LANGHAM COMMUNITY COUNCIL
Minutes of a Trustee Meeting held on 30th June 2022
at 8.15pm after the AGM

Present
Alan Cadman (Chairman), Paul Armstrong, Cliff Jones, Martin Bottwood, Sallie West, Sue Thorpe, Elizabeth Schofield, Bob Schofield, James Puxley, Liz Winter, Sue Armstrong.

Apologies for Absence
Maureen Shouksmith, Mark Kleingeld

As the Secretary, Paul Armstrong, had submitted his resignation prior to the AGM and no replacement had yet come forward, it was agreed by the Trustees that Liz Winter should be co-opted as “Minutes Secretary” for Trustee and Finance Meetings, until a new Secretary could be installed.

Minutes of previous Trustee Meeting held 31st March 2022
Cliff Jones proposed and Sallie West seconded that the Minutes be accepted as a true record Carried unanimously. Alan signed the Minutes.

Matters Arising
Land Registry
Alan had not heard from Fisher, Jones, Greenwood and would chase them again. AC
County Broadband
Cliff queried the position. Paul said our connection had been discontinued recently for non-payment of account, when we had been promised “free residential broadband” from the outset, although CB knew we were not a “residential” customer. Paul stated there was no specified length to the free contract but it was possibly two years from the end of May 2022. He is taking the matter further at a meeting with Rob and Helen Hewes from the Shop tomorrow to check the security of the CB connection and whether it is fit for Shop purposes. We may have to keep the XLN Broadband (£75 per month) running alongside temporarily. PA
Charity and Non-commercial hires
The Trustees had been advised at the March meeting that, to satisfy our Insurance Company, we need to agree to any hirers, who do not have their own £5 million-pound Public Liability cover, being covered by our own Public Liability. Sue provided the meeting with a list of the forthcoming hires in this category, as follows:

Angels MBS fundraising for St. Helena Hospice - 16th July, 20th August, 17th September,
15th October, 26th November.
Langham Handmade Fair fundraising for Colchester Food Bank – 19th November
MLB fundraising for Colchester Food Bank – 29th October.

The motion to provide them with PL cover was proposed by Liz Winter and seconded by Martin Bottwood. All were in favour.


Risk Assessment
The walkaround by Sue Armstrong and Cliff Jones had not yet taken place because of more urgent intervening business and would be rescheduled. SA/CJ
Hiring Rates
An increase of 15% came into force on 1st May having been approved by the Trustees via email.
Williamson’s outline planning application on land adjacent to the LCC
A suggested response, based on a submission by Langham Parish Council, had been circulated by Paul via email. This was approved by the Trustees and submitted in April.
Television
This had been purchased with Maureen’s approval and was proving popular with hirers. A wheeled stand had been purchased to assist with moving it from room to room and into the cupboard for storage.

Chairman’s Report
Alan had nothing new to report which hadn’t already been dealt with at the AGM.

Treasurer’s Report
In Maureen’s absence, Paul circulated her report to the meeting.
Balances at close of business 30th June: CA: £2,386.77 Saver: £77,199.60.
Maureen is hopeful that hires this financial year will gradually increase but probably not return to pre-Covid levels, which may mean we can only expect to break even.
A large expense will be the electricity bill each month. When our previous 3-year contract ended, we moved to a one-year fixed rate contract till 7th May 2023. The cost is expected to be around £1,000 to £1,200 a month, about double the previous contract.

There have been one or two changes to the accounts spreadsheet to include more detail.
Maintenance has been divided into Regular and Building maintenance to highlight any major expenditure which is usually a one-off.
The Sundries/Miscellaneous has been separated to show the music licence, professional fees and PAT tests separately. Alan confirmed that the Music Licence has been paid and was quite low (£488.14 paid in March.)

Maureen assessed our regular costs to be in the region of £3,000 per month and therefore recommended keeping a balance in reserve of £36,000.

Developer Contributions (Item 8)
Martin Bottwood reported that representatives from the Parish Council and the Langham Community Council had met Colchester Borough Council about such contributions. He explained that there were two different types of funds:
The Section 106 money was payable on developments of more than 10 dwellings. This required a list to have been submitted of proposals for use of any funding, which was not open to alteration and, therefore, not very flexible.
A Unilateral Undertaking for developments of up to 10 dwellings was available which was more flexible and more likely to be received at an earlier stage than the S106.

Sue Armstrong wanted to purchase new stage lighting urgently as there are four weddings in the near future. She has a quote (valid for only two weeks) from Terralec of £1,600 and asked the Trustees to agree this. A sum of £1,000 had already been earmarked. We should be able to draw the £1,600 down from a UU but the timescale is currently unknown. Sue pointed out that hirers paid a fee of £30 to use the stage lights for weddings and bands, so it should not take long to recoup the cost.

Cliff proposed that, as the Treasurer is happy with this transaction, the meeting should vote on whether to approve it. The Trustees were all in favour.
(Martin Bottwood left the meeting to attend another engagement.)

Marketing Manager/Caretaker’s Report
Sue’s reports had been circulated and showed that a lot of small outstanding jobs had been completed by Terry.
Cygnet have removed half of their bookings to the YMCA in Colchester, where there is no parking but the hall is £110 per hire, with which we cannot compete. We still have eleven more this year. The NHS is hiring again and the question of our County Broadband being compatible for use with the security on their laptops was raised. It was agreed that this needs investigating.
Two tables and a fridge are needed for the clubroom. One table has “disappeared” and one is broken and Sue is having difficulty purchasing a suitable fridge to fit in the space under the bar. The good news is that the missing clubroom chairs have been returned.
Terry will paint the Pre-School during the summer holiday and the Trustees have already agreed by email to his buying the paint before prices rise in July.
One (or possibly two) of the air-con units in the hall is leaking. This happened at the same time last year, i.e. when the air-con starts to be used, and was a blocked pipe. Lambrothers have yet to come and resolve it.
The Country music club is struggling once again and hiring less frequently. Shogun has found that fewer people are attending their exercise classes. June’s Film Night was cancelled for lack of ticket sales.

LCC Roof Project
Rob Clark, Alan and Paul are attending an Enovert meeting next week to ascertain what grants might be available from them. Alan confirmed that Government grants for “Green” projects would be announced shortly and that there were substantial grants circulating. Barry Hobbs might be a helpful contributor as he had experience of such things. A survey is still be needed to ascertain exactly what the LCC roof requires.

Any Other Business
There was no further business.

Dates of Next Meetings
The next Trustee Meeting will be held at the LCC on 29th September 2022 at 7.30 pm.
The next Finance Sub-Committee Meeting will be held on 8th August 2022 at 7.30 pm.
The Chairman closed the meeting at 9.25 pm.