November 2020 Minutes
Londonthorpe & Harrowby Without Parish Council
Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held 11th November 2020 Via Zoom. Meeting started at 7.00pm. Held under Covid 19 Regulations.
Public Open Session: there were no parishioners present.
Councillors present: Geoff Parnham, John Anderson, Avril Gregory, Richard Keeler, Roland Wright, George Chivers, Paul Bakker, Carol Markwell, and Yolanda Martin (9 Members were present.).
Geoff Parnham the Chairperson took the Chair. Pete Armstrong the Clerk took the notes.
29/20
Apologies: Paul Bavin was detained at work; this was agreed as an acceptable reason on a prop by R Wright sec by G Chivers. Apologies were also received from LCC Cllr A Stokes. Resignations were received from W Charley due to the pressure of his work and from M Radley due to health issues. J Anderson apologised as he would have to leave the meeting at 7.50pm for family reasons.
30/20
Declarations of Interest; None declared
31/20
Casual Vacancies: Due to the resignations we have two vacancies one will be filled by the replacement who has been selected to represent the POWG Barracks. The other is to be opened up to parishioners by advertising on the notice boards and the Website. The clerk was also asked to contact those who had been unsuccessful on the last occasion we had a vacancy
32/20
Clerks Notes of the 9th September 2020 meeting were accepted as a true record and became the minutes. Proposed by R Wright, seconded P Bakker, all members present were in agreement.
33/20
Clerks Update on Matters Arising; none, as usual with the full agenda all items will be covered within.
34/20
Financial Statement No.3.
The Clerk/RFO went through the financial report in the detail explaining all the payments etc.
Councillors had received the report taken off the Scribe system prior to the meeting.
Cheques or bank transfers were made out for the following:
Community Cleaners and Clerks salaries for the last two months Sept to Oct totalling £1623.00
Streetwise for Grass Cutting £1302.00 VAT £217.
HMRC £408.60
Newsletter (Print Bureau). £600.00
St John The Baptist Church (Grass Cutting Costs Donation). £250.00
LALC (Magazines). £ 26.50
PKF Littlejohn (Audit). £ 240.00 VAT £40
Petty Cash Totalled £100.97 VAT£12.81
this included Cleaning Equipment, Refreshments, Wood, Plants/Bulbs, and a Chain.
Total expenditure during these two months being £4521.81 a total of £269.81 of VAT is reclaimable.
Known expenditure due for payment before the next meeting are Community Cleaner’s Salary, Clerks Salary, Grass Cutting, Repairs, Office, Fitting of Village Planters, Hedge Laying LRSP and the New Play Equipment.
There was income of £16180.43 during this period. Precept £15500, Community Cleaner Grant £680.16 and 27p interest.
Donations: all councillors had been asked to forward any nominations for a further round of donations, these are to go to assist Charities working for or with other organisations likely to be aiding parishioners. Seven charities were put forward and after a good debate the following were chosen to receive £250 each. Royal British Legion in lieu of payment to PD Langford for assisting with the website, others were MIND, Lincs NHS Charity, Umbrella Counselling (Grantham) and Woodland Trust. All these were chosen with parishioner’s well-being at the forefront of councillor’s minds. Proposed C Markwell sec Y Martin all in agreement.
Agreement to accept the Financial Statement No 3 and all the options suggested, plus the normal expected payments for up to January meeting was proposed by G Parnham seconded by P Bakker this was agreed unanimously.
He stated that he has again spoken with the branch staff and been told that all Internet Banking Applications were taking extra time.
The advised members that the Audit had been return without any problems. There had though been a mistiming of a notices due to the actions during Lockdown.
35/20
Leisure & Outdoor Committee.
All Areas covered by this Committee are as usual reported in this item.
A Committee Meeting was held on the 28th October with the Precept as the main item on the agenda. R Keeler the committee chairman gave a short report back. The Clerks Notes of this meeting were emailed out in the meeting information package to all members. The Clerk then updated members on the following items
Playground Safety: Our ROSPA Inspector will carry out the annual inspection prior to Christmas. All Playgrounds remain open. Cllr J Anderson is regularly checking and cleaning down the Belfry which is being very well used. The Clerk has been called twice by Parishioners to do a clean-up, once for a broken bottle on the swings and another a dead Blackbird on the area.
At Fifth Ave our Covid Notices keep being removed
Withambrook: Trev Whatton s going to attend the post on the Trim Trail that rotted away. On further inspection there is more rot than was at first thought on some other elements. A further Working Party to deal with the trees mentioned on the “SKDC Tree Safety Report”. They will continue working within the “Safer Working Practices Guidelines”.
Belfry: J Anderson reported that 2 fence boards were missing but he saw Trev Whatton on site and arranged for repairs to be done. No other problems other than those mentioned in Item A.
Londonthorpe: The working party cut back and raised the crowns on the more mature trees on the site along with pruning some of the other hedges etc in October. P Bavin has agreed to bring his Chipper up to remove all the brash. The Council thanks him for that.
The Wooden Trim Trail has gone. A new Multi Item piece of equipment is on order and will be fitted the last week of November. Vale are supplying, fitting, and clearing the site of all the debris.
Hills & Hollows: 10 trees will be ordered for delivery ready to plant in January. They will be 5 Wild Cherry and 5 Crab Apple, two of these are definitely booked for donors with a possibility of two more. Donors have been informed of the expected cost. One would like a plaque; P Bakker has offered to make the wooden holder for this.
A Working Party is to be organised for January. A decision needs to be made about the site for the Granite Seat, Cllrs Bakker, Wright, and the Clerk are to meet on site after Lockdown ends.
Bridge End Grove: Bulbs were planted on the hillside by Cllrs Keeler & Bakker. The Clerk had to go out and replace a broken rail on the steps by the slide.
New Play Equipment: 20-21 Budget the Wooden Equipment will need replacing at Withambrook. (See Item 35c/20)
Woodland Trust Working Party: we managed to recommence the Working Parties on Woodland Trust land at the beginning of November, and our next meeting is on the 6th December just after Lockdown is due to finish. Entrance to the Woods near to Stanborough Press now much more open.
The Clerk has been made aware of a Tree Planting session to be held on the land behind McCann’s on the 5th December, it will be by appointment only. When he gets the full details, he will forward to members etc.
Woodland Trust Five Gates Project: The Learning Centres are going to be the first things put into place and Belmont School are the selected partner school in this. They are having input from the start. The initial phase will see a learning area with seats made from trees cut for the local woods erected just inside the Fifth Ave entrance. The next phase should see a similar development around the pond area on the Londonthorpe site.
Staff at the school are very excited by the outdoor learning activities this will provide.
Finding Fitness: a letter from this organisation was looked at by the committee and it was decided that we pass it to the school as we did not have the facilities.
Cllr J Anderson left the meeting at 7.52pm
36/20
Blessed Hugh More School Site Consultation: we have received confirmation the ACV in our favour. LCC Cllr L Wootten was able to confirm that it had also been removed from the Current Housing Development Plan.
Cllr Wootten also confirmed that the Covenant was still in place and LCC were not likely to change its terms.
An email received by the Clerk from two parishioner outlining some of the things they would like to see happen on the site had been passed to members upon receipt. Within this there are items that the PC could not support as they would incur much the same problems as having 65 homes on the site. The PC are open to improving the site if allowed. At present we are waiting for a reply from SKDC Estates Surveyor on what we would be allowed to do. We are prepared at this time to plant trees, wildflowers etc which would enhance the site. Also, to be looked and costed would be to improve the access points from our parish on to the site.
A Facebook page has been passed on, in which Mr Stookes apologised if he had upset the Parish Councillors by one of his posts, by councillors he had meant SKDC councillors. The item referred to the councillors who had supported the initial outlined plan, this did not include our two SKDC Councillors, they were not on that committee.
The Chair thanked everyone including Cllr Wootten who had had a hand in the work done to support our application. Cllr Wootten echoed this sentiment and stated this was a whole community effort with everyone coming together.
37/20
PLANNING APPLICATIONS
S20/1902
Harrowby Hall
Tree Works
Awaiting replies from councillors
S20/1484
Harrowby Farm Dev
Building to homes reno
List of reasons to SKDC for amendments
S20/1520
Harrowby Farm Dev
Building reno to homes
Parking, overlooking, etc
OLDER
Items
Updates
S15/2101
SLRR
No further news
Works progressing from A1
S18/0944
Cold Harbour
Travellers Site
No Further News
The Clerk raised the matter of not all members replying to the planning applications especially when a named councillor for that item. All councillors are sent the Application when it arrives with the Clerk and all may if they wish comment. If our replies to SKDC are to be fully representative of the council, we need a broad view of councillor’s thoughts. He also said that if anything is sent out for comment then he would expect a reply from all. The Chair fully supported the Clerks comments.
38/20
Highways Notes
Londonthorpe Village Planters; Members were told that the planters had been installed this very morning, they are just in front of the Village Gateways. Cllr C Markwell is to gather the volunteers through her village WhatsApp Page. We are just waiting for the topsoil and compost to be added, the Clerk already has most of the plants and bulbs ready to go. Cllr L Wootten was thanked again for the Donation of £500 towards these planters.
Harrowby Lane from the High Dyke to Hall Lane: Cllr Wootten has been dealing with this since our last Open Evening, it was a request from parishioners along this stretch of road. An Archer Analysis was undertaken in October, but the speeds recorded do not make a great case for any speed reduction measures to be taken. She has stated she will continue to fight this for us. It was also stated in case members were not aware that the 60mph national limit extends into the village itself.
Bridge End Grove: The Clerk has heard from Cllr A Stokes that some of the footpaths on the estate are to be done this year and the rest next. He also stated that the road works order had already appeared in the Journal.
Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership: some slight progress has been made regarding the training of volunteers. The LRSP have no trainers in the area but another possibility is that one of the trained PCSO’s might undertake the training for us. This of course cannot happen until after Lockdown. The order for the equipment has been agreed already and is all set to go. A list of volunteers from Londonthorpe has been received by the Clerk and we have some from other areas of the parish. It is to be remembered that this is a parish wide project not just the village. A Risk Assessment has been compiled ready for the start of the scheme by the Clerk.
39/20
Precept 2020/21: all members had received a breakdown of the expected expenditure and income the following year. The Clerk/RFO explained the reasons behind the amounts to be precepted for. This included the £15000 agreed/requested by the Leisure and Outdoors Committee for the running of our facilities. With the expected VAT return and grant from SKDC towards the Community Cleaner a further £16000 will be required to keep the status quo. A precept of £31000 which will be the same as the last three years, was proposed by R Wright sec by R Keeler this was agreed unan.
40/20
Policies: The Standing Orders have been changed to include the holding of Virtual Meetings as per Government Guidelines. Policies re Covid19 Play Areas and Volunteer Speed Watch adapted from other sources were accepted. Also changed and brought up to date was the Donations Policy.
41/20
Correspondence: As usual all other relevant correspondence has been passed on as it arrived. This has allowed members to stay up to date with the ever-changing regulations etc.
42/20
Matters for the Next Agenda etc.
An email has been received with a nomination for the Tom Childs Award which will be included when we do the next one in the Spring/Summer. Some members already knew of this person’s actions during this pandemic
Meeting closed 8.38. pm. Diary Dates are as per these minutes and the Autumn Newsletter.
Next meeting: Wednesday 13th January 2021 at 7.00pm. This will again be a Virtual Meeting.