Oakham Town Council Meeting 4th August 2010

The meeting started a few minutes late, this meeting saw a the attendance of a few extra members of the public. The public outnumbered councillors who had turned out.

The following Councillors were present:

Cllr Sharon Spencer
Cllr Mark Woodcock
Cllr Maureen Dodds
Cllr Lorna Grey
Cllr Charles Haworth

Rules permit a council to conduct business if the attendance is as low as three, I feel the number is important and five is far to low for decision making.

Apologies were accepted from those absent.

No members declared any interests at this point although these were declared and entered later in the register. Although rules do permit members to declare at any point it id not look very professional. Would be better if members were not late arriving and completed the register before the start of the meeting.

Councillor Charles Haworth proposed an amendment to the minutes of the previous meeting.

There were no councillor questions or items outstanding from previous meetings.

Chairman's and members reports.

Reports were giving as it was not clearly read I  can not report on the content.

The Clerk gave his report:

Clerk's Leave A reminder that the Clerk will be on Leave from ***************** and will be back to work on **********************  (The  Town Council has requested I do not publish the dates of the Clerks leave for security concerns)

Wrinkle Rock will be performing this Sunday 9th August Oakham Bandstand

Further members training will take place before the meetings of September 22nd.

The Beating of the Retreat 8th September,  so the Mayor can attend this public event held in Oakham Market Place the council meeting will start later at 7.30pm.

The Council has received two tenders to clean the loo's and these will be considered on the 8th September.

Member were told A copy of a report from Campaign for the Protection of Rural England , Rutland Branch was available.

Rutland Transport Strategy 2011 -2026

An initial questionare has been received from Rutland County Council. responses is 31st August. It has been suggested by RCC that the Clerk and Chairman send a response on behalf of the Council on this initial document. There will be further chance for the council, as a body, to comment once response have been received  and collated.

The clerk then says As always with such questionnaires members views may be very different and the Clerk does not consider it appropriate for the Chairman and he to respond on behalf of the council. As such, a  copy is attached for individual members to return if they wish to do so.

Rutland County Council will be displaying  details in Oakham Library from 16th August until the end of the consultation.

Sainsbury  Planning Application was approved.

Delegation of Authority  (Appendix B)
Appendix B was not shown to the public and details were not disclosed

The motion to give some person or person(s) further delegation of authority up to the next council meeting.

Borrowings

Oakham Town Council will now repay Rutland  County  Council £9,000 borrowed in 1970 to purchase land used to build the bowls and tennis club.

It is not clear why this money was not repaid previously and it appears interest charges have been added.

Representatives on Outside Bodies.

Cllr Lorna Grey was appointed rep on:

Oakham Festival,  Oakham Carnival and Trustees of Oakham Memorial Institute.

Cllr Mark Woodcock was also appointed as rep on Trustees of Oakham Memorial Institute.

To confirm representatives to the police joint action group.  This was completely confusing, it did appear to me and others present Inspector Monks did not want reps.

Bandstand  Marathon  2010 26th September

It was decided Rutland Concert Band would be booked at a cost of £200 free refreshments
will be provided for the  public this will include 200 Scones purchased from Croft Bakers.

The Entrance to the Old School was discussed once again this refers to the Grave yard at All Saint's Church
damaged caused by people parking on graves. I do not understand why this has been on the councils agenda for 3 years.  The council has a duty to protect the consecrated church yard .

Royce recreation ground the council is looking at how to replace the vandalised equipment.  Cllr Charles Haworth suggests more CCTV he is a big fan of Big Brother, he would like to see coverage of most residential streets throughout Oakham. I think he should concentrate on getting the current cameras working correctly before we get anymore. So often we hear the camera  was looking up to the sky or the wrong way.

Access to the Office

The council may be fitting a stable door to the office so so staff can decide which members of the public will be granted access to the office and those who will be passed information via the door.

The public were excluded from the meeting to discuss a complaint made by Mrs Pender about the Town Clerk Richard White.