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| Faringdon Town Council report of a meeting held 08/11/2000 This is not an official record of the Town Council |
Go to: T.C. Meeting 08/11/2000 TC Meeting 13/03/2002 TC Meeting 10/07/2002 TC Meeting 29/01/2003Town Meetings |
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| We hope to be able to report council minutes here in due course | ||
| Members of the
public are allowed to attend council meetings; these notes are a
personal record by a Faringdon resident. Meetings are held in the Council Chambers in the Corn Exchange. The room is very hot, most of the space is taken up with seating for the councillors. The public have to huddle in a corner, next to the rather powerful radiator. Fighting off sleep is a major challenge. At this meeting there were seven councillors and the Clerk present. There were about fourteen residents, some of whom were carrying fearsomely large folders of notes. Clearly there were some regular attenders who were very well known to the Council. The agenda was lengthy; some 24 items were included for discussion. By the time I left, the meeting had been in progress for nearly one and a half hours and only 15 items had been covered. Those who stayed until the end deserve an award, for stamina. Membership appears to be an ongoing problem. The present Mayor Michael Perks has resigned, due to work commitments, Councillor Crook's place has not been filled and Councillor Martin Whiffen has also resigned because of other commitments. Faringdon is a town that is growing fast but this doesn't seem to be reflected in the Council.Mr Moorhouse agreed to take up the post of Chairman, but not that of Mayor. Mrs England is now the Deputy Chair. As the post of Mayor is vacant, it will fall to members of the Council to fill that role at public functions, if the Chairman is unavailable. It wasn't clear who would get to wear the chain. There were a great many procedural items particularly from Matters Arising. All I can pick out of my notes is that the White Horse practice is to appeal against the decision not to allow them to dispense. Also that there are to be changes in local electoral procedures. Look at the offical minutes if you want the details on this. The Country Park scheme seems to be about to happen; it will be transferred to municipal ownership next week The Chair, with great good sense, brought forward the agenda item 24, on the Faringdon Community Centre. Unfortunately three of the councillors, immediately declared an interest which left the Council without a quorum and there was a long discussion as to whether they should stay or leave the meeting. After much discussion it was agreed that only topic on the Community Centre could be discussed. This was frustrating for those in the public gallery. There does not seem to have been much movement on the problems of the Centre. Large sums of public money, about £75,000 would have to be spent on the building to make it fit for use. A great deal of money has already been spent on legal advice and most Council members seem to want to avoid spending any more. There is also the question of what to do about the sitting tenant. Where they go from here is not clear. Don Barber was opposed to any expenditure by the Town Council on the Community Centre as this might imply ownership. The debate ended without any conclusions that were obvious to this listener. Public question time appeared to follow a well-worn path. Mr Whitaker asked when he would be given answers to questions that he had raised previously. He asked about the status of the Working Party set up to resolve some of the issues over the Community Centre; if they are a working party then they have no authority, if they are a committee then they are working without any mandate. He also questioned whether the Clerk to the Council is a proper official. The Chair stated that they were. Mrs Pat Fox raised the question of the cost of the repairs to the Community Centre and asked the Council to ensure that the case of the Faringdon Three should not be dropped. Dr Stenhouse asked the Council to reflect on their part in the proceedings over the Community Centre. Were they able to take pride in their role and the cost to the ratepayers of the process. Another member of the public stated that the Emergency Committee meeting on 16th October should not have happened. It been costly for the ratepayers and had not improved the relationship with the Trust. Motions under Notice: Mr Hickmore proposed that a Festival Committee be formed to put a programme of festival events together for the coming year. This was agreed. Mrs Judy Heathcoat presented the County Councillor's Report. The main points included, new homes for the elderly, new fire regulations, stricter enforcement of 18 rule for video rentals and sales. Retailers would be asked to adopt an 18-card system. There was a general warning about cowboy builders. New regulations on mail order purchase are now in place. Mr Hoskins presented the District Councillor's report on behalf of Mrs Alison Thompson. The main points to reflect on are the changes put in place by central government on local government. There will be a new model for the District Council which will have a real impact on staffing.Here I had to leave as the night was drawing on. No doubt any of your local Faringdon councillors will be pleased to share with you the outcomes of the discussions on topics such as: Reports from Planning & Highways, Finance , Recreation and Open Spaces committees Joint Economic Forum for Faringdon Correspondence Clerks Report Transport VWHDC Council Structure VWHDC Charter for local Councils DETR Green Paper on local government Finance Millenium The dates of the Council meetings are published in What's On and posted on the notice board outside the Corn Exchange. |
| Next time, I shall stay until the
end, so that I can give you the full story. Julia Burn |