January 2022 Minutes
Aslackby Parish Council Meetings
Minutes from meeting held on 17th January 2022
Present:
Parish Councillors
Cllr Brian Wilkinson (BW)
Cllr Rachel Stevenson (RS)
Cllr Malcolm Dodds (MD)
Cllr Sue Roberts (SR)
Cllr R Miller (RM)
Cllr Katie Long (KL)
James Leach – Clerk (JL)
District Councillors
County Councillors
County Cllr Martin Hill (MH)
Press
James Leach
Item Notes Action
1 Apologies – Cllr John Pickard (JP)
Absent – District Cllr Dr Peter Moseley (PM)
2 The Chairman welcomed all present.
3 2 members of the public were present. – Alison Ray (AR) and Alison Carrbilas (AC)
3a The Chairman welcomed all present and asked the two members of the public if they would like to speak.
AR said she would raise her points at the appropriate sections during the meeting.
4 Declarations of Interest – None
5 Minutes of the Last Meeting – Proposed by RM and seconded by SR.
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.
• 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 the Conant Estates proposal for the village. Thee will be discussed later in the meeting.
• JL still needed to contact Highways re putting double yellow lines in the access bay opposite nos 5&6 Council Houses.
Action: JL
• JL had not had a response re the “Children Playing” Signs so he will chaise this as it is unlikely, we will get a 20mph limit through the village.
Action: JL
• JL still needs to contact the Big Clean section at SKDC re clearing the path from the Village to the Village Hall, Temple Road and Kirkby Underwood Road.
Action: JL
7 Planning
There had been no Planning Applications or Decisions since the last meeting.
JL read out an email that he had receive from Michael Thompson, where he said that he intended to produce a leaflet to be handed out to residents and wondered if it should be a joint leaflet between the Conant Estate and the PC. After some discussion it was agreed that this leaflet should come from the Conant Estate only and not the PC as for the PC to put their name on the leaflet it would give the impression that the PC were behind the proposals without fully understanding what they were and the implication for the village.
Mr Thompson also asked when the meeting should be. Again, after some discussion it was agreed that the Conant Estate should come back with some options so that the village could then decide when the meeting should be. JL will respond to Mr Thompson with the above.
Action: JL
BW said he had spoken to Mr Thompson about the Village Hall and had tried to arrange a meeting but this had not happened yet. He was awaiting contact from Mr Thompson to re-arrange this.
JL did state that following further emails from Mr Thompson, it was now clear that the land would not be donated to the village but they would be looking to sell or rent the land to the village. This was obviously not the impression that was given at an earlier PC meeting. Obviously, being a small village, it was doubtful that the PC could buy or rent the land. MD did suggest it may be a peppercorn rent but until the PC saw the full proposals in detail no decision could be made.
MH did say that under the new Planning Policy it was unlikely that Aslackby & Laughton would be prime for loads of new houses. However, if the PC accepted planning proposals there may be some scope for small developments.
8 Cemetery
There have been no internments since the last meeting.
The issue with moles in the Cemetery had now been dealt with.
BW has repaired the sunken grave which was outstanding from the last meeting.
BW had received a number of complaints about people exercising their dogs in the Cometary and leaving dog mess. When BW had investigated this, it was found to be fox excrement and not from a dog.
9 Neighbourhood Watch
As most people were aware now there had been an attempted break-in and an actual break-in on Aveland Way. This is quite a rare occurrence in Aslackby and has left some residents a little un-nerved. JL will ask the Administrator of the Aslackby Facebook page to put something on the site reminding residents to be extra vigilant and to remind them to lock doors and windows when not at home. The break-in has been caught on CCTV and this is waiting to be handed over to Police.
Action: JL
A number of other similar break ins had also happened in neighbouring villages and areas such as Corby Glen, Castle Bytham, Laughton Lane, all with similar MO’s where jewellery and cash were taken.
SR asked if the PC thought there was any leeway in setting up a PC WhatsApp group where info could be sent out to everyone on the app? It was also raised about re starting the Neighbourhood Watch as there were plenty of dog walkers in the village who were out at all hours and may be ideal for spotting anything untoward. Some discussion was had and the consensus of opinion was that it would be a good idea.
MH did say that the Police did operate a similar system called the Neighbourhood Alert forum. Unfortunately, this tended to put things on after they had happened.
JL said that in the past when the PC had asked for volunteers no one had come forward. Unfortunately, the previous volunteers were no longer with us. JL said he would ask for an advert to be put on the PC Website and also the Facebook page to see if this got any volunteers. He will also contact Maisie from the neighbourhood Policing Unit to see if she could help in any way.
JL Asked AR if she wanted to raise the parking issue, as she had raised a concern in an email to him. JL explained that there was a white transit parked in the access bay most evenings now.
Action: JL
AR said that, in her view, SKDC did not provide enough parking for their residents not just near the two council houses at the end of the village but also at all the council houses in Aveland Close and behind where the council garages where, She asked whether it was worth approaching SKDC Housing Dept to ask if they could extend parking space on the green in the close, extend the concrete area near the garages and in the spare land next to 5 & 6 Council houses, as there was a large space here that was not used,
JL said PM was going to raise this issue with SKDC Housing, however now that he had resigned his post, he was not sure it had been done, JL said he would send an email to SKDC Housing and raise the parking issues and see what response he got, BW asked AR if this was OK to which she said yes.
Action: JL
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:
• BW said the clearing out the gulley’s at the new head walls just as you leave the village towards Low Park was now the PC’s responsibility so it was agreed that he and JL would look at doing this when the weather improved. This is still outstanding.
Action: JL, BW
• The Laughton junction was still outstanding and is now quite dangerous. JL had received an email from Highways to say that this work had now been carried out, however when he had checked it was still the same. He had emailed MH about this and MH had now forwarded this on to Rowan Smith who is in charge of Highways. He will feed back at the next meeting once he has an update. MH had informed Highways that this needed repairing properly and it is in hand.
Action: MH
• The numerous potholes on Laughton Road were outstanding. MH said he would follow this up.
Action: MH
• JL was still awaiting an update re the dead tree branches on the Green. He will chaise this up.
Action: JL
JL said he had contacted BDG Mowing to say the PC had accepted their quote and they will start the annual grass cutting again in April.
BW said he had spoken to Anglian Water about the road closure on Aveland Way to thank them for doing it in record time. However, the guy from Anglian Water did state that they may not be so accommodating next time as they had received some abuse from one resident about the closure. Obviously, they could not say who it was due to Data Protection but it’s a shame that any resident would resort to such behaviour.
11 Finance
The latest balance in the cheque account is £84.77 and the deposit account is £10040.57. JL said he would need to transfer some funds from the Savings account to the Cheque account. This was agreed.
Action: JL
JL said he had received a number of invoices that had now been paid:
Lionel Fisher – Cemetary maintenance - £440.00
Heartbeat Trust – new pads - £105.60
Wave – Water rates - £11.91
JL said he had returned the Precept Forms to SKDC for the agreed amount of £5000.
12 Correspondence
All correspondence had been dealt with via email since the last meeting in December. The only correspondence needing attention are listed below:
• JL had received the DPI forms back from SR and these had now been forwarded to SKDC and had now been added to the website.
Action: JL
13 SKDC Update
PM has now resigned from SKDC so is no longer a serving member of the Council. Therefore no one was available for an update.
MH said the Election to replace him would be on 24th February 2022.
14 Lincolnshire County Council Update
MH gave the update
LCC are currently consulting on budgets. There will be a 3% increase in Council Tax which is to be used to help pay for Social Care. There will also be an increase in NI to help pay for Social Care. It is likely there will still be a shortfall and therefore budgets will still need to be resolved.
LCC have received a bit more money from Central Government which is a bit of good news and will hopefully see them OK for the next 3 years.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Highways. Last year there was a cut of £12 million to £39 million. They have been using reserves and may have to do this for the next 3 years. They had requested that Central Government bridge the gap but had not been successful so they have started a campaign called “Fix our Funds to Fix our Roads”. They are encouraging as many residents get involved to hopefully make the Government take note. There is a link on the LCC website www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/highwaysfunding.
JL said he will get a link added to the website and also ask that the Aslackby Facebook page include something to encourage residents to get involved.
COVID seems to be dying down which is good news and the hospital crisis seems to have abated. This was mainly due to staff shortages due to illness. It was also the same for bus drivers and teachers. Things have now eased quite a bit.
The NHS consultation on Grantham Hospital is still ongoing.
RM asked MH who was funding the Spalding Bypass. MH said they had received £12 million from Central Government but the rest would be funded by LCC.
JL asked MH which fund Morton Highstreet had come out of. MH explained that this had come out of the maintenance budget, but a separate part i.e. not reactive, which was used for pot holes but Long Term Planned. All agreed that Morton High Street was possibly the best stretch of road in Lincolnshire.
15 A.O.B
JL said that he had now got the Notice Board re furbished at the factory. MD said the PC should send a thank you letter to JP at the factory. JL will arrange this.
JL explained that he had received an email from AR asking what the PC were doing to celebrate the Queens Jubilee. JL said that this was the same weekend as the Village Fete that was scheduled to go ahead this year so it would be prudent to check if they were doing anything. AR suggested that the village do the same as when it was the Millennium where the village came out and had a photo in front of the Church. RM & BW thought this was a good idea. SR also suggested a Hop Roast. JL said he would ask the Church what/if they had anything planned and feed back at next meeting. It was agreed that it was a good idea but needed a bit more thought.
Action: JL
KL said it would be better if the Village could get a Jubilee Committee to organise this and this would be separate from the PC.
JL asked AR if she wished to raise the other point from her email. AR said that there was an awful lot of rubbish that had been dumped along the verges between the Pub & Mareham Lane and as a result she had stopped walking along there. JL said it was the same along Kirkby Underwood Road but he did sometimes clear this up………only for it to be as bad again the next day. BW suggested that we contact SKDC to get some pink bags which they would then collect. JL said he would do this.
Action: JL
SR asked if it was worth paying a “Litter Picker” to do some picking every month. Just an idea for the future. It was also suggested that it was timed for when the next skip was so that if necessary, it was easier to get rid of the rubbish.
SR suggested that a sign was put in the notice Board for Volunteers. JL will do this also to see what response there was.
Action: JL
JL said he had now received the contract for the disused phone box. All had been given the opportunity to comment. JP had gone through the contract and was happy following additional advice from BT. One point was the lighting, which JL had ben notified was still the responsibility of BT, as was the power supply. BT will also notify Emergency Services that it was no longer a Public Phone Box. It should be noted that the phone kiosk may have been paint with lead paint in the past, however, they will send out a maintenance kit once it is adopted. Also, a sign would need to be placed in/on the kiosk so the public would know it was no longer a phone box.
RM said he had spoken to a resident the other day and they were firmly of the view it should stay a Public Phone Kiosk. JL explained that the consultation period had passed and it had been advertised on both the website and in the phone box and BT and SKDC had received no objections!!
JL asked if the PC were happy to sign the contract. It was put to a vote and the motion was carried 6 to 1 abstention. JL will print of the contract for BW to sign and he will then send it to BT who will sign and return it.
Action: JL
Once it had all gone through a meeting should be arranged with SR and Kate Marshall who were going to take on the running of it once it was decommissioned.
16 Date of next meeting Monday 28th February 2022 – 7.00 pm at the Village Hall. Meeting closed at 20.14pm