LANGHAM COMMUNITY COUNCIL
Minutes of a Finance Committee Meeting
held on 11th Apr 2022 at 7.30pm, LCC Club Room

Present
Alan Cadman, Maureen Shouksmith, Paul Armstrong, Martin Bottwood, Sue Armstrong.
Apologies received from Liz Schofield and prospective guest Rob Clark.

LCC Roof Replacement & Funding
Rob has now been supplied with substantial reference documentation. He has raised some concerns about the adequacy and scope of the survey activities undertaken so far. Grant givers will have high standards that need to be met. Alan confirmed that an £800 survey was commissioned and completed. The scope was limited by the desire not to cut any holes in the roof until absolutely necessary. Alan will speak to Rob to review the survey fitness for purpose, but this may not be possible for a little while, due to Alan’s workload and Rob’s current family commitments. Action AC

There was some discussion about whether a ‘make do and mend’ approach may be a viable alternative to total roof replacement. This should be explored further once the survey status has been clarified. Sue indicated that she was aware of three roofers who might be interested in quoting, once the scope of work is clarified.

Matters Arising from Finance Meeting on 21st Feb 2022
Purchase new tables to replace missing ones: Sue has been unable to find a supplier of a like-for-like same size replacement table, so now feels that we can manage with the single table deficit. Discharged
Provide copies of roof project specification/survey/tender documentation to Rob Clark: these have now been supplied to Rob. Discharged
Chase broker for event insurance quote for 12th March Langham Hand Made Fair: Alan successfully secured confirmation of cover for this particular charity event. Discharged
Research electricity contract renewal options: Covered in Maureen’s report below. Discharged
Ask Terry whether he can deal with broken roof tile and guttering: Ongoing SA
Share Risk Assessment and Maintenance Schedule with all Trustees: Discharged
Research new fridge unit for the Club Room: Ongoing SA
Obtain competitive quotes for Hearing Loop project: Ongoing PA
Ask County Broadband whether we can upgrade from residential to business service: Sue has asked whether we can pay an increment to upgrade from a free residential service to a paid business service, but County refused to offer this option. Discharged


Chairman’s Report
No report this time.

Treasurer’s Report
Closing balances today were current a/c £3957.20; savings a/c £76177.87.
A small operating profit of around £7k for FY 21/22 was a surprising and pleasing result. Although Cygnet hires are substantially down, other hires are coming back towards ‘normality’ quite well. There are also some potential new big hires from NHS and ECC (albeit they are quite onerous for Sue to manage), plus some potential new wedding bookings in the pipeline.

Marketing Manager’s Report
No report this time.

Electricity Contract Renewal
Maureen is awaiting fixed and variable rate quotes from (Martyn Lewis recommended) electricity supplier Octopus, ahead of our 7th May contract renewal date. Continuing with British Gas on a variable rate looks likely to be at around £20k pa based on 40kWh annual usage. Maureen estimates that we would need an additional £9k pa income to cover this increase in electricity costs. The Community Shop reimburses us directly for electricity usage and they have been made aware of the impending massive cost increase. (The Shop have recently decided not to replace a couple of broken fridge/freezer units, which will help them reduce their electricity usage somewhat). For our own usage, Sue can look to implement tighter control over the range of temperature control if required. The Pre-School’s rent is inclusive of electricity usage, so we may in future need to review this with them, although no decision to do so was made today.
Maureen awaits confirmation of electricity quotes from Octopus. Action MS


LCC Hiring Pricing Review
Sue had previously supplied Maureen with three files giving scenarios for a 10%, 12% or 15% increase in hiring rates. Maureen had reviewed the likely impacts based on historic (pre-COVID) hall usage rates from 2019/20. A 10% increase would only bring in about £5.8k extra income, which is substantially less than the £9k that needs to be recouped against extra electricity costs. Maureen therefore recommended that we need to adopt a 15% price increase, and after some discussion this was agreed by all. Whilst potentially painful for some hirers, hiring rates have been unchanged for the last three years.
We discussed whether any clubs or hirers were likely to close down in response to new hiring rates. The Country & Western group are probably most at risk, as they have been suffering from reduced numbers. We are not aware of any local clubs in financial difficulties. But if this did become apparent, Martin floated the idea that some S106 funds might possibly be re-directable at supporting clubs rather than the building.
Paul suggested applying differential price increases to the three main rooms, with the highest increase for the main hall, and smaller increases for the Club Room and Committee Room, whilst aiming for an average increase of 15%. This being so as to encourage higher usage rates for the smaller rooms, which still remain out of favour as an after-effect of COVID.
It was agreed that new rates should come into effect from 1st May for new hirers, and from 1st June for existing regular hirers. Once the new rates have been finalised by Maureen and Sue, Paul is to write out to all Trustees seeking approval to implement them. Action Point MS/SA/PA

Hearing Loop Project
Paul has been too busy lately to progress this further. The next step is to secure a comparative quote from DM Electrical in Chelmsford, against the same specification that Marks Tey Radio have offered. Action PA

LCC Broadband & Phone Service
County Broadband have confirmed that they are unwilling to offer us a business grade service when they install a free broadband line for us shortly. This means that we cannot currently consider dispensing with our expensive current (XLN) business broadband and phone service, unless and until we can identify satisfactory and secure new arrangements to support the Shop’s EPOS system and Alan’s Sumup payment machine. Further research of potential money-saving options is required. Action PA

Williamsons Outline Planning Application No. 220595
Martin briefed us about the Parish Council’s extensive planned response, which will seek to establish a number of reserved matters that will then need to be addressed at the full planning stage. Martin encouraged the LCC to submit their own formal response on behalf of the Trustees. Paul agreed to draft a response and circulate it to all Trustees for their approval prior to submission on the CBC Planning Portal. Action PA

Any Other Business
The RCCE recently announced that Sue Gibson was retiring. She has been really helpful over the years. Liz Winter kindly sent in some valedictory comments to the RCCE on behalf of the LCC, and received a nice thank you letter back from Sue Gibson.
Sue briefed us on her proposal to replace some broken stage lighting with some new LED based units that would be dramatically more energy efficient. All agreed that she should proceed on the basis of likely rapid payback with our increased electricity rates.
Action SA
We discussed and agreed hiring rates for the proposed new Children’s Cricket Evening Sessions, which Martin will report back to the Cricket Club.

Date of Next Meetings
Next Finance Committee Meeting: 7.30pm, 9th May 2022, LCC Club Room
Next Trustee Meeting: needs to be re-scheduled from 9th June due to Maureen’s unavailability now. New date agreed as Thursday 30th June, 7.30pm.
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