Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.  He advised that the meeting was being recorded and streamed live to You Tube.

The Democratic Services Officer conducted a roll call to determine attendees.

To receive any apologies for absence.

WelcomeApologies for absence were received from Councillors Dickinson, Howman, Joyce and Lowe.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the previous meeting.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 28 June 2021 were agreed as a correct record.

Please indicate if there are any interests which should be declared.  A declaration of an interest should indicate the nature of the interest (if not already declared on the Register of Interests) and the agenda item to which it relates.  If a disclosable pecuniary interest is declared, the Member should withdraw from the room whilst the matter is discussed.

These declarations apply to all Members present, whether the Member is part of the meeting, attending to speak as a local Member on an item or simply observing the meeting from the public seating area.

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider any business which, by reason of special circumstances, the Chairman proposes to accept as urgent under Section 100(b)(4)(b) of the Local Government Act, 1972.

There was no urgent business to consider.

Members wishing to speak pursuant to Standing Order 34 should inform the Chairman of their intention to do so and on what items they wish to be heard before the meeting commences.  Any Member attending the meeting under Standing Order 34 will only be permitted to speak on those items which have been previously notified to the Chairman.

There was no Member present pursuant to Standing Order 34.

There was no Chair’s correspondence to report.

To receive a verbal update on the Special Expenses Monitoring report.

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The Assistant Director – Resources provided the Committee with an update on the budget monitoring and outturn position for the Committee of King’s Lynn Special expenses for the year 2020/2021.

The Assistant Director drew the Committee’s attention to Section 1.4 of the report which set out Special Expenses charge 2020/2021. 

It was explained that the 2020/2021 estimates had been reviewed and updated to reflect the latest outturn position in terms of cost and activity and were detailed in the table at Section 2 of the report.

Section 2.2 of the report outlined the reasons for the variances and were explained in detail by the Assistant Director.

With regard to the overspend for 2020/2021 for Special Expenses the Assistant Director explained that this would be met by the Council.  Work would now be undertaken to understand the implication on the current year monitoring position and would be incorporated into the estimated budget for 2022/2023.  The outcome of the review and estimated budget would be presented at the next KLACC meeting for discussion and consideration.

The Chair thanked the Assistant Director for the report and invited questions / comments from the Committee, a summary of which is outlined below:

In relation to increased costs at Fairstead Community Centre, the Assistant Director advised that this related to an increase in maintenance costs due to the age of the building as more repairs have been required to the building.

The Assistant Director advised that in relation to the bus shelters and advertising income the College of West Anglia had been the key contributor to that, however, she understood that work had been carried out with them to carry out some advertising in the current financial year, so there was expected to be some income generated from that.  She assumed that there was no income generated in the last financial year because of Covid and that the College was shut for significant parts of the year.

With regards to timings and repairs to bus shelters, the Assistant Director advised that she would follow-up the quey and respond back to Councillor Mrs Wilkinson. 

Councillor Bambridge asked why the bus shelters were not used to promote the Council’s summer events and asked that it was forwarded on to the organiser as some of the events had been poorly attended.

Councillor Bambridge also stated that there were a couple of SAM signs, in her Ward and she added that there was a need to replace the batteries and there needed to be a maintenance cost factored in.

The Assistant Director advised that there could be some money available from a community safety budget.  With regards to future schemes and future maintenance, this was something that needed to be thought about and was now a requirement of the application.

The Chair added that he supported the idea of advertising the Council’s summer events in bus shelters.

At the invitation of the Chair, Councillor Middleton addressed the Committee  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

The Committee will receive an update on play equipment. A picture of the equipment and a plan of the proposed layout for each play area will be displayed at the meeting.

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The Assistant Director provided an update on the play area enhancements following the recommendation from the Informal Working Group which had carried out a piece of work looking at the existing provision of play equipment in King’s Lynn.

It was explained that £50,000 was in the capital budget for play areas.  £30,000 had been carried forward and a saving of £20,000 from Special Expenses from South Lynn Community Centre being used to house Council staff.  There was therefore £50,000 to be spent.  £43,000 had been spent and pictures and plans of the location and types of equipment to be installed were displayed to the Committee.

The Assistant Director advised that there was also some funding available from the developer for Raby Street and Edma Street for enhancement to play areas. 

Councillor Bone asked if there was any update in relation to this.  It was noted that this would be passed to Nathan Johnson for a response.

Councillor Mrs S Collop referred to the fact that there was a 10-week delay in ordering the equipment and asked if there was any idea when the equipment would be installed.  It was confirmed that it would be around mid-November.

Councillor Bone suggested that an adult gym be installed in the Walks.

The Assistant Director advised that the best course of action would be to re-start the Working Group to look at this and any other ideas that may come forward.  In addition, it would be useful to invite someone from the NHS / CCG as they were interested in schemes to improve health and fitness within the community.  He also suggested inviting them along to a future meeting of the Committee regarding this.

The Assistant Director – Resources advised that with the rest of the funding, there would be bins and benches provided.

AGREED:       (1)        That an update on play equipment be given at the November 2021.

(2)        That another meeting of the Working Group be arranged to look at potential schemes.  M Drewery to be invited to the Working Group.

The Committee is invited to consider bids for the Parish Partnership Scheme Initiative for 2022/23.

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The Assistant Director reminded the Committee that they had been invited to submit bids again to the Parish Partnership Scheme for the financial year 2022/2023.  The closing date for submissions would be 10 December 2021 but any scheme would need to be considered at the Special Expenses meeting scheduled for 11 November 2021.  He also outlined the type of schemes that would / would not be permitted. He also reminded the Committee that they should be mindful of any maintenance costs and tat 50% of the funding of any scheme would have to be by the Borough.

The Assistant Director – Resources referred the Committee to earlier in the meeting where the Monitoring Report had been presented and it had identified that there were some areas which had the potential to be overspent or required additional budget when setting the budget for 2022/23.   She added that in respect of closed churchyards she understood that there had been increases in repair costs.  Under legislation, these costs could be charged to Special Expenses to Parish and Town Councils. She advised that if any of these did fall within the King’s Lynn area, this would result in additional costs which were not expected.  If any of the repair costs fell within King’s Lynn this would be detailed in the Special Expenses report.

The Assistant Director advised that she wanted to make the Committee aware that there may not be any spare capacity within the budget to support initiatives.

The Chair then invited County Councillor Middleton to address the Committee.

Councillor Middleton explained that as a County Councillor he received a highways budget each year of £10,000 a year.  It was £10,000 per Councillor, and King’s Lynn had 3 County Councillors therefore there was the potential to be £30,000.

He advised that in relation to the Parish Partnership scheme, involvement had to be made with the County Councillor. 

Councillor Middleton added that he would welcome suggestions from this Committee, if there were any schemes coming forward, as he did not have any Parish Councils within his division.  He emphasised that he was speaking for himself and not the other County Councillors.  He added that he would be keen to spend the money within his division.  He hoped that the Committee and himself could work together. 

In relation to a question from Councillor Mrs S Collop, Councillor Middleton advised that the Parish Partnership scheme and his budget were two different schemes.

Councillor Kemp added that there was the potential for bigger schemes should they be needed.

The Assistant Director advised that the Parish Partnership scheme funding had mainly been spent on bus shelters and SAM signs.  He suggested that the Committee may want to consider improvement to public rights of way or whether there could be areas of improvements to footpaths.

The Chair thanked Councillor Middleton for attending the meeting.

The Committee is asked to consider items for a future Work Programme.

The Committee is also asked to consider the Cabinet’s Forward Decision List.

The Committee noted the Work Programme and Cabinet’s Forward Decision List.

The next meeting of the Committee is scheduled to take place on Thursday 11 November 2021.

The next meeting would be held on 11 November 2021 at 4.30 pm in the Assembly Room, Town Hall.