LITTON CHENEY PARISH COUNCIL

A Virtual Meeting of the Litton Cheney Parish Council will be held
on Tuesday 12 January 2021 at 7.30 pm

In line with Government advice, Parish Council meetings will be held virtually for the foreseeable future.  Virtual meetings are open to members of the public and we hope that you will join us. You can listen to the debate and, if you wish, raise issues or ask questions during ‘Democratic time’. It would help us to administer the meeting if you let us know in advance that you intend to join us, especially if you wish to speak.  Please email littoncheney@dorset-aptc.gov.uk or phone 01308 281561.

Details of how to join the meeting are given below but, if you have any questions, please contact Maggie Walsh, Parish Clerk on 01308 281561 no later than 15 minutes before the meeting is due to start. 

The meeting can be accessed online* at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87942516648

1. Apologies for absence

2. Declarations of interest

3. Co-option of Parish Councillor – proposal to co-opt Quentin Blacke to the Parish Council

4. Democratic time

5. Approval of minutes of virtual parish council meeting held on 10 November 2020

6. Matters arising since previous meeting not part of this Agenda

7. Dorset Council overview Cllr Mark Roberts (Ward Councillor for Chesil Bank)

8. Should the Parish Council pay for the provision, installation and emptying of additional communal litter bins (costs would be approximately £250 to supply and install and £265 to empty once per week per additional bin).

9. Finance Report and approval of invoices (appended to this agenda)

· Proposal to agree Precept for 2021-22 (report appended to this agenda)

· Review of reserves and approval of draft reserves policy

10. Councillors Portfolios: Footpaths/Rights of Way/Policies/Annual Report (Chairman); Highways/Transport (Mr A Price); Playground/ Field/Allotments (Mr A. King); Agricultural Liaison (Mrs A. Spurrier); Village Fabric/ Maintenance/DAPTC/BLAP (Mr J. Firrell); Climate Change (Mrs D Maston).  Including

· Update on speed limits within the village

· Update on playing field maintenance

· Update on tree planting in the village

· Update on developments at Ford Farm/Parks Farm

10.  Planning matters including update on current applications and recent decisions. No new applications at the time of publishing the agenda.

11.  Correspondence not dealt with as part of agenda

12.  Date of next meeting – Tuesday 9 March 2021

13.  Meeting closed

Maggie Walsh, Parish Clerk

*To join the meeting

1)      Click on or go to the link above

2)      Box appears – ‘do you want to allow downloads on Zoom’ – click Allow

3)      Another box – ‘install – Zoom would like to access files in your DOWNLOAD folder’ – Click OK – Do not be alarmed at this as all platforms need to access the download folder to enable the programme to run

4)      A box will appear saying ‘Join Meeting’ - Click to join

5)      If required, enter meeting ID

7)      Click Join and this should take you to the meeting

8)      Please allow 5-10 mins before the start time to ensure that the meeting can begin on time

If you wish to join the meeting via an I-Phone, I-Pad or Android, you will first need to download the Zoom App.  It is possible to join the meeting by telephone for audio only.  To do this dial one of the following numbers and follow the instructions.

+44 203 481 5237; +44 203 481 5240; +44 203 901 7895; +44 131 460 1196; +44 203 051 2874

Meeting ID: 879 4251 6648

Finance report as at 30 December 2020

Parish funds	Total
Balance brought forward as at 1 April	£13,387.61
Income to date	£13,133.89
Expenditure to date	£7,852.03
Parish funds as at above date	£18,669.47
Year end forecast
Forecast available income for 2020-21 including VAT	£13,106
Forecast expenditure for  2020-21 including VAT	£10,520
Annual contribution to name reserves	£1,200
Forecast year end surplus (+) or deficit (-)	£1,386
Approved spend since last meeting
Clerk's salary and back pay to 1 April	£594.72
Grass cutting	£1,051.78
Donation towards upkeep of Churchyard	£500.00
12th edition of Local Council Administration	£127.14
Nicholas Lunn for stonework at The Rocks	£86.00
Clerk's expenses and refund of 2 month's Zoom licence	£43.80
Payment to BT for adoption of phone box	£1.00
	£2,404.44
Income since last meeting
Donation from Litton Cheney Trust for restoration and reinstallation of turnstiles	£2,043.04
LATCH contribution to hedge cutting	£65.00
Interest	£0.04
	£2,108.08
Invoices for approval
R Randall Restoration and reinstallation of turnstiles (funded by donation above)*	£2,451.65
R Sorrell for hedge cutting (shared with LATCH)*	£156.00
Reimburse Clerk for Zoom licence for 14 December – 13 January	£14.39
	£,2622.04
*NB both of these invoices have already been with approval obtained via email

Litton Cheney Parish Council 2020-2021 Precept Report 12 January 2021

Summary and Recommendation

The RFO anticipates that increased costs in some areas during 2021-22 will be matched by savings elsewhere.  Reserves are healthy and the proposed precept includes provision for appropriate contributions going forwards.

The Precept has remained unchanged at £10,600 for the last 3 years and could be reduced to £10,400 for 2021-22 subject to the PC’s decision on item 8 of the agenda. Increases in subsequent years seem likely however.

Based on current commitments, the Parish Clerk and Responsible Finance Officer (RFO) recommends that the PRECEPT be set at £10,400  for 2020-2021 plus an additional £250 for each additional communal litter bin the PC may wish to provide.

Detailed consideration – review of income and payments

Table 1 below sets out actual outturn for last year, budgets and estimated outturn for the current year, and forecast budgets for next year.  VAT is excluded from projections as the Parish Council can reclaim this.

In preparing these figures, the RFO included anticipated inflationary increases, some estimated and some known.  However, the existing lengthsman’s contract is due to end in March and maintenance costs have generally been lower than anticipated and/or mitigated by donations from The Litton Cheney Trust (for which the PC is most grateful). 

Table 1	2019-20 actual	2020/21 budget	2020- 2021 estimated	2021-22 estimated	2022-23 estimated	2023-24 estimated
Income
Precept & grant	£10,600	£10,600	£10,600	£10,400	£10,700	£11,000
Allotment fees	£95	£85	£95	£95	£95	£95
misc income (donation from Litton Cheney Trust)
VAT	£655
Total income	£11,350	£10,685	£10,695	£10,495	£10,795	£11,095
Payments
Employee costs	£3,480	£3,600	£3,569	£3,611	£3,755	£3,830
ROOM HIRE/zoom fees	£54	£70	£116	£54	£72	£72
ADMIN (see next tab for breakdown)	£804	£830	£834	£821	£982	£1,100
Village fabric	£2,137	£4,000	£2,567	£3,455	£3,474	£3,541
donations/grants	£725	£1,000	£725	£1,000	£1,000	£1,000
VAT	£303
Total Payments	£7,503	£9,500	£7,811	£8,941	£9,283	£9,543
Balance of Income over payments	£1,850	£1,185	£2,884	£1,554	£1,512	£1,552
Annual contribution to ringfenced reserves	£1,200	£1,200	£1,200	£1,550	£1,500	£1,500
Surplus of income after contribution to reserves	£650	-£15	£1,684	£4	£12	£52

It should be noted that, whilst savings are expected to cancel out increases in costs next year, it is likely that the precept will need to increase in subsequent years, once the existing three-year Insurance agreement ends.

Review of Reserves

Reserves are held to cushion the impact of uneven cash flow or irregular/unexpected events. Contributions to reserves are calculated based on past experience, life span of assets and estimated replacement costs. 

Going forward, reserve balances are healthy, with appropriate annual contributions to named reserves, apart from the Playground reserve.  Whilst the playground was recently refurbished and most of the play equipment still has many years life expectancy, given the cost of replacement equipment, the RFO recommends increasing the annual contribution from £400 to £750.  It is possible that, in future years, it may be possible to reduce or freeze contributions to some reserves.

Contributions to reserves are undertaken at the year end, when the year end outturn is known.  Table 2 below shows the existing level of reserves, the estimated level at the end of the current financial year and the RFO’s recommended contribution for 2021/22.

	2019/20	estimated 2020/21		Proposed 2021/22
TABLE 2	Balance	Contribution	Balance	Contribution	Balance
Year end balance of funds held	£13,388		£16,388
Reserves C/F split as follows
General funds	£8,388		£10,088
Earmarked reserves
Local government reorganisation/devolution	£2,000	£0	£2,000	£0	£2,000
Playground equipment	£600	£400	£1,000	£750	£1,750
Village fabric/maintenance	£1,000	£400	£1,400	£400	£1,800
Equipment (e.g. Defibrillator, I.T.)	£900	£200	£1,100	£200	£1,300
Election costs	£500	£200	£700	£200	£900
Total contribution to earmarked reserves		£1,200		£1,550
Ring-fenced reserves
Playground	£100	£0	£100	£100	£100

Impact of precept on Band D properties

The tax base for Litton Cheney will reduce slightly for 2021-22.  At the current precept level, this would increase the payment for a Band D house by .47p from the current level of £50.94 to £51.41 per annum.  Anticipated savings during 2021-22 mean however that the Precept could reduce to £10,400 or £50.44 per annum for a Band D house. 

However, should the PC decide to purchase additional communal litter bins, whilst supply and installation could be covered from existing reserves or revenue budgets, the precept would need to increase above £10,400 by £250 per additional bin to pay for it to be emptied once a week. Each additional bin would equate to an increase of £1.21 per band D house per annum.