Gurnard Parish Council
39 Victoria Road
Cowes
PO31 7JH
The minutes of the meeting of Gurnard Parish Council Finance and Grants Committee held at 18.30 on Wednesday 27th November 2024 at Gurnard Village Hall, Westbrook Lane, Gurnard, PO31 8JR.
Present: Councillors Acton (Chair), Bugden, Fuller and Wood
Clerk: Richard Shaul
No members of the public were present.
The meeting started at 18:38
- Apologies
Apologies: Cllrs Franklin
- Members’ declarations of interest
- Cllrs Acton and Bugden are residents of Gurnard and therefore have pecuniary interest in item 5, Annual budget. Therefore dispensation requests will be made before the recommendations of this committee are agreed at the Full committee meeting on 11th December 2024.
- No dispensation requests were received.
- Minutes
The minutes of the Finance meeting of 31st January 2024 were taken as read, approved as a correct record and signed by the chair.
- Grants applications
The following grants applications were considered:
- Friends of Northwood Cemetery
Resolved: That a grant of £500 for Friends of Northwood Cemetery be recommended to the Full Committee.
- Gurnard News
Resolved: That a grant of £650 for Gurnard News be recommended to the Full Committee.
- Annual Budget 2026/2025
An initial draft of the annual budget for 2025/2026 was circulated prior to the meeting.
Resolved: That the Finance and Grants Committee recommends that the Parish Council adopts the budget for 2025/2026 as presented, with the following amendments:
That a provision for a locum clerk of £1,000 be added
That the budget for VCSE support service of £240 be removed as this has not been required in previous years
That the budget for toilet cleaning be increase by £475 to £10,000 to equal the prior year’s budget
That the grant for Cowes library remains at £1,000 (as prior year) but to replace community grants with the wider definition of community service grants and increase to £4,000
That a provision of £5,000 is allowed for amendments to the Gurnard neighborhood plan
The level of Precept was not discussed
- Clerk’s annual salary review
The Local Government Services Pay Agreement 2024, giving details of pay scales in respect of the year April 2024 to March 2025 was be circulated prior to the meeting. The new pay rates each increased by £1,290 per annum (pro rata).The clerk is currently employed at SCP grade 15.
Resolved: The Finance and Grants committee recommends that this pay award is implemented and backdated to 1st April 2024
The meeting closed at 20:32
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Chair