STRATFORD-UPON-AVON TOWN COUNCIL
GENERAL PURPOSES COMMITTEE MEETING
5 APRIL, 2011
TOWN CLERK’S OPEN REPORT
1)
Street Furniture and Amenities
Consideration of additional street furniture and amenities is
considered by the Lead Ward Members on a biannual basis.
At the Lead Ward Members Meeting on 8 March, 2011 all
requests for streets furniture, already entered onto the Town
Council’s amenities website and substantiated by Town
Council survey evidence, were considered by members.
Unless a survey has been undertaken by Council, requests
cannot progress through the system.
Amenity requests
substantiated by surveys conducted by local organisations or
village associations are still subject to the Town Council survey.
Members recommended that requests for four grit bins and three
litter bins (as set out below) should be considered at the next
General Purposes Committee meeting on 5 April, 2011.
Ward/Location
Councillor
Status
Cost of amenity including
installation
Yellow grit bin 400L - £157.00
Taylor
Awaiting a
decision by the
Council
G&H Ward - right hand side of St
John's Close from the corner of
Sanctus Road and to the right of
the electricity box.
Yellow grit bin 400L - £157.00
J Fradgley
Awaiting a
decision by the
Council
MP Ward - bottom of Avonbrook
Close (Cul-de-Sac)
Awaiting a
decision by the
Council
Yellow grit bin 400L - £157.00
Taylor
Grit Bin
MP Ward - on the grassy triangle
where Heather Close, Sidelands
Road and Bishopton Close
converge
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Green grit bin
400L = £205.00
Green grit bin 400L - £205.00
Green grit bin
400L = £205.00
MP Ward - Tollgate Close
Taylor
Awaiting a
decision by the
Council
J Fradgley
Awaiting a
decision by the
Council
Yellow grit bin 400L = £157.00
Green grit bin
400L = £205.00
Litter Bin
G&H Ward - 2 appropriate bins
(circular with slatted wooden
surround placed in the
Churchyard & 1 litter bin on the
public footpath by the West Door
entrance.
£287.00 x 2
£270.00
emptying £ 90.00 p/a
Grit bins yellow
£628.00
Grit bins green
£820.00
Litter Bin
£270.00
Emptying p/a
£ 90.00
Circular Litter Bins £574.00
Total (yellow)
£1,562.00
Total (green)
£1,754.00
Total Cost
The Lead Ward Members approved installation of green grit bins
with an aim to eventually replace all yellow bins with green grit
bins, which is thought to be more aesthetically pleasing.
However, at that time, they were not aware of the differential in
price between the bins amounting to £48.00 per bin.
In future the amenities requests will be submitted to General
Purposes at its March meeting in order to take advantage of any
residue in the old budget. There was £1,517 remaining in the
amenities budget for 2010/2012 which, due to the year end,
cannot be used to offset against these requests. However, it will,
of course, go into general reserves.
Please note that with immediate effect, Stratford-on-Avon District
Council will charge an emptying fee of £90.00 per item for any
additional bins that are installed at the instigation of Stratfordupon-Avon Town Council. Bins that are already in situ will be
emptied at no cost to the Town Council but if a bin is damaged
and needs replacing, the Town Council will be charged for the
cost of re-installation.
2)
Town Hall Tariff - Chair Covers
During the General Purposes Committee Meeting of 11 January,
2011
members
considered
and
provided
guidance
recommendations with regard to the Town Hall Tariff review.
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Members fully concurred with the ethos of maximising its
commercial rental revenue, particularly income from weddings.
It was suggested that the ‘wedding package’ should encompass
accoutrements such as a cake stand, red carpet, chair covers, to
name but a few.
Councillor Short arranged for chair cover samples and sashes to
be made available for the General Purposes Committee to view
Sample (A). A further sample has also been obtained from the
internet – Sample (B). Costs are as follows:
(A)
(B)
1 x cover and sash = £27.00 x 200 chairs = £5,400
1 x cover and sash = £ 6.00 x 200 chairs = £1,200
If Council were to purchase and then hire out the covers, they
would pay for themselves at the following points of hire:
100 covers hired out at £5.00 per cover =
10.8 weddings will return initial outlay of £5,400
100 covers hired out at £5.00 per cover =
2.4 weddings will return initial outlay of £1,200
However, having undertaken further research on the internet, it
would appear that similar chair covers from leading internet
suppliers costs from as little as £1.49 per cover, with organza
sashes from 75p. The quality cannot be determined because
this sample has yet to be obtained.
There are two distinct ways of looking at increasing the package
that the Town Council provides.
1)
Providing all the ‘little extras’ increases the desirability of
the ‘package’ and can arguably justify an increase in
price.
2)
Conversely, the Town Council is not and never has
purported to be wedding specialists. It purely hires out
space in which an event, such as a wedding, can take
place.
3)
Everything else, with the exception of tables, chairs and
tablecloths, is the responsibility of those hiring the space.
The Town Council has little or no further involvement.
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4)
The simplicity of having no responsibility for the ‘niceties’
makes hiring the Hall relatively straightforward to handle
by the one part time member of staff.
5)
The Town Hall Housekeeper has expressed ‘reservations’
with regards to extending the ‘package’, particularly with
regard to storage and laundry.
6)
If Council were to purchase chair covers to be
subsequently hired, storage would definitely become an
issue and the covers would also have to be laundered. A
cover has been sent to the Council’s laundry service to
obtain an accurate quotation, which at the time of writing,
is still awaited.
However, having discussed the
requirement over the telephone, the Housekeeper
advises that the covers will have to be hand finished.
Tablecloths involving no hand service cost £5.00 per
cloth to launder. It is reasonable, therefore, to anticipate at
least £8.00 per chair cover, possibly more.
7)
If Council considers that offering chair cover facilities
would be worthwhile, the analytical mind of the Finance
Officer may have come up with an acceptable
compromise:
Why not obtain the chair covers from the internet on
behalf of the client, adding a premium of, say, £2.00 a
chair cover and sash?
This would dispense of the storage and laundry problem,
and would increase the Town Hall Booking Clerk’s work
only marginally.
To reiterate the statement at the beginning of the report, at this
stage it is only guidance that is being sought with regard to the
Town Hall Tariff review. The exercise will be undertaken by
officers, who will explain the logic behind any recommendations.
The proposal will be brought in full to the Finance & Scrutiny
Committee once completed. At present, the officers are about
half way through the process.
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3)
Application to Support the Stratford-upon-Avon Town Centre
Business Crime Initiatives
The business/retail community in Stratford-upon-Avon is
supported by two crime preventative schemes, Bardwatch and
Stratford Retail Radio Link which are fundamental in ensuring
that the community and visitors can enjoy a safer environment.
Warwickshire Retail Crime Initiative (WRCI) is the police
recognised authority that supplies the crime intelligence
information to the business owners within the town centres.
They manage the meetings and ensure that all the schemes
operate effectively within the law. WRCI also prepares and
distributes the offender packs to the businesses.
WRCI has historically been part funded (70%) by Warwickshire
Police and part joint funded (30%) by the town schemes
operating across the country. However, WRCI will cease to
receive financial support from Warwickshire Police.
All the schemes across the country have been asked to find a
proportion of the £40,000 funding required. Stratford-upon-Avon
has been asked to contribute a further £4,000 beyond and above
its existing contribution of £2,200.
Full details are contained in Mr Jonathan Birkett’s report
attached as Appendix ‘A’. You will note that on page 4 of his
report, Stratforward asks for £4,000 financial support from the
Town Council to underwrite this increase, which will guarantee
the schemes can continue for the foreseeable future.
The Town Council has the power to support crime preventative
initiatives under the Local Government and Rating Act 1997 s31.
Such support would be accredited to the Special Projects and
Grants budget which currently stands at £20,000.
4)
Highway Verge Cutting
Attached as Appendix ‘B’ is the self explanatory letter from
Stratford-on-Avon District Council regarding the reduction in the
highway verge cutting schedule for 2011/2012 and 2012/2013.
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On page two of Mr Austin’s letter, he advises that Stratford-onAvon District Council cannot transfer responsibility for the
existing grounds maintenance contract to parishes. He does
however; advise that a parish may arrange additional cuts by
contacting Veolia directly to make arrangements to pay for
additional cuts to supplement the scheduled cuts shown in the
tables below:
2011/2012
1st cut
2nd cut
3rd cut
4th cut
5th cut
Cutting Scheduled
April
May
June
July/August
September/October
Interval since previous cut
5 – 6 weeks
4 – 5 weeks
4 – 5 weeks
6 weeks
7 – 8 weeks
In 2012/2013 the cutting cycles will not be supplemented by an additional
cut carried over from the previous fiscal year, so the following schedule will
apply:
2012/2013
1st cut
2nd cut
3rd cut
4th cut
5th cut
Cutting Scheduled
March/April
May
June
July/August
September/October
Interval since previous cut
Approximately 24 weeks
6 – 7 weeks
4 – 5 weeks
6 weeks
7 – 8 weeks
Members are requested to note that no provision has been made
in the 2011/2012 budget as this notification was received on 28
March, as opposed to the end of January when notification of the
precept requirement is submitted to Stratford-on-Avon District
Council.
Would members also please note the penultimate paragraph in
the letter – ‘Our current grounds maintenance contract is in place
until March 2013, and over the next year we will be reviewing
how we provide all of our services under this contract as
preparation for a formal re-tender process. As part of this, the
future of Highway verge cutting will remain high on the agenda
for discussion.
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5)
Facing the Challenge – Warwickshire Library & Information
Service Consultation
Members have already received e-mail correspondence relating
to this issue, and many may have already completed the
questionnaire independently.
Although Stratford-upon-Avon Library is not set to close, it will
see a reduction in its opening hours. General Purposes may
well wish, therefore, to complete the questionnaire attached as
Appendix ‘C’ on a collective basis.
Members are requested to note that Warwick Library
Consultation Events are to take place for the Stratford-uponAvon area as follows:
Public Meeting
12/5/2011 7.00pm
Community Forum
Stratford Methodist Church
Old Town
Stratford-upon-Avon
CV37 6BG
6)
River
Festival
Representative
–
Road Show (Drop-in Session)
24/5/2011 11.30am – 2.30pm
Library
Henley Street
Stratford-upon-Avon
CV37 6PZ
Stratford-upon-Avon
Town
Council
The Town Council awarded £5,000 for the River Festival, 2011
and as a consequence, has the opportunity to appoint a Town
Council representative to the Festival Committee.
Members from across the Town Council are eligible to put their
name forward for this position.
Sarah Summers
Town Clerk
5 April, 2011
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