Agenda and draft minutes

Annual General Meeting, Taunton Charter Trustees
Tuesday, 21st June, 2022 6.00 pm

Venue: The John Meikle Room - The Deane House. View directions

Contact: Marcus Prouse Email: m.prouse@somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk 

Webcast: View the webcast

Items
No. Item

1.

Election of Mayor Of Taunton

    Councillor Francesca Smith to propose and Councillor Richard Lees to second:-

     

    "That Councillor Susan Lees be elected Mayor of Taunton for the ensuing year".

     

    If the motion is carried, Councillor Susan Lees will arrange to sign the Declaration of Acceptance of Office.

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The Mayor opened the meeting, and invited her chaplain, Reverend James Clapham, to open the meeting with a short prayer.

     

    Councillor Francesca Smith proposed and Councillor Richard Lees seconded the following motion, which was carried unanimously.

     

    RESOLVED:

     

    "That Councillor Susan Lees be elected Mayor of Taunton for the ensuing year".

     

    Councillor Susan Lees then repeated and signed the Declaration of Acceptance of Office.

2.

Deputy Mayor of Taunton

    Councillor Francesca Smith to propose and Councillor Lee Baker to second:-

     

              "That Councillor Brenda Weston be elected Deputy Mayor of Taunton for the ensuing year".

     

              If the motion is carried, Councillor Brenda Weston will arrange to sign the Declaration of Acceptance of Office.

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Councillor Francesca Smith proposed and Councillor Lee Baker seconded the following motion, which was carried unanimously.

     

    RESOLVED:

     

    "That Councillor Brenda Weston be elected Deputy Mayor of Taunton for the ensuing year".

     

    Councillor Brenda Weston then repeated and signed the Declaration of Acceptance of Office.

3.

Appointment of Civic Marshal

    The Mayor of Taunton to invite nominations from the Charter Trustees for the role of Civic Marshal.

     

    Having been elected to office, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor will retire to be robed.  Once they return to the John Meikle Room, the Mayor will briefly address the Charter Trustees before returning to the agenda for the meeting.

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Councillor Smith proposed that Councillor Marcia Hill be appointed Civic Marshal for the ensuing municipal year. Councillor Simon Coles seconded the proposal.

     

    RESOLVED that Councillor Marcia Hill be appointed the Civic Marshal for the Taunton Charter Trustees for the 2022/23 Municipal Year.

     

     

4.

The Mayor will present to Councillor Smith her Past Mayor Badge

    Unfortunately, due to delays due to Covid-19, the Past Mayor’s Badge had not arrived in time to be presented at last year’s AGM.

     

    The Mayor to request that Councillor Francesca Smith comes forward to be presented with her Past Mayor Badge as is customary. Following the motion that was carried unanimously last year that the best thanks of the Charter Trustees be accorded to Councillor Francesca Smith for the manner in which she has discharged the duties of the office of Mayor of the Town during her two terms of office.

     

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The Mayor requested that Councillor Francesca Smith came forward to be presented with her Past Mayor Badge as was customary, following the motion that was carried unanimously last year that the best thanks of the Charter Trustees be accorded to Councillor Francesca Smith for the manner in which she has discharged the duties of the office of Mayor of the Town during her two terms of office. The Mayor also requested that Mr Peter Smith came forward to be presented with his Past Consort’s Badge.

5.

Apologies

6.

Declarations of Interest

    To receive and note any declarations of disclosable pecuniary or prejudicial or personal interests in respect of any matters included on the agenda for consideration at this meeting.

     

    (The personal interests of Councillors and Clerks of Somerset County Council, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes.)

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Members present at the meeting declared the following personal interests in their capacity as a Councillor or Clerk of a County, Town or Parish Council or any other Local Authority:-

     

    Name

    Minute No.

    Description of Interest

    Reason

    Action Taken

    Cllr L Baker

    All Items

    Cheddon Fitzpaine, SWT & SCC

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr C Booth

    All Items

    Wellington and SWT

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr S Coles

    All Items

    SCC & SWT

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr C Ellis

    All Items

    SCC & SWT

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr Mrs Hill

    All Items

    SWT

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr R Lees

    All Items

    SWT

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr S Lees

    All Items

    SWT

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr L Lisgo

    All Items

    SWT

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr F Smith

    All Items

    SCC & SWT

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr B Weston

    All Items

    SWT

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

     

     

7.

Minutes of the previous meetings of the Taunton Charter Trustees pdf icon PDF 226 KB

8.

To receive and consider reports, minutes and recommendations of the Standing Committee 2021/22 pdf icon PDF 291 KB

9.

Petitions

10.

Public Participation

    The Chair to advise the Committee of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.

     

    For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three minute time limit applies to each speaker and you will be asked to speak before Councillors debate the issue.

     

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The Clerk advised that no members of the public had requested to speak.

11.

Communications

    To receive such communications as the Mayor may desire to lay before the Charter Trustees.

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The Mayor gave a brief resume of the past few months activities;

    ·       Visited Quantock House (twice!)

    ·       Opening of Kingfisher Court

    ·       Many concerts and one of her passions

    ·       Special events at Wells Cathedral e.g. Somerset Day Service.

    ·       Celebrated the Queens Platinum Jubilee event in Vivary Park (despite the unkind weather).

    ·       Opening of The Lighting Company shop.

    ·       Celebrated the Corgi Trail – even the Mayoral Corgi painted by Sarah.

    ·       Thanks to the Deputy Mayor for her support when the Mayor developed Covid.

     

     

12.

Appointment of Members of the Standing Committee 2022/23 pdf icon PDF 102 KB

    To appoint Charter Trustees, from nominations received from each group, to serve on the Standing Committee for the year 2022/2023.The proposed ‘Powers and Duties’ of the Standing Committee are set out in the attached document.If the Committee allocated politically proportionally as per the Standing Orders there would be 6 Liberal Democrats and 1 Labour seat, though it was within the gift of the political groups as to whether they took up their full entitlement.

     

    The current membership is as follows;

     

    ·        Cllr Simon Coles (Chair)

    ·        Cllr Chris Booth

    ·        Cllr Tom Deakin

    ·        Cllr Sue Lees

    ·        Cllr Martin Peters

    ·        Cllr Derek Perry

    ·        Cllr Libby Lisgo

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    RESOLVED to defer consideration of this item to allow the membership of the Committee to be discussed at Group meetings.

13.

Final External Auditor Report for 2020-21 pdf icon PDF 38 KB

    The Charter Trustees must consider the report and consider what, if any, action is required.

     

     

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The Clerk gave a brief introduction to this item. The draft report had been presented to an earlier meeting of the Charter Trustees and members had been advised that a couple of queries were still being worked through, which is why the final report had come through so late. The Clerk stated it was important for the Charter Trustees to consider the report and any action required. He had taken on board a number of their recommendations around how to correctly complete the Annual Governance Return.

     

    During the discussion of this item, Members made comments and asked questions which included:-

     

    ·       Councillors requested further information on the recommendations that had been made.

    ·       The Clerk clarified that in the first year of operation the Charter Trustees had been given a budget by the Council and there were ways that the information had to be presented that had to be clarified.

    ·       The recommendations made by the External Auditor on how to complete the Annual Governance Return had been taken on board and actioned such as Staff costs.

     

    RESOLVED that the Charter Trustees considered the Final External Auditor Report for 2020-21 and considered that no further actions were required.

14.

Annual Internal Audit Report 2021/22 - TO FOLLOW

    The purpose of this item is to receive and note the Annual Internal Audit Report 2021/22.

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The Clerk advised that he had chased the Internal Auditor for an update on the report and the expectation that it would be available for this meeting, as it would have to be submitted along with the Annual Governance Return to the External Auditor by 1st July 2022. The hope was that this would come through prior to the 1st July and the Clerk would keep the Charter Trustees updated.

     

    ·       Cllr Lisgo asked for it to be minuted her disquiet over this missing report.

    ·       A question was raised as to why South West Audit Partnership do not carry out Internal Audit function for the Charter Trustees?

    ·       It was confirmed that they had not responded to Officer queries but this could conceivably be looked at again when a potential Town Council was created.

     

    RESOLVED that the Charter Trustees deferred this item to their next meeting due to the unavailability of the report.

15.

Annual Governance Statement 2021/22 pdf icon PDF 513 KB

    This item is to approve the Annual Governance Statement for submission to the Charter Trustee’s external Auditors, PKF Littlejohn LLP.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The Clerk introduced this item which was to approve the Annual Governance Statement for submission to the Charter Trustee’s external Auditors, PKF Littlejohn LLP. The Clerk advised that he had had to place a negative in Box 5 which was about an undertaking of an assessment of risks, and an explanation had been provided for the External Auditors and how this would be addressed. This explainer document had also been attached to the Agenda.

     

    RESOLVED to approve:

    a)    the Annual Governance Statement 2021/2022 for submission to the Taunton Charter Trustees External Auditors, PKF Littlejohn LLP.

    b)   That a Draft Action Plan and Draft Risk Register is circulated to the Charter Trustees and then taken to a Special Meeting of the Charter Trustees in July 2022 to ensure compliance for the 2022/23 Municipal Year.

     

16.

Accounting Statements 2021/22 pdf icon PDF 527 KB

17.

Questions under Standing Order 8

    A        A Charter Trustee may ask the Mayor any question upon an item which is under

              consideration by the Charter Trustees.

     

    B        Every question shall be put and answered without discussion. The person to whom a question has been put may decline to answer but shall give an explanation for declining to do so.

     

    C        An answer may take the form of:-

             

    1                 a direct oral answer; or

    2                 where the desired information is contained in a publication of the Charter Trustees, a reference to that publication; or

    3                 where reply to the question cannot conveniently be given orally, a written answer circulated to Charter Trustees.

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    There were no questions made under Standing Order 8.

18.

Dates of future meetings

    The Clerk to the Taunton Charter Trustees to advise of the dates of future meetings for 2022/23.

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The Clerk advised that he had not prepared a full list of meetings for the year ahead, beyond a meeting in July which would need to be held to consider the Community Governance Review Consultation Stage 2. The Clerk advised that further dates would be circulated.

19.

Any items which the Mayor considers to be urgent business