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BLEWBURY PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes
Of the Parish Council meeting of Blewbury Parish Council.
Held on Wednesday the 5th of May 2010 at 7.30 pm
1. Apologies for absence. Mr M Brassell, Ms A Barclay-Watt, Ms C Duckett
2. Declarations of interest. RF, CW and JG declared a personal interest in the Recreation Ground.
3. Report on budget for the Recreation Ground Enhancement Project. The following report was considered by the Council:
In November 2007 Blewbury Parish Council disposed of a disused Tennis Court on London Road, Blewbury. The village originally identified two capital projects to benefit from the sale: a new community room/pavilion on the Recreation Ground, and a wildlife habitat/green space on land known as Church Moor. Since the owners of Church Moor have been unwilling to sell, only the Pavilion/Community Room project, with associated enhancements to the Recreation Ground, has remained.
Tenders for this project have been received and the value of the entire project has been confirmed to be £761,065 but the Parish Council have decided to increase the contingency by £1935 to cover some uncertainties around ground works, which brings the total cost of the project to £763,000. The Parish Council secured a WREN grant for £163,000 for building the pavilion/community room and has a further £450,000 available for the project. Therefore there is a shortfall of £150,000 for the project to be successfully completed and it is recommended to the Council that an application for loan sanction for this amount should be submitted.
The capital raised from the sale has been accruing interest since the sale - although since the onset of the financial crisis this has dwindled to very little. Some interest has been included in the £450,000 quoted above but the remaining £14,006.44 is ringfenced for the servicing of the loan in the first year. Further instalments will be budgeted for and will be included in the precept.
The Parish Council has a further reserve of £26,536.64. Of this amount £3,500 is earmarked for the cemetery and £19,250 was set aside as a special reserve towards the long-term objective of refurbishing or replacing of part or all of the village hall. This leaves a small reserve of £3,786.64. A further £2112.89 of VAT will be reclaimed in due course.
4. Resolution: To consider the report to the Council and following its recommendations, apply for loan sanction for £150,000 towards the Recreation Ground Enhancement Project. Following a brief discussion, the report was approved and the resolution passed. AC proposed, MS seconded, all agreed. It was conceded that a loan will have an impact on the village precept but it was pointed out that the current precept is low for a village of this size and if the entire amount was borrowed, the precept would be roughly in line with the Harwell precept
5. Payments for approval to be made under ancillary powers and within budgeted amounts:
|
Description |
Amount |
|
Oxfordshire Association of Local Councils |
£52.88 |
|
TOTAL |
£52.88 |
Proposed JG, seconded SL, all agreed.
6. Any Other Business
The answer from the Scouts’ solicitors was received a few hours prior to the meeting. The Parish Council was happy to learn that they were willing to vacate the premises by the end of June and were amenable to most of their suggestions apart from the compensation they wanted from the PC. Some members also felt that a very hard line approach could be used to evict them straight away. The clerk was asked to get advice from the PC solicitor about the matter and to convey the PC’s sentiments. Action: Clerk to contact solicitors re Scouts.
Meeting closed 19h50