Gayton Wind Farm Community Fund Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the Energiekontor Grants Committee meeting held on 15th October 2024 at 7pm at St Peters Church.

Present:

            Cllr Lusby Chair

            Cllr Stone  

            Cllr Harrison                                                                              

            Cllr P Hall   

            Cllr Hatton

            Cllr Marshall              

            Cllr B Hall

            Cllr Saul

Pauline Murray – Clerk

First part of this meeting was held in open session but without a public forum. There were 5 members of the public present.

02205    Apologies for Absence

None

02206   Declaration of Interests & requests for dispensations

Councillor Marshall for bursary applications 3.i) and Councillor Hatton for applications over £301 3.ii).

02207 Windfarm applications:- 

Bursary applications :-

i)-iii) (Councillor Marshall left the room)

There were 3 applications for student laptops –  Chair suggested these were grouped together and proposed a grant of £450 for each to be fair to all.  There was a vote and this was resolved unanimously. (Councillor Marshall returned to the meeting).

iv)The application for flying lessons was assessed – this was £1,092 for 5 flying lessons.  His parents were present and answered questions from the Councillors – they have already paid for 3 flying lessons but due to the weather he’s only been able to have 1 of those.  So the Chair suggested that we would be in favour of giving a grant to enable this young lad to have a good start in his chosen career in the RAF or commercial flying.  The conditions of the grant would be that the Windfarm Committee receives a report that he’s progressing well and that the family don’t leave the area. A vote was taken and this was resolved unanimously.

Applications over £301:-

i)Soloby Events – The Committee spoke of how successful these events were and Cllr Marshall spoke of how well these are attended and ran.  The application was for 50% of the venue hire for November to April 2025 and totalled £570. This was voted on and resolved.

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ii)(Councillor Hatton left the room) This application was for the wiring up in the Church kitchen which the Council had asked Cllr Hatton to bring back with costings split out from the quotation for a dishwasher which was approved previously.  The wiring cost is £1,486.76 and this was taken to the vote and approved. (Councillor Hatton came back to the meeting)

iii)The Clerk wanted to look at the constitution of the SCA and this was shown to her.

At 8pm the Parish Council went into Closed Session to discuss Version 4 Terms of Reference for the Windfarm grants which attempts to make the process simpler whilst safeguarding the monies for the community for as long as possible.

02208 -Version 4 Terms of Reference for Windfarm grants

There was a good discussion at the meeting on the draft new terms of reference that Councillor Hatton had been working on.  The main differences will be to limit the amount of the applications to £4,000 and to limit the amount of total grant spend in a financial year to £16,000.  This will help preserve the monies for the community and it will be allocated on a first come first serve basis.  Councillor Hatton is taking the comments from the committee on board and will be presenting the final draft at the November meeting for approval.  Meanwhile the grant allocation will be suspended so that they can commence using the new version – there will be a link to the draft Terms of Reference on the website for the community to see.

Meeting finished at 9.25pm

Next Parish Council Meeting will take place on Tuesday 12th November 2024

Signed:-                                                                      Date:-

Cllr J M Lusby (Chair)                     

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