BRITWELL PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of Full Parish Meeting – Wednesday, 24th April 2013
Present:
Chairman: Cllr P Shine
Cllrs: P Murphy, J Kehoe, S Wright, Janice Finn, John Finn, A Tilbury, D
Marks, O Isernia and P Granfield
Also Present: Clerk & RFO: L. Booker
PC Andy Moore, Neighbourhood Police,
R Palacio, Neighbourhood Enforcement Officer, SBC
Public Attendance:
16 members of the Public present.
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE:
Cllr Coombe and Cllr Lees
Andrew Stevens SBC
DISCLOSURES OF INTEREST:
Cllr Wright item 6
The Chairman produced a model copy of standing orders which he stated that he had
downloaded from the Britwell Parish Council Website. These standing orders stated that
the Chairman could change the order of the agenda without notice and then proceeded to
bring item 15 Public Question Time to item 1. The Clerk said that the standing orders
were a model copy and showed the Chairman the actual Britwell Parish Council standing
orders that were reviewed and adopted in November 2011. The Chairman stated that the
copy that he had were downloaded from the Clerks website and if she was too lazy to
change the heading to Britwell Parish Council then that was her lookout. He stated that he
did not have the standing orders that the Clerk had, to which she replied that they were
given out every year prior to the Annual Meeting of the Parish Council. The Chairman
ignored the Clerk and carried on with proceedings.
PC/12/159: PUBLIC QUESTION TIME:
Mrs Yvonne Roles - Britwell Drama Group.
Mrs Roles said that she had been involved by attendance at various meetings with
regeneration and the new Britwell Centre. She was dismayed to see that her Drama
Group has been listed on a recently published Community Activity Programme for
the Britwell Centre. Mrs Roles explained that she had been in talks with SBC about
the Drama Group moving to the Centre as she would like to encourage more
youngsters to the group and the Centre has a bigger stage than the Community Centre
and would enable her to achieve this. The only obstacle to this is the cost at the Centre
and she is in the process of obtaining grants. If successful then the Drama Group
would move to the Britwell Centre.
Mrs Roles apologised that this publication has been circulated before she had a
chance to inform the Parish Council herself of her plans.
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Cllr Murphy stated that some had already had sight of the leaflet and were dismayed
that nothing had been said about the move. She doesn't blame Mrs Roles for this.
Mrs Roles replied that nothing underhand had been intended and she has spoken with
Barbara Poulter about her feelings on this issue.
Cllr Shine stated that this had been semi expected over the last few months and
thanked Mrs Roles for letting the Council know.
----------------------------------------------------Mrs Yvonne Shine asked why Cllr Wright was so interested in Bingo receipts.
Cllr Wright said that he had been approached by members of the public and was
asked who runs the Bingo on Thursday evenings, how does it run and what happens
to the money. He had informed them that it was the Parish Council who run the Bingo
and proceeds from the weekly raffle were saved until the end of the year when the
money is spent on large bingo prizes to be given out alongside the usual monetary
winnings at Christmas. Receipts for the weekly raffle were kept to prove what was
spent on prizes. When he had asked the Clerk about the receipts, she had informed
him that none had been given to her.
Mrs Shine then stated that she had been accused of lying and stealing money. She had
never been given a £30 float for the prizes and she had given the Clerk receipts for the
Christmas 2011 prizes and she had lost them.
The Clerk replied that she had not lost them, she had never been given them, and the
£30 had been given to Cllr Shine, not herself.
Cllr Wright stated that nobody had ever called her or Cllr Shine a liar and nobody has
accused either of them of stealing.
A member of the public said that they could not understand what the problem was, the
Clerk had just admitted to losing the receipts.
The Clerk said that she had not admitted this, she had said that they were never given
to her.
Cllr Shine said that he uses his own money for the raffle prizes, therefore any profit
was his and he chose to donate this to the Christmas Raffle and gave the Clerk the
profits to hold for him.
Cllr Janice Finn said that it was Parish money and if you take £35 out of the proceeds
then receipts should be put in place of it.
Mrs Shine said that when Bill Thorp gave up the Bingo, no other Councillors were
interested in it. She had been asked by the people in the Bingo to help out. If the
Council is not satisfied, then why don't some of you do it?
Cllr Murphy stated that it was not because of lack of interest, it was because nobody
else is available.
A member of the public said that numbers attending Bingo were deteriorating, can it
be advertised.
--------------------------------------------------------------A member of the public informed the Council that they had been overcharged in the
bar.
Cllr Shine said that the Clerk and Centre Manager would look into this and reimburse
the customer if it was found that they had been overcharged.
A member of the public asked what happened if the bar till was short.
The Clerk replied that the Centre Manager had to make up any shortfall.
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-----------------------------------------------------------A member of the public asked how the bar losses of 2011/2012 were covered.
Councillors explained that much of the loss was due to a loan being repaid and the
refurbishment of the bar toilets. The rest was covered by the Council income of precept
and hall users.
The member of the public asked for an explanation of what the precept actually was as
she did not fully understand it.
An explanation was duly given by the Chairman.
The member of the public then asked why residents are not kept informed of how the
precept is being spent every month or of what is happening at the Community Centre.
Cllr Tilbury said that a newsletter had been discussed and he believed nothing was done
because funds were not available. Cllr Murphy stated that a newsletter had been agreed
in a previous meeting but so far nothing has been done about it.
Cllr Shine stated that this was nothing new, the Council speak about things and then
nothing is done.
Cllr Tilbury said that this is no excuse, every other Parish Council publishes a newsletter.
Mrs Roles stated that the accounts are in the public domain and should be displayed on
the Parish notice board. If they are just put on the Community Centre notice board it is
only the users that will see it. This would not reach most residents.
A member of the public requested that the accounts be prepared in plain English, unless
you are an accountant you cannot understand the way it is prepared at the moment.
They also stated that they would be more inclined to use the Community Centre if they
were kept informed of events.
Cllr Murphy said that the keys to the notice board were in the possession of Cllr Shine
and he has only just returned them to the Council about a month ago. The Parish notice
board can now be kept up to date.
As proceedings were getting to be quite heated, PC Andy Moore attempted to calm things
down by stating that wherever you live, you have to pay a Council Tax. There seems to be
a lot of mistrust here. Views need to be changed and the tax should be used in the proper
way. Residents pay their precept in good faith, in turn the Council use the money in good
faith. Old Windsor publish their accounts only once per year where every item is
explained.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------A member of the public asked what the Councils grievance procedure was.
Cllr Tilbury said that in the past complaints went to the Clerk. There is now an Executive
Committee who changed this to all complaints no longer go to the Clerk, they go straight
to the Executive Committee, they had no right to do this.
Cllr Shine said that a grievance had been brought against him for harassment and went
on to explain how the grievance procedure had been handled incorrectly and informed the
public of every step taken throughout the procedure and how he felt about it.
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Mrs Roles said that she had not attended a Parish meeting for a long time. She is
dismayed with all of the talk going around about the Council being abolished.
She feels that the Parish Council does have a platform and can do a good job.
She went on to say that there are a lot of petty issues here, Cllr Shine has not said
anything structural he has just been talking personally and described his
grievance which has no relevance to this meeting.
A member of the public stood to ask questions of the Clerk. Cllr Murphy asked if she
was a local resident. She replied that she was from Westminster and was here on
behalf of her brother, Cllr Shine and his wife. She had a letter to read out on their
behalf as Mrs Shine is too upset to read it out herself. She said that there was nothing
wrong with her brother, he is not unwell. The Clerk requested a copy of the letter
which the lady agreed to.
A copy of the letter was not given to the Clerk.
After the letter was read, a member of the public said that there seemed to be a lot of
personal things going on. Day in, day out it there are things said about the bar staff,
Centre manager and the Clerk.
Cllr Shine stated that this all started in November last year and when on to explain
about a drugs issue that has been discussed at previous Council meetings.
Cllr Murphy stated that the Council had tried to resolve this issue. She said to Cllr
Shine that he was going round and round over old ground, this is not questions for the
public.
Cllr Shine insisted on continuing with the same subject and said that he had never
received a letter of apology and he and his wife had been accused of lying.
Cllr Wright stated that no one has ever called Cllr or Mrs Shine a liar.
Cllr Murphy requested that we move on.
A member of the public asked why the Centre managers job had not been advertised.
The Clerk replied that the Centre Manager vacancy had been advertised in the Slough
Express and Observer on both occasions that the vacancy had arisen. Once in
September 2010 and once in July or August 2011.
Cllr Marks said that she was a fairly new Councillor and came onto the Council
because she wanted to make a difference. I sit here month after month listening to the
Clerk being ripped to pieces, being called lazy and a liar. I struggle to understand why
people want to start on her, she has dealt with issues adequately. The Clerk is being
bullied.
Proceedings became very heated and the Chairman was requested to stop the meeting.
The Chairman continued to allow the arguments and accusations to carry on.
Cllr John Finn, Cllr Murphy and the Clerk left the meeting at 8.30pm.
As the Clerk was no longer present, the Chairman closed the meeting.
I certify that these minutes are a true record of the meeting of Britwell Parish Council and
were adopted on …………………………………................
………………… ………………………….......................... Chair Britwell Parish Council
Britwell Parish Council Meeting
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Britwell Parish Council Meeting
135
24th April 2013