Meeting 25th July

DRAFT MINUTES

EXTRA-ORDINARY PARISH COUNCIL MEETING
Meeting of the Parish Council
held on Monday 25th July 2022
8 pm, at Edingale Village Hall

Members present:
Cllrs Startin (Chair), Cliffe, Dhillon, Maskery and Meikle
Present: Mrs M Jones, Clerk

67/22. To receive and approve apologies
Cllrs Lacey and Mason had apologised as they were on holiday.

68/22. To receive any Declarations of Interest
None received.

69/22. To approve the draft Minutes of the meeting of 4th July 2022 The draft Minutes were approved and signed.

70/22. To adjourn the meeting, hold the public session, to reconvene
No members of the public were present.

71/22 To consider a request for a financial contribution towards Solar Panel Installation at Edingale Village Hall.
The Parish Council had received a request to donate £6,400 to pay half the cost of solar panels plus battery at the Village Hall. The Parish Council wished to support the Village Hall which was the only remaining social venue for the community and agreed that this project would help their finances by reducing electricity costs.
During discussions Cllrs spoke in favour of the proposal.
Cllr Dhillon raised some questions on the Village Hall finances and Cllr Purkess said that she would forward the accounts to be circulated to the Councillors. Cllr Dhillon also asked about guarantees on the supplier and product.
It was agreed that the Parish Council would ask the Village Hall’s project manager for the following information to ensure due diligence on the spending of public money on this investment:
Has the preferred installer an insurance backed warranty on the panels, battery and inverter? Is this firm covered by insurance so if it went bankrupt the Parish Council’s investment would be safe? As it is a sole trader would there be cover if they were no longer trading? If there was a supply issue for replacement panels would they be able to replace them if faulty?
It was proposed by Cllr Meikle that the grant of £6,400 from the capital funds should be made, conditional on a satisfactory response to these queries from the preferred suppliers; this was RESOLVED and approved by all Councillors present.

72/22 To receive any Councillors’ Reports.
Cllr Meikle raised 3 issues:
He passed on a request from Cllr Mason that strimming of the sites of the village gateways should be arranged in good time for installation.
He noted that new streetlights had been installed in the village. One of the standards was overgrown and the Clerk would report it to Western Power.
The Best Kept Village Community Competition had been concluded and the result would be revealed at an Awards Ceremony on 12th September; Cllr Meikle would attend and other Councillors were welcome to join him.

73/22 To approve payments on the Payment Schedule.
Staff costs, £387.96
Acorn Taxi, £137.82
Village Gardeners, £539.50
It was RESOLVED to approve the payments; Cllr Startin would authorise these.

74/22 Date of next meeting Monday 5th September 2022.

The meeting closed at 8.35 pm