January 2019 Minutes
Minutes from meeting held on 7th January 2019
Present:
Cllr Brian Wilkinson (BW), Cllr Rachel Stevenson (RS), Cllr Brynley Heaven (BH), Cllr Frances Cartwright (FC), Cllr John Pickard (JP), Cllr Malcolm Dodds (MD), County Councillor Martin Hill (MH)
James Leach – Clerk (JL)
Press
James Leach
1 Apologies –. Cllr Peter Morris (PM1). Absent – District Cllr Peter Moseley (PM2)
2 The Chairman welcomed all present.
3 One member of the public was present – Ms K Long (KL)
4 Declarations of Interest – None.
5 Minutes of the Last Meeting – Proposed by MD and seconded by RS.
6 Matters Arising
None
7 Planning
One new planning application had been a received from Mr A Baxter, to demolish a bungalow and replace with a two storey house. The application was discussed at length and although there were some moral objections it was agreed no objections would be raised. BW asked KL if she wished to make comment. KL said that, as her property neighboured the proposed development her only concerns were the height as she would not like to be overshadowed by a larger property, especially as the current bungalow could not be seen from her property. BH commented that we should raise no objections full stop however it was agreed that JL was to send response to SKDC with a note highlighting the flooding risk and that any new property should not overshadow neighbouring cottages and be sympathetic to St James Church.
ACTION: JL
JL had now received formal notification that everything was now satisfactory with regards re Mr & Mrs Hill’s Planning Appeal. Mr & Mrs Hill had now moved the shed as requested. They have also now erected a fence along their boundary.
8 Cemetery
JL said that we need to review the Cemetery fees. BW said he had not prepared anything but would do this in time for the next meeting. BW said that he also needed to show other PC members what needed to be done with regards burials and keeping the Cemetery Books in order etc. He will prepare this and speak to JL in the near future.
ACTION: BW
9 Neighbourhood Watch
A number of scrap thefts had occurred from the Airfield and some Hare Coursers had been challenged by the landowner.
10 Highways
MH said he had noticed that the recently resurfaced roads had been swept and said that it had been as a result of a resident complaint. JL said he had also raised the issue as the condition of the road had become dangerous. He also stated that he had received a number of thanks from residents for getting it done. JL said the road chippings had already started to come loose again since the road was swept and that he will keep an eye on it and if necessary report it again.
ACTION: JL
BW mentioned to MH about the state of the inspection chambers near the gulley’s on the A15 that ran from the Village Hall to the Pub. These were now full of soil and so overflowed every time it rained. MH said he would look into this and get them cleaned out. BW said he would mark where the gulley’s were so that they were not missed.
ACTION: MH/BW
The two broken street lights reported last time had still not been repaired. JL had contacted SKDC and also reported another 3 broken lights and they have passed the jobs on to their contractors. He will keep an eye on the situation and chaise SKDC again if they were not repaired in the next ten days.
ACTION: JL
BW asked MH to comment on the letter received from Lincolnshire Highways re the Parish Agreement, especially around the requirements for Public Liability Insurance. MH read the letter and said the PC’s own insurance should be sufficient but as we were using a contractor we would need to satisfy ourselves that they had sufficient cover. JL will request this from Britain’s. JP will give JL copy of PC Public Liability Insurance.
ACTION: JL/JP
JL said he had spoken with Britain’s to say we wished to employ their services again next year and had received a response to say they will do the first cuts in April.
JL had still not received a response from LCC Highways to say how the PC could recover the allowance allocated for the two cuts per year and how much this will be. He will chaise this up in time for the next meeting.
ACTION: JL
JL has reported the damaged road sign at the junction with Temple Road and the A15, he will chaise progress.
ACTION: JL
The missing village road sign on the Northbound carriage way was discussed and MH advised that the PC should contact LCC Highways to get this installed. JL said he will do this.
ACTION: JL
11 Finance
No invoices had been received since the last meeting so the account balances remained the same. The Current Account balance was £1234.97 and the Savings Account stood at £10253.89 – Total £11940.86.
JL had sent a copy of the cash flow to JP in order to look at next year’s Precept. For some reason last year, the PC only claimed £3500 when the year before it had been £3900. No explanation could be given for this.
A discussion was had as to how much the PC should request for this year. Taking into account the fact that no grant would be received from SKDC and the fact that the PC would need to find additional funds for the increased grass cutting that would be required it was agreed to request a payment of £3900. This was proposed by JL and seconded by BW. JL will get the forms returned to SKDC this week.
ACTION: JL
JL said that as far as he could see there had been no VAT refund claimed last year. JP said he would look into this and complete the return if necessary. JP said this was now done on line.
ACTION: JP
JL said he had received notification from NALC re the pay award for Clerks for 2019. He asked if his pay could be reviewed in line with this. JP and BW said they would look at this and report back at the next meeting. In the meantime, JP asked JL to forward his weekly hours to him so that they can look at the figures on a pro-rata basis. JL said he would do this.
ACTION: JL
12 Correspondence
JL went through correspondence received. Most of this had been dealt with in previous sections above. The only two items that had not were an email from the Red Cross with dates for the free First Aid Courses. And a subscription request from Clerks and Councils Direct.
It was agreed that the subscription would not be required as the new pamphlet was not read and did not contain any news relevant to the local area.
Two course dates had been supplied by the Red Cross, 04/02/2019 and 14/02/2019, but both of these were during the day. It was agreed that only an evening course would be of benefit so JL will get back to the Red Cross to see if they can offer an evening event. JP said that if they could not the benefactors who had funded the defibrillator had offered to pay for a First Aid Course. BW asked that we avoid the 2nd Wednesday evening of each month as the Hall was booked for another event.
ACTION: JL
JP also stated that they will also pay for a service on the defibrillator. JL will have a look at the recommended service engineers to service the defibrillator and report back at the next meeting.
ACTION: JL
13 SKDC Update/Neighbourhood Plan
No one was available from SKDC to give an update.
14 Lincolnshire County Council Update
MH said there was no update for LCC.
15 A.O.B
BW said the next meeting dates would be 18/02/2019, 01/04/2019 and 13/05/2019 which will be the AGM and APM and will start at 7pm instead of the usual 8pm.
16 Date of next meeting Monday 18th February 2019 – 8.00 pm at the Village Hall. Meeting closed at 09.04 pm