Held at Walford Village Hall
Wednesday 26 February 2020 at 7.30pm
Present: – Councillors: Joanne Akers (Chair), Karen Chinn, Simeon Cole, Bob Puzey, Monica van Lienden
In attendance: Richard Abolins (Clerk), 2 members of the public
1. Apologies: – none
2. Declarations of interest: – none.
3. Adoption of Minutes of previous meeting: –
It was resolved to adopt the minutes and confidential minutes of the meeting held on 22 October 2019 as a true and accurate record. They were signed by the Chair.
4. Public participation session: –
A member of the public asked what the code of conduct training was for. The Clerk replied that the Monitoring Officer had requested it.
Another member of the public asked if code of conduct complaints were ongoing. The Clerk replied that the Council and its officers were not involved in the process.
The first member of the public asked if, considering the recent flooding, there was a job description for the Resilience Officer. There is one although it needs updating and the Clerk was asked if resilience generally could be added to the Council agenda in March. Action – Clerk
5. Training: – Although code of conduct training had been requested by the Monitoring Officer, councillors were aggrieved that the implication was that the Council was in the wrong and that it would incur a cost in meeting this request. The Clerk was asked to ascertain whether the training that had been undertaken last summer was sufficient and whether it was necessary to undertake it again. Action – Clerk
6. Items for next meeting agenda: –
6.1 Code of conduct training
6.2 Recruitment progress
7. Next meeting: – Monday 16 March at 7.30pm in Walford Village Hall meeting room
It was resolved that the public should be asked to leave the room
8. Confidential closed session: –
8.1 The Clerk requested that the surplus time in the quarter ended 31 December 2019 be offset against a possible deficit in the next quarter.
8.2 Possible sources of recruitment for the new clerk were discussed, would be investigated and the outcome brought to the next meeting for action to be agreed. The cost is likely to be over budget in this cost centre for the year, but a request will be made to the Council to allocate funds.
8.3 If the situation arose, a temporary RFO would be sought from within the Council or parish.
8.4 The Clerk was asked to prepare handover notes. He will begin and update the Committee with progress at the next meeting Action – Clerk
8.5 So far there was only one applicant, but Cllrs Akers and Dolman will arrange to interview her.
The meeting closed at 20:26