of a Finance Committee Meeting
held on 15th April 2019 at 7.30pm.

Present Alan Cadman, Liz Winter, Maureen Shouksmith, Liz Schofield, Martin Bottwood, Sue Armstrong.

Apologies had been received from Peter Dawson. Martin attended in his place.

Chairman’s Report
Car Park
The car park had been marked out on 10th April, including four disabled spaces and KEEP CLEAR signs adjacent to the hall entrances. The estimate had been £450. Everyone agreed it looked very smart.
Heating Specialist
Alan confirmed that he and Sue were meeting John Barran at the hall at 12.30 tomorrow to advise on a new heating system. Alan has passed him all three quotes and will ask John to consider the Pre-School too. AC/SA
Lindsey had found another leak whilst they were fitting the new expansion vessel to the Pre-School boiler today, so had fixed this also.

Treasurer’s Report
Maureen had managed to complete figures for the end of the financial year, which was no mean feat at such an early date. A unanimous vote of thanks was given to her. Sue Armstrong had agreed to help her tweak the spreadsheet for the next financial year.
The figures made very pleasant reading.
Our turnover had risen over the previous year by £18,754.55, with a total income of £78,956.06. After expenses totalling £64,834.40, including maintenance costs of over £18,000 (lots of work on the boilers and resurfacing the car park), our profit was £14,206.61, nearly double the previous year’s. For VAT purposes the last 12 months showed a figure of £68,506, well below the VAT threshold of £83,000.

Liz S expressed her concern that the Charity Commissioners might take a dim view of how much of our income was generated from Commercial lets. However, the committee felt that, as the Charity couldn’t keep up the maintenance of such a large building without the regular commercial hirers, it was imperative that they continue, otherwise local clubs might find themselves without a venue for their own activities.

For the AGM, Maureen would provide a list of regular monthly outgoings and a note of what proportion of our regular commercial lettings is from Danshell (now “Achieve”).
Sue confirmed that Achieve are currently booking into July. MS

Car Park signage
After some discussion and in an attempt not to deter genuine village users, it was decided that two signs should be purchased reading PRIVATE CAR PARK FOR PATRONS ONLY. Liz S said they should be aesthetically pleasing and suggested a local supplier. One will be attached to the wall adjacent to the existing disclaimer sign and the other on the lamppost (or similar) adjacent to, but not on, the gate. SA

Marketing Manager’s Report
Sue delivered a verbal report, bringing the committee up to date with recent events. She queried the rigidity and safety of the balcony surround outside the Committee Room, which is getting quite rusty. Alan said he had checked it and it was structurally fine but in need of painting. The question of applying ant-vandal paint to other areas was discussed, as we had had a youngster up on the roof causing damage to two cameras. CCTV footage had been viewed by the committee and the three cyclists involved were not known to anyone.
It was felt they were merely three young lads being silly at the end of a Sunday afternoon and had not set out to cause damage. Sue would organise painting of the balcony and anti-climb paint, once it was decided where this should be applied. SA

The wheelie bin is overweight every fortnight on collection. It would seem the Pre-School must be putting heavy things into their bags. People are still dumping items next to the bin. This week there is a plastic helium cannister. It is hard to ascertain the culprit when there have been several weekend hires. Broken chair backs were put in the CBC rubbish freighter on Saturday. Metal frames are in the Green room waiting to be removed to Foxash.

Still no quote had been received from Blinds to Go. It was agreed that Sue should go ahead with Othello or perhaps check Hillary’s sale offers first. SA

Clocks: It may be that the hall clock is quite valuable. Opinions vary, so it was agreed to have it valued by Darren Doyle, who values items for the local auction rooms. The clock on the roof is an electric clock, which Liz S confirmed was part of the Millennium celebrations and bought by the Parish Council. Its electricity supply comes from the Committee room kitchen and, despite a warning notice, people keep switching it off!

There are Borough elections in the Clubroom on 2nd May and possible European elections on 23rd May, for which hirers may have to move upstairs.

Every Thursday Sue and Charlotte from the Shop meet with Kier’s site manager, Tom, to keep tabs on what is happening over the road at the Oaks. The newly widened entrance is almost opposite our own.
Sue asked about getting the drains cleared now the car park has been finished. However, School Road is still flooding when it rains and, although the ditch has been cleared out part way along the road, it is still not flowing away. Therefore, it was felt there was no point in trying to clear ours at present.
The Vespa Scooter Club were asking whether Alan would run a two-day bar for them at Easter 2020. This will not be a huge gathering like the Coasters’. Alan pointed out that he had not yet received the paperwork from the hirer requesting a late licence on 1st June.

Bob would do bacon at the Toy Fair with help from Maureen and Jutta. Sue kindly agreed to do the Car Club bar, as neither James nor Andrew was available.

CCTV Cameras
Alan had received a copy of Ray’s maintenance agreement to sign and Maureen had his bank details to make our payment for one year’s maintenance with Buzimac at £250. It was felt the cameras were fit for purpose and Ray would reset the ones which had been disturbed.

Tennis Club use of toilets
It was agreed that Liz W should send out the final version of the guidelines for use of hall toilets, which had been approved by Mark Kleingeld. There had been no response from Stuart Rudge. EW

NS&I Bonds
Martin apologised for the length of time it was taking to sort out how much the PC are holding for the Bond interest. He handed out a balance as at September 2017, which stated that £1,490 was being held by the Parish Council in their current account on behalf of the Community Council. As no more recent information was available it was agreed that this figure would be used as the baseline and the Parish Council would calculate the current total by adding all BACS transfers from the Bond account from the end of September 2017.

AGM
Maureen would ask George Pearce if he would once again act as Independent Examiner of our accounts once they had been approved at the AGM. Liz S wondered whether he might help obtain grant funding for the replacement central heating system. MS
All three elected trustees agreed they would be willing to carry on in their roles.

Date of next meeting
The next Finance Meeting was provisionally set for Monday 17th June but this could alter depending on those elected/appointed at the AGM.
The AGM will be held on Thursday 23rd May at 7.30 pm in the main hall.

There being no further business, the meeting closed at 9.15 pm.