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Paddock Wood Town Council > Documents > Agendas > Full Council Monday 21st August 2023

Full Council Monday 21st August 2023

Agendas Uploaded on August 18, 2023

PADDOCK WOOD TOWN COUNCIL

The Podmore Building, St Andrews Field, St Andrews Road

Paddock Wood, Kent, TN12 6HT

Telephone:  01892 837373

www.paddockwood-tc.gov.uk

NOTICE OF A MEETING OF PADDOCK WOOD TOWN COUNCIL TO BE HELD ON Monday 21st August 2023 at 7.45 pm in The Day Centre, Commercial Road, Paddock Wood

COUNCIL MEMBERS:        Cllr H Atkins, R. Atkins, D. Dray, S. Hamilton, D. Kent,

  1. Maari, A. Mackie, T. Mobbs, R. Moon, M. Munday,
  2. Sargison, J. Thompson, C. Williams.

 

APOLOGIES:

 

Residents do not need to attend a meeting to ask a question of the Council. Questions can be sent at any time to the Council offices using the details above.

 

QUESTIONS FROM RESIDENTS (15 minutes)

If you wish to speak to the Council about any item on the agenda, please see the updated Protocol for the Public attending Town Council and Committee meetings, which can be found on the website or can be obtained from the Town Council offices.

 

BOROUGH & COUNTY COUNCILLORS UPDATE (10 minutes)

Town Councillors should submit questions a week in advance, if possible, to the Borough/County Councillor concerned (copied to the Town Clerk).

 

C48     DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

           

C49     MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING.

  1. a) To APPROVE the minutes of the meeting held on Monday 17th July 2023
  2. b) To NOTE the minutes of the Planning Environment Committee meeting held on the 17th July 2023 & 3rd August 2023
  3. c) To NOTE the minutes of the Estates Committee meeting held on 14th August 2023

 

C50     MATTERS ARISING FROM THE PREVIOUS MINUTES NOT COVERED ELSEWHERE

  1. a) C42 – Wifi for Day Centre, a mobile hub was now available to enable members to use WiFi in the Day Centre.  Members have been provided with   the log in details.
  2. b) C43 – the new Deputy Clerk has been appointed. Ms Enza Small started work with the council on the 31st July 2023.

 

C51     FINANCE

  1. a) To APPROVE the payment vouchers: nos 233 – 288
  2. b) To NOTE the receipt vouchers: nos 142 – 156
  3. c) Grant Application from Heritage Paddock Wood – £474.40

Application attached – there is currently £3000 in the grant fund.

  1. d) Use of Section 106 funding – Green Lane. The Estates Committee have   requested the release of £6,000 from the £14,000 of funding which is being held for the maintenance of the Green Lane open space. The money is to carry out maintenance to ponds.
  2. e) Use of Reserves – The Estates Committee have requested a total of £9300 from the Town Council’s general reserves for work on Putlands Pond & Elm Tree Pond.

Details are contained in the Estates minutes. There is currently £155,500 in the Council’s general reserve.

 

C52     KEY HOLDERS

            At present the Estates Manager plus the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Estates Committee are key holders for the Council’s premises.  The Town Council is asked to agree             to appoint a security company to be a key holder for the council and to respond to alarm call outs.  Costs are as follows:

 

Contractor Key holding cost annually per site (5 sites) Call out fee Additional Fees
1 £328 £35 for ½ hour £15 for every ½ hour thereafter
£100 as existing customer *
2 £294 £35 for 1 hr £8.75 for every 15 minutes there after
3 £100 £40.50 for 1 hr £25/ hr thereafter

 

 

*1 has the contract for the Community Centre and is the recommended contractor.

 

C53     PUBLIC TOILETS, COMMERCIAL ROAD.       

            The public toilets in the east car park in Commercial Road are owned and managed by TWBC.  On the 28th July the Cabinet Member for Communities Approved the following:

“That the Council’s Estates Department work with Paddock Wood Town Council to explore the option for them to take on the ownership of their public toilets.”

 

The Town Council currently contributes to TWBC of £7,000 a year towards the upkeep of the toilets.

 

Further information from TWBC is awaited,

 

C54     PADDOCK WOOD COMMUNITY CENTRE

  1. a) The application to amend the opening hours of the nursery portion of the Centre has been submitted to the planning authority.
  2. b) The application to install the signage outside has been submitted to the planning authority.
  3. c) The opening of the centre will take place on Sunday 3rd Greg Clark MP carry out the formal opening of the centre.
  4. d) Cllrs Munday and Mackie attended the August board meeting and will give a report to members.
  5. e) Defect notices – Members are asked to confirm that the Clerks, Estate Manager and the PWCCO Ltd can raise defect notices in respect of the community centre.

A defect notice form is contained within the OPERATION & MAINTENANCE MANUAL from the contractors.  These must be submitted to the contractor and the Council’s Technical project manager for action.  The CC manager   has advised that she has submitted 12 defect notices in total for minor snags which have occurred since she took up post.  All have been actioned promptly by the contractors.

 

C55     NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN REFERENDUM

            Posters and banners have been put up to encourage residents to vote in the referendum on the 14th September 2023.  There are strict guidelines governing referendums and the Council cannot seek to influence which way residents should vote.

 

C56     HEALTH AND SAFETY GENERAL POLICY STATEMENT

            The Statement has been reviewed by Croner and the updated version requires approval and signing by the chairman.

 

C57     PADDOCK WOOD BOWLS CLUB

            PW Bowls Club have contacted the council to seek permission to erect an additional building alongside the existing clubhouse to act as a changing

room.  Details are attached.

 

C58     DOCUMENT STORAGE

The Town Council is currently using Exchange Online (Plan 1) at £3.30      User/Month for its emails. This will need to be increased to £4.90 to upgrade     to OneDrive with 1T of storage each. A total of £244/year. This will enable the      documents required for meetings to be   stored in a central location and updated as required.  Members will be able to access directly from their devices at meetings now that Wi-Fi is available in the Day Centre.        Paper copies can be made available to members who do not have the necessary devices or would prefer a paper copy for meetings.  Subject to members agreement it is hoped to introduce the new system at the October Council meeting.

 

C59     OFFICER MEMBER PROTOCOL

            For information

            Following on from the debate at the Estates meeting (ref ES33) the Chairman has asked that members note the following from the Council’s Officer Member Protocol:

“The purpose of this Protocol is to guide Members and Officers of the Council in their relations with one another in such a way as to ensure the smooth running of the Council.  Officers covered by this protocol are the Town Clerk, Deputy Clerk and Estates Manager.  Other members of staff are covered by the Council’s employment policies.”

 

The Governance Committee will be reviewing this protocol at its meeting on the 29th August 2023. The Civility and Respect Project which the Town Council has signed up to has issued a revised protocol which makes this clearer.       https://www.nalc.gov.uk/library/our-work/civility/3780-model-councillor-officer-protocol/file

 

C60     CIVIC AMENITY VEHICLE

            For information only

The CAV service was suspended in March 2020 by both TWBC and TMBC due to the impact of Covid and to free up HGV driver resources for weekday collections. village in the Tunbridge Wells Borough. The Cabinet member for Environmental Services Cllr Ellen Neville has written to the Town Council advising that TWBC will not be re-introducing the service due to financial constraints.

           

C61     REPORTS FROM REPRESENTATIVES

            To receive updates from representatives

(a)       Chairman’s meeting.

(b)       Paddock Wood Business Association

(c)       Bereko Committee

(d)       KALC –

(e)       Medway Valley Line

(f)        Hop Pickers Line

(g)       Youth Council

(h)       Putlands Leisure Centre

(i)         Highway Improvement Plan

(k)        Reports from meetings which members have attended on behalf of the Town Council.

 

C62     DATE OF NEXT MEETING

The next meeting will take place on Monday 18th September 2023 at 7.45 in the Day Centre.

 

 

 

NICHOLA REAY

CLERK TO THE COUNCIL

15th August 2023

 

Paddock Wood Town Council