May 24th 2022 Meeting Minutes

May 24th 2022 Meeting Minutes

MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD IN DARWEN TOWN HALL, ON TUESDAY, MAY 24TH,  2022

 

 

Present: Couns. J East, K. Connor, D. Smith, B. Taylor, P Browne, S. Brookfield, N. Slater, L Salton, M. Davies and J. Hamer.

1.Welcome and introduction:. Newly elected Mayor, Coun S. Brookfield welcomed the council and thanked outgoing Mayor, Coun. L Salton and deputy leader, Coun J East for their hard work during their tenure.

 

  1. Apologies

 

 Couns. Entwistle and Walker.

3.Declaration of interests :

None.

4 Minutes of the last meeting:

These were agreed, with the correction to present: Coun N Slater attended.

4.1 Scroll of Honour

The scroll of honour has now been updated to include Tony Harrison’s name and Coun. Connor had placed information re the charity on the website.

4.2 Council chamber

 

Coun Smith is liasing with BWD over repairs to the Darwen Town Hall council chamber.

  1. Public Forum

Mr Tony Foster from Darwen Heritage Centre gave details of new exhibitions at the centre including one on music from 1880 to 1980. Coun Taylor suggested an audio was made of Darreners as the dialect is dying out.

Concern was expressed re the need for structural repairs to the toilets at the Lions Memorial. Coun. Smith to investigate.

Mr Gary Perkins gave details of a successful food festival which had been well supported Plans are in hand for future events and it was agreed Mr Perkins would meet with the events committee to discuss.

6 Mayors update

The outgoing Mayor, Coun Salton gave details of her final engagements.

Coun Brookfield said her charity would benefit dementia care in Darwen. It was suggested a collection is made at Darwen Live. Coun. Brookfield to arrange.

  1. Deputy leaders report

Coun East to make arrangements to pass over keys for the noticeboard etc to Coun. Connor. It was agreed Coun Connor will now act as the council representative on the Darwen Deal board. The council tent is to be looked at by an expert to see if it is feasible to keep. Coun East asked for the new police inspector and sergeant to attend a future meeting. He said the food larder will need more financial support. Details re the Queen’s jubilee beacon were also given.

  1. Finance

.

In:

£61,000 – first instalment of precept.

£5,248.63 – VAT return.

Payments:

£754  for R Hay for salary and expenses.

£112.71 – R Hay pension

£40 – Information Commissioner for data protection.

£390 – J. Barritt, internal audit.

£7,132 – Crafty Vintage Ltd for Darwen Day.

£1,368 – Sunshine Events for fun fair on Darwen Day.

£1,100 – donations of £100 to 11 schools for jubilee events.

£3,180 – Precious Metals for work on Mayor’s medals.

£2,700 – Friends of Bold Venture Park grant.

The internal audit had been completed with no issues raised. The audit forms were agreed and signed. It was also agreed to add Coun Taylor to the Credit Union and Barclays Bank accounts.

An invitation to join the LALC was turned down.

It was agreed that the council agree on legacies for the town. Coun Taylor suggested the lighting up of the town hall and an electronic noticeboard to publicise the town council minutes and events. Other suggestions included the lighting up of Darwen Tower. Coun. Browne said all ideas are to be subject to costs and budgets available.

Following discussions with BWD, a new invoice for the elections is to be issued. Coun Connor has asked MP Jake Berry to discuss election costs with the Cabinet Office and come up with a firm resolution on costs which local authorities can agree on.

Councillors to visit 11 local schools to hand over a jubilee donation of £100 to each.

9  Correspondence

None.

10 Updates

 

Coun Davies gave an update on the community bonfire and said the cricket club is looking for a new firm or date for the bonfire due to increasing costs on November 5th. He is to invite the town crier to council events.

Coun. Connor gave an update on Darwen Day.

Coun. Brookfield gave details of a grant application by The Friends of Bold Venture Park for £2,700 towards work which needs to be done to combat overgrown shrubs. These are to be replaced by low growing shrubs through a community planting scheme. The grant was approved. Coun Taylor said there had been a suicide in the park and the borough council were looking at ways to try and combat future attempts.

Coun East gave details of three town awards, these are to be decided on and brought back to the June meeting for ratification.

Coun. Connor said the flags are to be put up for jubilee weekend. Coun. Browne asked that the firm doing the work ensures that its public liability is appropriate.

  1. Any other business

None.

12 Part 2 press and public excluded

 

None.

  1. Date of next meeting

June 7th ,  Darwen Town Hall, 7 p.m.

Author: Rebecca Hay