Page 14 - Phonebox Magazine June 2013

OLNEY
must be used, meaning that each item is
listed with its purchase cost, these not MERCURY being depreciated over time. Peter Geary and Joe Stacey felt that it’d be helpful to also include each item’s replacement value. Tony Evans brought the ensuing debate to a close, stating that “We have to accept that these figures are absolutely meaningless”,
Peter cited the £45,000 Age UK management figure, questioning why OTC had backed Age UK quoting this amount when the spend would not be necessary if MKC ran the service. He also stated that the credibility of OTC had taken a nosedive, due to it presenting flawed figures, thus succeeding in uniting the MKC parties round the table to an extent rarely achieved, with the vote being eight to one against calling in the decision – there was no case to answer. He noted that OTC would shortly be asking MKC Officers to expand the Kitchener Centre, ‘within weeks of effectively calling the same Officers liars’.
Tony Evans had heard enough. Forcefully disagreeing with Peter, he said that the first meeting had been ‘a farce’, that MKC had its figures incorrect and that if Peter didn’t like OTC, he should ‘get off it’.
Steve Clark called the discussion to a halt. Note that, if you’re wondering why Debbie didn’t express her views, she was absent from this meeting.
Mercury thanks Steve Clark, Jeremy Rawlings and Peter Geary for background on this issue.
Naval Cadet Corps
A while ago, the Naval Cadet Corps had identified a derelict building near the Emberton Park cafe and, with permission, started repairing it to make it suitable for use as the centre for a new Olney based Cadet Group. The Corps aims to start the new group soon, accepting children from eight to eighteen years living in Olney and the surrounding villages.
The work thus far has been paid for by the Corps, and thus money is very tight. In order to help complete this work, the Corps are now seeking a £4,500 grant from OTC. Councillors were generally sympathetic to the request but required more information in order to make a decision. So, a Corps representative will be invited to the next meeting.
Speed Indicator Display units
Speed Indicator Display units (SIDs) are the live vehicle speed indication devices you sometimes see on lampposts. Behind the scenes, they also note recorded speeds and times, the resulting data often proving useful to analyse traffic patterns and general driver behaviour.
Due to a recruitment freeze in MKC’s road safety team, and MKC’s SIDs needing replacement, it’s inviting Town Councils to either purchase their own SIDs or to participate in a loan and operate scheme, where they’d borrow the SIDs and be trained to deploy and operate the units themselves. The Council liked the loan and operate scheme, and will tell MKC it would like to participate.
Private and confidential?
At the end of most OTC meetings, Councillors vote ‘to consider exclusion of Public and Press Representatives pursuant to the Public Bodies (admission to meetings)
REPORT
and “move on”.
Public participation
In this slot, Brian Rice spoke about parking in Oakdown Crescent. First, some background on this issue: In last month’s meeting, Councillors rejected the option of a new road through the Pyghtle, reluctant to relinquish the land and believing that Milton Keynes Council (MKC) wouldn’t finance the £250,000 projected ballpark cost. Instead, they unanimously agreed that the best solution would be to provide parking spaces on the retained garden of 102 Weston Road. They also discussed to what extent the lack of a previously existing fence, now allowing access from Oakdown Crescent to the back of the properties 70 – 92 Weston Road, was affecting the parking problem.
Brian made a number of points. He stated that the agreed solution would provide parking for only around six cars, when around double that was needed. He also felt that the projected cost of the new road was far too high, around £80,000 being realistic which, as it happens, is remarkably close to the ballpark cost of the agreed solution. Finally, Brian felt that the fence referred to had never existed, so access had always been available. John Sharp disagreed, saying there’d not always been access. A 1945 picture of the area, courtesy of Google Earth, appears to show that there was access at that time, though that in itself implies nothing about the situation when Oakdown Crescent was built. Mercury thanks Liam Costello for background information on this point.
Annual elections and appointments
The Mayor and Deputy Mayor were elected, this time round Steve Clark and Jeremy Rawlings being re-elected to their respective roles. Committee Chairs and members were appointed, almost completely unchanged from last year.
Usually, Standing Orders are formally adopted with little change but, this time, adoption was postponed pending change and review. Specifically, Deidre Bethune wanted to make them less gender-specific (i.e. male) and, following a debate started by Joe Stacey, there was general discussion about whether or not Committees should provide reports to full Council meetings. This latter point meant that the Council will review the Scheme of Delegation to Committees and Staff.
Inventory review
Always an interesting topic, Councillors reviewed Olney Town Council’s (OTC’s) inventory of land and assets. Council regulations state that fixed cost accounting 14 Phonebox Magazine
The Kitchener Centre
This has become a contentious topic, with enough background information and vociferous disagreement to fill an article on its own. To fit the most into the space available, and try to keep it interesting, this is a mix of what occurred in the meeting and the background to it.
provides day care in Olney. As reported last month, the contract to manage the Centre had been out for competitive tender, and the bid process had completed with ten expressions of interest but only one bid, from the incumbent provider, Age UK. That bid was rejected because it was around £100,000 more than the price for which MKC believed it could manage the Centre in-house. So, that’s what it decided to do. OTC disagreed with this decision, so voted by majority to call it in. As a result, two meetings on this topic took place between OTC and MKC.
The first meeting was adjourned after some delay. Steve Clark attended, and believes the delay was due to evidence, thought to be from MKC Officers, having been submitted late to the members of the panel, allowing too little time for proper consideration. Peter Geary believes it was due to there being insufficient supporting information for the committee to reach a conclusion.
Jeremy Rawlings attended the second meeting. He’d presented the Council’s case that MKC’s decision to manage the Kitchener Centre in-house should be called in. Debbie Brock, MKC Councillor and OTC Ward Councillor, had then presented the opposing case. Both presentations had been ‘robust’.
Jeremy noted that the Officers who were justifying MKC’s costs said that various management items, for example human resources, payroll and training, could be absorbed by Council departments with no impact on their budgets and thus not appear in MKC’s contract price. The cost quoted by Age UK for these items was £45,000, and Jeremy felt that ‘absorbing’ such significant and real cost was impossible for a smaller organisation such as Age UK. A vote was taken, OTC lost, so the decision stands: MKC will manage the Kitchener Centre. Peter Geary, also MKC Councillor and OTC Ward Councillor, replied with his view. Peter felt that OTC needed to understand what it had agreed to when it decided to present its case to call in the decision: It delayed the process, which resulted in MKC having to extend care provision using the current providers at both the Kitchener Centre and the Bletchley day care site, thus putting care at risk if either provider had refused this extension.