LANGHAM COMMUNITY COUNCIL
Minutes of a Trustee Meeting held on 30th March 2023
at 7.30pm at Langham Community Centre.

Present
Alan Cadman, Maureen Shouksmith, Denise Hobday, Sue Thorpe, Sallie West, Martin Bottwood, Liz Winter, Sue Armstrong, Carol Lloyd.

Apologies for Absence
Elizabeth and Bob Schofield, Cliff Jones, James Puxley, Charlotte Parker.

Welcome
Alan welcomed to the meeting our new Commercial and Marketing Manager, Carol Lloyd, and the Trustees introduced themselves to her. Carol has been shadowing Sue and is gradually taking over some of her tasks and making a very good impression. We are lucky to have found someone with the necessary experience and IT capability.

Minutes of the previous Trustee Meeting held on 19th January 2023
These minutes had been circulated prior to the meeting and it was noted that a correction was required to the final paragraph of page one. The last sentence, which referred to the Cabin erected by the Community Shop, was amended to read “Once the building is in use, the land on which it stands will need to be added to their lease.”
Maureen Shouksmith proposed and Sallie West seconded that the amended minutes be accepted. All agreed and Alan initialled the correction and signed the minutes.

Matters Arising
Land Registry
Martin confirmed that the Parish Council was still waiting to finalise ownership and maintenance of the ditch with the neighbouring property, although the widely accepted “hedge and ditch rule” would confirm ownership of the hedge and ditch to Oak View.
Alan confirmed that our solicitor, Ellen Petersen, is aware of the situation and awaits the outcome of negotiations before proceeding. She has suggested that Martin accompany Alan to their next meeting and they take a copy of the Deeds. She can then also proceed to draw up the new lease for the Community Shop. AC/MB
Hall Floor
Black marks had appeared on the floor almost immediately after the sand and seal was completed. The cause remains unknown. Fortunately, Cheryl and Mike have managed to remove the marks with cleanser.
Piano Tuning
With the hall being out of use because of the floor refurb, no date had yet been fixed but Maureen would attend to this as soon as possible. MSh
Volunteer Recruitment
Elizabeth Schofield and Liz Winter had met after the last Finance Meeting and drafted a piece to appear in April’s Parish Newsletter. All invited organisations had responded to the idea for seeking new volunteers, apart from the Parish Church and the Primary School.
The Hall has been booked for Saturday 13th May from 10-12 noon, when light refreshments will be provided and representatives from participating organisations will attend to talk to possible new recruits. Fingers are crossed for a good response. ES/EW

Coronation Celebration 6th May
The Parish Council has booked the Hall for this date. Martin asked whether the Langham Community Council Trustees would waive the hire fee as it is a national community event. Liz Winter proposed and Maureen seconded the proposal. Attending Trustees were unanimous in their agreement. Sue will send the Parish Council a booking form and confirmed the large television would be available. Martin said he felt sure that all those providing stalls and entertainment had the required £5 million public liability insurance but he would check with Annette Thorpe. MB

Chairman’s Report
With a new Commercial and Marketing Manager in post, Alan proposed that the Trustees should authorise Carol Lloyd to be able to:
complete and despatch lottery collection returns to Colchester City Council;
have “read only” access to our current account in order to prepare monthly figures for the Treasurer.
The meeting agreed unanimously.
It was felt that no amendment was required to the “authorisation to view CCTV footage” as in our CCTV Code of Practice the authorised person appears only as “Premises and Marketing Manager” and is not specifically named.

Treasurer’s Report
All Trustees had received copies of profit and loss accounts for February. Maureen delivered her report to the meeting. At close of business today the current account balance was £3.010.91 and saver account £67,115.11.
With March nearly over the accounts are currently showing a loss over the year 2022-23 of £6,300. Income over the past three months has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. The December loss of £3,277 was mainly due to receipt of an electricity bill covering a three-month period when BGLite had been estimating our usage instead of relying on smart meter readings. She explained how she had had to spend hours of work checking their figures and confirmed that we seem to be back on track, with the most recent monthly bill totalling £1,129.
Our one-year fixed deal ends on 7th May and BGLite has offered a new deal costing an estimated £12,724 p.a. This includes a reduced kWh charge but much higher daily standing charge. There is also talk of prices coming down in July and Maureen has registered with Utility Aid, as suggested by the RCCE, who should notify her of the best options. We have received no details of the Government’s discount scheme for charities.
Assuming a monthly electricity bill for next year of £1,500, (some of which will be payable by the Shop) our regular monthly outgoings will amount to £5,000. This figure includes all the utilities, salaries, cleaning, regular maintenance and servicing, music licence and fees. It does not include any major expenditure on decorating, replacement of white goods, breakdowns, etc.
We expect to receive S106 monies for some major investment programmes but the sums received under S106 will not cover VAT. This will be a big problem. The Shop will pay an additional sum for the square footage of the Cabin and the cost of the new lease, but we continue to keep their rent as low as possible. There followed some discussion of the VAT payments, which was inconclusive. Maureen stated that we need to build up our income over the coming year. Pleasingly, it continues to come mainly from local regular hirers, followed by non-commercial non-local, such as the fairs and Sunday church hire.
Maureen was disappointed with the end-of-year deficit, having hoped we would break even.
She thanked Sue Armstrong for her brilliant work as our Commercial and Marketing Manager over her 13-year tenure and for all her personal help, particularly with the IT side of the Treasurer’s job. This praise was loudly echoed by all present.

Developer Contributions – Section 106 and Unilateral Undertakings
No project lists had been forthcoming from the Pre-School or the Community Shop (Gill Flack) in answer to Alan’s emails. Sallie commented that what the Pre-School would like is a larger outdoor play area. They were looking for a metre extension to the northern and western boundaries. Councillor Bottwood said he would ask for this to be included on the agenda for the next Recreation Ground committee meeting.

The Parish Council had a Teams meeting with Karen Syrett from CCC to share ideas regarding the process for allotting funds. Key points from this call were:
- In future the sign-off process for funding applied for will not include Ward Councillors. There will also be a specific named person who will deal with S106 enquiries.
- Project lists submitted by Parish Councils should be more general, so as not to require constant updating if the item for which the funds were allocated is no longer relevant.
- There was no easy solution to the delays encountered by the developer not starting the build out.
- Scrutiny Committee Panels will review S106 contributions. The outcome of these meetings will be provided to the LPC.
- Supplementary planning documents, which describe the S106 procedures and funding calculations, will be reviewed and updated by CCC. It was accepted by CCC that these documents were now out of date.
- Unilateral Undertaking lists are published monthly but payment activities are only reviewed quarterly, so entries may be on the system for a while even if the funds have been released and allocated.
- Contributions can be taken up by another Council area if they are not taken up in the first instance by the Parish where the development occurs.
- LPC requested a short document on Enabling Officers’ responsibilities and remit regarding S106 contributions and the process the LPC needs to follow to obtain the release of funds that have been collected. CCC agreed to this.

Vistry Homes have paid their contribution but the contract deed of variation has not been “signed off” yet. Once signed off, the new project lists identified in the contract appendices will be valid.
Langham Community Council should provide lists for the Hall and the Shop and Pre-School as our tenants. These lists can be prioritised by the Parish Council and local discussion before they are submitted to the Community Enabling Officer.

One of our applications for funds was to replace the disabled toilet facility and Alan had circulated the architects’ estimate amounting to £1,100. No VAT is payable as it is for disabled use. Martin Bottwood proposed and Sue Thorpe seconded that we should have the plans drawn up. Unanimous.

Cabin
Sue Armstrong explained how the queries about the electricity supply to the Cabin had arisen when Chris from Future Electrical was undertaking the annual electrical check at the Hall and raised several queries. At the time of writing her report for this meeting (23rd March) the information Sue requested in February had not been received. They were discovered in her envelope in the Shop this morning.
It was agreed that the documents answered all the queries but that the insurance certificate
made no mention of the Cabin being added to the policy. Sue would ask for some written confirmation of this. SA

Marketing Manager’s Report
Sue’s reports had been circulated to all Trustees prior to the meeting. The list of completed work confirmed that replacement blinds for the Committee Room were no longer required as Cheryl had fixed the problem for the present.

Carol Lloyd had obtained quotes from stairlift companies which she passed to the Trustees. Of the three received from EMS, Age UK and Acorn, Carol was most impressed with the latter and Alan confirmed that the stairlift could be put into the same spec as the disabled toilet and would not incur VAT on the price Carol had negotiated of £5,890. We would also require an evacuation chair for emergency descent via the fire escape from the Committee Room, for which the quote was £1,000. The Trustees were agreeable to this going ahead as it is on our project list for developer funding.

Shading for the rear patio was, however, put on hold for the present.

Sue explained that she had met Mick from DB Attenuation Ltd to decide on the best method to provide some echo reduction in the main hall. He pointed out that some resonance was necessary when speaking from the stage and suggested 14 baffles 1.2m x 2.4m x 40mm thick. They could be ready for June/July delivery at a cost of £10,650 plus VAT.
The quote was made on the assumption that the curtain along the back wall would remain. However, the meeting felt that, if the work was to be done, aesthetics would be greatly enhanced by its removal. Sue would seek an additional quote for baffles to replace it.

In view of our current financial position, as outlined by the Treasurer, there was some discussion, but it was decided to go ahead with acoustic panels which also appear in our project list and we shall only need to cover the VAT involved.

WiFi controllers for the windows could be obtained from Skyview for £325 if they can fit them when they service the windows in the summer (and have cherry pickers on site.) It would be very useful for Carol to have remote control over the windows. The Trustees agreed unanimously.

Terry Dawson is semi-retiring shortly and may cut back on the work he does for us at the LCC, in which case we shall need a replacement for building repairs and decoration.

This being her last Trustee meeting before her own “retirement” at the end of April, all the Trustees present thanked Sue for her excellent work in keeping the hall in tip-top condition and dealing competently and cheerfully with all the hugely various duties the job has entailed over the past thirteen years.

Any Other Business
i) Denise asked if the Scouts could put their trophies in the Trophy cabinet behind the bar. Everyone agreed but Sue was unsure of the location of the key, as she didn’t have it. She would ask Cliff if he knew its whereabouts. SA

Date of Next Meeting
The next Finance Meeting will be held on Monday 24th April in the Club Room at 7.30pm.

The Annual General Meeting will be held on Thursday 25th May at 7.30 in the Club Room.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 10.10pm.
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