My questions for the Annual Town Meeting 2011

The Annual Town Meeting is on 16th May 2011. These are the questions I propose to ask at this meeting.

• Were any monies received by the Town Council from the abolished councils of Eynesbury Hardwicke Parish and St Neots Rural Parish? If any money was received how much from each?
• The St Neots Swimming Pool Trust has a woeful record of filing accounts and annual returns with the charity commission. As all Town Councillors bar one are Trustees. Can you explain why both the accounts and annual returns for year ending 31st March 2009 were filed nearly a year late? And why the Annual return for 2010 was filed 29 days late?
• With parliamentary seats being redistributed will the Town Council and the various political parties write to and lobby the Boundary Commission for the name St. Neots to be included in any eventual constituency name covering St Neots?
• In the Forward Plan, the Town Council talks of having a Community Centre for Eynesbury on the new development site on the other side of the railway to Eynesbury. How can this satisfy the demand the Town Council perceives for a Community Centre actually in Eynesbury itself?
• With cuts planned by HDC to grants for the voluntary sector, what is going to happen to the Citizens Advice Bureau in St Neots?
• The New Homes Bonus has been introduced. This gives a bonus for each new house occupied a bonus will be paid for 6 years roughly equal to the Council Tax for the property. With 5000 homes planned for the East of St Neots this would equate to a minimum of £36 million split 80/20 between the District Council and the County Council. What are all the Councils and our representatives doing to ensure St Neots gets the lions share of the New Homes Bonus due?
• Other Parish and Town Councils have published payments over £500 on their websites. When will St Neots Town Council?
• What plans, if any, has the swimming pool trust for the provision of an outdoor swimming pool in St Neots? 
• How many freedom of information requests were made in the last year and how many were successful?
• How many exhumations have been made in the Town Council run cemeteries in the last year and in which cemeteries?
• In the Conservative manifesto it says: “We will protect and enhance green open spaces”. How will this be achieved?
• In the Forward Plan version 4 the following is stated: "We will listen to, respond and involve all residents, businesses and community organisations in an open consultative decision making manner". When formulating the Forward Plan version 4 did the Town Council consult will all residents over the provisions contained within the plan? If not why not?
• In the Forward Plan version 3 page 19 there is set out a series of performance indicators. In version 4 there is not indication as to whether these performance indicators have been achieved. So what I would like to know is what performance indicators, as set out in version 3, were achieved and which were not?

Annual Town Meeting on Monday 16th May 2011

St Neots Town Council has announced the date of the Annual Town Meeting as 16th May 2011 at the Priory Centre. Anyone else going?

Annual Town Meeting

With the civic year already mainly completed why does the Town Council wait until April to set a date for the Annual Town Meeting? Also why does it have to be in tandem with the Annual Council Meeting which follows.

Last year Cllr Thorpe tried to have the Annual Town Meeting on the night of the General election. It was even published in Priorites. But it was changed. 

So why have these meetings in tandem? The Annual Town Meeting is an important civic event where the Town can get together and ask questions and pass motions on any subject affecting the Town. By putting the Town Meeting in front of the Annual Council Meeting there is already time pressure on the Town Meeting to conclude.

The Annual Council Meeting is a civic event by itself. Instead of running both on one evening they should be split. The Annual Town Meeting has to be held between 1st March and 31st May each year.

Putting this Annual Meeting before the Annual Council meeting does the people of St Neots a disservice. The Annual Town Meeting should be separate from the Annual Council Meeting. They are able to achieve this in other Town Councils. Why is St Neots left to second best?

Issues need more respect

St Neots News and Crier - 13/01/2011

Peter Clark, in his letter to the news and Crier, is correct that Huntingdon Town Council should consider the Annual Town Meeting. Not to do so is wrong as electors who turn up to the Annual Town Meeting make the effort. Huntingdon Town Council should also make the effort otherwise what is the point. Maybe that is the reason why. Huntingdon Town Council doesn't want to hold this type of meeting.

What of St Neots Town Council? This Town Council follows the example of Huntingdon Town Council in not considering what went on at the Annual Town Meeting and the issues raised.

The two St Neots Annual Town Meetings I've been to have been a bit of a farce. The law is very clear. This is a meeting of the Town and not the Town Council. It is an opportunity for the electors of the Town to ask questions and raise issues.

St Neots Town Council obviously doesn't like this expression of views from the public as this meeting is crammed in before the Annual Council Meeting and is therefore rushed.

Isn't it time St Neots Town Council respected the rights of its electors and holds a proper Annual Town Meeting where the residents have time to ask questions and raise and develop issues instead of a rush job? I think it is.

St Neots treated as second class by the Liberal Democrats

I was looking through the Liberal Democrat website and I found a piece on a report to the Grafham Annual Parish Assembly by their District and County Councillors. Grafham has a population of 500. St Neots has a population of 30,000. So the small village of Grafham gets better service at their equivalent of the Annual Town Meeting than St Neots which is full of Councillors!

A question to the Town Meeting on The River Church

The River Church has an agreement (Memo of understanding) with the Town Council over the use of Eatons Community Centre. The basics were the Town Council reserves the centre for exclusive use by The River Church. In exchange The River Church promised to provide an unspecified number of theatre style chairs and a projector for the meeting rooms.

I therefore asked the following question:

"...What has the River Church provided in physical and cash terms."

The answer given was:

"The River Church has provided 120 chairs for the centre and no cash transfer has taken place."

So The River Church as provided 120 chairs, but no projector.

A question to the Town Meeting on Investors in People.

In 2008/09 Forward Plan there was a commitment to the employees of the Town Council over training and obtaining the Investors in People status.

I therefore asked the following question:

Did the Council achieve "Investors in People" in 2009?

The answer the Town Council gave was:

"To the best of my knowledge, the council has not yet applied for "Investors in People".

So the Town Council didn't even seek to achieve this status. Can we trust what the Town Council says? I feel this must be NO!

Questions for the Town Meeting - 11th May 2010

It is a right for each elector to attend the Annual Town Meeting and to asks questions relevant to St Neots. Whether you get the answers is a different matter. In a year where the Town Council has received two damning reports questions need to be asked. If you have some ideas for more questions then please e-mail me or add to the comments section.

My questions for the Annual Town Meeting:

General Questions

• I understand there is a confidentiality agreement between the Town Council and the former Town Clerk. Who requested this confidentiality agreement and who at the Town Council approved this agreement? 
• In the year 2012, the Olympics will be in London and Her Majesty, The Queen, will be celebrating her diamond jubilee. What is the Town Council planning to do for both events and what financial provision is being made by the Town Council?
• Having looked at various other Town Council websites I find this is the only Town Council or Parish Council that holds both the Annual Town Meeting and Annual Council Meeting on the same night. I feel Annual Town Meeting should have a night of its own. What does the meeting feel about this?
• The Sunfest 2009 had a programme priced at £1. How many were sold? Wouldn’t a better use of the Priorities magazine be as a programme for this event to get to a wider audience?
• From 1st April 2010, the boundaries of St Neots have expanded to take in areas of Eynesbury Hardwicke Parish and St Neots Rural Parish. What land and responsibilities have been transferred to the Town Council from each Parish Council area?
• I would like to know what was the outcome of the Audit of the 2007/08 Annual Report and a summary of the auditors findings? What has the Town Council done to address those findings?
• I would like to know what was the outcome of the Audit of the 2008/09 Annual Report and a summary of the auditors findings? What has the Town Council done to address those findings?
• After P. Devonald left as Town Clerk, why wasn’t a replacement Town Clerk appointed immediately?
• With what had gone wrong why weren’t extra resources found to get this Town Council back on the right track?
• At the meeting of the Town Council on 9th September 2009, it was decided to contract East of England Regional Assembly consultants to carry out a staff structure review. What was the outcome of the review?
• The Council has an agreement with River Church in which the said Church would provide some fixtures for the Eatons Community Centre. What has the River Church provided a in physical and cash terms?
• What is the relationship between the Town Council and Pightle Millennium Green Trust? The St Neots 
• Community College has been in special measures. What extra resources has the Town Council provided to this school? 
• What land and buildings does the Town Council own or leases as a lessee or lessor? 
• What is the relationship between the Eaton Socon Institute and St Neots Town Council over Jubilee Hall? 
• What is the relationship between the Eaton Socon Children’s Playing Field Charity and St Neots Town Council? 
• Did the Council achieve “Investors in People” in 2009? 
• With Priorities magazine paid out of Council Tax and delivered to every house in St Neots. Why did the Town Council charge 60 pence for a copy of the damning 2008/09 external auditors report into the Town Council? 
• Huntingdonshire District Council is planning to cuts spending by £6.1 million. Where will these cuts fall in relation to services  provided in St Neots.

The St Neots Swimming Pool Trust. 

• What land does the trust own or lease?
• The Town Council does the administration and charged £1980 for this. According to the Charity Commission website all the returns and accounts that need to be filed, bar one, have all arrived late. Why? 
• The swimming pool trust get £10k a year from Eat n’ Bowl. Who owns the land Eat n’ Bowl leases? Why does the swimming pool trust get £10k a year?
• What are the plans for the provision for a new outdoor swimming pool? Will it be a replacement for the pool?

Freedom of Information

• How many Freedom of Information requests has the Town Council received in the last year? 
• How many were rejected by the Town Council as being exempt? 
• What were the ones rejected and for what reason?
• Have solicitors been engaged to deal with any aspects of Freedom of Information requests and if so how much has this cost?

St Neots Annual Town Meeting date re-announced.

St Neots Town Council | Home

I see the Liberal Democrat run Town Council has re-announced the Annual Town Meeting (ATM). In the last issue of the SNTC propaganda rag - Priorities - it was originally announced the ATM was to be held on 6th May 2010 - election day. 

SNTC has now announced on its website that:

That all well and good. But the ATM was announced to the whole of St Neots. Have the cancellation and re-announcement? Not so far!

Town Meeting is for the electors and not the Town Council.

The Annual Town Meeting is an important part of St. Neots life. It is a point in the St. Neots civic calendar when the electors of the Town can come together to talk about St. Neots. (Copy of agenda for last Annual Town Meeting)
I have been to a few Parish and Town Meetings in my life. In my opinion the last St. Neots Town Meeting I went to was weird.

A Town Meeting is just that. Whilst the Town Mayor chairs the Town Meeting and it is organised by the Town Council, it is not a meeting of the Town Council. This is an important distinction. As the Town Councillors are there as electors they should be sitting amongst the electors and not seperate from them. I found the Town Concillors facing the electors just an extension of the "them and us" which pervades the secretative St. Neots Town Council.

We then had the Councillors Statement of Attendance. I've never had this at a Town Meeting. The statement of Attendance would be more appropriate within the Annual Council Meeting.

The Town Mayors' Charity Presentations shouldn't be here. This is appropriate for the Annual Council Meeting. I know some Town/Parish Councils do this but they insist local organisations give a report to the Town Meeting on their activities. These organisations do receive public funds towards their activities. Time we require the same.

I feel there must be a section where our County and District Councillors can put over what is happening in their Councils. This would give the ability of electors to ask questions about these councils activities in St. Neots.

Instead of having a section called the "Town Debate" with the debate already decided. This section should be open to all electors to put motions up for debate. There must be a seperate section for electors to put questions to the Town Mayor about relevent matters to St. Neots.

At the 2009 meeting, I did enjoy the presentation by HDC Planning on the Towns future but this conflicted with the Town Debate which was "The St. Neots Healthcheck". Having gone through the Healthcheck earlier it was rather pointless to have another debate on the same subject.

As couple of Town Meeting agendas and documents from other Town Councils:

The first is: Hythe Town Council Town Meeting Standing Orders. This gives the legal background behind a Town Meeting.

The second is: an agenda from Loughton Town Council.

The third is: an agenda from Folkstone Town Council. This makes use of other organisations.

I feel there is much more the Town Council can do to make this Town Meeting a key event in the civic calendar rather than squeezing it in before the Annual Council Meeting.