Peasedown St John Parish Council
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Minutes of a meeting of the Finance Committee held on the 11th December 2006 held at School.
Present: Cllr Mrs Kennedy, J Goring, G Matthews, J Rich, R W G Butt and Mr Peter Provest Lay Member
Public Session
No Public Present
Apologies were received from Clllrs Mrs F Butt and M Gregory.
These minutes, which had been previously circulated were taken as read, agreed as a true record and signed by the Chairman.
Clerk reported on 4 items
a).It has now been agreed by our insurers to pay the claim money for the damage to the bus shelter by cheque.
b). Cllr Mrs Kennedy and the Clerk are to meet with Julie Sexton to discuss the problems with the Newsletter deliveries.
c). Clerk advised that as long as the income on advertising in the Newslettter does not exceed £6714.00 then VAT does not become an issue. Clerk suggested that we offer advertising space for a limited period of 3 months to see if the tarriff exceeds £1500.
The Committee suggested that the Policy Committee come up with a Policy on what and who we want to advertise in the Newsletter..
d).Ring and Ride have not yet cashed their cheque for their additional funding.
Mr Peter Provest responded by saying that the organisation has been having a problem with their bank accounts.
No correspondence to report
The Assistant Clerk advised the Committee that she had been having great difficulty in finding a suitable account to re-invest the money as Parish Councils are not considered to be suitable for a Business account or a Personnal Account.
She has come up with two possible options
a). Anglo Irish Bank would offer us a fixed bond account with two signatories but all correspondence would have to be sent to one of the signatories address as we could not use a business address.
The committee asked for Peter Provest to comment on this issue in his role as Internal Auditor .He felt that this would not be appropriate due to confidentiality issues that would arise.
b). The second option having looked at all the interest rates on offer would be to again re-invest with Halifax.
The committee felt that as the money is in a holding account and not earning a very good interest rate, it would be advisable to go ahead and re-invest the money with Halifax but, to seek advice from ALCA to obtain some feedback on where they would recommend investing money that would be suitable for Parish Councils.
Clerk salary will increase by one point from SCP 26 to SCP 27 on the pay scale as recommended by the Personnel Committee effective from the 1st December.
It was also suggested that appraisals be carried out in November/ December from now on with salary increases to be decided from the outcomes and with effect from the 1st April to come in line with the new financial year and for figures for the precept to be easily obtained.
A vote was taken and all were in agreement.
The committee expressed their thanks to the Clerks for their work during this change over year
Payment for Norton Radstock Christmas trees are made by B&NES. It was suggested to look into getting ours paid for.
The Church Newsletter are now publishing their own dates for their events and it was felt that repetition in our own Newsletter is not necessary
Value for money
An update on the outcome of the meeting on double taxation
Meeting closed at 8.40pm