Phone: 07741 284132
Email: LanghamCC@gmail.com
LANGHAM COMMUNITY COUNCIL
Minutes of a Finance Committee Meeting
held on 15th February 2021 at 7.30pm on Zoom

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

Matters Arising from Finance Meeting on 7th Dec 2020
User Manuals for Water Heater Units
Paul had still not tracked down copies for archiving in the LCC storage room. Ongoing. PA
Zoom back-up solution for January Trustee Meeting
With the continuing COVID restrictions, it had been agreed by the Finance Committee to take out a 12 month LCC Zoom subscription, which was put in place ahead of that meeting.
Broadband Contract Notice Period
Sue confirmed that our notice period to XLN is now on a rolling 30 day written notice basis. The monthly price reaches its annual review point this April. Once County Broadband fibre is launched, the LCC and the Shop should be eligible for two free service subscriptions. The Pre-School will hopefully be able to benefit from shared access to one of these free subscriptions.

LCC public liability insurance coverage review
A Langham resident recently suffered a painful fall on black ice in the Community Centre car park. Alan has been in dialogue with our insurers Ansvar regarding our public liability coverage in the event of any insurance claim that might follow from this accident. Alan explained that this dialogue is ongoing and that it may take some time to achieve a satisfactory resolution. The main issue is that our car park is officially private, not public. It does not meet the required planning standards for a public car park. This means that visitors to the shop and the pre-school are technically trespassing and are therefore not eligible for coverage by our policy. Conversion of our car park to a public facility would require extensive and costly modifications (eg. traffic management system, one-way markings, improved sight lines at the entrance/exit etc.)
When the new shop was built, the plans allocated 6 designated parking spaces to the shop, but in practice this was not carried forward into the lease agreement.
Alan is continuing a detailed dialogue with Ansvar’s legal advisors to seek a workable solution. He received a lengthy email just today, but there is unfortunately no quick fix to the current problem.
It was agreed that the proposed new car park warning signage which had been agreed at the last full Trustee Meeting should proceed urgently. SA
Sue has completed a formal accident report in the LCC Accident Book. This is only the second reported accident in the ~10 years that she has worked for the LCC.
In view of the potential problems with our car park insurance, Sue and Alan had recently discussed the implications for the mobile vendors that operate from our car park. They currently pay a small fee to hire the car park. It was proposed that an expedient new approach would be for vendors to hire the LCC toilet facilities at the same time, to put us on safer ground with respect to insurance coverage. It was agreed that Sue should progress this change with our vendors. SA

LCC Car Park winter weather policy review
We reviewed current gritting practice, which has been for Cheryl to grit around the LCC entrances when the hall is hired in wintry weather. Gritting is not formally specified in Cheryl’s written job description, but she has in practice undertaken this task when required, and often been thanked for it by local residents who have seen her doing it.
Cheryl has gritted daily during the recent snowy spell, both around the entrances and well into the car park area.
Alan awaits guidance from our insurers about what regular risk assessment activities might be required to underpin guaranteed future insurance cover for accidents in the car park. Martin indicated that the Parish Council are required to undertake weekly safety checks of the children’s play area as a condition of their insurance.
Maureen pointed out that we needed to think beyond just winter risks in the car park – for example, if a drain cover was not re-positioned properly after disposal of waste by Caravanners.
There was some discussion about whether the yellow sand/grit container would be better positioned closer to the entrances of the LCC/Shop/Pre-School (or alternatively to consider installation of a second container), but with the winter season hopefully now just about over, it was agreed that this could await review once we have heard more from our insurers.

Chairman’s Report
Alan has recently secured a bill credit from Anglian Water in recognition of our reduced current water usage. This will be applied via a reduction of £35 per month in our bill from April onwards.
No new grant payments have been received recently, but there has been no formal word back from CBC in response to Alan’s enquiry questioning our entitlement to grant payments on the basis of our licensed premises status.

Treasurer’s Report
Maureen confirmed today’s balances as being £5584.49 (current account) and £70,134.22 (saver account). Large items in January were the £2665 insurance payout from Ansvar, and £1643 payment for the annual music license. Excluding the positive effect of grants, the underlying position is still one of a monthly loss of c £1k - £1.5k during the current lockdown.
Maureen had recently attended a Boxted Parish Council meeting, where she learned that they had received a near identical set of grant payments in respect of their licensed village hub facility. This may indicate that Maureen’s fears of a mistaken duplicate grant payment to the LCC are unfounded.

Marketing Manager’s Report
Sue had little to report this month, due to the continued lockdown closure and a dearth of new hire enquiries in the current depressed climate. Cygnet did have a half-day hire today, but have just cancelled a couple of other forthcoming hire dates. Liz enquired after the potential new karate club hire, but this has also gone very quiet (not unsurprisingly).
The recent cold weather, and a hand injury sustained by our electrician, have temporarily delayed completion of insurance repairs and the quinquennial assessments. The latter should still be completed before the March deadline though.
Sue is currently progressing the quotation refreshes for soundproofing of the main hall, and will report back once she has a full set of responses from previous project tenderers.

S106 pre-planning
Martin briefed us on the current state of play with regards to S106. Linden Homes are apparently hoping to achieve first occupancy on the new housing estate by the end of 2021, which will be the trigger point for initial release of S106 payments towards agreed local community projects. The total sum allocated to Community and Parks & Recreation projects is apparently unchanged (c. £280k) but LPC are still seeking further clarification on CBC’s fund management and allocation process.
Martin noted that going forwards, S106 contributions will not be limited to larger housing developments, but will apply to smaller developments and even single property builds.
Where projects identified in LPC’s initial S106 project list have already been delivered via other means (eg. pre-school external play area), it is currently unclear how revisions to the initial project list will be managed and agreed with CBC.
Paul had recently agreed to act as the LCC liaison point into the Parish Council’s future S106 coordination activities.

Recreation Ground LPC/LCC liaison
Maureen reported back on an exploratory 4-page brainstorming report prepared by Tony Emms and herself at the request of the Recreation Ground Committee, which had been shared with the LCC Finance committee on 12th Feb shortly before this meeting. This joint activity had been partly triggered by recent LCC/LPC differences of opinion regarding provision of Elsan facilities, but now sought to encourage some much wider-ranging joint thinking about how best to re-invigorate and make full use of the Recreation Ground for the benefit of all villagers.
Martin commented that the exact make-up of any formal joint Working Group, and potential widening of membership beyond LPC and LCC, was still all up for further debate, if LCC were amenable to developing these joint working ideas further.
Liz was strongly in favour of a broadly based Steering Group bringing together as wide as possible a base of constructive community participation, in view of the large amounts of S106 money likely to be heading Langham’s way from the Linden and Williamson developments.
Shortly before the meeting, Liz had circulated by email a very detailed set of comments on the brainstorming report. There was no time to review these in detail at the meeting.
Liz’s comments led on to some useful discussion about how best to try and engage effectively with the local community. A consensus emerged around the idea that mail-in surveys form part of an essential foundation of inclusiveness, but must be just part of a much broader effort involving pressing the flesh, posters, newsletter pieces, website pieces etc.
We reflected on the fact that the Linden plus Williamson developments will probably lead to a population increase of some 30-40% within the village. (Correction noted after the meeting: the likely population increase is more likely 20-25% across the entire Parish area). Welcoming and absorbing all these new residents will be a very significant challenge.

Any Other Business
Sue asked Martin whether he was aware of the latest situation regarding a potential small Easter caravan rally by the ACC Essex group. Martin agreed to check with Carol and report back.
MB

Date of Next Meetings
Next Finance Committee Meeting: Monday 19th April
Next Trustee Meeting: Thursday 25th March
Next AGM: Thursday 27th May
There being no further business, the meeting closed at 9.30pm.
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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