2018 Parish Council Minutes of Meetings

Londonthorpe & Harrowby Without Parish Council

Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held 14th November 2018 at Belmont School 7.00pm

Public Open Session; there were parishioners present.

Councillors present were; J Anderson, G Parnham, A Gregory, R Keeler, Cllr N Craft, P Bakker, Roland Wright (7 Members were present.). LCC Cllr Linda Wootten was also in attendance. PCSO Jackie Fulker sent apologies as she is on annual leave.

Cllr P Bakker the Chairperson took the Chair. P Armstrong the Clerk took the notes.

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Apologies were received from Cllr G Chivers, W Charley, M Radley and P Bavin. It was agreed that the casual vacancy will be advertised on the noticeboards in the usual way.

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Declarations of Interest; None.

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Clerks Notes of the 12th September 2018 meeting were accepted as a true record and became the minutes. Proposed by G Parnham, seconded N Craft, all members were in agreement.

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Clerks Report on Progress. The Clerk stated all matters were to be dealt with under the appropriate agenda items, except the complaint about the lorries from the quarry. He reported that he had rung the manager at the Little Ponton quarry and had been assured that all vehicles leaving will be told to sheet up.

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Financial Statement No.4.

The Clerk/RFO went through the financial report in fine detail as is usual explaining all the payments etc. The Community Cleaners and Clerks salaries for the last two months May & June totalling £1419.12 was paid out. HMRC were paid £43.40 in relation to these salaries. Other payments included £300 and £450 to R Webster for Grass cutting Inc £125 VAT. A S137 payment of £250 was made to St Johns Church Londonthorpe towards grass cutting. Littlejohns £240 for the Audit (£40 VAT) AMG £624 (£104) for repairs. WACS for repairs to fences etc £105. County Engravers £130 (£21.67) for the Plaque. Donations under S137 etc were for £40 to the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal for the crosses and in lieu of the Rev J Cooks services at the Tree Planting Service, plus £20 to Ancaster Scouts in lieu of Jo Dawes services at the same event. Petty Cash expenditure owed to the Clerk during the last two months amounted to £576.65 this included the many items for the Tree Planting £115.54, Best Kept Gardens £157.24, Open Evening £46.10, Office £168.86 inc Filing Cabinet, Newsletter Stamps £33.99, Parks £39.32 and £15.60 for the Working Parties.
Total expenditure during these two months being £4498.17 a total of £333.32 of VAT is reclaimable. Income was £15000.02, from Precept and £2.03 interest HSBC.
Known expenditure due for payment before the next meeting are Community Cleaner’s Salary, Clerks
Salary, Repairs, Road Safety, Grass Cutting, New Picnic Bench, New Play Equipment at Fifth Ave, Training and Office. The Clerk informed the meeting that all budget headings were as expected for this time of year.
Agreement to accept the Financial Statement No 4 and all the options suggested plus the normal expected payments was proposed by A Gregory seconded by N Craft this was agreed unanimously.

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PLANNING APPLICATIONS

Nothing further has been heard about the Harrowby Hill development; the Appeal was lodged on the 8th August no date or Inspector yet known.

*S17/1378 Harrowby Lane Travellers Site the Enforcement Officer has been contacted about the misuse of the site against the conditions of the agreed plan. There has been no reply; a message was left onMonday for them to contact the Clerk before this meeting.

Spitalgate Heath; nothing new received.

All Councillors have been informed of all these applications. Councillors for the areas concerned have reviewed the planning applications received for this period and these were agreed as above.

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Leisure & Outdoor Committee.

All Areas covered by this Committee are as usual reported in this item.

Acting Chair of this Committee R Keeler reported on the progress and outcomes of the meeting held on the 20th October.

a. Playground Safety: the new “Picnic Bench” planned for a replacement at Bridge End Grove has been ordered, is made of rainbow coloured recycled plastic. The repair work required has now all been done and the ROSPA inspection was completed the last week of October. We have not yet received the report.

b. Hills & Hollows; A small Working Party of the Chair, Clerk and Volunteer Colin Webb completed the burning last year’s prunings. A further smaller than usual Working Party will be required to complete a few further tasks. It is proposed that this will happen mid week early in December. The Clerk will organise for the planting of the two trees in the Memorial Area to take place ASAP. The January Working Party will be cancelled for here and another one organised for Londonthorpe Woods.
The trees to be purchased for the Memorial Area will be sourced from our regular supplier Thorpe Trees under a deal they have on at present. Cost of £100 for 10 x 1.8m mixed trees, this was proposed by J Anderson Sec A Gregory.
At least two new volunteers are expected from people talking to the Clerk whilst working up there.

c. New Play Equipment “Fifth Avenue”; the quotes for the fitting charges were examined and it was agreed to go with the lowest quote of £2625 from AMG. The equipment will cost £2499 from “Kompan” and is made up of climbing/exercise elements. It will be delivered to AMG and stored in their yard until installation. All proposed G Parnham Sec. J Anderson unan.

The Clerk informed members of his meetings and conversations with Mel Cummings from SKDC, who has given the go ahead for the siting of this equipment within this area.

d. Grass Cutting; The clerk stated that he had not contacted SKDC about their new team for next year enquiring if they would quote; they have stated they will not be in a position to do this until 2019/20 at the earliest. The new three-year deal is due and three companies including R Webster our present company will be invited to tender.

e. WW1 Memorial: On Sunday 14th October, the service and tree planting took place at Belton. Due to the extremely bad weather plans were changed at the last minute with the ceremony taking place in the Old School. Members of the Machine Gun Corps, Councillors and guests brave the rain to go and plant the Walnut tree on the boundary between Belton Parish and ours.

Over 30 people attended. The Rev John Cook did the dedication and prayers.

There are 32 War Graves in St John The Baptists churchyard, the crosses placed on the tree guard were moved to the graves by the clerk on the following Wednesday.

Londonthorpe Villagers have had a substantial metal “Tommy” made and erected in the churchyard, the clerk say’s it quite impressive. Thanks, were offered to the Clerk, John Anderson and Chris and all the team at Belton.

f. Best Kept Gardens: The Awards were as usual made at the “Annual Open Evening”, unfortunately a few of the winners were unable to attend.

g. Woodland Trust Working Party; The Clerk, Chairman and Colin Webb attended the Woodland Trust Annual Awards Luncheon; unfortunately, they were unsuccessful in winning an award. The New Season started on the 7th October and a further meeting was held on the 11th November. We are still attracting new members which are allowing more work to be done. Further new members are expected from interested parties contacting WT.

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To Set Precept 2019/20; All members had seen the proposed precept prior to the meeting. The Clerk outlined the different sections of the budget starting with the L&O requirements. £15000 is required to cover the usual expenditure for Grass Cutting and Playgrounds etc. The main general budget will also remain the same at £16000 to cover Salaries, Office, Insurances, and Grants etc. the Clerk explained how the precept was worked out on the equivalent number of Band D homes within the Parish using a formula provided by SKDC. A total budget of £31000 was proposed by R Wright sec A Gregory and passed unanimously.

All this is based on the expenditure not being changed from what is planned for the rest of this financial year.

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Highways Notes;

Chatsworth Avenue & Harrowby Hill Flooding; we are still waiting for the next of a series of meeting with all interested parties to be called by SKDC. This was due to happen during November, but this does not now seem likely to happen until December. The Clerk attended a meeting with two AW representatives and three homeowners who looked at the problem first-hand neither had seen it before, they went away to report to the AW team who attended the original meeting. Suggestions were made to link the drain within the spinney to the rain gulley.

LCC Cllr L Wootten informed the meeting that work was planned to clear the gulley’s on Harrowby Lane and Chatsworth. Householders on Chatsworth are we are told working with the landowner to come some solution to redirect the water emanating from his land.

The Clerk had found some correspondence about the last time the Chatsworth Ave area was flooded this dates back to 2005.

Potholes: some potholes repairs have been completed around the parish but once again the workman ship is of a poor quality.

Speedwatch; figures for the two weeks the SID was in Londonthorpe recently were distributed to all members prior to the meeting. These figures show that the average speed is mainly at 30mph or above, these figures are to be used to encourage the police to take some action i.e. speed trap in the village. It was interesting to note that speeds were usually greater later in the day from 5pm onwards.

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Tom Childs Award: The award has still not been presented due to the family’s circumstances.

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Correspondence: all relevant correspondence has been passed on as it arrived.

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Items Not covered Under Other Agenda Headings; the Clerk reminded members that we need to start formulating the next newsletter quite soon as it will need to be at the printers by the second week of February. Members to forward items they want considering for inclusion ASAP. Meeting of the working group to be arranged for Jan 2019. This will be an agenda item in January.

Elections will need to have full coverage to ensure we succeed in having a quorate council from May onwards.

J Anderson asked about the second defibrillator and where it was to be positioned. It is hoping that once the sale of the Sunningdale Shops property has gone through further progress will take place. He also asked for the matter of a debit card for the Clerks use to be placed on the agenda. It was agreed that this should happen but with the new councillors on to save duplication of doing bank mandates. G Parnham mentioned the paint graffiti on the equipment at Withambrook, the Clerk replied that some was due to be painted over and attempts will be made to clean the other items.

Cllr L Wootten; asked if we had heard anymore from the Speedwatch Team at Lincoln as she had heard that they had trained somebody up from the parish. The Clerk replied he had not heard anything, and he had a list of volunteers from the original request. She informed of the white lining due to take place on Alma Park Road. Cllr L Wootten also asked if the Clerk knew who actually owned the chestnut trees on Belton Lane, his answer was that in the past he had been told that if it was on the verge outside of the property boundary, Highways were responsible and had always removed and replaced them.

Meeting closed 8.40pm.

Diary Dates are as per these minutes and the Autumn Newsletter.

Next meeting; 9th January 2019.