Agenda – Meeting 2 (2021/22)
Frodsham Town Council Agenda 24-05-2021
Frodsham Town Council Meeting 2 Minutes 24-05-2021
13.Apologies for absence
To receive apologies.
14.Declarations of interest
To note any declarations of interest on items which are on the agenda.
15.Requests from the public to speak
Members of the public are invited to speak on items which are on the agenda in accordance with FTC policy on public speaking at meetings: https://frodsham.gov.uk/policies-procedures/
16.PCSO report
To receive a report from PCSO Neil Flanagan.
17.Cheshire West and Chester Council
To receive a report from Cllr Lynn Riley.
18.Approval of minutes
To approve and sign the minutes of the ordinary meeting held 22nd March 2021.
18. Frodsham Town Council Minutes March 22-03-2021
19.Accounts Report April 2021
- To note the report provided by the Clerk.
- To note the account balances and bank reconciliations.
- To approve and sign the finance report.
20.Annual Return
- To approve and sign Section 1 Annual Governance Statement 2020/21.
- To approve and sign Section 2 Accounting Statement 2020/21.
21.Interim Internal Audit 2020-2021
- To note the report and recommendations contained.
- To agree process for obtaining 2 signatures on invoices.
- To note that the internal auditor was asked to pay particular attention to the procurement of the Christmas tree (2020) and has concluded that the Council did not follow Financial Regulations on this occasion.
- To note the recommendation that: All council working groups that are not sub-committees should be provided with formal terms of reference that makes it clear they cannot make any decisions or commit the council to a liability. The terms of reference should include a remit to provide a report with recommendations for approval to a council committee or sub-committee.
22.Mayor and Deputy Mayor
- To review the current selection process for the appointment of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Frodsham.
- To consider whether to select the Mayor on an annual basis by democratic vote or to combine the Chair and the Mayor role as is practise in other councils.
23.Staffing
- To note that the Policy, Process and Revenue Committee agreed to reduce the hours of the current Administration Officer and revise the job description to that of Cemetery Clerk.
- To consider the recommendation of the Staffing Working Group (meeting held 12th May) to appoint an Administrative Assistant on SCP 3 for an initial 13 hours per week with a quarterly review of hours worked.
- To appoint the Chair, Clerk and 2 Councillors to an interview panel.
24.Castle Park House
To approve the request from Cheshire West and Chester Council for Frodsham Town Council to continue providing reception services at Castle Park until further notice thereby retaining 2 valued and experienced employees. Any subsequent change to this would be subject to a 3 month notice period.
25.Amenities Committee
- To approve reducing the number of meetings of the Amenities Committee to every other month and to hold working group meetings on alternate months.
- To agree that the working group are able to raise funding and other issues at Full Council Meetings.
26.Memorial car park
- To note the meeting which took place on 26th April 2021 attended by Cllr J Critchley, Cllr C Ashton, J O’Donoghue, 2 members of the public and Colin Marples (Designing Out Crimes Officer, Cheshire Police).
- To note the recommendations received from Colin Marples as follows:
- CCTV with clear signage and lighting would be of benefit to the car park area. CCTV/lighting may make people looking to partake in anti-social behaviour feel vulnerable to detection and it would help from an evidential/policing perspective. CCTV/lighting in this area would also help to make regular members of the public feel safer and lower any perception of crime they may have here. Any CCTV installer used should be NSI or SSAIB accredited to ensure reputability. In an ideal world you would have monitored, local authority CCTV in operation here but I do not think it would be realistic and you may have to install you own. I would check with CWAC if there is anything locally which needs to be adhered to in regards to CCTV being installed in a public space like this. https://www.nsi.org.uk/ https://ssaib.org/
- A long term plan to formalise and introduce a boundary to the car park which can be secured would benefit the area. The use of a different colour of tarmac which distinguishes it from the public highway would help to introduce a psychological boundary for people using the car park and make the car park look and feel more private/community owned. Railings could be incorporated with lockable gates which are shut at an agreed time and which are displayed within the car park. Other solutions could be the use of a knee rail, bollards, hooped barriers or heavy boulders (must be too heavy to lift) on the grassed area between either end of the entrance and exit to the car park with a lockable swing gate parking barrier on both ends.
- Rural watch signage has been given to be displayed in areas which lead to or are problem areas. Having these signs highly visible will help to demonstrate that there is a coordinated crime prevention scheme in this area and may well just plant a seed of doubt in the mind of a would be offender.
- To agree action to be taken and consider appointing a working group to look into this and the impact it has on the proposed memorial path.