Minutes of Stonnall Y&C C Working Party. Held 23rd August 2021

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SHENSTONE PARISH COUNCIL

Serving Little Aston, Shenstone, Stonnall, Shenstone Wood End, Lynn, Parish Council Office 25C Main Street Shenstone WS14 OLZ
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Minutes of SY&CC Working Party Mon 23rd August 2021
Via Zoom

1 Register of Members in attendance

Cllrs David Thompson, David Salter, Gail Nicholls, Sheila Beilby, Stuart Jones & Mr Doug Morrison, Chairman, Stonnall Youth & Community Centre Management Committee (SY&CCMC). Clerk: Shirley O’Mara

2 Acceptance of apologies.

Cllr Mick Cox

3 Approval of amended minutes of 26th July 2021.

The minutes of the meeting were duly accepted with Cllr Nicholls confirming she did not wish to have her name attributed to them.

4 It was reported by the Parish Clerk that following an email from County Cllr Smith & phone calls from Mr Doug Morrison & Mr Nigel Cragg the SY&CCMC accept in principle to take ownership of the SY&CC land subject to agreed terms and conditions.

Mr Morrison confirmed that the SY&CCMC do in principle agree to take ownership of the land.

5 Agree next steps:

Cllr Thompson stated that following the confirmation any recommendations to Full Council would be agreed at this meeting but with no disclosure to others at this stage.

He also stated that the Working Group welcomed the decision of the SY&CCMC to agree to pursue the trusteeship solution which had been discussed at the meeting of July 23rd.

The next stage is to, once ratified by Council, notify Staffs County of the Parish Council decision not to accept the offer of purchase but support the SY&CCMC as the preferred way forward.

Cllr Salter asked if there was any indication from the SY&CCMC meetings of terms.

Mr Morrison confirmed that the SY&CCMC were pursuing the idea of Holding Trustees and are expecting the condition of the land to be addressed before they take over as the Council have known about the requirements to do so for two years. Mr Morrison drew attention to the significant amount of work to the land is required that is detailed in the report from Hough & Co.

Cllr Nicholls raised the fact that this report was previously disputed by the SY&CCMC as only a building appraisal, so she asked why now the Hough & Co report is now important.

Mr Morrison was asked if he agreed that the most recent Friend & Co report

was the report that takes precedence as a full RICS survey. Mr Morrison stated that if the report indicates work on the land that should have been carried out the SY&CCMC expect that work to be completed before any handover, reiterating “read the lease”.

Cllr Beilby asked do the SY&CCMC intend to rebuild or repair & retain the building?

Mr Morrison said that decision is still to be made.

Cllr Thompson asked if Mr Morrison, when using the term “land”, meant the building as well as the ground surface. Mr Morrison answered not the building, just the land.

Cllr Salter asked for confirmation of what form of third-party holding trusteeship has been discussed. Mr Morrison said that his understanding is the County Cllr Smith is in the process of setting up a meeting with County, himself, the Hut Committee and Cllr Salter – this is in writing. Cllr Salter said this has been suggested but not accepted & Full Council must first agree. The Clerk stated that if such a meeting were to take place the representative would almost certainly be Cllr Thompson as Chair of the Working Group.

Cllr Nicholls asked for the minutes of the meeting between the SY&CCMC & County Cllr Smith. Mr Morrison said minutes were taken but a lot of the meeting was in camera for matters of confidentiality.

Cllr Thompson asked if County Cllr Smith speaks for the SY&CCMC or some aspects of it? Mr Morrison said County Cllr Smith has put forward an idea.

The SY&CCMC were given the choice of whether the Parish Council going forward take the position of Custodian Trustees or a third party as Holding Trustees & it was confirmed that Holding Trustees is the option with individuals chosen by the SY&CCMC themselves. Cllr Beilby asked if the MC knew who the Holding Trustees would be. Mr Morrison answered that he did not.

Mr Morrison reiterated it is very early days and there are a lot of answers he does not have the answer to.

Cllr Thompson asked “What is the position of the SY&CCMC in relation to the building itself? “

Mr Morrison replied that not a lot needs to be done other than work to the underside of the building and they have a project Engineer to oversee that.

Mr Morrison was asked and confirmed that whilst negotiations continue all building repairs work on the SY&CC building will be in line with that identified in the latest RICS survey. Mr Morrison confirmed this was the case.

Cllr Nicholls asked again for minutes of meetings with Cllr Smith. Mr Morrison said he would ask the rest of the Committee and County Cllr Smith if they are happy for the minutes to be shared.

Cllr Nicholls expressed concern at lack of transparency shown to Council as all Council minutes are currently shared & published.

Mr Morrison said parts of the meeting were held in camera and there were no promises made.

5 The summary of the last two meetings & recommendations for Council are as follows:

The Working Group has met twice since the last Parish Council meeting on 13th July. The first meeting was on the 23rd Aug with members of the SYCCMC. This meeting further explained the Parish Council proposal not to accept the SCC offer of ownership of the SYCC and instead propose that the Management Committee follow a trusteeship ownership option. The second meeting on 23rd July was called to discuss the response of the SYCCMC to the Parish Council proposal. This second meeting followed confirmation to the Parish Clerk that the SYCC Management Committee wished to progress the trusteeship option. The second meeting allowed the Working Group to clarify several additional transaction details. These included the confirmation that the Management Committee (a) have not made up their mind if they will retain or demolish the SYCC and (b) the SYCCMC will follow the recommendations of the RICS 3 survey and (c) confirmation that the SYCCMC will not be asking the Parish Council to be a Custodian Trustee.

The Working Group firstly recommends that following the SYCC Management Committee expression of interest in the trustee ownership option the Parish Council informs the SCC that it does not wish to accept the ownership offer and instead the SCC should offer trustee ownership to the SYCC Management Committee.

The Working Group secondly recommends that it now negotiates with the SCC the early lease termination requirement of the demolition of the SYCC. The Parish Council will seek competitive tenders to establish the cost of this work and if the demolition cost is to be translated into a commuted sum because the building is to be retained the Parish Council will request that the sum is directed in full to the new SYCC Trustees.

The Working Group thirdly recommends that any future support for either a retained or a new SYCC will need to be upon application and will be transparently consistent with the Parish Council financial support requirements and timing of applications for support given to all other community organizations in the Parish Council area

Conclusion.

The Working Group is very pleased that the Parish Council recommended option of the SYYC Management Committee progressing the Trusteeship option has been accepted.

7 A.O.B

None