October 2020 Minutes
Aslackby Parish Council Meetings
Minutes from meeting held on 12th October 2020
Present:
Parish Councillors
Cllr Brian Wilkinson (BW)
Cllr Rachel Stevenson (RS)
Malcolm Dodds (MD)
Cllr R Miller (RM)
Cllr Katie Long (KL)
James Leach – Clerk (JL)
District Councillors
County Councillors
County Cllr Martin Hill (MH)
Press
James Leach
1 Apologies – Cllr Peter Morris (PM1), Cllr J Pickard (JP)
Absent – District Cllr Peter Moseley (PM2)
2 The Chairman welcomed all present and members of the public.
3 One members of the public was present. – Mr Willie Key (WK) – contact details were taken for Track and Trace. BW asked Mr Key if he would like to speak but he said no as it was a matter, he wished to see MH about. MH gave his update and then he and WK left the meeting. WK returned to the meeting after his discussion with MH.
4 Declarations of Interest – None.
5 Minutes of the Last Meeting – Proposed by BW and seconded by RM.
6 Matters Arising
At the last meeting RM asked if we had a local contact for Gareth Davies MP. JL said he did not he only had the House of commons contact. MH confirmed that the only means of contact was the House of Commons email. He also mentioned that the MP would soon be moving into the area but did not say where.
7 Planning
No new planning applications had been received since the last meeting.
RM asked if JL would receive any more info on the Planning Consultation document he had recently sent out. JL responded that he did not know but that if anything further came, he would pass it on.
8 Cemetery
Nothing to report..
9 Neighbourhood Watch
Nothing to report, apart from a couple of Hare Coursing incidents.
The car that had also been abandoned in a field on Kirkby Underwood Road was still there. It has been reported to the Police.
10 Highways
JL had still not obtained the figure that the PC would receive for Grass Cutting next year. He will provide this as soon as he gets it.
Action: JL
JL & BW gave another update on the work carried out so far since the village walkabout with Highways in March.
• Clearing gulleys and inspection chambers on the A15. These had still not been done so MH said he would chase it up.
Action: MH
• Unblocking drains in the village – these have all now been done except 4 at the on the bend on the road going up to Low Park Farm. MH said he would chase these up.
Action: MH
• Outstanding pot holes and the general state of the roads a number of pot holes have been filled in recently but parts of the road between the village and Low Park were still in a state. The potholes on Laughton Road were still outstanding despite works orders being raised. MH said he would look into this but that Highways were under extreme pressure and due to the COVID outbreak were not completing jobs as quickly as they would like. JL also stated he had received a number of complaints to villagers about the state of Laughton Road. He had advised them to contact LCC Highways.
Action: MH
• Pot holes in the Ford and on the Ford bridge. – these are not a priority and will be monitored.
Action: MH
• Clearing out the gulleys at the new head walls just as you leave the village towards Low Park – this is the landowner’s responsibility. MH said this was not the case and he will have a word with Highways about getting them cleared.
• The drains between Seraphina and the Ford require jetting as blocked and over flowing. – These were now clear and an inspection chamber had been uncovered.
• Response from Highways re possibility of putting up speed signs “Children playing” – still outstanding
• Water on grass bank opposite Moorfiled Farm – in progress
• Village Hall Sign – this had now been replaced.
• The Laughton junction near Temple Fram had been repaired but all they had done was fill the dip with tarmac. This had now broken up again and would need doing again or the road repairing properly. MH said putting in curbs may help. He will have a word with Highways about this.
Action: MH
• Two man hole covers one opposite West Cottage and One at the bottom of the driveway at Averly had been inspected and we had been informed this was Anglian Water responsibility. After some discussion with MH it was agreed that it was Highways responsibility to replace these with proper Highways covers rather than the domestic covers that were installed by highways some time ago. MH will speak to Highways about these.
Action: MH
BW said that Rowan Smith who had done the village walkaround had now been given a smaller area to manage so hopefully any outstanding issues would be dealt with quicker.
RM asked if the 30mph signs had been moved yet outside the factory. JL said no but he will chase this up. He will also chase up the Aslackby sign that was missing from the northbound A15 road.
Action: JL
WK asked if anything could be done about the hedge on Mr Baxter’s property as it was becoming dangerous when trying to pull out on to the road. BW said he would mention it.
Action: BW
BW also mentioned the hedge as you pull on to the main A15 which belonged to one of Cook’s rental properties. MD said he would speak to someone about this.
Action: MD
11 Finance
JL said that the Agenda item re Clerks wages will be put on the Agenda for the next meeting and discussed then.
JL said he had now received the refund of £509.94 for the grass cutting this year.
JL said he had received the following Invoices which he has now paid.
• Water Rates - £11.97
• Grass Cutting - £200.00 (x2)
• L Fisher – Cemetery - £486.00
• Bourne Skip Hire - £ 282.00
• LALC Magazine - £17.50
At this point BW said that the recent skip had been very busy and was overflowing by the time it was collected. JL said there had been a full load of scrap and also, he had taken a couple more loads from his next-door neighbour. This had resulted in payment of £300 which had easily paid for the skip. JL said he had spoken to the scrap dealer and they had given him a skip at no charge which had been delivered to his next floor neighbour and would generate more money once it was full. JL proposed, that as enough had already been raised to cover the skip charge that any additional money should be split between the Church the Village Hall and the PC. This was unanimously agreed.
JL also asked that if anyone had more scrap let him know and it could go in the skip as he did not think it would be filled fully with the scrap from his neighbour. MD said he could have some to go in the skip. JL will liaise with MD to move this when appropriate.
Action: JL
BW said that before a skip was ordered for the Spring we would need to decide if we go for another 12-yard skip or 2 x 8-yard skips to prevent the overspill that occurred at the recent one. JL will add this as an Agenda Item for February’s meeting.
Action: JL
JL said he had done the monthly Defibrillator return and had received a request for a donation of £5.00 from Community Heartbeat and Webnos, to help continue looking after the equipment. All agreed that this was a good idea. JL will arrange this as it is done by Text Message and then reclaim it with his expenses in March.
Action: JL
12 Correspondence
JL had received no new correspondence in the last few days and anything he received electronically was now emailed to each Councillor when he received it.
The only paperwork he had received was the LALC Annual Report, anything else had already been dealt with in earlier sections.
13 SKDC Update/Neighbourhood Plan
No one was available from SKDC to give an update,
14 Lincolnshire County Council Update
MH gave a brief update, please see Highways section for information on outstanding issues. BW said that the guys who had done cleared the drains had done a very good job.
MH said obviously the main subject at the moment was the new spike in COVID-19 cases. Lincolnshire was still in a better than most of the UK but LCC were monitoring developments closely as it changed on a daily basis. Any new impacts would be sent out as and when required.
RM asked what would happen if Nottinghamshire was locked down as we were in a NG postcode. MH said as far as he was aware it was county wide and not necessarily done by postcode so if there was a lockdown it would be the whole of Lincolnshire. He stressed that as long as people were sensible and washed hands etc he hope that Lincolnshire would be OK.
He said that some schools locally had a few cases but they seemed to be contained at present.
The local tips were now using a booking service and you could only take certain items on certain days. This system seemed to be working very well and they may continue to use it even when things improve as there was no waiting and it was a lot quicker. If you want to book a slot you need to go on the website and book a slot.
Budget wise LCC are doing OK at the moment but obviously the next few months would be telling, depending on how long the pandemic went on for. A lot of things were currently on hold until LCC know how things are going to pan out.
15 A.O.B
JL said he had received an email via LALC from a person who had offered to help build the new PC website for free. JL asked if he could approach this person to se what he could do as JL was finding it difficult to find the time to do all this work before the current website was disabled in December. All agreed that there was no harm in sounding the person out to see what he could do and to make sure there was no charge. JL will do this.
Action: JL
The next meeting will be on 30th November, as long as there were no further lock downs.
16 Date of next meeting Monday 30th November 2020 – 8.00 pm at the Village Hall. Meeting closed at 20.50 pm