8214 Minutes: of a Special Meeting of the Arnside Parish Council, held in the Parish Council Office, Church Hill, Arnside, on Friday 17th December 2004.

8215 Present: Chairman - Councillor D.M.(David) Willacy, Councillors T.(Terry) Keefe, P.A.(Pete) McSweeney, M.P.(Pat) Pierce, the Clerk - P.G.(Peter) Challenor, the Treasurer - A.(Tony) Cookson.

8216 Apologies for Absence:

Councillors J.G.(Jack) Baker, P.E.(Ted) Casey, J.M.(Jean) Colwell, J.P.(John) Gallagher, K. (Ken) Hargreaves, R.J.(Ros) Lishman, S.V. (Sue) Gibson,

8217 Exclusion of the Press and Public

RESOLVED that members of the press and public be excluded from the meeting, in accordance with Standing Order 14(g), in view of the special or confidential nature of the business to be discussed.

8218 Appointment of Parish Contractor

Two tenders for the contract of Parish Contractor, for 2005-2006, were received before the closing date of December 15th. The identities of both applicants were revealed, and Members concluded that nothing was known about either candidate, which would indicate that they would be unsuitable to undertake the duties specified in the Job Specification.

Tender A was for £11, 895.00 and Tender B was for £15,800.

RESOLVED to accept Tender A, which was subsequently identified as being from G.R. Taylor & Son

8219 Budget Allowance for donation to the AONB

RESOLVED that £900 be added to the 2005-2006 budget, to allow for a donation to the AONB.

8220 New Terms & Conditions for Officers

The Clerk and the Treasurer left the room for this item

The Clerk had distributed brief details of the new Terms & Conditions, recommended by the National Joint Council for Local Government Services, applicable to Officers of the Council, which were ratified on December 8th, and come into effect on 1st January 2005.

RESOLVED that

(1) the Council will not adopt the salary scales applicable to the Benchmark of Scale LC2, at this time,

(2) the Council will set a Spot Salary, which produces an increase equivalent to one-third of that which would be produced by adoption of the recommended scales,

(3) the salaries of the Clerk and Treasurer will be reviewed in June 2005, or soon after,

(4) copies of the full recommendations will be distributed to each Member,

(5) any adjustment to allowances can be left for determination at a future date, as the impact on the budget is likely to be negligible, and

(6) the budget for 2005-2006 be reduced by £5,375.

8221 Precept

RESOLVED that the Precept for 2005-2006 be set at £26,632, (+ £696 for parish lighting), producing an increase from the current year of just under 11%.

Peter G. Challenor

Clerk to the Council