MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON ZOOM ON TUESDAY, MARCH 2ND, 2021

Present: Couns Salton, East, Browne, Connor, Smith, Davies, Taylor, Entwistle, Brookfield and Slater.

1.Welcome and introduction: 2.Apologies: Coun Rothwell.

3.Declaration of interests :

None.

4. Minutes of the last meeting:

These were agreed and will be signed off at the next physical meeting.

4.1 Friends of Sunnyhurst Woods

Coun. Browne asked if any of the grant money towards the de silting of the pond had been paid. Coun. Connor said no payments had yet been made. The work has stopped and will recommence when BWD say it is the right time to do the work. Coun. Taylor said the whole project will not cost any more than the town council has allocated.

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5. Public forum:

None

6 Mayor’s Update:
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Coun. Salton said following the resignation of the Blackburn with Darwen Mayor, that she had offered to stand in at any engagements and it had been agreed by BWD that she would stand in for any virtual day engagements.

7. Deputy chairman’s update:

Coun East said the Darwen Deal bid had been sent off and now await a decision. Planning permission has gone in for the work needed on the tower. The food larder is doing well and thanks had been sent to a youngster who had raised over £1,000 for the fund. Couns. East, Smith, Connor and Salton had discussed the format of the awards to replace the Crown Awards and had used guidance from another parish council. The new awards will be established after the May elections.

Despite information that there is to be a meeting of Darwen Live, the town council has not had any information from BWD and has not changed its stance of withdrawing funding this year.
The Hollins Grove memorial has now been photographed and will be exhibited in Darwen Heritage Centre.

Coun East said the vaccinations and testing centres are doing well and Coun. Salton thanked the volunteers for their help. Coun Taylor said BWD’s director of public health, Dominic Harrison had written to Prof Chris Whitty asking if the vaccination process in the borough could be quickened up as people in the borough are eight times more likely to catch COVID than areas in the country with lower infection rate. The request had been turned down.

8 Finance

Paid in £2,500 from Darwen Rotary Club towards computers for the needy. Payments:

£3,821.96 – donation to Friends of Whitehall Park for their parks project.
£719 R Hay for salary and expenses
£107.32 – R Hay pension.
£520 – Find Me A Business for website and social media renewal and maintenance. £420 – R Hay for website and social media content.

£3,000 – P3 computers for the needy as part of the Darwen Rotary Club scheme to support the community.
£2,500 – AFC Darwen – annual grant for youth development.
£2,500 – Darwen Cricket Club – annual grant for youth development.

9 Correspondence

Darwen Guides had been in touch to say the Euro Jamboree is likely to be cancelled and they will return the £400 grant from the town council in due course.

AFC Darwen had written in for assistance during the pandemic. It was agreed that the council would give the annual grant for youth development and also to the cricket club, but as donations of £1,000 had also been given to both clubs at the beginning of the pandemic, no further funds would be given.

10 Updates

Couns Taylor and Smith raised concern over the VAT reclaim for the Darwen Rotary Club

community computer scheme. The clerk said this could also apply to any future Darwen

Live payments. Coun Taylor said he was against the VAT reclaim on behalf of Darwen

Rotary Club.

Coun Connor said the elections were likely to incur further expenditure, but no figures have yet been released. He said invoices for the painting of the railings and repairs to a library window will follow.

Coun Salton had spoken to the town crier and he is keen to re start his work once lockdown is lifted. A Rotary Day is planned for September 11th.

Coun Connor had met with Eddie Maxwell of BWD and it is hoped a four year rolling plan for funding for the parks will be in place before the elections.

The Lancashire Badger group has liaised with Coun Connor over a youth project on land at Jack Keys.

11 Any other business

None.. .

15. Date of next meeting

Tuesday, April 6th, 7 p.m. Zoom meeting – . Items for the agenda to be with the clerk by March 29th please. The May meeting will take place on May 11th to allow for the elections in early May.