March 3rd 2020 Meeting Minutes
MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD IN DARWEN TOWN HALL ON TUESDAY, MARCH 3RD, 2020
Present: Couns Salton, East, Connor, Perkins, Entwistle, Davies, Browne, Smith, Brookfield, Slater and Taylor.
1.Welcome and introduction:
2.Apologies: Coun. Rothwell and Hollings.
3.Declarations of Interest: Coun, Slater, RBL and Coun. J East, Darwen Heritage Centre.
4 Minutes of the last meeting and matters arising
These were agreed, with the amendment of a typo in item 5 which should read £25m..
4 (i). St James’s Church, Over Darwen
Coun Salton gave an update on progress and said the church was to have a further building inspection at the cost of £9,000, with the cathedral putting in £5,000.
4 (ii) VE Day events
Coun. Browne put forward a motion which was agreed that the council would make up any shortfall to the RBL if they failed to get sufficient funding through the Crown Awards.
5. Public forum
Mr Tony Foster said the Friends of Darwen Cemetry are to fund a bench in memory of former veteran Mr Richard Westhead. Coun. Taylor said the Friends of Bold Venture Park are to have their gates renovated and re pinned and a plaque remembering Mr Westerhead will be placed on them. Coun. Browne asked that Mr Westerhead’s name be put on the roll of honour in Darwen Town Hall.
Mr Mark Atkinson raised concerns over people using their gardens for parking spaces and not having drop kerbs and causing problems for neighbours in Beech Avenue. He also said people are abusing double yellow lines in Railway Road. Coun. Davies has taken up concerns with the borough council before and will continue to press for action.
6 Mayor’s report
Coun. Salton said she had a quiet month in Feburary, but had been to three schools to work with the children and teachers.
7 Deputy leader’s report
Coun East gave a report on the Darwen Deal which is very much in its infancy and has just appointed its members from all walks of local life. Minutes of the meeting are available on the town council’s new website www.darwen-council.co.uk and via social media. Coun. East to arrange for them to be placed in the library and Coun. Connor, on the council noticeboard. A new noticeboard is needed, Coun. Connor to price up.
Coun. East said Tony Kirkham from Kew Gardens is to be approached to see if they will donate an English oak tree and for him to plant in the town centre square, subject to permission from the borough council. The borough council does not want more trees in parks now, but Coun. Browne said this was wrong and 200 trees should be planted, not just one, to help with climate change. Coun. East to discuss with BWD.
8. Darwen Football Heritage Trail
Mr T Foster gave details about a new series on Netflix on March 20th about the English Game and Darwen’s important role in the introduction of football. He said the heritage centre has created a football trail and app for people to follow and they hope to recreate an old vs young football match. He said visitors to the heritage centre were complaining they could not find the way up to Darwen Tower and tourist maps in the town are out of date. It was agreed action by BWD is needed to rectify the problems and the town council will publicise the trail map via the council website and fund leaflets.. Coun. Smith said streets in Darwen had been named after footballers and he hoped more footballers would be remembered in this way.
9 Finance
Authorised payments:
£685.77 – Rebecca Hay, salary and expenses for clerk.
£80.83 – LCC – clerk’s pension contribution.
£2,500 – Darwen Cricket Club grant.
£2,500 – AFC Darwen grant.
£880.89 – Darwen Healthcare – healthy eating day grant.
£526 – Find Me A Business – website re design and maintenance for 12 months.
£420 – Rebecca Hay – 12 months admin for the website.
£500 – Tom Hingley – Darwen Live band deposit.
£480 – Loco Talent – Darwen Live band deposit.
£300 – The Mojo Hobo – Darwen Live band deposit.
£5,400 – The Magnificent Agency – Darwen Live band deposit.
Coun. Salton asked if Darwen Live is cancelled due to the coronavirus, the council will be refunded for deposits. The events committee will find out from the event organiser, before cheques are posted off.
The clerk and Coun. Connor are working on the renewal of the town council insurance. A bank mandate was agreed to allow authorisation for an e savings account which will cut down on bank charges and allow for Internet Banking. Authorisation and payment will still only be allowed at meetings and no cash or cheques will be allowed.
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10 Correspondence
Clerk’s Direct was passed to Coun. Connor. A full report on the activities of AFC Darwen, using last year’s grant, were circulated.
BWD Chief Executive Denise Park had sent in a comprehensive reply regarding election financing and ward structure. The clerk to circulate to councillors.
11 Updates
The town crier is to attend celebrations of 125 years of Sunnyhurst Woods. A request for funding under £1,000 to repair an unsafe wall at the waterfall at Bold Venture Park was agreed by the parks committee.
Coun. Connor is working with BWD on events and hopes to remove some and refresh and encourage the younger sector of society to become involved. .Coun. Taylor suggested bringing back the youth festival.
A meeting of the Crown Awards is on April 1st.
Coun. Slater thanked Coun. Taylor for the healthy eating event, which was well received in the town.
Coun. East has sourced funding for the extra litter pickers for children for the Keep Darwen Tidy group.
12 Any other business
None.
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14 Date of next meeting.
April 7th, 7 p.m. Agenda items to be with the clerk by March 30th please.. May AGM and meeting will be on May 12th to allow for the town council elections.
