2019 Parish Council Minutes of Meetings

Londonthorpe & Harrowby Without Parish Council

Clerks Notes of the Annual Parish Council Meeting held 15th May 2019 at Belmont School 7.30pm

Public Open Session; there were no parishioners present except the people standing for co-option.

Councillors present who were duly elected through the four yearly cycle were; John Anderson, Geoff Parnham, Avril Gregory, Richard Keeler, Cllr George Chivers, Paul Bakker, Roland Wright, Paul Bavin and our new councillor Janie Lee.

(9 Members were present.). LCC Cllr Linda Wootten and LCC Cllr A Stokes were in attendance.

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

Y Martin, M Radley and W Charley were present and standing for co-option.

1/19

Apologies there were none received all present as elected.

2/19

Signing of Acceptance of Office; all members completed the necessary paperwork for both PC and SKDC records.

3/19

Declarations of Interest; None.

4/19

Election of Officers; the Chairman Paul Bakker thanked everyone for their support during his two year term of office and had also welcomed our new member onboard. He then asked for nominations for the Office of Chairman. Vice-chairman Geoff Parnham was proposed by P Bakker and seconded by John Anderson, agreed without dissention. Geoff duly thanked everyone for their confidence in him and offered thanks to Paul for the sterling work

done over the last two years. He then asked for nominations for the post of Vice Chairman; Roland Wright was proposed by George Chivers and seconded by Avril Gregory also elected un-opposed.

5/19

Declaration of Office The Chairman completed his forms accepting the position.

6/19

Fill Vacancies on the Council. There are four vacancies to be filled, prior to the deadline for nominations at noon on 13th May five people had registered and interest. At the deadline only three had been received these were from previous councillors who had not gone through the SKDC process. These were Wayne Charley representing the Army Camp plus Yolanda Martin and Margery Radley. They were nominated by G Chivers and seconded by J Anderson. They were accepted unanimously. It was agreed that a date should be set for some informal training to take place.

6/19a

Committees; members were asked to complete the form by passed round and indicate which committees/working groups they would like to be on. The Clerk and Chairman would then sort this out and notify all members. A new group to oversee finance has been added.

7/19

Clerks Notes of the 13th March 2019 meeting were accepted as a true record and became the minutes. Proposed by R Wright, seconded R Keeler, all members were in agreement.

8/19

Clerks Update on Matters Arising; none, all items covered within the agenda.

9/19

Financial Statement No.1.

The Clerk/RFO went through the financial report in the usual fine detail explaining all the payments etc. The Community Cleaners and Clerks salaries for the last two months April & May totalling £1457.72 plus HMRC £342.40 was paid out. The Community Cleaners Annual travel expenses of £50 were also paid. Grass Cutting by R Webster for March & April of £474 (VAT £79) was paid. Memberships to SLCC and the ICO of £132 and £40 were paid.

Repairs to the Belfry & Fifth Ave by AMG amounted to £216 inc £56 VAT.

Petty Cash expenditure owed to the Clerk during the last two months amounted to £48.76 this included Office General £23.28. Total expenditure during these two months being £2760.88 a total of £120.71 of VAT is reclaimable. Known expenditure due for payment before the next meeting are; Community Cleaner’s Salary, Clerks Salary, Repairs, Road Safety, Insurance through Came & Co on the 3yr contract @ £912.97 which was proposed by J Anderson sec R Keeler and LALC membership @ £761.41 proposed by R Wright sec G Parnham. Also agreed was membership to CPRE @ £36 proposed by P Bakker sec by G Chivers. The Clerk informed the meeting that all budget headings were as to be expected for this time of year.

Income was Precept £15500, Community Cleaner £640.38, Newsletter Donations £100 and Melton Mowbray Interest £201.66. A total of £16442.04.

Agreement to accept the Financial Statement No1 and all the options suggested plus the normal expected payments for up to July was proposed by R Wright seconded by P Bakker this was agreed unanimously. As agreed at the previous meeting the Clerk, Chair and Vice Chair were to look into introducing an Accounts Package specifically for PC’s the preferred one being Scribe. They had a demonstration to see if it is suitable for us. This would incur an annual cost of approx £300. On seeing the demonstration it was agreed to try it for one year. The clerk has had the initial training but is not far enough on yet to produce a report until all our information is added in.

10A/19

Audit; Annual Governance Statement/ Risk Assessment; The Clerk took members through the assessment questions in turn. Each question was reviewed in and there were no negative items in our procedures. The Chairman duly signed it off on a proposal by A Gregory seconded by P Bakker.

10B/19

Audit Agreement and Sign Off. The Clerk supplied all members a copy of the final accounts for the years 2018/19 and from that they all agreed on the Audit figures. This was proposed by R Wright sec by P Bakker.

11/19

12/19

Leisure & Outdoor Committee.

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

a. Committee Report; The committee vice-chair R Keeler gave some details on the information meeting held by Woodland Trust and the visit to Londonthorpe Woods.

b. Playground Safety: repair work passed to WACS is now nearing completion. These were mainly items indicated in the ROSPA inspection.

ROSPA Inspection; as indicated above some items within the Inspection we decided to get done now although there was nothing major included and some things are changes to regulations after the time we purchased the equipment. Step off climbing wall at The Belfry is missing, new one ordered.

c. Hills & Hollows; Tony Parker has completed the trimming back the hedge along the western boundary of the site and the southern edge. A suitable time is to be found to burn the waste as its slightly blocking access. Unfortunately one of the Information Lectern notices has been smashed. The Clerk is looking into a replacement. Spring on the Southern Gate has been forced off.

d. New Play Equipment the new equipment is being well used. Fifth Ave, all the caps for the posts have been stolen and new ones ordered. AMG are dealing with this. Replacement chain now fitted at the Belfry and the chain has been replaced with a stainless steel rope at Fifth Ave.

e. Grass Cutting our own cuts are being done well as required by growing conditions. SKDC’S areas are also much better this year under their own in house team. LCC Highways are not up to scratch with everything else. Complaints are being received from around the parish where no cut has been done at all, especially on the estates. The developers still with areas around the parish being quite consistent with their cuts. Thankfully in some areas the residents have taken it into their own hands and are cutting in front of their homes. Cllr L Wootten is on the case for us.

f. Woodland Trust Working Party; We are still attracting new members which are allowing more work to be done. We now have increased to another new record of 30 members signed up. A further event is being arranged for the summer to do some jobs where we will not interfere with nesting birds etc.

g. Daily Mail Big Litter Pick; 18 people attended and we picked up 26 bags full bags of rubbish , plus an exhaust, a trouser press, parts of cars including a bumper, six tyres an ironing board and a Fire Extinguisher which disappeared before it was all picked up by SKDC.

h. Bridge End Grove; a new goal post is to be fitted and in October more bulbs will be planted.

i. Best Kept Gardens; paperwork will be sent to all councillors in June for the initial nominations to be made 1st July.

j. Jubilee Wood Access; W Charley has informed us that he can get us escorted into the wood at any time when area not being used by troops. Some dates are going to be sorted by him and sent to the Clerk who will inform members of an agreed date.

k. Defibrillator; we now hopefully have a site for the second Unit on Sunningdale at “Tailored Hair”, Anthony Boyle who will be fitting it for us has got to be chased up as he has not back to us.

l. Parish Tour; the two dates agreed upon are Wednesday 5th June and Tuesday 11th June meeting at Ruston Road at 6.30pm. The Chairman requested that all members attend at least one of these events to acquaint yours selves with the needs of the parish.

Highways Notes;

Chatsworth Avenue; We are still waiting for the next of a series of meeting with all interested parties to be called by SKDC.

It has been confirmed that the work is to be done during the 2019-20 financial year.

Harrowby Hill Flooding; There is still no improvement here although we have a dry spell and water flow seems to have increased again. AW have not come back with any further info

Potholes; Repairs continue but they do not keep up with the problem. Cllr Wootten advised members again to report any seen on www.Fixmystreet.com. This was launched in 2007 and the site covers the whole country.

Speedwatch; the SID is in Londonthorpe at present. No further volunteers came forward to be trained up to man the speed-gun and until they do we can go no further with this.

SQRR, we were informed by Cllr Wootten that work is to commence shortly on the connection to the A1 and the viaduct work should commence in the spring of 2020.

J Anderson requested that we invite somebody from Highways to come and talk to us about the state of the roads in the parish.

Harrowby Lane Lamp-post; this was demolished in a road accident in March and we were informed this will take 3 months to replace. This road has seen several incidents in recent years. Just recently the police speed van has been stationed on the corner of Alma Park Road.

Ruston Road Drain Covers; Cllr G Chivers chased this up for us and they were replaced within a couple of days. It was agreed that a definite agreement as too actually who does own this is land required ASAP.

14/19

Tom Childs Award; Two nominations have been received for 2019. The committee will look at these shortly to decide on a winner. W Charley was asked to look into a possible date for the presentation to be held at the Officers Mess.

15/19

Policies; It was agreed that the committee when formed will review the relevant policies ASAP.

16/19

Correspondence; As usual all relevant correspondence has been passed on as it arrived.

17/19

Matters for the Next Agenda etc. Heavy vehicles using Harrowby Lane into town, is there a bylaw or anything stopping them using this route? AC Williams buses using Five Gates Lane.

Meeting closed 9.20 pm.

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

Next meeting; 3rd July 2019 at 7.00pm.