October 2019 Minutes
Aslackby Parish Council Meetings
Minutes from meeting held on 28th October 2019
Present:
Parish Councillors
Cllr Brian Wilkinson (BW)
Cllr Rachel Stevenson (RS)
Cllr Katie Long (KL)
Cllr R Miller (RM)
Cllr Peter Morris (PM1)
Malcolm Dodds (MD)
James Leach – Clerk (JL)
District Councillors County Councillors
Press
James Leach
1 Apologies –. Cllr J Pickard (JP). Absent – Cllr Peter Morris (PM1), District Cllr Peter Moseley (PM2), County Cllr Martin Hill (MH)
2 The Chairman welcomed all present and members of the public.
3 One member of the public was present. At this point BW invited Mrs Ray to speak.
Point 1 – Mrs Ray said she had obtained information under the Freedom of Information Act pertaining to the Safety Reports on our local roads. The information contained within these reports is mainly obtained from the “Fix My Street” facility which is on the SKDC and LCC Websites where residents are able to report Highways Faults. Mrs Ray felt that it was unacceptable that these reports were not circulated to the PC as it left no room for them to question the proposed action to be taken by LCC. She had already spoken prior to the meting with JL who agreed and who said that he had hoped that MH was going to attend the meeting so that this could be put to him. As he had not attended the meeting JL said he would raise it with him at the next available opportunity.
Action: JL
Point 2 – Mrs Ray had sent an email to JL prior to the meeting concerning the number of hay lorries that had gone through the village and the subsequent disruption to the village. JL had sent a response, after talking with fellow Parish councillors, a copy of which is attached. One of Mrs Rays main points was that, if they owner of the airfield had put in a planning application, they would have had to provide a traffic management plan. Both RM, MD and BW all gave some historical background and stated that the airfield had always been allowed to store “farm produce” since the Thor missiles were removed in the late 60’s.
The road up to the airfield had originally been owned by the MOD and previous Highways Officers had stated they were not allowed to spend any money on it to maintain it. The road is classed as a Category 7 road which is only inspected every 3 years however BW stated that the fact that MH cycled the road most weeks and so it was inspected far more than Highways suggested.
Mrs Ray said that according to LCC Highways policy footpaths should also be inspected but she could not find out if and when they were last inspected. JL said he would raise this with MH when he next saw him.
Action: JL
MD said that the Laughton Junction had collapsed so JL said he would take a photo and raise it as an issue on Fix My Street.
Action: JL
Mrs Ray asked if the PC could put something on the Aslackby Facebook Page to let people know where to raise Highways Issues. JL said that the PC did not administer the Facebook page but MD said he would have a word with the Administrators and ask them to put something on.
Action: MD
4 Declarations of Interest – None.
5 Minutes of the Last Meeting – Proposed by MD and seconded by RS.
6 Matters Arising
BW again apologised that he had not obtained the stain/oil required to treat the village benches. He will do this as soon as possible. JL said he had already earmarked a person from the factory to carry out the work but would have to wait for a dry day to do it.
Action: BW
BW said he had not ordered the skip yet but would do this tomorrow.
A number of Action Points were still outstanding from the last meeting, JL will carry theses forward to the next meeting.
Action: JL
Any other items will be covered in appropriate sections below.
7 Planning
A planning application had been received had been received to replace windows at Moorefield Farm. There were no objections.
BW asked if there had been an application from Woodbine Cottage but JL said nothing had been sent through yet but that he would email details out once they came through.
Action: JL
8 Cemetery
JL said he had received an application from Set In Stone for laying an Ashes stone iro Jean Houghton. They had also sent a payment of £95.00.
BW he had not yet given instructions to JL on what to do in the event of a burial etc and said he would wait and do this the next time he received an application to bury some one or intern some ashes.
9 Neighbourhood Watch
JL said he had spoken to the mother of the children wandering the village from last months meeting but had a lack lustre response. The PC will keep an eye on the situation and raise it again if more incidents occurred.
MD said that a Defender locally had two of its doors stolen. Also, that some diesel had also been stolen.
JL said that he was having CCTV installed at his address.
10 Highways
The inspection chambers near the gulley’s on the A15 and some in the village had still not been sorted. MH had been contacted and as he had not attended the meeting again this will have to be carried over to the next meeting. JL said MH had informed him that he would be attending the meeting and was disappointed that he had not as the number of items outstanding for his attention were forever growing.
Action: JL
JL had sent photos of the manholes and drains that were still covered following the recent road resurfacing. Theses had still not been sorted. He had also reported blocked drains that were full of grit from the resurfacing. Highways had been out today to remove the grit but the drains were still overflowing as they had not been cleaned out properly. JL will again contact Highways with regards this. Also, the drain at the bottom of Mrs Scofield’s drive was still blocked.
Action: JL
BW gave a list of blocked drains – The bottom of the drive at Averley, in front of the Church, near the Ford, outside Willow View, Opposite Spring Cottage, on the main A15, at the bottom of Mrs Schofields Drive, and the land drain which goes under the road opposite Spring Cottage. All theses need unblocking and jetting. These will be raised with MH when he next attends the meeting as the situation was getting worse, especially with all the rain that there had been recently.
The state of Laughton Road was mentioned, JL said he was awaiting the Leader of the County Council MH to attend a meeting so that we could challenge him faced to face as no response was forthcoming from Highways themselves. All pot holes had been reported on the Fix My Street App but somehow, they had disappeared. Apparently, a resident in the village had spoken to MH and he had informed them that there was an issue with the App which they were trying to fix.
JL again apologised that he had still not managed to sort out the Children Playing signs and said that he had forgotten but will do this as soon as possible. JL had emailed Highways to check we are allowed to do this but was till awaiting a response.
He had also emailed Highways about reducing the speed limit outside the factory as this was a 60mph limit until you got to the junction with Temple Road. Again, he is still awaiting a response.
Action: JL
Again, responsibility for maintenance of Footpath No4 was still outstanding and would have to be raised at the next meeting, if County Councillor MH attended.
JL mentioned that the Fix My Street facility on the LCC and SKDC websites was not user friendly as it only allowed 5 photos at a time, and when you had 9 instances on one stretch of road, he had been advised to complete a form for each issue. This will be raised with MH when he next attends a meeting.
MD and BW asked about getting some more sandbags as in the recent week the beck had been within half an hour of bursting its banks and there are insufficient bags left to cope. This will be raised with MH as the situation was not helped by all the blocked drains mentioned previously.
MD also suggested that it may be worth looking at getting a list of volunteers that would be available to help should sand bags need distributing. It was agreed that this would be a good idea.
11 Finance
JL had received a number of payments.
£54.00 for scrap collected at the recent skip.
£95.00 from Set In Stone for an ashes head stone.
JL had received one invoice from Wave iro water charges - £12.07. This had already been paid.
The current balances in the bank accounts are: -
Savings account - £9499.07
Cheque Account - £1183.57
RM questioned the cost of the pads and the frequency following the item in the last minutes. JL explained that the pads needed replacing every couple of years whether they and been used or not. He also stated that he had recycled the old pads by sending them back to Heartbeat who would distribute them to 3rd world countries.
JL had spoken to JP who said he had not yet claimed the VAT refund. He assured JL this would be done before the next meeting.
Action: JL
JL said he had recently had an issue with the bank accounts when trying to transfer money from one account to the other. He had been informed that we had the wrong account and it should be a business account. He had spoken to someone else, at Lloyds, since and had now been informed this was not the case but felt he should raise it in case we had issues in the future.
12 Correspondence
All correspondence had been actioned in previous sections above.
13 SKDC Update/Neighbourhood Plan
No one was available from SKDC to give an update.
JL had stated that he had still been unable to find someone at SKDC that would be able to give any type of update but will keep trying.
Action: JL
14 Lincolnshire County Council Update
No one was available from LCC to give an update.
15 A.O.B
BW stated that the skip had been a great success once again and was overflowing by the end.
JL said he was still awaiting a response re a first Aid Course.
JL stated that there would be no meeting in November and the final meeting of the year would be held on 02nd December.
RM asked if JL could send him MH’s email address. JL said he would do this
Action: JL
16 Date of next meeting Monday 02nd December 2019 – 8.00 pm at the Village Hall. Meeting closed at 08.55 pm