July 2021 DRAFT Minutes
DRAFT Minutes from meeting held on 12th July 2021
Present:
Parish Councillors
Cllr Brian Wilkinson (BW), Cllr Rachel Stevenson (RS), Cllr Malcolm Dodds (MD), Cllr R Miller (RM), Cllr Katie Long (KL), Cllr John Pickard
James Leach – Clerk (JL)
Press
James Leach
1 Apologies – None
Absent – County Cllr Martin Hill (MH)
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 KL.
6 Matters Arising
All matters from the last meeting, except those listed below, had been dealt with and would be noted under the relevant headings below.
- The previous two Chairman’s reports had still not been put on the new website. JL will do this before the next meeting.
Action: JL
- BW still had not repaired the sunken grave in the Cemetery.
Action: BW
- JP still needed to do the VAT refund. He will do this in the next couple of days.
Action: JP
7 Planning
3 planning applications had been received since the last meeting. JL had already responded to SKDC as he had received no objections. See below: -
S21/1002 – 25/05/2021 – Mr Shaw – Landscaping of the proposed development on the Dovecote - Passed
S21/1204 – 24/06/2021 – Daniels – pollarding & felling of a number of trees – Passed
S21/1205 – 24/06/2021 – Talbot – pollarding & felling of a number of trees – Passed
A number of Councillors said that they had some concerns with the pair of semidetached houses that were currently being built opposite the Church. The main concern was that within the planning application there has been an allowance for parking for only one car per household. In recent weeks there had been a number of vehicles parked on the main road which made the roadway extremely narrow, especially if farm machinery needed to pass. As most household now days had a minimum of two vehicles, there was concern that, once the houses were occupied, this would cause problems with the flow of traffic, especially if there were events being held at the Church. MD asked if the PC could put parking restrictions signs up to help prevent this, however JL & BW said that this would be a Highways matter and would need to be investigated by them. JL will contact Highways for advice. He will also send an email to SKDC Planning for comments.
Action: JL
8 Cemetery
There have been no internments since the last meeting.
Cemetery maintenance had commenced and JL had received an invoice for work carried out since last year. See Finance below for details.
BW asked if the hedge had been completed as when he last looked only one side had been done. MD said he would see Lionel and ask the question.
Action: MD
BW had now sent a copy of the revised Cemetery fees to the relevant undertakers.
9 Neighbourhood Watch
No incidents of note had been reported since the last meeting. A comment had been passed to the clerk to say that neighbours in Aveland Close were concerned that there was some drug dealing occurring. No other details had been given. BW said he would have a word with residents to check the details and if necessary, report it to the Police. JL also said he would contact his Police liaison officer for advice.
Action: BW/JL
10 Highways
A number of Highways issues were still outstanding and unfortunately BW and JL had been unable to speak with County Councillor MH to get an update. The most urgent outstanding issues are listed below:
- Clearing gulleys and inspection chambers on the A15. These had still not been done and with the recent heavy rain’s floodwater had again poured into the village. BW said MH had been asked about this on numerous occasion both at PC meetings and whilst he was out and about and MH had promised to look into this. BW will try and catch MH and remind him.
Action: BW
- Pot holes in the Ford and on the Ford bridge. – these were still outstanding and had been inspected recently so hopefully they will be repaired soon.
- 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. See above BW to check with MH.
Action: BW
- Response from Highways re possibility of putting up speed signs “Children playing” – still outstanding. JL will approach Highways again, especially in view of the new concerns re parking at the new pair of semi-detached homes being built opposite the Church.
Action: JL
- Water on grass bank opposite Moorfiled Farm – still in progress, also new telegraph pole had been erected due the blocked and overflowing drain it had gone rotten.
- The Laughton junction near Temple Farm 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. This is still outstanding. Since the last meeting a local landowner had filled in the holes with hardcore. BW to check with MH as to why this repair is still outstanding. JL also going to raise another FixMyStreet incident.
Action: BW/JL
- Missing Aslackby sign on A15, still awaiting feedback from MH on this. BW to chase.
Action: BW
A number of other potholes had been reported by JL since the last meeting. Theses had now been fixed. A number of very large and dangerous road defects had been repaired on Laughton Road but on recent inspection JL had found that only 1 corner had been repaired and there were still at least 30 extremely large pot holes that had not been looked at. On a recent ride on his pushbike he had found that in certain areas the holes were so big that he could stand his bike up in them. In fact, the road was now in such a bad condition that all traffic was now coming through the village. The local funeral director had now refused to use this road due to the risk of damaging his hearse and any coffins he was carrying. These were initially reported over a year ago and were still outstanding. JL will check the original report for progress and if necessary, raise another incident.
Action: JL
JL read out a recent article from a local newspaper where MH had stated that LCC had agreed to allocate another £10 million for road repairs and resurfacing as this had been the number 1 concern at the recent by-elections.
JL said that the hedge by the Ford was now so wide that you could not pass over the bridge without scratching your car. MD & RM will speak to the local landowner and ask him to cut the hedge back.
Action: MD/RM
JL said he had been approached by a number of residents to complain about the state of the two public footpaths in the village as they were now completely over grown. JL explained that LCC no longer maintained these footpaths. All local landowners had cleared the footpaths across their fields however the public were unable to access them due to the state of the footpaths in the village, especially the one at the side of the old school. BW and JL said they would look at clearing them in the next few weeks, but that it may be worth mentioning it to MH if/when he turns up for a future meeting. JL asked if he should approach the mowing contractors about how much extra it would be to include these on their regular maintenance visits. It was agreed that this was a good idea so JL will contact BDG for a quote.
Action: BW/JL
JL said a couple of residents had approached him with regards the trees on the Green and outside the Manor House. A number of these trees had dead branches and were concerned that these may fall down and injure a resident when walking their dogs or sitting on the bench. Also, it was pointed out that a couple of the trees were now overhanging the main highway and that these may be damaged once the local harvest traffic started in the next couple of months. BW said this was Highways responsibility so JL will contact them with regards this.
Action: JL
11 Finance
JL said he had received a number of Invoices since the last meeting which he had now paid.
- Water Rates - £12.02
- Grass Cutting - £200.00
- Replacement battery for Defibrillator - £223.20
- Cemetery maintenance - £368.00
JL said he had also made a donation to the Village Hall and St James’s Church, as agreed at the last meeting, and he received a thank you letter from both parties which he read out.
He said he had also written a thank you letter for the resident who had donated a substantial amount of scrap last year and had enabled the above donations to be possible.
JL had put the Governance Statement on to the website. He had received no requests from residents to view the accounts.
JP said he had sent all relevant docs to the External Auditors.
JL informed th PC that he had now engaged the service of CTS accountancy services who had agreed to take on the payroll for the PC at a cost of £25.00 per annum. This was the same price that the PC were charged by Ladywell, who had now ceased trading.
JL had contacted SKDC Planning with regards the Phone box, as it is a listed building if the PC wished to consider a Change of use, it would be required to complete a Change of Use planning application. This would normally cost £462.00 but as a PC we would receive a discount of 50%. Please see AOB for additional information as to where we are with this process.
JL gave a brief update with regards proposed fees for maintenance of the new PC website. He had attended an on-line meeting with LALC and a final decision would be made in September, however, the proposed fee being discussed was £15.00 per month which JL said he still believed was value for money.
12 Correspondence
All correspondence had been dealt with via email since the last meeting in October. The only needing attention are listed below:
- JL had received information with regards the Parish Councillor vacancy from Electoral Services at SKDC. The PC must advertise the vacancy as soon as is practicably possible. It was therefore agreed that JL will do this within the next week. The advert will need to be placed on the village notice board and the new website and should remain there for 14 days. If there is more than one applicant AND 10 or more Parishioners request an election then this will be done. However, if there is only one applicant or no applicants the PC would be able to co-opt someone on to the council. There is no time limit for this. JL will place the advert on the notice board and website and await any applications.
Action: JL
- JL had received an email from CAB to confirm that they were now open for face to face meetings.
- Information had been sent from LCC regards grants being available for improved Broadband connectivity. These were available for individuals and small businesses. Anyone interested should contact LCC at onlincolnshire@lincolnshire.gov.uk or dtstovin@aol.com who were administering the scheme.
Finally, JL had attended an online meeting with LALC and other Parish Clerks and had found it extremely useful. Out of this meeting it became apparent that there were a number of policies that the PC should have in place and were currently not documented or in existence for the PC. JL showed a copy of the list and said that he and JP would go through the list and feedback at the next meeting. BW also took a copy as he though he had a number of them already so will check and feedback.
13 SKDC Update/Neighbourhood Plan
No one was available from SKDC to give an update.
14 Lincolnshire County Council Update
No one was available from SKDC to give an update.
15 A.O.B
Phone box – JL said he was still awaiting a response from English Heritage so would contact them again and hopefully have some more info for the next meeting. BW aid he had seen the interested parties who wanted to take on the phone box, however none had been available for todays meeting. He had agreed with them that they should come to the next meeting and discuss their ideas and proposals then.
Action: JL
Following on from an email JL had received with the times of future meetings, a discussion was had between Parish Councillors and it was unanimously agreed that all future meetings should commence at 7.00pm. JL will amend future Agendas to this affect.
Action: JL
JL said that the website was now virtually complete but he still needed to ask Peter Langford to include a sentence with regards Graby. He will do this before the next meeting.
Action: JL
JL said he had now completed his training on the new Website however Peter would continue to support him until a decision was made by LALC on future maintenance. Please see previous note under Finance.
JL said he had received an ad with regards Coronation Mugs iro Queens Jubilee next year. It was decided that a decision would be taken in the future as the cost of the mugs was quite expensive & the consensus of opinion was that they would not be very popular.
16 Date of next meeting Monday 06th September 2021 – 7.00 pm at the Village Hall. Meeting closed at 20.07pm