LANGHAM COMMUNITY COUNCIL

Minutes of a Trustee Meeting held on 19th January 2023
at 7.30pm at Langham Community Centre.

Present
Alan Cadman, Maureen Shouksmith, Bob Schofield, Liz Schofield, Cliff Jones, Charlotte Parker, Sallie West, Martin Bottwood, Liz Winter, Sue Armstrong.

Apologies for Absence
Denise Hobday, James Puxley, Sue Thorpe

Minutes of the previous Trustee Meeting held on 29th September 2022
These minutes had been circulated prior to the meeting. Liz Schofield proposed and Maureen Shouksmith seconded that they be signed as a true record. All agreed. Alan signed the minutes.

Matters Arising
Land Registry
Alan confirmed that the written valuation from Hoggarth Cooke had been received and paid for and he was now awaiting the decision of the Parish Council to have the application for registration of their land dealt with at the same time. Martin explained that there was still some outstanding business concerning the drainage ditch along the western boundary of the playing field. He hoped this would be resolved very soon. MB
Hearing Loop
This had been in use at the Anglian Water meeting held on 18th November, when a third microphone would have been useful. However, Sue agreed that two were normally sufficient. Not everyone had the necessary connection on their hearing aid to use the system.
Now that it had been used and was working, Paul Armstrong would contact the Community Initiatives Fund to inform them of the successful completion of the project.
Hall Floor
Sue confirmed that the refurbishment of the floor would require a 7-day closure from 20th February, during which time the Club Room would be used for hires and would be very busy.

Chairman’s Report
Insurance
Alan told the meeting that the insurance renewal had “gone to the wire”. The deadline of 30th November arrived with no agreement on cover for charity or external events. Only the intervention of a third party led to terms finally being agreed. The 72-page policy covers outside events of up to 5,000 people and a separate section for internal events. Liz Schofield pointed out that numbered tickets would be required for any events felt likely to reach 5,000 attendees. Hirers of the car park are covered if the LCC toilets are booked, which, Sue confirmed, is currently the case.
The matter of alterations to the car park to provide a larger entrance/exit and pedestrian walkways has been deferred, in agreement with the insurers, until details of planning for the proposed housing development on the field to the east of the hall premises are known, as this will impact on our entrance. The new annual insurance premium is about £700 higher than last year at £3,005.48.
The Community Shop’s insurance covers the erection of the new wooden cabin beside the car park near the bike racks. Once this building is in use, it will need to be added to their lease.
Commercial and Marketing Manager’s position
Alan had received no further contact from the two villagers who had originally expressed an interest in the vacancy. However, the good news was that he has recently had three people show an interest, one of whom lives in Langham. The other two are in Higham and Ipswich. They have completed their details and he has sent them the job specification using Sue’s 3-page list of tasks. (Sue will also circulate this to all Trustees for their information.) It was agreed that all three should be interviewed by Alan, Maureen and Sue and a “mark scheme” devised. Everyone hoped that there would be a satisfactory outcome as Sue would like to leave by end of March. AC/MS/SA

Treasurer’s Report
All Trustees had received copies of profit and loss accounts for November and December. Maureen delivered her report to the meeting. At close of business today the current account balance was £5,306.08 and deposit account £72,418.58.

Over the eight months from the start of our financial year until the end of November, we had made a loss of £4,000. During this period some large sums had been spent on maintenance and installing the hearing loop: car park drain clearance, replacing stage lights, redecoration of the Pre-School and deposit for refurbishment of the hall floor of £2,000. However, we have now received £2,718.50 from Colchester City Council from Section 106 payments.

In December we made a small profit of just over £800 and our highest letting income is still coming from local hires, which is gratifying. George Pearce had agreed the 2021-22 accounts and a copy of these and his Independent Examiner’s Report had been filed with the Charity Commission by Maureen and Liz W. Maureen had also completed the forms for the Music Licence which she expected to be around £800. This is sometimes not collected until after the end of the financial year. She reported that the piano needs tuning and has a loose pedal which will need repair. This will not be possible until after the hall floor has been done, as Sue pointed out that the Club room would be very busy that week. Maureen has contacted a tuner she has used in the past, who is quoting £55 for tuning and will look at the damaged pedal. Although the piano is not much played, tuning may encourage more use.

British Gas Lite had not collected our direct debit in November or December. When Maureen queried this, they replied that our account had been marked as “entitled to grant monies”. However, no such grant monies had been received by us. They also said that the smart meter had not been working properly (possibly as a result of power cuts). We have now been billed for £4,535 for those two months up to 9th January, which will leave our account on 23rd January – next Monday. Alan has read the meter and we have used 1,500 units less than BGL have estimated. Maureen will attempt to set this right before Monday but has to join a long queue whenever she tries to phone them. MS

She has updated the asset value of the Community Centre in the light of the written valuation Alan received, which has contributed to our higher insurance premium. The Bond held by the Parish Council is paying a higher rate of interest: £13.51 as against £6.51 per month.

Cliff asked Maureen what she expected our financial position to be at the end of March. On the basis that Sue reports an increase of interest from hirers, she would expect to break even.


Item 6
This item was raised by Liz Winter as, at the time of drawing up the Agenda there appeared to be no applicants for Sue’s position and monthly accounts were showing a loss. It had also proved difficult to replace the Secretary and Treasurer, when these posts had become vacant. We still only have a Minutes Secretary. Some hiring organisations have also had trouble finding enthusiastic representatives to be Trustees.
A general discussion ensued regarding Trustee recruitment and co-option, finding people to act as assistants to the Treasurer and Secretary, deterioration of the hall roof and finding a replacement for Sue. Apart from the roof, things are looking somewhat brighter at present with three candidates for Sue’s position and December’s balance sheet showing a small profit on the month. It was felt a campaign to recruit more support for the Community Centre would be a good thing, especially with new people moving into the village.

Developer Contributions – Section 106 and Unilateral Undertakings
Martin reported that Colchester City Council (to give its new name) has invoiced Vistry Homes in the sum of £78,860.79 (index-linked) payable within 30 days, now that the first occupants have moved into Langham Meadows. This amount covers the Community Facilities developer contribution for the Vistry Homes S106 contract. The developers are asking for permission to lay the foundations for all 46 properties while they have the equipment on site, to which the Parish Council is objecting.

CCC has jumped the gun regarding allocating money for different projects before planning permission has been granted and can be viewed online. This has resulted in ourselves expecting the imminent receipt of S106 contributions from Unilateral Undertakings to fund LED lighting in the Community Centre, which is not yet available as the associated planning application was refused. Martin has asked for a meeting of the PC with Karen Syrett at CCC to discuss S106 issues. He is expecting a new list of agreed Unilateral Undertakings shown against planning applications any day, one of which may be Langford Hall Barn, Grove Hill. This is the planning application that is now expected to fund the LED lighting.

We felt we needed to get our list in quickly as the CCC Enabling Officer for Community Facilities had asked for an immediate response in order to meet his deadline for submission of requests, so reducing the risk of the funding being lost and given to other North Ward parishes. Future Electric kindly provided an invoice for the LED installation. Cliff and Charlotte made it clear that they totally opposed this action and the Management Committee should ensure that it never happens again. It was agreed by the meeting that, in future, we should wait for confirmation that funding was available from CCC and work had been carried out by the supplier before their invoice was raised.

Marketing Manager’s Report
Sue’s reports had been circulated to all Trustees prior to the meeting. She confirmed that new air-con Wifi controllers in the Pre-School and Committee room were proving very useful, allowing the heating to be controlled remotely and switching it on when the room temperature falls below 9°C, while also alerting Sue.
The slash curtain was damaged and replaced in the autumn and has been damaged again, as has the banister onto the stage which is currently taped up for Terry to examine and repair.
Cheryl has been checking and replacing ferrules on the Club room chairs, some of which have bent legs. Cliff pointed out that there are some Hall chairs which also need replacing. We will need to purchase enough to keep the stock up to 100 in the hall. Charlotte asked whether we could have soft chairs in the Club room too but Sue pointed out that lack of storage means we are limited to the folding plastic ones. SA/CW

Sue asked the Trustees to approve Cheryl, as Premises Manager, to carry out the monthly checks on the building. These are quite onerous and include fire safety checks. Cheryl already undertakes some of them and Sue does the remainder, while Alan carries out his own checks every Monday. Cheryl is willing to take on this responsibility. Liz Schofield proposed and Martin seconded the proposal. There was unanimous agreement.

Any Other Business
i) Martin asked for hire terms for the field to pass to Essex Cricket on Friday. Sue would email them over to him. They were looking to start the All Stars children’s cricket this season.
ii) King Charles III’s coronation is on 6th May. The PC has booked the Hall for two days and needs to decide the budget and which events to run over that period. Charlotte pointed out that 2023 is also the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Recreation Ground.

Date of Next Meeting
The next Finance Meeting will be held on Monday 13th February in the Club room at 7.30pm.

The next Trustee Meeting will be held on Thursday 30th March in the Club room at 7.30 pm.
Cliff tendered his apologies as he will be away on this date.

There being no further business Alan declared the meeting closed at 9.30pm.