December 2021 Minutes

Aslackby Parish Council Meetings

Minutes from meeting held on 06th December 2021

Present:

Parish Councillors      

Cllr Brian Wilkinson (BW)
Cllr John Pickard (JP)
Cllr Malcolm Dodds (MD) 
Cllr Rachel Stevenson (RS)
Cllr R Miller (RM)
Cllr Katie Long (KL)
Cllr Sue Roberts (SR)

James Leach – Clerk (JL)

District Councillors   County Councillors   

District Cllr Dr Peter Moseley (PM)
County Cllr Martin Hill (MH)   

Press       
James Leach       


1   Apologies – none 

Absent – none   

2   The Chairman welcomed all present.    

3   2 members of the public were present. –  Alison Ray (AR) and Alison Carrbilas (AC)

Also, Maisie Mahon (MM) – Police Safer Together Team   

3a   The Chairman welcomed all present and asked the two members of the public if they would like to speak.

They both responded to say they had nothing to say.

He then asked Maisie if she would like to speak.

MM explained her role to the meeting. She firstly apologised that the main reason for her visit to the meeting had been superseded. She had come to talk to the PC about the Police Precept Survey, however this had now been closed so no further input from members of the public was available. Originally it should have been available for 6 weeks to complete but it was closed after 3 weeks. RM asked if the Precept Survey would be reopened to which MM said no, it will not be available now again until next year.

MM said that she had already had a lot of contact from JL in respect of a number of incidents that had happened in the Parish. One of the most recent was the possibility of drug dealing going on in Aveland close. MM said she had raised this with the Policing Unit for the area but as there had been no report from anyone else but her they were powerless to do anything. She advised that in order for any crime to be investigated then someone from the village needed to report it on Crime Stoppers. Once it was on there it would be looked into. She strongly advised that either someone from the PC or a member of the public do this. She also stated that they were looking to put the Crime Stoppers functionality onto their Facebook page.

BW said that two of the parties involved had now been moved out of the close but that we would keep an eye on the situation and go from there.

BW thanked MM for her attendance and input at which point she left the meeting.
   
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.

•   MD said he did not attend the last meeting late, that was the meeting before. JL said he would amend the minutes to reflect this, before they were published on the website.

Action: JL

•   BW still had looked at repairing the sunken grave but was unable to due to visitors to the Cemetery. He will re-visit this at a later date.

Action: BW

•   JL and JP had not yet reviewed the list of Policies sent by LALC but will endeavour to do this before the next meeting.

Action: JL,  JP

•   BW said he had had a brief conversation with Michael Thompson re his presentation at the last meeting and had gained a few more facts. Basically, the proposals given at the last meeting were not so straightforward. Basically, a lot of the plans such as the new village hall, allotments and play area would not be given to the village, but the village would need to raise funds to buy them. This is definitely not the impression given at the previous meeting. Before anything will be done 
Mr Thompson still has to present the ideas to the Trustees and after that he will arrange a presentation to the Village community, however this is some way off yet.
   
7   Planning

There had been no Planning Applications or Decisions since the last meeting.   

8   Cemetery

There have been no internments since the last meeting. 

MD said the hedge had now been finished and that Lionel had sent an invoice. JL said he had not received this yet. MD said he would check with Lionel.

Action: MD

There was currently an issue with moles in the Cemetery, which will be looked in to.

RM asked about the size of the adjacent trees which were now quite tall and as a result the root spread of these would be as large and if not, careful this could impact on the Cemetery. BW said that even if the trees were reduced the root would stay the same but he would keep an eye on it.
   
9   Neighbourhood Watch

An update on the possible drug dealing had already been addressed above in talk with MM.

JL had approached SKDC and LCC re the parking issues. PM said he had brought it to the attention of the housing department. BW said that the offending car had now been moved but could not say if this was as a result of SKDC talking to their tenant.    

10   Highways

A number of Highways issues were still outstanding on going and these are listed below: 

•   MH said some work had been done on clearing the gulley’s and inspection chambers on the A15, but when investigating they had found it was a far bigger job than they expected so further investigation and work is scheduled.
•   Clearing out the gulley’s at the new head walls just as you leave the village towards Low Park. This is still outstanding.
•   Response from Highways re possibility of putting up speed signs “Children playing” – still outstanding. JL had emailed Highways but had not had a response, he will chaise this up. 

Action: JL

•   The Laughton junction was still outstanding and is now quite dangerous. MH had informed Highways that this needed repairing properly and it is in hand. 
•   JL informed MH about the numerous potholes on Laughton Road. Many of these were now fixed following a claim against LCC, however there were still a number that were outstanding. MH said he would follow this up.

Action: MH

JL said he had received notification of the proposed lowering of the speed limits on the A15 to 50mph and to 30mph outside the factory and Cemetery. He informed everyone that if they had comments, they should submit them to Highways. He will forward everyone a copy of the email so that Councillors could respond. He said he will also forward it to the Aslackby Facebook Page and put it on the website so that residents could respond. As part of this exercise the missing Aslackby sign on A15 will also be looked at. 

Action: JL

JL handed out copies of the proposals to the meeting. SR said she felt that a speed limit of 50mph on the A15 was still too high and she would prefer it to be 40mph. MH said that it would be unlikely that Highways would accept a proposal of 40mph and as it was a main trunk road, he was surprised they had agreed to consider a 50mph. He felt it would be highly unlikely that a 40mph would be considered but said there was no harm in asking.

JL advised everyone to put any questions to Highways by following the link in the email he was going to send out.

JL gave an update on the issue re parking that was raised by members of the public at previous meetings. JL said that the offending car had now moved but he had contacted LCC Highways about the possibility of double yellow lines. He had received no response yet. PM & MH stated that due to the cost of a Traffic Order & the fact that the issue now seems to have resolved itself it was unlikely that such a request would be taken on. 

BW as AR if this was acceptable to which she responded that surely it was better to put measures in place to prevent it happening again.

BW asked PM about clearing the path from the Village to the Village Hall as the Big Clean Team had been in the village and when asked they informed him that as the path fell outside a 30mph limit they were not allowed to do it. PM said he was not part of this Team any longer but would ask the question.

Action: PM

SR asked if the proposed road closure on Aveland Way could be delayed so close to Christmas and in view of the problems the last time it was closed. BW said it was unlikely but that he will give Anglian Water a call to see what, if anything could be done.

Action: BW

MD asked MH what the chances were about getting a 20mph limit within the village. MH said he would look into this.   

Action: MH

11   Finance

The latest balance in the cheque account is £929.04 and the deposit account is £10040.57

JL said he had received a from LCC Highways iro their contribution to the grass cutting. This was for £516.44. 

JL said he had received an invoice from Community Heartbeat Trust forn£105.60. This was to replace the pads in the defibrillator which had now expired. He will pay this in the next few days.

Action: JL

JP gave a brief summary of the accounts to date in order that JL can complete the precept request for next year.

A number of regular expenditure items had increased over the last year and a few additional costs had been taken on. Also, JL had received notification that the cost of grass cutting from BDG Mowing Contractors would be increasing. As a result, the accounts at the end of this year would show that we spent more money than we had coming in. Next year’s prediction, if things stayed the same would be that there would be a deficit of approx. £691.00

SR asked, if we were looking to save money why we paid for 2 skips a year. BW said that it was a service that the PC had always provided and if we stopped it there would be quite a backlash as it was really appreciated by residents.

A discussion was had around how much the Precept should be increased by next year. A proposal of £500 was offered but a number of Councillors felt that this was far too much. In the end a figure of £200 was offered. This amount was proposed by BW and seconded by all. As a result, JL will return the form to SKDC.
   
Action: JL

12   Correspondence

All correspondence had been dealt with via email since the last meeting in October. The only correspondence needing attention are listed below:

•   JL had received a request from AR that asking why the meeting minutes were not on the Aslackby Facebook page. JL had responded that he was not in charge of this. However, he had since learned that the minutes were now published on the Facebook page.
•   JL said he had received a request from LCC to see if we wished to continue with the Parish Agreement for grass cutting. He had responded that we did but they were unable to state what figure would be awarded next year, but should assume that it would be no less than that received this year.
•   JL had received quote from BDG re next year grass cutting costs. The cost had increased from £100 per cut to £105 per cut. JL asked if he was able to accept this. All Councillors were in agreement that this was OK as they did a fantastic job. JL will do this.
   
Action: JL

13   SKDC Update

PM gave an update.

SKDC are currently looking at the efficiency of bin collections to see if they can do things better and cheaper. This will be helped by the fact that they now have secured a new depot on Grantham as the current site is unsuitable. The new site should cut down on travelling time.

Green bin collections have now stopped until March and no decision has yet been made on what the cost for collecting green bins will be.

SKDC are also looking at new food waste collections and these may possibly become compulsory from 2023.

The Leisure Centre in Market Deeping is now closed due to cost of running and maintenance of site. They are currently looking at alternatives but it will all come down to cost.

Due to budget cut backs etc there will be some tough decisions next year.
   
14   Lincolnshire County Council Update

MH gave the update

There are loads of Bills and White Papers coming out at present, including waste collection and zero carbon.

Devolution and the Levelling Up white paper will be out in the New Year. Mayors are back on the Agenda or a Governor. There are likely to be some big changes.

Adult Care is also in for some major changes following the Prime Ministers announcements a couple of weeks ago. This may have a big impact on local budgets. LCC will need to do a lot more assessing which is going to take time.

There will be an NHS increase next year and for the first 3 years the money raised will go to the NHS after which it will go to Local Government. MH said he was not convinced this would happen.

There has been another 25% cut from Highways Maintenance which is as a result of Central Government cuts. This is a massive issue within Lincolnshire as pot holes were the biggest issue raised by residents. This is a major concern so there is a motion being put forward to the House on Friday 10th to try and reverse these cuts and get the money re-instated.

There are currently county wide applications for Solar Farms as subsidies are quite good. Currently there are 12000 cases in Lincolnshire.
   
15   A.O.B

JL asked SR if she could return her DPI and Declaration of Interest forms as he was being chased by democratic services. She will do this.

Action: SR

JL gave a brief update on the adoption of the phone box. The consultation was not due to close until 18th December so any decision will have to be held off until next year. Only concern was the proposal to put stained glass in the phone box as if this resulted in a structural change the PC may have to apply for planning permission. AR said there would be no change to the structure. JL said he would await the decision of the consultation as it may not be accepted and progress next year if appropriate.

BW gave the dates of future meetings, theses will be on 17/01/2022, 28/02/2022, 11/04/2022 and 23/05/2022 (AGM).
   
16.   Date of next meeting Monday 17th January 2021 – 7.00 pm at the Village Hall. Meeting closed at 20.20pm