April 2022 DRAFT Minutes
Aslackby Parish Council Meetings
Minutes from meeting held on 11h April 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)
Cllr John Pickard (JP)
James Leach – Clerk (JL)
District Councillors County Councillors
Cllr Richard Dixon-Warren (RDW)
Press
James Leach
Item Notes Action
1 Apologies – None
Absent – County Cllr Martin Hill (MH)
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.
AC – said that they were holding a Kayleigh at Bourne Corn Exchange on 7th May and there was an open invitation to everyone.
4 Declarations of Interest
There were no declarations of interest.
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 said he had checked the website for the Minutes after the last meeting and found that he had published the incorrect ones. He apologised for this and said it had now been corrected.
• JL and JP had not yet reviewed the list of Policies sent by LALC but JP said he would endeavour to do this before the next meeting.
Action: JL/JP
• 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 still not had a response re the “Children Playing” Signs so he will chaise this.
Action: JL
• JL had not done anything re an advert for Litter Picking Volunteers, however at this point SR said that we should hold back on this until she knew which weekend, she was free to organise it. JL said he had obtained prices for all the equipment they would need. Depending on how many volunteers were available it would come to approx. £100
• JL still needed to put an advert on the website, village notice board and, if possible, on the Facebook page re Neighbourhood Watch Volunteers.
7 Planning
There had been one Planning Applications from AR in respect of the drainage from the new site and to change the layout of the garage. JL had emailed this out prior to the meeting and handed copies out at the meeting. There were no objections.
There had also been a planning application submitted in respect of Ivy Cottage. This had been emailed to Councillors prior to the meeting and there were no objections.
JL had received an email from Ridge Clean Energy about the proposed development of the Airfield into a solar farm. Details were still in their early stages and no detailed planning had yet been applied for. JL had spoken to the landowner prior to the meeting and had been informed that it was unlikely that anything would happen for at least 5-6 years as he was still in the process of clearing the Airfield. The Environment Agency had told him to clear the site but had not given him a timescale to do so.
Some discussion was had about the proposals and in general all were in favour of the development. However, this may change once full plans have been submitted.
JL said he had received an email from the Chairman of Pickworth PC stating that if the plan goes ahead it would be worth seeing what individual communities may get out of the development, i.e. free car charging points etc. He is going to try and arrange a meeting with representatives from local Parish Councillors to come up with ideas and proposals. JL will forward theses on as and when he gets them.
RM wanted to know how the solar farm would link into the main grid but as no plans were yet available this information was not known. JL will forward additional information to everyone, as and when it became available.
At this point BW gave a brief update from a meeting he had had with Mr Thompson re the proposed developments from the Conant Estate.
Mr Thompson had suggested that he distribute leaflets about the proposals to all households and then maybe have a collection point in the Church where residents could leave comments. This would then be followed by a meeting in the Village Hall to go into a bit more detail. However, it was clear that not detailed plans had yet been drawn up. Mr Thompson went on to say that Aslackby had a waiting list for allotments, which came as a surprise to the PC. BW asked all present if they were aware of such a list and no one was.
JP said Mr Thompson had contacted him and asked for a meeting and one of the proposals on the table was to supply the Factory with a free carpark. Mr Thompson was unaware that the Factory had already been in discussions about this previously!! JP said Mr Thompson was going to be in the village next Thursday.
Finally, Mr Thompson had been disappointed that BW was not open to the idea of moving the Village Hall to the centre of the village. BW had informed him that under no circumstances would the current Village Hall committee consider moving the venue.
8 Cemetery
There has been one internment since the last meeting and one plot had been sold to a Mr and Mrs Mitchell who had recently moved into the village. Mr Mitchell had unfortunately passed away and had now been interred in the Cemetery.
MD asked BW where the rules and regs for burial were in view of the fact that BW would be stepping down as Chairman this May. BW said he held all the instructions and RM said he had also done it in the past. JL said he was going to take over the responsibility but as he had also now resigned this was not feasible.
9 Neighbourhood Watch
JL said that there had been a break in at the Airfield and items taken. JL said he had checked CCTV footage for the landowner but nothing had been spotted.
There were still issues with the cars parked outside Nos 5 and 6 Council Houses. AR gave RDW an update on the background and history to the issue and he said he would look into this. He will also look into provision of adequate parking to houses in Aveland Close as this was also becoming an issue, especially at weekends when cars were backed on to Aveland Way.
Action: RDW
A car had been burnt out in a field just off Aveland Way last week. It was believed it had been involved in a theft of a Cash Machine locally. No other information was available.
The ongoing drug issues within the village were currently being investigated.
Finally, there had been some vandalism to a car on Kirkby Underwood Road. JL had contacted the Police about this and was awaiting an update.
10 Highways
A number of Highways issues were still outstanding/ongoing and these are listed below:
• The numerous potholes on Laughton Road were still outstanding. MH was not available for an update. JL had hoped he would be available as he wanted to ask how SKDC could agree a multi-million by pass for North Hykeham but still leave many of the County’s roads full of pot holes. Laughton Road being a prime example.
• JL had still not received a response from SKDC re the uncut hedges. He will now contact LCC instead.
Action: JL
The junction of Laughton Road had now been repaired but will await to see how long it lasts once the hay lorries start using the road again.
JL had received an update from SKDC re the dead branches on the trees on The Green. They have assessed the issue but do not believe it to be urgent but will continue to monitor the situation.
JL said he had still not had a response from SKDC The Big Clean re clearing the footpath from the Village to the Village Hall.
11 Finance
The current balance on the cheque account was £2022.62
JL said he had received the following invoices that had now been paid:
CST Accountancy - £25.00
WAVE – Water Rates - £13.27
Village Hall - £120.00
Clerks Wages & Expenses - £1346.47
HMRC - £257.00
LALC – Website - £180.00
Bourne Skip Hire - £343.00
JL had received the following payments which had been paid into the Savings account:
Precept - £5000
Scrap - £139
JL said he had received an email from LALC & NALC re the Clerks pay rise, which is to be backdated to April 2021. JP will look into this and feed back at the next meeting.
Action: JP
The price of the Skip had increased again from £300 last year to £340 this year. This was purely as a result of the change in law on the use of red diesel. i.e. that plant machinery was no longer allowed to use it.
Also, as of next time the following items will not be allowed to be put in the Skip, in addition to asbestos and fridge-freezers, tyres, TV’s, PC Monitors, Microwaves, Lead-acid, Nickel and Lithium-ion batteries, gas cylinders and paint or any paint tins. JL will amend the Skip slip to reflect this.
Action: JL
JL had spoken to James at Brittens re the cost of cutting the amenity grass as he was also no longer allowed to used red diesel in his machinery. James had assured JL that he would honour the agreed price for the cutting but would definitely have to review the cost next year as the new rules meant he had to find an extra £1500 a month to cover fuel costs.
JL said he had received two Insurance quotes for the next year. Our current Insurer wanted Gallagher wanted £618.89 and BHIB wanted £441.73 so the PC needed to decide what it wanted to do as this seemed quite excessive. RDW said that Hanthorpe PC used Zurich and their premium was a lot less. RDW said he would forward the contact details to JL who will then contact Zurich and see what they said.
JL had received an email from PKF Littlejohn re this years AGAR Statement. This had been forwarded on to JP who will complete it once he has done the accounts. The accounts will be done in time for the AGM and APM next month.
Action: JP
JL had received an email from LALC to say that they had reviewed their pricing structure for maintaining the PC website. The new cost would equate to £150 a year.
AR & AC had sent a request asking if the PC would contribute to the proposed Aveland Sculpture to Celebrate the Jubilee. They had requested £300, which will only be needed if the sculpture goes ahead. This was put to the vote and all Councillors voted in favour.
SR asked if the PC would like to contribute £500 towards the Jubilee Celebrations in the village to help pay for entertainment etc. This was discussed for a while and Councillors voted in favour of donating £400.
Following on from an Action Point at the last meeting where JL looked in to the cost of souvenirs for each household. In view that the PC would now be donating £400 towards the celebrations they did not feel they should also pay for individual souvenirs.
12 Correspondence
All correspondence had been dealt with via email since the last meeting in February, except the following:
• LALC had sent a letter/email out asking for nominees for “Shining Star Awards”
• LALC had also sent a letter/email out asking for “Good News” Stories.
• SKDC had sent an email out asking PC’s to let them know what individual Parishes were doing for the Jubilee.
JL asked Councillors to feel free to contribute to all of the above.
13 SKDC Update
RDW gave a brief update.
SKDC had voted in favour of a 5% increase in Council Tax.
SKDC were running a campaign to help support the Ukraine and details of this were on the SKDC Website.
Some good news was that SKDC had successfully prosecuted someone that had been caught fly-tipping, which was a massive problem. The person in question had been sentenced to Community Service.
14 Lincolnshire County Council Update
No one was available from LCC for an update.
15 A.O.B
Clerk’s Vacancy – JL had contacted LALC and was in the process of placing a vacancy on the website and in the LALC newsletter. To date there had been no applicants from the notification placed on the Facebook page. JL sated at this point that, in his opinion, the PC would need to consider paying a lot more in salary to any successful applicant as the current rate was not enough to cover the hours etc required in carrying out the role.
Action: JL
Phone Box – JL had now received the maintenance kit from BT iro the phone box. He will give this to SR so that she could spruce it up in time for the Jubilee Celebrations.
Action: JL
Litter Picking – See previous notes, SR will let everyone know when she had a free weekend to organise this. JL will source the relevant equipment when required.
Action: SR/JL
Chairman’s Vacancy – JL had contacted LALC and Democratic Services re the upcoming vacant position of the Chairman if no one stood up at the AGM. Basically, the PC could not operate without an elected Chairman. If there was no elected Chairman then the meeting must stop. JL had spoken to JP and, due to other commitments, he would not be in a position to take over the role of Chairman. He also felt that as he did not live in the village it would not be appropriate for him to stand as Chairman.
JL said that if no Chairman could be found he was still awaiting concrete guidance as to where the Parish Council went from there. RDW said he was under the impression that he could stand in as a representative of SKDC and Chair the meeting. He will check this and let us know.
Action: RDW
Website – JL had received an email from P Langford to state that current rules meant that Agendas for meetings should be displayed on the website 5 days before the meeting took place and minutes should be on the website within 30 days of the meeting, whether they have been agreed or not. JL will make sure this is done in future.
Action: JL
16 Date of next meeting Monday 23rd May 2022 – AGM & APM – 7.00 pm at the Village Hall. Meeting closed at 20.22pm