Draft minutes of the Annual General Meeting of New Town and Broughton Community Council, held in the Drummond Room, Broughton St Mary’s Church, Bellevue Crescent on Monday 11 May 2015 at 7.15pm
Please note that these are draft minutes and have not yet been adopted by NTBCC. If you have any queries, please contact us.
1 Attendance and apologies for absence
1.1 Present
| Audrey Cavaye | NTBCC | Alan McIntosh | Broughton Spurtle |
| Judy Conn | NTBCC | John Ross Maclean | |
| Richard Corrall | NTBCC | Maureen Housden | India St Residents’ Association |
| Jonathan Finn | NTBCC | Dorothy Leeming | |
| Allan Jack | NTBCC | Robin Maid | |
| Iain McGill | NTBCC | Nicky Munro | Heriot Row Association |
| Ian Mowat | NTBCC | Allan Alstead | Resident |
| Carol Nimmo | NTBCC | Lorna Donaldson | Resident |
| Lewis Press | NTBCC | Stephen Hajducki | Resident |
| Richard Price | NTBCC | Neil Short | Resident |
| Christine Ross | NTBCC | Peter Thierfeldt | Resident |
| Alan Welsh | NTBCC | PC Derek Barbour | Police Scotland |
| Bruce Ryan | minutes secretary | PC Eddie | Police Scotland |
| Cllr Nick Gardner | Leith Walk ward | William Gray Muir | Royal High School Preservation Trust |
| Cllr Joanna Mowat | City Centre Ward |
1.2 Apologies
| Susanna Beaumont | NTBCC | Ben McPherson | NTBCC | Mark Lazarowicz MP | Edinburgh North & Leith |
| Lynn Henni | NTBCC | Robert Hay | Moray Feuars | Cllr Deidre Brock | Leith Walk ward |
| Gaby Holden | NTBCC | Cllr Karen Doran | City Centre ward |
2 Minutes of 2014 AGM
Adopted with no changes, proposed C Nimmo, seconded J Finn, nem con
No matters arising
3 Chair’s report
See appendix 1 for text.
Gaby Holden, who has served this community for many years, has resigned due to health issues.
There are several vacancies for NTBCC members.
4 Treasurer’ report
See appendix 2 for details.
The annual grant income of ~£1000 is enough to cover expeses including advertising, minutes secretary, website, rent of meeting venues. Rent has been paid up to the end of 2016. NTBCC has a healthy reserve. The financial statement was adopted (proposed A Welsh, seconded C Ross, nem con)
5 Election of office bearers
There was only one nominee for each post, so the following were re-elected nem con:
| Position | Nominee | Proposed | Seconded |
| Chair | Ian Mowat | A Cavaye | R Corrall |
| Vicechair | Lynn Henni | C Nimmo | J Conn |
| Secretary | Audrey Cavaye | I Mowat | R Corrall |
| Treasurer | Jonathan Finn | I Mowat | I McGill |
6 Any other business
A Welsh proposed a vote of thanks to the office-bearers and convenors. Agreed nem con. The convenors are:
- Planning: R Price
- Transport: Alan Jack
- Environment: Chrissie Ross
- Licensing: Jonathan Finn
Meeting closed 7:30pm
7 Appendix 1: text of chair’s report
New Town and Broughton Community Council is one of Edinburgh’s 41 Community Councils, established under statute, to represent the views of the community within the New Town and Broughton area, the boundaries of which are set by the Edinburgh Scheme for Community Councils.
Since the AGM in May 2013 it met for public meetings ten times, in May (immediately after the AGM, June, August, September, October, November and December 2014, and January, February and March 2015. The ‘extra’ meeting on top of our normal nine on January 2015 was required to accommodate a presentation by developers on 42 St Andrew Sq.
These meetings were open to the public, and were attended regularly by ward Councillors, who along with our local MP and MSP are ex officio members of the Community Council. Community Police officers are also invited to attend each meeting and have attended regularly.
During the year the Community Council has engaged with a large number of significant Pre Planning application (PAN) consultations, including 34 Haddington Place, 6-7 St Andrew Square, 42 St Andrew Sq./ West Register Lane and the former Royal High School building on Regent Road. At the same time we have continued to scrutinise planning applications in respect of the St James Square development, and numerous smaller scale applications. This has placed a significant workload on our planning committee and above all its convener Richard Price.
One Planning application where we were one of very few objectors was for the George St outside restaurant pavilions. Whilst we regret the City Council planners did not heed our wise warnings, we are pleased that the City Council had now confirmed that the pavilions will be removed at the end of the year long trial. We have been active participants in the George St stakeholders group.
We objected to two applications for variation of licences, one (the Cumberland Bar) was withdrawn and the other (99 Hanover St) was refused. On Transport we consulted with local residents groups before making a submission to the 20mph consultation. We supported the proposed reduction to 20mph in all side streets in the area but sought that a number of transport arteries through the City Centre such as Regent Road and Queen St remain at 30mph. However, in the event the Council have only excepted London Road.
On engagement with the local community our new website went live in May 2014. It has been regularly updated to show forthcoming meetings, minutes and news about planning application/ consultations. It includes a contact form by which a small number of residents have since contacted us.
During the period ended 31st March 2015, the New Town and Broughton Community Council received its statutory grant of £995.58 from the City of Edinburgh Council.
No remuneration or expenses have been paid to any Community Council member during the year, except reimbursement of expenses incurred by members on postage, photocopying, paper and print cartridges etc., incurred in the course of community council work.
8 Appendix 2: Treasurer’s Report – May 2015
Our annual accounts for the year to 31/3/15 have now been signed off by the independent examiner and need to be approved at the AGM. A brief summary of these is below.
Our expenses this year have exceeded our grant by about £200, and this has reduced our year end (31 March) balance from £1,570 to £1,360. Whilst our administrative expenses have fallen compared to last year, we have had to pay a web hosting fee to enable us to set up the new website. We are also paying a secretary to take minutes and circulate them, which we have found to be very useful. In addition, we took the decision to pay rent for our monthly meetings for the whole of 2015 rather than just a few months at a time. This item should reduce again next year when we pay for one year rather than a year and a half.
The usual items of expenditure roughly match the grant we are receiving and, with a healthy bank balance, we do not see any reason to alter the way we are operating.
The new Triodos bank account seems to have been working well. It is internet based and, as we hoped, enables us to deal with financial transactions more efficiently.
Jonathan Finn 10.5.2015
| 2015 | 2014 | ||
| Receipts and Payments Accounts | £ | £ | |
| Receipts | |||
| Grants and other income | 996 | 996 | |
| Interest after tax | 3 | 0 | |
| Total receipts | 999 | 996 | |
| Payments | |||
| Payments relating to main activities; | |||
| Administrative expenses | 74 | 256 | |
| Rent1 | 450 | 220 | |
| Advertising2 | 310 | 125 | |
| Web site hosting3 | 173 | 0 | |
| Subscriptions | 0 | 0 | |
| Secretary’s fee4 | 200 | 0 | |
| Total payments | 1,207 | 601 | |
| Surplus/ (Deficit) for the year | (208) | 395 | |
| Statement of Balances | |||
| Opening bank balance | 1,572 | 1,177 | |
| Surplus/(Deficit) for the year | (208) | 395 | |
| Closing bank balance | 1,364 | 1,572 | |
| Reserves | |||
| General unrestricted funds | 1,364 | 1,572 | |
| Closing balance | 1,364 | 1,572 | |
| Estimated liabilities at end of year | 0 | 0 |
Notes
- Rent of the room used for monthly meetings for the period May – December 2014 and January to December 2015 is included in the year 2015
- Advertising in the Spurtle magazine and their website
- Fees associated with launching the new New Town and Broughton Community Council website
- A secretary was appointed during the year to take minutes and look after the website
Independent Examiner’s Report to the Committee of the New Town and Broughton Community Council
I report on the accounting statements of the organisation for the period ended 31 March 2015 which are set out on page 3 and the accompanying notes thereto.
Respective Responsibilities of Committee Members and Examiner
The Committee members are responsible for the preparation of the accounts and consider that the Community Council is entitled not to have an audit. It is my responsibility to examine the accounts and to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.
Basis of Independent Examiner’s Statement
An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the Community Council and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeks explanations from the Committee members concerning such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required by an audit, and consequently I do not express an audit opinion on the view given by the accounts.
Independent Examiner’s Statement
In my opinion:
To the best of my knowledge and belief the Receipts and Payments Accounts and Statement of Balances have been properly prepared from the records and are in agreement with them.
The accounting statements comply with the constitution of the Community Council.
C P Johnston MA, MBA, ACMA, CGMA
Independent Examiner
17a Clarendon Crescent, Edinburgh EH4 1PU
4 May 2015