March 2019 Minutes
Minutes from meeting held on 25th March 2019
Present:
Cllr Brian Wilkinson (BW), Cllr Rachel Stevenson (RS), Cllr Brynley Heaven (BH), Cllr J Pickard (JP), Cllr Frances Cartwright (FC), Cllr Malcolm Dodds (MD), County Cllr Martin Hill (MH)
James Leach – Clerk (JL)
Press
James Leach
1 Apologies – none. Absent – Cllr Peter Morris (PM1), District Cllr Peter Moseley (PM2),
2 The Chairman welcomed all present.
3 No members of the public were present
4 Declarations of Interest – None.
5 Minutes of the Last Meeting – Proposed by RS and seconded by MD.
6 Matters Arising
None – these will be covered in appropriate sections below.
7 Planning
A change of use planning application had been received from Mr G Atkinson to change some farmland into a Green Burial Site. JL had emailed and spoken to all Parish Councillors and no objections had been raised. JL had received a number of telephone calls from a local resident objecting to the development and had also received two letters raising concerns. Unfortunately, these had been received after the deadline for responses. JL had however put these concerns on the response that went back to SKDC.
The application form Mr Baxter to demolish a bungalow and replace with a two-storey house had been given planning permission but with certain conditions.
8 Cemetery
There had been one internment of ashes, since the last meeting, of the late Jean Houghton.
JL had spoken to BW re the new Cemetery fees that were agreed at the last meeting and BW will distribute these to the local Funeral Directors and not JL as stated in the last minutes.
ACTION: BW
JL is still awaiting instructions regards burials and keeping the Cemetery Books in order etc. He will prepare this and speak to JL in the near future.
ACTION: BW
There was a lengthy discussion re the state of the grass at the entrance to the Cemetery. This was now in a very poor state due to cars, mainly from the nearby factory, parking on there. This was despite the workers being told repeatedly not to. BW & JL proposed that a barrier should be erected. Numerous options were discussed but eventually, with advice from MH, it was decided that we should contact Lincolnshire Highways and ask for some plastic poles with reflectors which are sometimes used to line the grass verges and were flexible so as not to cause damage to vehicles. JL will contact Highways and ask them to supply these.
ACTION: JL
9 Neighbourhood Watch
Nothing to report since the last meeting, however there was still no resolution with regards the burning of straw and manure at Laughton Manor. JL had received a response from SKDC Environmental who have said they have had no complaints from residents. They have sent out a log to JL and requested that it be completed and backed up by photographic evidence if the issues persist and as soon as they receive this they will respond immediately. MH said that he was aware of the concerns but that Environmental were on top of it.
10 Highways
BW said that the inspection chambers near the gulley’s on the A15 that ran from the Village Hall to the Pub had still not been sorted.
ACTION: JL
MH said he would look into this to check why as they should be cleared once a year. However, he did state that if they were not on their current schedule that would explain why they had not been done. He also mentioned the state of some of the gulley’s out of the village towards the airfield which he will also look in to. He asked BW to send a list/map of where all the gulley’s were to which BW said he had already done this in the past.
JL had received a response from Lincolnshire Highways with regards to the Parish Agreement. The Agreement had now been agreed and the sum that would be paid to Aslackby & Laughton PC would be £494.94. This is to be paid at the end of the cutting season. JL had sent copies of the PC’s contractor’s insurance but had been informed this was not acceptable. JL & JP are to look for the PC’s own insurance and JL will ask LALC for advice. JL also asked MH if he could explain why Lincolnshire Highways would not accept the Contractors Insurance as they were the ones doing the work. MH said he would look in to this as he agreed it was not logical.
ACTION: JL/JP/MH
MH said he had reported the pot holes on the road up to Low Park Farm as he had received some complaints about these. BW stated that our mowing contractors had been told by the church that they were no longer able to cut the Church yard grass. SKDC have taken the work back in house but he was unsure how they were going to make this pay as the SKDC men had been there this week and it had taken two men all day, whereas when our contractors did it they were there only a couple of hours and did a fantastic job. BW had also noticed that the equipment that SKDC were using was far too big for the task.
11 Finance
JL had received a number of invoices which he will clear before the end of March in time for the end of year accounts. He will also send JP updated books as of 31st March.
ACTION: JL
JL had read the water meter and sent this to Anglian Water/Wave.
As a result, a revised calculation had been received and the final bill was for £5.07. This had been paid by JL.
The other invoices received were:
Village Hall Hire - £120.00
Rates Bill – zero
LALC Subscription - £77.93
LALC Training Subscription - £78.00. It was agreed at previous meetings that we would not do this so this will not be paid.
Clerks Wages - £480.00
Expences - £98.33
HMRC - £120.00
JL said he did not have an up to date balance of the accounts as he had not received the latest bank statement. The balance should be similar to that at the last meeting taking into account the £100 donation made to CAB and the receipt for the internment of ashes.
Therefore the balance will be around £12000.00.
The PC had received payment of £180.00 for the Internment of ashes which had been paid into the savings account.
JL had received a thank you letter from CAB for the £100.00 donation the PC had made last month.
JP stated that no VAT refund had been claimed last year so it was agreed that two years would be claimed this year.JP will do this once this year’s accounts had been closed off. He will then prepare accounts for AGM/APM.
ACTION: JP
JL said grass cutting will commence again next month at the new price of £100 per cut. He therefore asked for a number of cheques to be signed to cover the above invoices and the first grass cutting invoices and skip.
JL was asked to leave the room at this point as the PC were to discuss a pay increase.
On his return the PC had agreed that a pay increase should be given as JL did a sterling job as Clerk and had not received an increase in the last 9 years. The new pay award would bring him in line with recommendations from LALC. His new salary will be £2500.00 and will commence from the 1st of April. It was decided that this would not be backdated. JL said he was happy with this.
ACTION: JL
He will email Ladywell, the PC accountants, and notify them of this change.
BW said that even though current balances were OK the PC may have to take the pay increase into account when putting in for next year’s Precept.
JP asked if an invoice had been received yet for the Defibrillator service. JL said he had not received this as yet.
12 Correspondence
JL went through correspondence received. Anything that had required action he had already emailed to Parish Councillors prior to the meeting. No feedback was forthcoming. Any other post requiring action had already been dealt with in previous sections above.
13 SKDC Update/Neighbourhood Plan
No one was available from SKDC to give an update on the Neighbourhood Plan. FC said the only updates she had wee that SKDC had decided to spend some money on refurbing Bourne Corn Exchange and part of this involved moving the entrance back to the front of the building. A comment was made that this may be dangerous as it was very close to the main road.
SKDC have now spent all their reserves and so there would be interesting times ahead financially, see previous comments re Church yard Grass Cutting.
14 Lincolnshire County Council Update
MH said there was no update from LCC and any comments he had already made in previous sections above.
15 A.O.B
BW said that the skip date had now been changed to the 4th May due to the previous date clashing with something else. JL will do slips for each resident once confirmed.
ACTION: JL
JL said the Parish Elections were on 2nd May so he needed all applications completed so he can drop them off next week. It was agreed to complete these after the meeting. JL also stated that he had no correspondence from PM1 so could not say if he was willing to stand for re-election. If this was the case there would still be two vacancies as FC and
ACTION: JL
The next meeting will be the APM and AGM so there will be an earlier start of 7.00PM
16 Date of next meeting Monday 13th May 2019 – 7.00 pm at the Village Hall. Meeting closed at 09.21 pm