2020 Parish Council Minutes of Meetings

Londonthorpe & Harrowby Without Parish Council

Clerks Notes of the Parish Council Meeting held 8th January 2020 at Belmont School 7.00pm

Public Open Session: there were no parishioners present.

Councillors present; John Anderson, Geoff Parnham, Avril Gregory, Richard Keeler, Paul Bakker, Paul Bavin, Carol Markwell, Yolanda Martin, and Roland Wright. (9 Members were present.).

Geoff Parnham the Chairperson took the Chair. Pete Armstrong the Clerk took the notes.

71/19

Apologies; Margery Radley, George Chivers and Janie Lee

72/19

Declarations of Interest; J Anderson declared a non-pecuniary interest in item 19/77 regards the Five Gates Planning Application.

73/19

Clerks Notes of the 13th November 2019 meeting were accepted as a true record and became the minutes. Proposed by J Anderson, seconded R Keeler, all members agreed.

74/19

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

75/19

Financial Statement No.5.

The Clerk/RFO went through the financial report in the usual fine detail explaining all the payments etc. Cheques were made out for the following: The Community Cleaners and Clerks salaries for the last two months Nov & Dec totalling £2253.84 plus HMRC £511.10 were paid, this include all the back pay from item 59/19 from the last agenda. WACS £130 for repairs around the parish, KOMPAN £264 Inc £44 VAT, LALC £18 Inc £3 Vat for training.
Petty Cash expenditure owed to the Clerk during the last two months amounted to £101.63 this included £73.78 for the newsletter Stamps, Rubber bands £2.00, Petrol for hedge trimmer £6.00 and £5.85 for the Working Party refreshments.

Total expenditure during these two months being £3278.57 a total of £48.33 of VAT is reclaimable.

Known expenditure due for payment before the next meeting are Community Cleaner’s Salary, Clerks Salary, Repairs, Road Safety, H&H, Office, Tree Surgery, Trees and costs incurred for the Village Gateways.

The Clerk informed the meeting that all budget headings were as to be expected for this time of year. The income during this two-month period was £19.04 made up of £9.04 HSBC Interest and £10 from Councillors re the TCA Luncheon. Agreement to accept the Financial Statement No 5 and all the options suggested, plus the normal expected payments for up to March was proposed by R Wright seconded by J Anderson this was agreed unanimously.

76/19

Leisure & Outdoor Committee.

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

a. There has been no committee meeting since the November Full Council Meeting. The Clerk then updated members on the following items

b. Playground Safety: Our usual ROSPA Inspector has now carried out the annual inspection, which was done in November and the report has just been received. There are no urgent matters all listed problems are low risk, but some need keeping an eye on in case they deteriorate.

c. Withambrook: New Backboards required for the Basketball court were done and one has already been broken again and the hoop taken The trees deemed to be dangerous in the wildlife area was passed to the Clerk to sort out with the contractor and neighbouring properties like Setchfield’ s.

d. Belfry: AMG have informed us that they have not found a suitable new flywheel for the step-trainer, but they have a piece of equipment we can have for free to replace it. Members agreed on a proposal by J Anderson Sec by R Keeler to accept the kind offer. Painting of the fence was passed to the clerk to arrange for the spring when hopefully the weather will be better.

e. Hills & Hollows: The tree that died will be replaced by the ones ordered for delivery in late January and some others will be planted here and at Londonthorpe.

f. Fifth Ave; The replacement caps for new equipment have arrive and are awaiting fitting, this was one item which is on the ROSPA safety report sorted.

g. New Play Equipment no new equipment required at present unless, decisions are made after reviewing the ROSPA report.

h. Woodland Trust Working Party: we have held three successful events so far, but the weather has been against us on the first two. We are still working on the Londonthorpe side of the woods, which thankfully is generally the drier part of the area.

i. Tree Conservation: as spoken about there is no actual register of any of the protected trees in the parish. some progress has been made in identifying some in areas where councillors have forwarded lists to the Clerk. at present the list contains well over 100 specimens which in time we will visit and see if they should be on the actual register. Belton Park contains many great specimens and J Anderson offered to see if he could get any information from the Trust.

Londonthorpe; the trees requiring attention on the roadside have now been dealt with by WACS our contractor, invoice not yet received.

The Clerk has written to Jelsons regarding the poor state of the Spinney on the Sunningdale Estate. He has stated that many trees within the site are in a dangerous condition, with one already fallen and blocked the road in December.

77/19

64/19

Highways Notes/Flooding:

Chatsworth Avenue/Harrowby Hill Flooding; the remedial work on Chatsworth has now taken place; it is some sort of improvement but the sound of running water is still causing annoyance to the residents. It has been stated that all that could be done on the Highways side has been done but the rest is down to the landowners.

The Clerk, P Bakker and Cllr L Wootten did a parish tour with our Highways Manager Rowan Smith, which was very informative, and several items were raised and taken onboard by him. One item raised was the speed of vehicles on Harrowby Lane from Hall Lane to the High Dyke which residents are complaining about. We discovered that it is possible to request a speed limit without accidents and fatalities as we previously were led to believe. A letter to our County Councillor asking for the matter to be raised for consideration of a 40 or 50mph limit be applied, this was agreed upon a proposal by G Chivers seconded by R Wright all in favour. Some work is still required on the overhanging hedgerow covering the footpath outside of AW reservoir which is still causing a concern. This was raised with the Highways Officer for him to ascertain whose responsibility it is.

Southern Link Relief Road: we understand from Rowan Smith that work will be starting simultaneously on both our end A52 Roundabout and Spitalgate Level. This may be early next year. Some road closures are to be expected.

After eight months the streetlight on Harrowby Lane has been replaced.

Flooding around the Parish; as stated we have had nothing further on this, perhaps the flooding around the count over the last 2 months has kept them busy!

Londonthorpe Village Gateways; over the last two months a lot of background work has been undertaken on this project including a meeting with Highways Officer. We are now in position to take it further. What has been established is that we would not get Speed Ramps or a Chicane. The councillors agreed the following: High Road from the High Dyke 960mm a pair of return gates with a Village Name Sign on the left hand one. Spring Hill from Grantham 1500mm gates either side with Village Sign on the left, the same style will be used on Newgate Lane. Exact positions to be agreed with the Highways Manager before ordering. The approximate cost £4500 plus fitting which is expected to be around £800. This was passed unan. on a proposal from R Wright seconded by A Gregory. The further suggestion of planters is to be looked at after this initial stage is complete as we need to secure enough volunteers for the maintenance of them.

65/19

Precept 2020/21; the clerk had supplied all members details of the present position of our accounts and the anticipated expenditure between now and April. The leisure and Outdoor committee have kept their precept request at £15k this is considering the monies to be spent on Londonthorpe Village Gateways. The council will have clear carry forward of around £10k. although the increase in the salaries mentioned in 59/19 was not originally factored in it is still believed we will not need to increase our overall budget beyond the £31,000 of the last two years. On a proposal by J Anderson seconded by G Chivers it was agreed to request at a precept of £31k from SKDC.

66/19

Tom Childs Award: the recipient was Micky Stokes who raises fund for the Grantham Disabled Children’s Charity. Cllr W Charley managed the Presentation Luncheon on Tuesday 17th September at the Officers Mess. Cllrs Parnham, Bakker and Lee attended along with the recipient and her guest the parent of one of the children to benefit from the fund, also present was nominator and Kath Childs plus her daughter Carol. The Clerk was also there and conducted the event. The Chairman Geoff Parnham presented the Cheque for £200 along with flowers for the ladies’ present.

67/19

Parish Open Evening on 25/9/19; Unfortunately, we were a bit light on the ground with councillors due to holidays but those there coped very well with an exceptionally high turnout of residents. The LCC Flooding team failed to attend which was very disappointing. The Police and Woodland Trust both attended though and dealt with queries from around the parish. Other items; Londonthorpe Traffic Designs, Speed Gun Team, Play Areas, Casual Vacancies, Planning, Vandalism, Planning Matters, BKG, Tom Childs Award. and the other regular information boards. Most of the items we presented brought forward information to be used and in fact has been used to plan future initives.

68/19

Policies: members reviewed a basic Travel Expenses Policy and accepted it with a slight amendment to cover the cheapest cost of travel irrelevant of the mode transport. Proposed C Markwell sec Y Martin passed unan. with the amendment. It was agreed that the Policies Working Party will review the employees’ contracts and others where relevant.

69/19

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

70/19

Matters for the Next Agenda etc.

It was asked if any information had been forthcoming from SKDC Enforcement Team re the illegal developments on Turnor Road and other areas of the Parish. The background councillor training that the clerk has offered to put on will be November 28th 7.00 pm at Belmont. Seven councillors stated they could attend.

It was also asked what the situation was regarding PCSO’s in the parish, the clerk stated as far as he knew it was as per the information issued in September where we should have a team of five in the East of Grantham patch.

Newsletter details for Spring Edition; Rev Sam Parsons to be asked to submit small article.

Meeting closed 9.15 pm.

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

Next meeting; 8th Jan 2020 at 7.00pm.