Page 21 - Phonebox Magazine February 2007

Mercury Report
Olney Town Council Meeting of Monday 8th January 2007
Public participation
Rachel Linton, representing the Olney Newton Link (ONL), was the only speaker this week. As reported before, the ONL is organising a Skills Day on Saturday 24th March. There has been a good response to its request for people and businesses to demonstrate their skills, with 31 crafts people, businesses and groups agreeing to take part. They will be based in the Olney Centre, St. Peter and St. Paul Church and some in their own premises. The ONL is now working to publicise the event.
Weather permitting, the day will open with a ceremony at 10am on the Market Square attended by Paul Watson (Olney's Mayor) and MP Mark Lancaster.
Police report
This month's report was given by PC Kevin Leaney. There were 27 offences in December. These included one of harassment, one of sending nuisance text messages, one of threatened damage, one of drug possession (Cattle Market car park), one of deception, one of public order, two of assault, three of
burglary from factories, four of theft from vehicles and five of criminal damage to vehicles.
CCTV cameras
Chris Day, a local security expert, has arranged for an independent specification of possible CCTV installations in the town to be drawn up. This investigative work is being done at no cost to Olney Town Council. The specification will contain a number of phases, the first three of which are:
1. The East Street car park;
2. Some aspects of the Sports Clubs; 3. Further aspects of the Sports Clubs.
The Council intends to implement phase one then have discussions with the Sports Clubs before moving on to phases two and three. Since the Council has already agreed to do this work, it will proceed to get three tenders based on the specification.
Money matters
This time last year, the Council invested £231,000 in a Barclays one year bond at an interest rate of 4%. The one year period is about to end and, after some discussion,
Councillors agreed to invest the money coming out of this bond in a new Barclays six month bond at an interest rate of 4.5%. The decision to invest for just six months was taken on the basis that interest rates appear likely to rise over the next few months (and indeed did rise between the meeting and the time of writing this report) and so the Council may be able to find a better rate in six months' time.
Replacement tractor
The smaller of the groundsmen's two tractors, bought second hand in 1987, has developed an engine fault. Given its age and the severity of the fault Tony Evans believed it would be sensible to replace it. He ran through various options for its replacement which included both buying a smaller unit, and replacing the faulty one with the larger of the groundsmen's tractors and buying another to replace that. The option of buying the smaller tractor was preferred and noting that, since some of its work involves driving along the High Street watering the hanging baskets (for which being small is an advantage), purchasing a yet smaller one would be sensible. Michael Hughes asked if it
24 Phonebox Magazine
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