Agenda and minutes

Councillors Taylor, Brookes, Williams and Huntley.

None received.

The Minutes of the meeting of 20 January 2016 were recorded as a true record.

The draft account figures were prepared in the same format as previous meetings however Wales Audit did not require this format anymore, only an annual return although the original format was still used for purposes of consistency.  The Assistant Accountant had received communications from some of the local authorities on their balances.  These accounts would be approved subject to Wales Audit. 

Resolved

That the Gwent Crematorium Draft Accounts were noted by the Committee and signed-off by the Chair.

The committee was informed that the damp patch on the ceiling, which was raised at the last meeting.  K Donovan met with the Superintendent Radiographer recently and would be submitting a cost sheet.  The work was expected to be completed within three weeks.  A cherry picker would be used and times of maintenance work would be undertaken during evenings and weekends, using a low-odour paint.  Other work to be carried out included the exterior of the building, again a cherry picker would be used and not scaffolding, which would spoil the exterior of the building.  Re-rendering would be carried out to the front face of the building and the cloister area and a general touch-up of the outside of the building, with some minor repairs.

To consider any issues raised by the Funeral Director.

S Tom advised the Committee that the only issue was time keeping of Ministers who were providing a service and running over the 20 minute time slot, which they felt was too short.  Some of the members who work regularly in the Cardiff and Gwent areas were accustomed to regular stakeholders meetings. S Tom considered that this did not need to be put into practice at the Crematorium as he and the Superintendent Registrar met often and were able to deal with any issues on a regular basis.  S Tom’s only other concern was membership; 95% were part of the National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD), however the 5% did not have a voice.

The Chair asked were Funeral Directors receiving a lot of complaints about service times.  In response, the Cremation was popular choice for the people of Gwent but the issue seemed to be easing off.

The Superintendent Radiographer also mentioned that publishing the availability on the website had improved the issues surrounding time.

The Superintendent informed those present that a new gardener had been appointed; Justin Norman from Belle Vue Park.  Since his employment, the gardens had improved and there had been a lot of comments on how beautiful they looked.

The Crematorium was assessed for Green Flag status this month and nearly all parks in Newport were Green Flag Accredited.  A Management plan was put together and all paperwork and records were inspected on site.  A further inspection of the gardens was then carried out with questions to staff.  The Superintendent felt that the outcome would be positive, considering the short period in which they had time to prepare.

There had been a significant decrease on viewers/users for the online book of condolence. This was probably due to a specific browser being used that did not record people viewing the site, confirmation from web host would resolve this.

The cremation figures were lower than the previous year.  Last year the Crematorium was extremely busy, however this was tapering off.

Interviews for the Deputy Manager were due to take place next week.

Wednesday 14 September 2016 at 2pm in Committee Room 4.

2pm Wednesday 14 September 2016, Committee Room 4.