LANGHAM COMMUNITY COUNCIL

Minutes of a Trustee Meeting
held on 25th January 2018 at 7.30 pm.

Present
Alan Cadman (Chairman), Liz Winter (Secretary), Maureen Shouksmith (Treasurer), Andrew Craig, Bob Schofield, James Puxley, Denise Hobday, Melanie Everett, Jutta Brawn, Marlena Lipski, Daphne Bettle, Peter Dawson.

Apologies for Absence
Liz Schofield, Sue Armstrong, Mark Kleingeld.

Alan welcomed Peter Dawson to the meeting, representing the Parish Council in place of Liz Schofield, who is still recovering from heart surgery. The Trustees send her their best wishes.

Minutes of previous Trustee Meeting held 5th October 2017
Marlena Lipski proposed and Denise Hobday seconded that the Minutes be accepted as a true record. Carried unanimously. Alan signed the Minutes. Now that they had been approved, they would be posted on the Community Centre noticeboard. EW

Matters Arising
Boilers The Hall boiler is now fixed and working adequately but the Pre-School are still not getting any heat in the classroom whilst the foyer is too hot to use. New thermostats have been fitted but an electrician is going to check whether the original one was ever wired up properly. Alan passed Lindsey’s bill for our boiler to Peter Dawson to submit to the Parish Council, who had agreed that it should be paid from interest accruing on the NS&I investment they hold for the LCC.
Car park We are still unable to proceed with resurfacing since Essex County Council have said a new drain needs to be laid in School Road to prevent future flooding. However, there is no date set for this work. While the car park may flood, patching would be pointless.
Rubbish The conversation with Colchester Borough Council is still ongoing and being ruthlessly pursued by Gill Flack on behalf of the Shop. Nigel Chapman has again asked the “cabinet” to respond quickly by providing the bins promised by Paul Smith free of charge.
Our contact for non-recyclable refuse is Andy Williams of the Waste and Recycling team. The Council seemed to be offering either of two smaller bins to be leased (£3.04 or £3.69) and emptied by the dustcart (£10.43 or £12.34) weekly. Alan is adamant that the larger Eurobin, to which Paul Smith agreed, can be emptied more cheaply and without the lease hire by private contractors. EW
Coin Meters Both are now working, the new one with the new £1 coin and the old one with £2 coins.

Chairman’s Report
As reported in the Finance Committee minutes, Alan reminded the Trustees that in between meetings he had renewed the Hall insurance for a very good price. He reminded Trustees that Clubs hiring the hall needed to have their own public liability insurance and cover for any items they store in the building. Alan had also renewed our licence to run the 100 Club lottery.

Treasurer’s Report
Maureen reported that last night’s current account balance stood at £11,363.30 and assured the Trustees that, based on the first nine month’s trading figures, which had been circulated before the meeting, we would not need to worry about crossing the VAT threshold.
Basic outgoings are approximately £35,000 and the first nine months show a profit of approximately £9,000. Danshell has provided around 25% of our income and, although they are booked until April, a change of trainer may mean they decide to go elsewhere after that.
Jutta queried the high cost of the Shop’s electricity. It was pointed out that some of this was unpaid from the previous financial year and that our two-year deal with E-on last May had raised the tariffs.
Maureen gave profuse thanks to Andrew, without whom she would not have managed to cope with the spreadsheet format.
A vote of thanks was proposed by Liz Winter and seconded by Bob Schofield to Maureen and Andrew, who by sheer hard work and tenacity have managed to sort out the spreadsheets to produce the financial information required for accurate accounting. The Trustees were very grateful to them for their perseverance.

Marketing Manager/Caretaker’s Report
Sue’s report had been circulated. One new drama group was going well but the other had postponed until after half term. There is a Toy Fair on 4th February. Liz would get the rolls, milk etc. and Bob the bacon for a 7.30 start. Maureen and Jutta would come later, so that no-one needed to do a full morning. Andrew agreed to man the Volunteer bar for the Vintage Car Club, which Sue confirmed is on 15th February.

Sue also reported on the WiFi which is up and running with XLN, although there have been one or two teething problems. James checked that the Public WiFi was working on his phone and it was. Alan queried the amount of a direct debit taken by XLN for £68, which did not reflect expected costs. He also wondered why Barclays had allowed it when no account signatories had signed the DD form, although Sue had been authorised by the Finance Committee to sign the contract. Sue would be asked to clarify the amount of the payment as soon as she felt well enough. A vote of thanks was given to Sue Armstrong for her efforts in finding a new WiFi provider at such short notice and to Cliff Jones and Paul Armstrong for their invaluable advice. SA
The Shop and Pre-School were keen to run a Community Café and asked that Sue let them know which dates are still available. SA
Alan reported that the Chair of Rowhedge Parish Council had phoned him to praise the running of the hall, after attending an event here over the Christmas period, and to get a few tips for his own, which was pleasing. Jutta said how clean the toilets and kitchen always are, which also reflects the hard work of the Management Committee and Sue and Cheryl in maintaining the building to a high standard.



Pre-School
Mel reported that things are improving at the Pre-School and referred to a report from Hayley Jakeman outlining their current position. They are still working hard on publicity on social media and in local supermarkets. They have sufficient funds to operate until the end of August and have 22 children on role. She gave details of current funding for different age groups.
Nine children will leave for school in July with 13 remaining. (Last year saw only 10 remaining but 18 on role by September).
Five new members have joined the Committee, making it much stronger. The Pre-School is feeling more optimistic and suggests that the LCC might like to consider an incremental increase in the rent from April, when the current reduction to £50 pm ends. It was agreed that the Finance Sub-Committee would discuss this at their 19th February meeting and then arrange to meet the Pre-School for a final decision.
Andrew voiced the feelings of the Trustees when he praised the Pre-School for all the hard work they had put in to improving their situation. FSC

Feasibility Study for disabled toilet
Nothing further had been heard from Colchester Borough Homes regarding drawing up a spec for tender for the planned works. Alan would be meeting the head of Facility Management, Karen, regarding another matter on Monday, when he would once more press her for some response from whoever is dealing with the issue now that Lee and Dale have both left the Council. AC

Data Protection
Liz had circulated a draft document containing a CCTV Code of Practice and a record of data held and by whom. She felt this would be sufficient for the ICO purposes. The Trustees agreed to these documents and Liz would register the LCC at a cost of £35 (payable annually).
EW
Any Other Business
1. Alan had not received the expected invoice for our Music licences. Liz would check whether Sue had it. (She does.)
2. He queried whether the Drama Groups had the necessary Public Liability Insurance. Andrew pointed out that it was a condition of hire when they signed the agreement.

Date of next meeting
The next Trustee Meeting will be held on Thursday 22nd March in the main hall at 7.45 pm.
Alan reminded the secretary that confirmation of their representative was required from local Clubs to be presented at the AGM.
The next Finance sub-committee will meet at Alan’s house at 7.30 pm on Monday 19th February.

There being no further business, the meeting closed at 9.10 pm.