Agenda and minutes

Council - Thursday, 25 April 2013 6.00 pm

Venue: Council Chamber, District Council Offices, Crowmarsh Gifford. View directions

Contact: Mr Steven Corrigan Democratic Services Manager

Items

No.

Item

52.

Declaration of disclosable pecuniary interest

To receive any declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests in respect of items on the agenda for this meeting.

Minutes:

None.

53.

Minutes PDF 65 KB

To adopt and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 21 February 2013 (attached).

Minutes:

RESOLVED: to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 21 February 2013 as a correct record and agree that the Chairman sign them as such.

54.

Chairman's announcements

To receive any announcements from the Chairman.

Minutes:

The Chairman reported that the annual Chairman’s charity dinner had raised £2,025 and she had received a number of messages of thanks for the evening.

55.

Questions from the public and public participation

To receive any questions from members of the public and details of any requests to address council on an item on the agenda.

Minutes:

None.

56.

Neighbourhood Planning Referendums - scale of fees and charges PDF 69 KB

View item 56. as HTML 227 KB

To consider the report of the Returning Officer on a proposed scale of fees and charges for the Counting Officer to undertake arrangements for managing and conducting neighbourhood planning referendums (report attached).

Minutes:

Council considered the report of the Returning Officer setting out a proposed scale of fees and charges for neighbourhood planning referendums.

Mrs M Reed, Head of Legal and Democratic Services, reported that the fees and charges did not form part of the existing fees structure and a decision was required in advance of the Thame Neighbourhood Plan Referendum on 2 May. The proposed scale of fees and charges was based on the current scale for contested parish or town council elections. Fees due to the counting officer could be disbursed to deputy counting officers.

Mrs E A Ducker and Mr C Quinton proposed and seconded the recommendations set out in the report.

RESOLVED: to agree the scale of fees and charges for the Counting Officer to undertake arrangements for managing and conducting neighbourhood planning referendums as follows:

Only the fees and disbursements specified below shall be chargeable. The fees payable to the Counting Officer or his/her duly appointed Deputy Counting Officer(s) shall include all payments which he/she makes from his/her fees to other persons by way of remuneration of services undertaken on his/her behalf.

In no case shall a charge exceed the sum actually and necessarily paid or payable by the Counting Officer.

Subject to this, the maximum charges are set out in the scale.

A – Fees

1	To the Counting Officer, or where appropriate a Deputy Counting Officer for carrying out all the duties assigned to him / her by the Counting Officer for conducting the referendum and generally performing the duties required by any enactments relating to the referendum
	for each parish/town, a flat fee: -
	Towns including Chinnor	£50
	Larger village parishes	£40
	Smaller village parishes	£30
	(If the Counting Officer or his/her duly appointed Deputy Counting Officer also carries out the functions specified in items 2 and 3 of the scale he/she will be entitled to claim the total of the fees payable under both items)
2	To the Counting Officer, or a Deputy Counting Officer for services in connection with the preparation, maintenance and issue of official poll cards a flat fee as follows:
	Towns including Chinnor	£20
	Larger village parishes	£15
	Smaller village parishes	£10
3	To the Counting Officer, or a Deputy Counting Officer appointed for the purposes of making arrangements for the issue and opening of postal votes a flat fee as follows:
	Towns including Chinnor	£30
	Larger village parishes	£25
	Smaller village parishes	£20
	(A Deputy Counting Officer appointed under items 2 and 3 cannot also claim the fee payable under items 9 and 10 of this scale)
4	To the Counting Officer, or a Deputy Counting Officer appointed for the purposes of making arrangements for counting the votes and declaring the results of the referendum
	Towns including Chinnor	£50
	Larger village parishes	£40
	Smaller village parishes	£30
	(A Deputy Counting Officer appointed under item 3 cannot also claim the fee payable under items 10 and 11 of this scale)

B – Disbursements

4	For the employment of persons for ... view the full minutes text for item 56.