LANGHAM COMMUNITY COUNCIL

Minutes of a Trustee Meeting
held on 24th October 2019 at 7.30pm.

Present
Alan Cadman (Chairman), Liz Winter (Secretary), Peter Dawson, Denise Hobday, Jutta Brawn, Daphne Bettle, Liz Schofield, Bob Schofield, Andrew Craig, Sue Trimnell, James Puxley, Sue Armstrong.

Apologies for Absence
Maria Bukovenczki, Marlena Lipski, Maureen Shouksmith, Mark Kleingeld.

Minutes of previous Trustee Meeting on 1st August 2019
Minutes of the previous meeting had been circulated prior to the meeting. Andrew Craig proposed and Sue Trimnell seconded that they be accepted as a true record. Carried unanimously. Alan signed the Minutes. They will be posted on the Community Centre noticeboard. EW

Matters Arising
NS&I Bonds
It has been agreed with the Parish Council that the Bonds should be listed as an asset on both organisations’ balance sheet and that the Bonds should remain in the name of the Parish Council. The Treasurer and Secretary signed a letter to the PC in August, asking that the lump sum of accrued interest be paid into the LCC’s Saver Account and that future interest be paid directly into this account by NS&I. No funds have yet been received. The Parish Clerk is looking into what progress has been made.
Drains
Because School Road is still flooding badly and our car park drains appear to be working well, it was decided not to jet them at present. However, Alan would contact IWC to get a quote to clear the tree root from the drain near the Pre-School. AC
Electricity
New rates had been agreed between Alan and Andrew for the Shop’s usage and their first invoice had been submitted and paid. The SMART meter appears to be working correctly and for the first month since May, we had not been asked for a manual reading in October.
Pre-School
The Trustees acknowledged the ongoing efforts of the Pre-School to attract more children. However, the report submitted by Hayley gives no financial details to indicate whether or not they are likely to be able to continue with rental payments going forward. The Secretary would write to enquire further. EW

Chairman’s Report
Alan had hoped to present the Trustees with a revised insurance quote but this had not been received. He has increased the value of the buildings to £1.5 million from December 1st to take account of the air-conditioning being fitted (and was charged £12 for the change.) Any contractors working on the premises, including Shop and Pre-School, must have £2 million public liability insurance.

Replacement Central Heating
John Barran’s report, received just in time for this meeting, ran to two sentences. However, Trustees felt it was sufficient to allow them to proceed with Lambrothers’ proposal.
Chris from Future Electrical had booked 31st October/1st November to fit a new fuseboard. Fitting it during half term meant Sue would only have to disappoint one hirer, as the whole centre would need to be closed for those two days.
Liz W updated the Trustees on grant progress. The signed Enovert Funding Agreement for £15,000 had been received this morning and Liz had contacted the Parish Council to confirm this and ask that the 10% refund be made to Enovert before the end of November. The Parish Council would deal with this at their meeting on 6th November.
Unfortunately, the date for the Panel to consider our Community Initiatives Fund application was postponed from mid-September to 25th October and has now been postponed again until 15th November.
Andrew Craig proposed a vote of thanks to Liz and Sue for their work in obtaining funding.

Water heating for Pre-School and Shop
This has proved to be a thorny problem. The plumbers who had quoted had not appreciated the poor water pressure at the hall. Alan said it would need to be a pumped system with a holding tank and have to be specifically designed for our purpose. Hot water is urgently required by the Pre-School for them to comply with Health and Safety and we hoped to get at least the playroom sink plumbed with an individual water heater during half term. Alan has a plumber available and should know tomorrow if an electrician can provide the cabling for an under-sink heater. AC

Treasurer’s Report
Figures for September had been sent out to Trustees. At close of business today the current account stood at £10,572.12 and the Saver remained unchanged at £55,085.67.
Maureen was unable to attend the meeting but had provided a written report based on the first six months’ figures, showing expenditure slightly outstripping income, with September’s maintenance costing £7,000. This was due mainly to the Pre-School air-conditioning (which would be paid for from NS&I accrued interest once received), and a second floor-refurbishment payment to Roger Hyde, totalling together nearly £5,000. We had also had to purchase a new dishwasher £299, kitchen blinds £220 and £240-worth of plumbing works.
A commercial microwave has just been purchased for £231.59 as the previous one failed its PAT test.
Two of our main sources of income are Cygnet, who fortunately have increased their bookings and are extending into next Spring, and the Pre-School rent. With the imminent expenditure on central heating and water heating in the Shop and Pre-School, we need to be vigilant and keep a contingency of around £20,000.
There were one or two queries arising from the September figures which would be considered when the Treasurer was available.
Sue updated the meeting about 100 Club payments: 92 were paid, 5 unpaid and 3 unsold.

Marketing Manager/Caretaker’s Report
Sue’s reports had been circulated. There were quite a lot of items on the “To do” list but most were under consideration.
The remaining Community Café dates would be taken by the Bridge Club and First Responders. There was some uncertainty about who was running the March event.
Andrew Craig volunteered for the Vintage MC bar on 21st November and Bob, Liz W and Jutta would man the Toy Fair Café on 1st December.
Unfortunately, a local hirer on 7th October had left the hall in a disgusting state and left nine huge sacks of rubbish, requiring a separate refuse collection. Cheryl had valiantly tried to clean up before Sunday morning’s early hire. Sue had retained the deposit and written to the person concerned but had no response. She would not hire to this person again.

Purchases
Oven
Both circular hotplates on the current model are cracked and are irreplaceable due to its age. If water spilled into the cracks during cooking, it could cause an explosion. Lambrothers have recommended a six plate electric range, which they can supply and install for £1,479. They will also remove the old one. A figure of £3,000 had been allocated in the maintenance planning, so this seemed very reasonable. Chris will check whether the current wiring needs replacing and undertake this if necessary. Purchase was proposed by Liz Winter, seconded by Denise Hobday and carried unanimously. (After the meeting Chris reported that our wiring is three-phase whereas the proposed oven is only two-phase. Sue would ask Lambrothers to provide a three-phase oven quotation.)

Acoustic absorption replacement
Our old curtain (which fell down in August) covered about 30sq.m. Peter explained that three options had been submitted by Kevin Harbach and Option 2 using wooden-frames covered in cloth fabric was quite interesting. These and the suspended panel design from dBc could be added to if it was felt more absorption was needed. There was some discussion about the necessity for such measures, when it seems that only a minority of hirers are affected by the echoing quality of the hall. Trustees felt they would like to visit somewhere where they could see/hear the panels being used. There are panels in the café at Hall Farm, Stratford St. Mary and Peter would try to find out if there are other venues we could visit. PD
Sue feels replacement is urgent and that we may lose hires from those playing music from the stage, as the country and western group have complained and been given partial refunds because of the poor sound quality. Next Monday the company who made the original curtain are coming to quote on a replacement. Three years ago £3,000 was quoted, which is more than the panels.

Portable wheelchair ramps
Jutta said she had a pair of ramps that she would be glad to give to the hall for disabled access via the main hall doors if someone could collect them.




Any Other Business
“A Christmas Carol”
Liz and Gill Flack were organising this evening at the hall on 30th November, as they had been contacted by Anthony Roberts offering to give his recital free of charge for fund-raising purposes. Profit would be divided between the Shop, Pre-School and Hall and it was hoped to attract as many as 100 people.
Graffiti
Peter Dawson reported that a lot of graffiti was being found in Langham and surrounding villages. It seemed to be the same “tag”. He asked anyone who saw the perpetrator to try to get a photo if possible.
Car park hedge
Sue asked who was responsible for cutting this hedge as it is becoming overgrown, which makes opening and closing the barrier harder, particularly at night. Liz S said that David Isted usually cut it back. Liz W would write to the Parish Clerk. EW
Primary School parking
There had been some correspondence on Langham Locals about using the LCC’s car park and reinstating a “walking bus” down to the School. While we sympathise with the parking problem and it might be fine to park briefly in our car park to collect/drop off children, there is not always room to accommodate vehicles for any length of time. Liz W will write to the School to point this out. EW

Date of meetings
The next Trustee Meeting will be on 30th January 2020 in the club room at 7.30 pm.
The next Finance Meeting will be on Monday 11th November at Alan’s house at 7.30 pm.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 9.10 pm.