Minutes of the Finance and Admin Committee meetings (formerly known as Finance and General Purpose) are available from here. This years minutes are accessible at this level and minutes for previous years are available by clicking the appropriate button to the left.

DRAFT Minutes of the meeting of Maresfield Parish Council’s Finance & Administration Committee, held on Thursday 15^th December 2011 at 7.30pm in the Parish Office, Nutley.

Present: - Cllr K Ogden (Chairman), Cllr D Watson, Cllr J Unruh, Clerk T Allen and the Asst Clerk Mrs J Bradford.

1       Public Questions – None.

2       Apologies for absence – Cllr R Street, Cllr Mrs. G Brady & Cllr Miss A Bergan-Gander.

3       Declarations of interest – None.

4              Adoption of the minutes of the meeting held on 10^th November 2011 – It was resolved that the minutes be adopted as a true record.

5       Matters arising from these minutes not elsewhere on the Agenda – None.

6              Review of Month 8 - 2011/12 Financial Reports – The financial reports, cash book and bank reconciliation were received. It was noted that expenditure was as expected and that there were no issues to report. The Clerk noted that Cllr Street and Cllr Ogden would be carrying out the monthly audit of accounts on the 19^th December 2011.

6.1          Allocation of remaining Youth funds – It was resolved that the Maresfield ‘Pulse’ Youth Group and the Nutley ‘Xtreme’ Youth Group should be invited to bid for the £1,000.00 to be allocated from the project funds in the current budget.

7              Budget/Precept 2012/13 - Final pass and recommendation to Council for the new Budget/Precept – the papers circulated with the meeting papers were discussed and various scenarios relating to percentage increases in the budget and precept were debated. It was resolved that an increase of around 2% in precept requirement should be recommended to Council.

It was resolved that no amendments were needed to the draft budget proposals as detailed at the last meeting of the Committee, except for the question of the final amount to be allocated to the budget heading ‘Localism Bill Provision’ [see Item 7.1 below]. It was noted that, as the draft budget figures stood, they represented an increase of only 0.43% in budget requirement and 0.14% increase in precept requirement.

7.1          Additional provision for development of the Neighbourhood Plan – A lengthy discussion took place concerning the outcomes from the first meeting of the Neighbourhood Plan Working Party and specifically in relation to the engagement of AiRS as a partner in the production of the new Neighbourhood Development Plan and Community Led Plan. It was noted that this matter was on the agenda for debate by Council at its next meeting on 20^th December 2011. It was resolved that the amount to be allocated to the budget heading ‘Localism Bill Provision’ should remain at £2,500.00 in the draft budget, with the final amount in this heading to be agreed by Council.

The Clerk stated that the amounts allocated to the budget heading ‘Legal Fees’ would also need to be agreed by Council at its next meeting, where the matter of the MRG access is to be debated.

8              Communications – Cllr Unruh briefly reported on a meeting he had attended concerning broadband coverage. It was noted that a Parishioner of Fairwarp [Mr Barry Mulady] will be giving a talk on this matter at the Council meeting in January 2012. Cllr Unruh noted that funding is available and that it will be channeled via ESCC.

9       Date of next meeting – Thursday 16^th February 2012.

There being no further business, the meeting closed at 20:29.