December 2022 Minutes
Aslackby Parish Council Meetings
Minutes from meeting held on 05th December 2022
Present:
Parish Councillors
Cllr John Pickard (JP)
Cllr Rachel Stevenson (RS)
Cllr Sue Roberts (SR)
Cllr R Miller (RM)
James Leach – Clerk (JL)
District Councillors
Cllr Richard Dixon-Warren (RDW)
1 Apologies – Cllr Malcolm Dodds (MD), Cllr Brian Wilkinson (BW)
Absent – County Cllr Martin Hill (MH)
2 The Chairman welcomed all present.
3 One members of the public was present –Alison Carrbilas (AC)
Alison arrived after the meeting had started but JP asked her if she wished to say anything when she arrived
AC raised the question re the cemetery sign again. She was under the impression that it should have been removed but was aware that JL had issued an email from Highways to say that, whilst they looked into the issue, the sign could remain.
RM explained that he had spoken with the owner of the burial site and that they were in discussion with Highways as what type of sign should be erected.
AC thought that as part of the planning application, it was a stipulation that all vehicles going to the site should use Laughton Road, however JL said that this was not part of the planning but a “gentlemen’s agreement” which unfortunately is not enforceable. He went on to say that during the past few months he had only seen two funeral corteges go through the village and each time there was one hearse and just two other cars. There were more cars going to the woods for dog walking than cars to the burial site. He also said that as visitors paid road tax, they were entitled to use any highway they wished.
AC also raised the issue of maintain Laughton Road to cope with the extra traffic. RM stated that this was under review as depending on what happened with the proposed solar farm, this road may be widened and overhauled by the developer anyway which would negate the need for LCC Highways to spend money on it.
4 Declarations of Interest
The only Declaration of Interest was from JL as his salary was due to be discussed during the meeting. At this point JP read out the following statement from the Local Government Act 1972 –
“I propose that, in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public will be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business because of the likelihood that otherwise exempt information, as described in paragraph 4 of Schedule 12 of the Act would be disclosed to the public”. The items in question will be the revised renumeration iro the Clerks wages. JP said that the public would be asked to leave and in order to aid this, he said this would be discussed in AOB at the end of the meeting.
5 Minutes of the Last Meeting – Proposed by SR and seconded by RS.
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 still not yet reviewed the list of Policies sent by LALC and were required for the website. They will do this as soon as they can.
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
• The Clerks wages were still outstanding but hopefully will be agreed at this meeting. JL informed the Council that if they were not this would be his last meeting.
• JL had still not had a response re the “Children Playing” Signs so he will chaise this.
Action: JL
• JL had a quote for combination locks for the grates on the head walls. He will bring this to the next meeting when more Councillors were present.
Action: JL
• JL said the cleaning out of the silt traps on the head walls had been started but not completed. He was awaiting a date from BW.
Action: BW, JL
• JL had not yet sent a letter of thanks to Kate Long as he was still awaiting her resignation letter from BW. He will get this sorted within the next week.
Action: JL
• JL had no update on the purchase of the historical docs raised at the last meeting. Hopefully he will have an update in time for the next meeting.
Action: JL
• SR raised the issue re the Leylandii Trees at the side of the factory. JL said he was awaiting contact from the Electricity Board who were due to come out and take the tops out. It had been suggested that they be asked if they can do the sides at the same time. JL said he will ask the question when he heard from them. RM said that they had agreed to do this last time. If this was not an option SR asked if they could be taken down and a more attractive hedge planted which should be available free from The Woodland Trust. JL also mentioned that there may be the offer of free trees from LCC again this year so will ask them as well.
Action: JL
7 Planning
JL had received no notifications since the last meeting.
8 Cemetery
There was nothing to report since the last meeting.
9 Neighbourhood Watch
RM said that there had been a couple of incidents of hare coursing. The Police had turned out for one, but not the other.
RDW gave a quick update on the parking issues. He had briefly spoken to the Director of Housing who stated that they didn’t think they could do anything; however, they were still investigating doing something with the land at the side of the 2 council houses in question. He will feed back as and when he gets any update. JL will continue to add it as an item for the Agenda.
Action: JL
10 Highways
The following issues are still O/S:-
• The overgrown hedge on Mareham Lane was still outstanding. JL said he had no update on this as at the last meeting MH was going to go back to Highways to clarify some points that were raised outside the meeting by MD. JL had received no update and MH was not at the meeting. He will try and get an update in time for the next meeting.
Action: JL
SR said she would like to thank LCC Highways for implementing the new 50mph speed limit on the A15, but asked the question if the National Speed Limit Sign on the southbound carriage wat at the top of the hill could be moved or removed completely. The reason for this was because it was only few meters away from the new 50mph sign and was therefore quite misleading and did not give drivers enough warning for the new 50mph sign. RDW said that he did not think that the sign could be removed but would look into whether it could reposition it further up the carriageway.
Action: RDW
11 Finance
The current balance on the cheque account was £3988.96 and in the Deposit Account was £8630.65
There was a BDG mowing contractors Invoice of £210.00 and a Bourne Skip hire Invoice of £340, to come off the above figure.
JL said he had not sorted out the on-line account yet but would try and do this in the next few weeks as the Lloyds Bank in Bourne had now closed.
Action: JL
JL also stated that he had received a letter from the Financial Ombudsman re the issues he had had with Lloyds but needed permission from the account signatories to allow him to discuss the issues. He asked if it was OK for him to compose a letter giving him permission to do this and get the signatories to sign it. There were no objections to this proposal.
Action: JL
JL said that he had received the forms for next years Precept. As there were two members of the PC absent from the meeting, it was agreed to discuss this at January’s meeting. The forms needed to be returned to SKDC by 20th January. He will add this to January’s Agenda.
Action: JL
JL said at the last meeting it had been mentioned that there should be no increase this year however due to the increased costs expected around grass cutting, LALC fees, Website maintenance fees and Clerks wages, this may not be an option.
JL also said he had received notification about the Internal Audit. It was agreed he would pass the required information to JP who had already spoken to someone about carrying out the audit.
Action: JL
JL said he had spoken with BDG Mowing Contractors and they will be increasing their charges from to £112 per cut. This is an increase of £2.00 per cut. The cost of cutting the footpaths would remain the same at £50 per cut. He will add this to the Agenda for January to obtain agreement.
Action: JL
JL said he had received an email from LCC Highways to confirm acceptance for Amenity Grass cutting next year. This will now be done automatically on a rolling basis until either party opted out.
12 Correspondence
All correspondence had been dealt with via email since the last meeting in September, and anything of relevance had already been emailed to all Councillors. The following items were raised;
• JL had received notification from Democratic Services that as no one had put themselves forward to fill the vacant Parish Councillor post, the PC could now Co-Opt someone on to the PC. JP, RM 7 RS said they were aware of someone who wished to stand. JL said that this should be done as soon as possible but will await further instruction.
• JL said he had received an email from Anna Thompson, who had move into one of the houses opposite the Church asking about flood prevention in the village. JL said he had responded with all the work the PC had done. She had hoped to attend the meeting today but due to a severe cold will now attend the next meeting in January.
• JL said he had received another email from LALC and P Langford re moving all Parish Councillors to gov.uk email accounts. A short discussion was had and due to the fact that no sensitive information was sent via email and all the stuff that was sent was in the public domain anyway, it was felt it was not something the PC wished to do. JL said it currently was not mandatory so for the time being we can stay as we are. Also there would be an administration cost and set up fee which, in the current climate, it was felt should be avoided.
• An email had been received from a company offering to install EV charging points in the village. It was felt that this was not an urgent requirement at this moment in time. JL also mentioned that if the solar farm went ahead, Ridgeway Energy had also offer to install them anyway.
• JL had received an email from SKDC asking if the PC would like a copy of the new Electoral Register? After a short discussion it was decided that this was not required as the information could be obtained elsewhere and if we did hold a copy, we would be open to GDPR Regulations.
• JL said he had sent out an email to all Councillors re a Networking day organised by LALC and asked if anyone wished to attend. No one did.
• Finally, LALC had issued information regarding how to conduct an appraisal for the Clerk. Again, following a short discussion, it was felt that this was not required as any issues were dealt with as they arose.
All other correspondence had been dealt with and issued to Councillors via email.
13 SKDC Update
RDW apologised for not issuing his normal monthly update, he will however send it out in due course.
Things to note are:
• SKDC are doing a lot around the Cost of Living crisis. All this information is available on line at www.southkesteven.gov.uk/costofliving They ere also looking into sending hard copies of the information out to those who did not have access to the Internet.
• RDW again, encouraged all councillors to Policing Survey as this impacts on any Council Tax increases. JL said he had emailed the link out to everyone. RM said he had completed it.
• RDW said that not surprisingly, since the recent Michael Gove report on mould in Social Housing, SKDC were in the process of checking all their housing stock.
• RDW asked if the PC completed the Police Priorities Proforma as he sat on the panel so it was of personal interest to him. JL said he did and sent it back to Maisie MacMahon.
• RDW said he had received a call from a local resident asking if the village hall was going to be doing anything with regards the Warm rooms Project. JL said that the Church held a coffee morning each Tuesday which was FOC. The village hall had looked into doing something but had been told but their insurance company that if they did, they would not be covered so had decided they would not be doing anything.
• RM raised the issue of the number of deer that are being hit by motorists on the A15 near Haconby. Some discussion was had as to what could, or could not be done. RDW agreed to look into this further and report back.
Action: RDW
14 Lincolnshire County Council Update
No one was available from LCC to give an update.
15 A.O.B
SR asked if future meetings could be held at an earlier time. There were no objections with this but RM did say that if MD was teaching in Lincoln this may be an issue for him. It was agreed to discuss this on a meeting by meeting basis.
At this point AC and RDW left the meeting so that the PC could discuss the Clerks wage increases that had been outstanding for the past two years. JL was also asked to leave the meeting.
JP notified JL of the meeting finish time after the above discussion.
Action: JP
16 Date of next meeting Monday 23rd January 2023 – 7.00 pm at the Village Hall. Meeting closed at 20.25pm