Page 14 - Phonebox July 2013

OLNEY
will give boys and girls from the age of 8 – 18 from
members of OTC as they had no idea that Olney even had a warden or what duties they actually perform. Peter Geary explained that the wardens spent on average half a day per week in their allocated parish and could perform duties such as enforcing dog fouling fines, supporting the police and PCSOs etc. Castlethorpe Parish Council is currently undertaking a trial of directly funding a warden on an hourly basis to enforce a dog control area. Deidre Bethune suggested that OTC might be interested if the Castlethorpe trial actually resulted in some penalty notices being issued. Jeremy Rawlings suggested that OTC request a breakdown of what the wardens have contributed to Olney over the past few months before deciding what to do, which was agreed.
Council protocols
During the meeting there were a number of separate discussions around the way that OTC conducts its business and manages its finances and these are summarised here. During the item concerning the Internal Audit Joe Stacey said that the council did not appear to have proper and adequate control over the spending of sub committees. Tony Evans replied saying that he believed this was not the case. Each subcommittee has devolved authority to spend up to £2k and all expenditure has to be authorised by the full council. Later in the meeting Joe requested that any item that was not resolved at a meeting should be an agenda item at future meetings until it is resolved. He felt that there was a risk of items simply ‘dropping off’ as things stand. Earlier in the meeting he had noted an issue that had not appeared in the official minutes of a previous meeting but had been covered in the Mercury report of the same meeting. Debbie Brock suggested the setting up of an issues register. Joe thought that as a matter of routine all committees should summarise the decisions they have made to the full council. Jeremy Rawlings pointed out that the minutes of all committee meetings are circulated to the full council but Joe felt that this did not give members the chance to ask questions. Liam Costello said that there was a risk that each meeting could end up effectively being held twice. Peter Geary proposed that these issues should be covered in a future debate about the council’s Standing Orders.
Odds and sods
Jeremy Rawlings said that in due course the Youth Club would be up for consideration as a candidate for the Community Asset Transfer scheme. He wondered if the same individual who had shown an interest in the Olney Centre would also be bidding.
Liam Costello reported that High Street South will be closed for resurfacing from 19th to 28th August and during this time all traffic will be diverted along Weston Road and Aspreys.
The new Mayor of Milton Keynes, Brian White, will be in attendance at next month’s meeting to address the council.
And finally...Tony Evans observed that the banks along Driftway were looking good but MKC should be reminded of the requirement for regular mowing if they are to remain that way.
The next meeting will be held at 7.30pm on Monday 1st July in the Council Chamber in the Olney Centre. Members of the public are always welcome to attend and, if they wish, speak at the start of the meeting, or at any point that the mayor decides is appropriate.
Olney and the surrounding villages the chance to MERCURYlearn about and participate in activities such as climbing, sailing and camping. A similar unit at Leighton Buzzard was created a year and a half ago with 5 cadets now has a membership of 40 he said. Deidre Bethune noted that a large amount of the requested grant was to be spent on catering equipment and wondered if this was necessary at the start of the venture. David explained that all of the equipment had to be new and child friendly, due to Health and Safety regs, because it would be used by the cadets as part of their training in seamanship. Jeremy Rawlings proposed that the council award the full amount of £4500 but it was not passed by a majority on the vote. A subsequent vote to award a lesser amount of £3000 was passed with the understanding that the Corps can seek further funding at a later date.
REPORT
Public participation
Samantha Chapman spoke about the cuts to the bus service between Olney and Milton Keynes which have taken place since the beginning of June. Samantha said that as someone who works in Milton Keynes she was a regular user of the late evening bus service, which had now been cut. As a result she was now unable to work late nights and Sundays. She felt that it was unfair to penalise residents of Olney who do not have access to a car, particularly when the majority of shops do not shut until 8.00 pm. This subject was an agenda item later in the meeting so it was agreed to move it to become the first item.
The next person to speak was Bob Blackie from the United Reformed Church. Bob said that the URC would be holding a flower festival on Friday 12th and Saturday 13th July, followed by a service on Sunday 14th. He thanked the council for their generous donation towards the running of the event and invited all councillors to attend.
Cuts to Bus service
As reported last month and discussed in public participation, because of Milton Keynes Council budget cuts, the Number 1 Arriva bus service between Olney and Milton Keynes has been considerably reduced. The last bus leaves Central MK at 19:18 and there are no Arriva buses at all on Sundays. Northampton based Meridian Bus will now be running a new service 101 on Sunday from Lavendon to Central MK, but this is being run as a commercial initiative and is not subsidised by MKC. Deidre Bethune was unhappy that Olney Town Council had not been consulted but recognised that it would not be possible to get all services reinstated. She wondered if it would be possible to get a specific evening bus reinstated. MKC ward councillor Peter Geary said that the council had a £20m revenue challenge and the original proposals had been far worse. One possibility could be provision of a linking bus from Newport Pagnell to the villages, he said, but consideration would need to be given to the likely demand and cost. Tony Evans said he’d had a lot of representation from young people, who are not the sort of people who come to meetings of OTC (and looking round the room, Mercury was inclined to agree!). The cuts had made it difficult for them to get to MK for an evening out, he said. The issue will be raised at the next meeting of the N.E. Area Forum.
Naval Cadet Corps
As reported last month, the Naval Cadet Corps have 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 work thus far has been paid for by the Corps, and in order to complete this work, the Corps is now seeking a £4,500 grant from OTC. Cdr. David Moth was present to explain more about the group and how the money would be spent. David explained that the Corps had now leased the building for a peppercorn rent from MKC and were refurbishing it at no cost to them. The group
Church Hall renovation
The Parochial Church Council are undertaking a major refurbishment of the Church Hall in order for it to be used for a number of community uses, including a memory club for those experiencing memory loss and a youth café. The PCC is seeking a grant of £5000 towards the cost of renewing the floor in the entire building and provided a very thorough cost breakdown of the entire project. The total costs for the renovation are in the order of £163K, £119K of which has already been raised and the total cost of the floor renewal is £12.5K. The council voted to grant the full £5000 requested.
The Olney Centre Community Asset Transfer
OTC has been offered the opportunity to obtain the freehold of the Olney Centre from MKC under the Community Asset Transfer scheme. MKC had recently held a public meeting at the centre to explain the options and see if there were any parties interested in moving forward with the scheme. It came as a surprise to the members of OTC who attended that OTC is not the only interested party and a private developer was also in the running. Tony Evans was of the opinion that this meant that OTC had no option but to start the process as soon as possible and Jeremy Rawlings agreed, saying that it appeared that any commercial company could join in the bidding process. Ward Councillor Peter Geary said that under the rules of the scheme the bidding had to be open to all but unless the applicant met the strict community usage criteria they would not progress to the next stage. There are a number of safeguards in place and the process can be stopped at any time. Tony said that if OTC was successful then MKC would hand ownership to them but would not do any maintenance prior to the transfer. A survey conduct two years ago had revealed that the building was ‘not about to fall down’ but there were a number of things that needed doing. Ben Brock was of the opinion that a full survey should be carried out as part of the transfer process. Town Clerk Liam Costello reminded members that the building came with a ‘sitting tenant’ of the MKC Library Service. Tony Evans proposed that OTC progress with stage 1 of the transfer process, which was passed unanimously.
Future of MKC Parish Wardens
A letter has been received from MKC explaining that the Parish Warden posts were created nearly a decade ago from central government funding and subsequently picked up by themselves. MKC now wish to ‘delete’ the six remaining warden posts, four of which are currently occupied. This came as something of a surprise to most
14 Phonebox Magazine