Present: Cllrs Emmerson (Chairman,) Dodds, Irwin, Kirby, Patterson, Rutland, Strike, and Watson.
Also in attendance: J. McGeeney, Town Clerk and Jamie Stephenson (via Zoom), Cllr Turnbull (via zoom); Ward Cllr Watson (via Zoom) and eight members of the public via Zoom.
- Housekeeping: The Chairman advised those present of the emergency escape procedures and outlined the Town Council’s protocol on public participation. It was requested that mobile phones be switched to silent. If a call was received and had to be taken Members were politely requested to leave the room.
- Notice of Meeting: Public Notice has been given in accordance Schedule 12 of the Local Government Act 1972. The Chairman noted the Notice of the Meeting had been published on the Town Council’s website and on the notice board at the Ingleby Barwick Community Hall, Beckfields and the Rings Community Hub.
- Apologies for Absence: Cllrs Barnes, Brown, Fryer and Turnbull.
- Declaration of Interests: None.
Due to advice from NALC, only Town Councillors and Town Council staff were in attendance in person. Members of the public were invited to attend via Zoom. Due to a problem in sound technology the meeting was adjourned to enable the Town Clerk to investigate the problem. The meeting recommenced at 7.30pm. - CCTV Entrances and Exits to Ingleby Barwick – Public Consultation – The Town Clerk detailed the results of a public consultation which had taken place regarding the provision of CCTV/ANPR cameras on the entrances and exits of Ingleby Barwick, which had been undertaken following advice from the principal authority, Stockton Borough Council in their capacity of Data Controller of the scheme. The consultation ran from Monday 22nd November 2021 to Sunday 5th December 2021. Consultees were afforded the opportunity to visit the Town Council office during this time or the ability to request and complete the form via email. Notice of the consultation had been displayed on the Town Council’s social media page along with other social media pages throughout the town, notices in the Community Hub, Ingleby Barwick Community Centre, library, Leisure Centre and local shops. It was also advertised in the Evening Gazette. A total of 86 responses had been received. Details of these and associated comments were submitted for Members’ information. Councillor Patterson asked whether the number of participants could be taken as representative of residents’ views of Ingleby Barwick. Councillor Emmerson felt that the Town Council had given residents the opportunity to give their opinion and PROPOSED that the results of the consultation be forwarded to Stockton Borough Council for its consideration. Councillor Irwin AGREED with the chairman and SECONDED the proposal. Upon a vote being taken, there were seven members who agreed with recommendation and one Town Councillor abstained.
- Annual Return 2021/21 – The Clerk reported that Mazars had completed the external audit for the Town Council’s accounts for the year 2020/21. The external auditor report had been presented. A minor scope for improvement in 2021/22 was that the internal control objective ‘the Council has met its responsibilities as a Trustee’ was ticked ‘no’ by the internal auditor. Given that the Council are not sole trustees of any trust funds the box should have been ticked ‘not applicable’. Although the Council provided explanations for all significant variances the reasons initially given for unusual income or expenditure in a particular year did not include values, so it was not possible to determine whether the variants were sufficiently explained from the information submitted for audit. In future, all explanations provided on the variants analysis should be quantified. RESOLVED that the Annual Audit 2020/21 be ACCEPTED.
The meeting ended at 7.35pm