13 January 2015 – Minutes

THAME TOWN COUNCIL

Minutes of the Meeting of Thame Town Council held on 13 January 2015 at 6.30pm in the Upper Chamber, Thame Town Hall

Present: Cllr D Bretherton, D Butler, N Champken-Woods, A Dite, N Dixon (Deputy Mayor), M Dyer, L Emery, H Fickling, V Humphries, P Lambert, D Laver,
J Matelot Green (Town Mayor), M Stiles and T Wyse.
Officers
H Stewart, Town Clerk
A Oughton, Committee Services Officer

1 Apologies for Absence

Apologies for absence were received from Cllrs Dodds (SODC) and Welply (Unwell).

2 Declarations of Interest

Cllr Champken-Woods declared an interest in item 7a as a member of the Music in the Park Committee.

Cllrs Fickling and Stiles declared an interest in item 7b as a member of the Youth Projects Group and the Vice Chair of the Youth Projects Group respectively.

3 Public Participation

There were no applications to address the Council.

4 Minutes

The minutes of the Council meetings held on 21 October 2014, 16 December 2014 and 8 January 2015 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Mayor.

5 Budget and Precept for 2015-2016

This item was deferred to the next meeting.

6 Elections 2015

General, District and Local Elections would take place on 7 May 2015. The Count for the General and District Elections would take place at the Tennis and Leisure Centre in Abingdon. Discussion took place on where the election count should take place for Thame and the surrounding villages.

RESOLVED that:

i) Arrangements be progressed for the election count for this Council and other local councils to take place at the Town Hall.

7 Transfer of Resources

a) Music in the Park

The Music in the Park (MiTP) event was started by the Friends of Elms Park. The event had grown each year since it was first held in 2011 and plans were well underway for 2015. As agreed by Council the Committee was working towards taking on full responsibility for all aspects of the event and now sought funding to pump prime the event for this year.

RESOLVED that:

i) The MiTP Committee be granted £7,000 immediately from the EMR budget to pump prime the 2015 event.

ii) The balance of money held on behalf of MiTP would be transferred once charitable status had been achieved.

b) Thame Youth Projects

Thame Youth Projects Group was formed to explore and develop projects in partnership with local organisations and volunteers for the young people of Thame and had achieved charitable status. The first project the Group started was the Thame Youth Café for which the Council had managed a grant of £10k within its budget. The Group had requested that the balance of funds and the equipment purchased be transferred to the Thame Youth Projects charity.

RESOLVED that:

i) The balance of £8,078 held in EMR for Thame Youth Projects be granted to the Thame Youth Projects Group for the operation of the Youth Café Project.

ii) The list of equipment purchased for the Youth Café Project (as listed in the Appendix to this report) be given to the Thame Youth Projects Group.

8 Oxfordshire County Council Grass Cutting Agreement

A variation to the original Grass Cutting Agreement had been received from Oxfordshire County Council reducing the payment for grass cutting from five to two cuts per year. The Clerk would assess the present grass cutting regime and the implications of this reduction and report back to Council.

RESOLVED that:

i) The variation to the Oxfordshire County Council Grass Cutting Agreement be signed.

The meeting concluded at 7.15pm.

Signed ………………………………
Chairman, 24 February 2015