Phone: 07741 284132
Email: LanghamCC@gmail.com
LANGHAM COMMUNITY COUNCIL
Minutes of a Finance Sub-Committee Meeting
held on 4th December 2017 at 7.30pm.

Present Alan Cadman, Bill Durlacher, Maureen Shouksmith, Liz Winter, Sue Armstrong.

Apologies Liz Schofield, who is recovering from a heart operation. The committee wished her well.
Alan welcomed Bill to the meeting as representative of the Parish Council in Liz’s place.

Minutes of Previous meeting on 30th October
These had been approved by those present at the meeting and circulated to all Trustees.

Matters Arising
Boilers
Lindsey’s had worked on the LCC boiler on 1st December, when they took a lot of sludge out of the pipes, ran some kind of acid through, added inhibitor and reduced the pressure slightly in the system. It is too early to be certain whether this has cured the problem. They also fitted a new “watchman” to the oil tank, on the strength of which reading Sue has ordered half a tank of oil. The work took all day and they have yet to replace the room stats for the Pre-School, as quoted for on 17th November. Parts of the Pre-School remain too hot. Alan will contact them to see when they plan to return. He has received credit for an earlier abortive visit. AC
Car Park
Alan has still not found time to meet Ken Dilliway to discuss the spec. for repairs. There seems little point in worrying about drainage until Essex County Council have cleared their drain. The Parish Council is chasing them. AC
Gutters
Mr. Napoletani apologised and claims to have returned and cleared the offending gutter. We need to check. SA/EW
Data Protection
Liz W had circulated a CCTV Code of Practice, drawn up with help from Sue, which she felt would meet the IOC’s guidelines. She has nearly completed an audit of personal data held. Sue stressed that the hired rooms (hall, club room and committee room) do not have CCTV coverage. She is continuing to transfer data held on Little Green Plane to Mail Chimp. Liz hoped to present the final Data Protection documents to the Trustees on 25th January. EW
Shop Electricity
The outstanding bill had been paid in November.

Chairman’s Report
Alan had been tasked with negotiating a new insurance quote, conclusion of which had fallen between the two Finance meetings. He had accepted an annual premium of £1,788.43 (plus £25 tax) from Ansvar beginning in January. This seemed very reasonable, as our income is protected for two years should a fire or other disaster render the premises unusable, and that income has almost doubled since the last quote. The committee thanked Alan for dealing with this once again.
It had been agreed to accept Lindsey’s quote for the Pre-School room stats and oil watchman of £1,181.42 as the matter was urgent. The £1,200 quote for the work undertaken to the LCC boiler carried out last Friday was to be sought from the Parish Council using the interest accruing on our NS&I savings. Bill confirmed that the PC’s Finance Committee were in agreement but needed confirmation from the full PC. BD
Alan would renew our lottery licence for the monthly 100 Club draw with the Borough Council, costing £20. AC

Treasurer’s Report
Maureen asked for a vote of thanks for Andrew Craig, who had spent a great deal of time helping her work on the spreadsheet to arrive at a full set of cumulative and monthly figures, which she had forwarded prior to the meeting. All figures and formulae are now in the correct columns and, as long as this continues, the monthly figures will be available automatically. The committee thanked both Maureen and Andrew for their patience and tenacity.
Maureen has purchased a USB stick to back up the accounts.
We had £11,192.83 in the current account and £35,001.42 in the saver account on 1st December. Profit after seven months is around £10,000. The supper cinema had been successful and Sunday’s Toy Fair café had raised £122.63, thanks to the hard work of Bob, Jutta and Maureen.

Marketing Manager’s Report
Sue had circulated a short report prior to the meeting. Danshell had booked until March. The Iceni footballers had hired last Saturday for an evening get together. The Oaks School were beginning trampolining again for 2-3 hours a week from January. Two children’s theatre groups were now hiring in January between other lets on Tuesday and Thursday.
Ipswich and Colchester NHS hires had caused some trouble initially because they didn’t turn up or leave on time and brought more people than would fit into the clubroom. Things seemed to have settled down and Cheryl provides them with the makings of drinks and biscuits.
The gents’ urinals have been found blocked by paper on Thursday mornings. The Scouts have been asked to check that they are clear at the end of the hire on Wednesday evening.
Future Electrics are quoting for installation of a light at the foot of the fire escape stairs.

Disabled Toilet Upgrade
Alan has been in touch with CBH, which unfortunately has had a staff reshuffle, with his usual contact being made redundant. The lady he spoke to knew nothing about the proposed spec being prepared for us. Alan believes Lee Spalding is still there but not Dale Boughtwood. He does not expect anything to happen now until after Christmas but will keep the pressure on. We cannot apply for grants until the spec has been drawn up.
AC


Pre-School
The Pre-School met at the end of November and have provided an update of their financial position as requested. Liz W summarised the findings to the committee. Despite all their efforts they need more children to break even at the end of the academic year. At present they have funds until end of June and will only have 21 or 22 children in January. (In September they specified 31 children on roll to be sustainable.) Staff are being paid for all the hours worked and they have a new Deputy Manager. In four out of five afternoon sessions staff are leaving early, while the number of children is low, to reduce salary expenditure.
The monthly £50 rent is being paid regularly but this may not be covering our costs, in view of the boiler expenditure and electrical work which has been carried out. The rent is to be reviewed again at the end of March, when we shall have received a further update.

Any Other Business
WiFi URGENT!
Sue had received a letter from FibreWiFi informing her that they are ceasing to serve Langham as from 31st January 2018. This gives us very little time to sign up with another provider. WiFi is vital for the shop and Pre-School as well as for the viability of the LCC if we are to be competitive. The hall is on the Boxted/Horkesley exchange from the cabinet opposite the Shepherd. Bill had asked Martin Bottwood his advice, as he was instrumental in bringing WiFi into the village. We need to know what speed we require to get like coverage.
Whitnell’s has County Broadband. Who do the Business Parks use? We shall need a landline and BT are very expensive. Sue likes her VOIP phone, which is much cheaper at £40 a year and enables her to get calls on her mobile or home phone, as well as transfer them if necessary. TalkTalk might be a possibility. We need more expertise and perhaps Cliff Jones would help as he set things up for us originally and is on the Shop committee. This matter is urgent. Sue will find out current speed and contact Cliff but any help will be appreciated to expedite the matter, which will need to be finalised before our next meetings, so possibly via e-mails. SA/All

Rubbish
No reply has been received from Nigel Chapman regarding a wheelie bin for LCC rubbish. (Nor has the Shop heard from him regarding recycling bins.) He has passed the matter to a colleague and heard nothing further, so is chasing it up for us. Meanwhile, Sue will order some more green sacks.

Date of Next Meeting
The full Trustee meeting is scheduled for Thursday 25th January.
The next Finance Sub-Committee meeting will be on Monday 19th February

There being no further business the meeting closed at 9.30 pm.

How To Find Us
Langham Community Centre, School Rd, Langham, Colchester CO4 5PA
Get In Touch
07741 284132
LanghamCC@gmail.com
About Us
The Langham Community Centre was opened in June 1988 and has been serving local village residents and other commercial hirers ever since.

We are based at the heart of Langham Village, with easy access from the A12.
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