LANGHAM COMMUNITY COUNCIL
Minutes of a Finance Sub-Committee Meeting
held on 23rd April 2018 at 7.30pm.

Present Alan Cadman, Maureen Shouksmith, Liz Winter, Liz Schofield, Sue Armstrong.
Alan welcomed Liz Schofield back to the finance committee.

Minutes of Previous meeting on 19th February 2018
These had been approved by those present at the meeting and circulated to all Trustees.

Matters Arising
Pre-School
Heating: Lindsey’s quote of £278.53 to install a bypass valve to cure the heating problem would be held in abeyance until September when the heating would be needed again.
Rent: The question of rent payable from 1st September had been agreed with Hayley Jakeman and Nahida de Leon at a meeting with the Finance committee on 5th April. They had agreed to pay the full rent under the lease dated 13.01.16 of £506 per calendar month.
WiFi: Sue is attempting to contact Buzzcom for the password for the equipment which they left by agreement at the hall. It may then be possible to make the Pre-School connection secure. SA
Disabled Toilet
Alan has recently been contacted by Colchester Borough Council who confirm that a new surveyor is in post at the Building Works Division. Alan has e-mailed this individual asking him to get in touch.
Music licences
Both licences had been paid for at a total cost of £1,044.36.
Refuse bin
The new bin had arrived and was temporarily attached to the downpipe bracket. As far as Sue knows, it was emptied last week without problem. Alan has set up a web portal so that we can monitor how much rubbish has been collected. Sue is charging hirers £1.50 per black bag (It was £1.70 per green bag.) Alan is making the collection payment of £12 online, as he feels it is too small an amount to set up as a direct debit.
Bob Schofield has kindly offered to fix a bracket to the wall so that the bin can be more securely fixed (together with the Shop’s bread container.) The Committee gladly accepted his offer and asked Liz S to thank him very much. BS

Chairman’s Report
Alan has been particularly busy at work, as well as carrying out his Monday hall checks, setting up online payments and as mentioned above.

Treasurer’s Report
Balances at the bank on Friday night were: Current a/c £9,732.90; Saver a/c £39,050.72.
Maureen had circulated the end of year balance sheet as well as March’s profit and loss.
The year’s income was shown as £63,924.63 but this included Shop electricity payments. Maureen feels the spreadsheet system is now working very well and she is able to produce the end of month balances quite quickly by keeping entries up to date. Everyone agreed that Maureen had done a brilliant job in getting to grips with the accounts.
She suggested that perhaps she and Liz Winter took over the payment of such regular bills as Oxleys, Class Cleaners and wage related payments, to save Alan time. However, Alan said it was only because he had been unusually busy this month that some payments had not been made as punctually as normal. It was agreed that Liz would contact Marilyn at Asset to ask her to send May’s salary payments to Liz when Alan is away. Sue had already asked Mike, the cleaner, to send to Maureen. EW
Cheryl had stepped in on many occasions when Sue had needed to help out her parents. It was agreed to give Cheryl a Boots voucher funded by the LCC to thank her. Sue would deliver the card to her.

Marketing Manager’s Report
Sue had circulated her report prior to the meeting and confirmed that Taekwondo were holding their last meeting on Thursday. This meant the Vintage Car Club would start earlier in future. The Kendo Association had booked two hours on Tuesday mornings. A “Gaming Bus” is coming to the car park on Sunday 13th May and will use our electricity and toilets to offer computer gaming.
At last the Parish Council had succeeded in getting the drains cleared in School Road and,
despite heavy rain, there had been no flooding in the car park. The Easter caravanners had not damaged the field too much, despite some needing to be towed off.
Paul Armstrong is hoping to have time to update the LCC website.
Sue thanked Andrew Craig for manning he 19th April bar and those who ran the Toy Fair café on 8th April. She asked for volunteers for 3rd June, the last one before October. Maureen said she and Gill Brown from Langham Ladies would help as would Liz W. Liz S wasn’t sure about Bob.
Booking forms, which highlighted the need for public liability insurance, were coming in gradually from regular hirers.
It might prove difficult to find a mutually convenient date to arrange a 30th birthday party for the Community Centre but Sue will persevere a little longer.

Maintenance Review
Sue had circulated her first version of the 20-year maintenance plan for discussion. This was a plan initiated by Cliff Jones and Roger Hobday.
Now that the road drains are clear, we can pursue repair of the car park and a sum of £8,000 is in the budget for 2018/19. Ken Dilloway is waiting for Alan to mark out the relevant areas when the car park is empty, which is rare. Some drain covers may need reseating. The resurfacing has been postponed for over two years and must be a priority. AC
Sue queried the figure of £3,000 for replacing the Shop air-conditioning unit in 5-10 years, since ours had been much cheaper. Presumably they have much more equipment than we do.
Velux need annual maintenance to keep the guarantee valid. Rose have quoted £700 for one day, two men and a cherry picker to service and clean windows and blinds. On 9th May someone is coming from “Skyview” to give a second quote.
Vinyl flooring in the bar area needs replacement. This was agreed and £1,000 set aside. The kitchen floor was considered and £1,500 moved into next year as non-urgent. It was agreed that cloakrooms and changing rooms were good for another ten years.
The Committee room carpet is stained and Class Cleaners suggested getting in professional carpet cleaners. Alan suggested a “ninja” or industrial cleaner which they use at work. Sue would look into this and replacement of the carpet would be moved to 2019/20. SA
Replacement of emergency lights was left at £1,000 over 20 years. These lights are much more reliable now, so shouldn’t need such frequent replacement. £2,000 is budgeted for shower heaters but these are working at the moment.
Sue had e-mailed the sub-committee with queries about the hall floor, due to be cleaned and sealed next year. Eddie Hyde had asked if we used “refresher” on the floor. He could supply some. We don’t at present and are not sure why it would be necessary at £200 for 10 litres, to be used two or three times a year. He is going to visit and Sue will ask him about it then. SA

Any Other Business

AGM
Liz W had contacted all the current organisations with LCC appointed representatives asking for confirmation of their appointee for the AGM. She still awaited replies from the PCC, Pre-School, Patchwork Pals, Parish Council and Recreation Ground, but all were promised shortly. Liz Schofield is retiring from the Parish Council and was asked if she would be willing to be co-opted as she is an invaluable source of local knowledge. With her consent a proposal will be made to co-opt her at the AGM. EW
Alan, Liz Winter and Maureen agreed to be re-elected if no other nominations were forthcoming.

Date of Next Meeting
The date for the next Finance Sub-Committee meeting will be decided after the AGM.
The AGM will be held on Thursday 24th May at 7.30 pm.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 9.40 pm.