Glad to see Great Coates village hall being built

“Plus I'd be interested to know whether when setting the new precept the Councillors that live and pay council tax in Great Coates asked for specific exemptions from the declarations of interest when voting? Under the Localism Act 2011 the setting of the precept is not automatically exempted from declaration rules (as it was in the previous local government act).

So basically any resident councillor is deemed to have a vested interest in the setting of the precept and must request exemption during that meeting to be able to take part.

The rise might not even be legal.”

“The saddest part is that the precept has been set at £20k or so for the past few years when they only needed and spent around £12k from the budget. So the precept could have been 40% lower. The surplus funds are being used to subside the losses generated by the Hall.

Would that suggest the hall was a fait accompli? What would have happened to the surplus and the precept if the hall hadn't gone ahead?”

“Do you know Lawrence61 I thought Immingham was a Town hence Town Council,
And Gt. Coates was a Village hence out of touch Village Council


But lets agree to disagree, I am bored with this now



Stewart”

“No, it has the second highest, only behind Immingham. However Immingham has it's own Town Council to pay for, Great Coates doesn't. Great Coates is the only Parish Council that is hundreds of thousands of £s in debt.”

“You are mistaken, again, Stewart. Great Coates does not have the highest tax in NELC”

“I understand DerAngriff that Gt. Coates has the highest precept in N E Lincolnshire I hope
that the clerk and council are happy with what they have done and special thanks to NELC for letting them get away with it






Stewart”

“kittycloe, they do have a business plan....

I wish I could post it here, but alas it's slightly longer (and not by much) than the character limit on this facility. It uses two other village halls as examples (Healing and Humberston), but mentions nothing at all about potential bookings or interest from any potential hall users.

Healing Village Hall operates at a loss once you factor in staffing costs, and that is with no loan repayments. Plus council tax bills are lower in Healing than Great Coates for the coming year.

So just how can it be viable? I just don't understand it? The fact is that it's only viable with some serious, and I mean SERIOUS, precept increases in the coming years. Mr Atkins might be ok with that, but there are many out there who are not so happy paying for the frivolities of the Parish Council.”

“Lawrence61 I still find myself in agreement with DerAngriff, but thanks fo the history lesson, and your kind thoughts as to why I never got voted on to the Village Council, strange and I thought it was because I never put my name forward to go on to the Village Council.
Yes like lots of Villagers I would have liked the Reading Rooms to have been bought by the Village I feel the Village deserves more then your beloved Plywood Hut. The Reading Room is quite a unique building as a co mmunity centre, un like Healing Hall a ex telephone exchange, the Reading Room was built for the Villagers and some of us would like to hang on to local historic buildings they look a lot better then £300,000 Plywood Huts, also of course Grants are available to restore historic buildings, hence had the Village Council took this route there may not have been any increase in the Village precept, I remember Mr. Atkins saying "he would be happy to pay an extra £100 on his precept" all of us are not in that happy situation.
Now if this venture does not take off, the Village is stuck with a plywood hut on leased land,
had it gone for the Reading Room option, and the venture not take off the Reading Room could have been put on the market as a building with planning permisson to be converted into a residence,and Village would get its money back, its called good "business sense"
I hope you and Mr. Atkins with the WI enjoy your beloved Plywood Hut.......
I note now that the Village Council are hunting for Clubs etc to use it once its built....Strange again lwould have thought it would have been more sensible to find clubs etc before building had started.
But of course this Village Council ignore the Villagers anyway


Stewart”

“time will tell.”

“Lawrence61, there was plenty of interest in the village hall referendum, more than there has ever been on any other issue in the 10 or so years of the Great Coates Parish Council's existence.

Perhaps they are so used to not having to deal with elections that they forgot what democracy was all about!

What you are saying is that it is ok for the Parish Council to have a loan that it cannot afford to repay. The precept for the Parish Council and NELC grants raise £26,784. The budgeted spend by the council is £35,500. That leaves a shortfall of nearly £9,000. Advertising revenue (projected) is £750. My previous post is wrong, the council actually need to make over £8,000 before the budget balances.

Healing village hall brings in £8000 from bookings, and it has long term bookings for 80% of the time. With 20% of bookings available, that doesn't really spell out the massive need for a hall in Great Coates just 1.5 miles away.

So whilst the deal is done, the council have forced their decision through, some may even say they have won, they have left the village with a white elephant that is incredibly likely to cause large increases in the precept or close.”