2021 Parish Council Minutes of Meetings

Londonthorpe & Harrowby Without Parish Council

Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held 5th May 2021 Via Zoom. Meeting started at 7.15pm. 

Held under Covid 19 Regulations.

Public Open Session: there were no parishioners present. Except for Alan Bowling who was there to be co-opted as a councillor.

Councillors present: Geoff Parnham, Avril Gregory, Richard Keeler, Roland Wright, George Chivers, Paul Bakker, Carol Markwell and Yolanda Martin (8 Members were present.). Geoff Parnham the Chairperson took the Chair. Pete Armstrong the Clerk took the notes. 

The Clerk explained the reasoning about having meeting brought forward by a week from the normal day. This being a change in the regulations due to Covid. 

21/1   Apologies: John Anderson on holiday, Paul Bavin working, and Jane Lee; these were agreed as an acceptable reason for absence. Apologies were also received from LCC Cllrs L Wootten and A Stokes

21/2   A one minutes silence was held in Remembrance of Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh.

21/3   Resolution to Amend section 2a of the standing orders for one year only. This was proposed by Roland Wright and Seconded by Paul Bakker the reason is to give continuity during these times of Corona Virus lockdowns. Passed unan.

21/4   Election of Officers; Chairman Geoff Parnham proposed by R Wright seconded by P Bakker Unan.

Vice Chair: R Wright proposed P Bakker seconded by A Gregory agreed unan.

21/5   Signing of Office: duly signed and shown on screen. At this time internet difficulties were experienced by some members of the Council. Cllr Bakker lost connections completely and it has since come to the councils notice that Paul Nesbitt who was wishing to be co-opted was unable to connect. A text was received to this effect @ 7.43pm. Cllr Y Martin also had problems but was able to reconnect.

21/6   Casual Vacancies: We have two vacancies Alan Bowling was part of the meeting at this time of this item, he declared his continued interest. The Chair asked him to give a short introduction of himself. This he duly did, and this was followed by a proposal by C Markwell seconded by A Gregory that he be co-opted. This was unanimously agreed. He was welcomed to the council by the chairman G Parnham, he stated that he hoped he would find it rewarding. The other person (Paul Nesbitt) who is interested it was found could not connect due to the internet problems being suffered at this time. See above.

21/7   Acceptance of Office: Forms Signed and shown on screen, Clerk to Countersign.

21/8   Declarations of Interest; None declared.

21/9   Clerks Notes of the 13th of January 2021 meeting were accepted as a true record and became the minutes. Proposed by R Wright, seconded G Chivers, all members were fully in agreement.

21/10    Clerks Update on Matters Arising: As usual all other matters fall within the full agenda.

21/11a/b   Financial Statement No.5. 

The Clerk/RFO explained why this item was in two parts, i.e., the cancelling of the March meeting.

21/11a deals with items up to the 31st of March 21. All this of this is within the Audit Year for 2020/21. 

21/11b is just the items from that date onwards. He went through both reports in the detail explaining all the payments etc. 

21/11a: Councillors had received the reports 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 two months Jan & Feb totalling          £1593.74.
WACS Repairs                                                                                                                    £80.00
ROSPA Inspection                                                                                                              £270.00   VAT £45.00
S137 to Umbrella Counselling                                                                                            £250.00
Clerks Annual Expenses                                                                                                     £300.00
Petty Cash Totalled                                                                                                               £17.48     VAT£2.91. 
this included Stationery and Compost. 

Total expenditure during these two months being £2511.92 a total of £47.91 of VAT is reclaimable. 

Income totalling £165 was received from donations towards the trees at the Hills & Hollows.

Proposed by R Wright & seconded R Keeler this was agreed unan.

Expenditure due for payment from the 1st April up to the date of this meeting have been agreed through emails to councillors: they include, Community Cleaner’s Salary including final holiday and backpay in relation to annual increase in line with salary point, Clerks Salary, Repairs, Office, plus all annual memberships etc due in April. 

21/11b: Community Cleaner & Clerks Salaries for the two months   March & April £1958.85

HMRC                                                                                                                               £408.60
Community Cleaner Annual Expenses                                                                              £50.00    
Streetwise Grass Cutting                                                                                                    £280.80 VAT £46.80
Print Bureau- Newsletter Printing                                                                                      £875.00
Newsletter Sundries                                                                                                           £85.72 VAT £1.09
Scribe Accounts Package                                                                                                 £345.60 VAT 57.60
LALC       Membership                                                                                                      £813.53
SLCC Membership                                                                                                           £130.00      
Community Cleaner Interviews Expenses                                                                         £40.00
Community Cleaner Tools etc.                                                                                           £70.84 VAT £11.82

An expenditure total of £5058.94 including £117.31 VAT.

The Community Cleaners Salary included all back pay and holidays due to him as he leaves our employment. We thank him and his Wife for their dedication to the job.

Income was £15.500 from the precept.

The cheque made out to MIND last year has now been cancelled as there does not appear to be a local branch dealing with our citizens although there is a local MIND Charity Shop. Another Charity dealing with the same problems is to be researched.

Items due for payment before the next meeting are: Grass Cutting, WACS, Insurance, ICO and Salaries.

Agreement to purchase the “Parish OnLine” Mapping resource was agreed on a prop by G Chivers seconded by R Wright. Passed Unan. The clerk asked if anyone who had not been able to access the resource to email him.

Agreement to accept the Financial Statement No 1 for 2021 and all the options suggested, plus the normal expected payments for up to the July meeting was proposed by G Parnham seconded by A Gregory. Agreed Unan.

Thank You letters had been received from British Legion. St Barnabas and Umbrella Counselling for the last round of donations made under our Covid19 agreement.

It was also noted that the Clerks Salary should have gone up in line with the 2020/21 pay agreement.

21/12a   Governance Statement for the Audit: All councillors had been emailed the relevant information prior to the meeting and on a Proposal by C Markwell Seconded by R Wright the relevant answers were agreed.

21/12b   Audit: The Clerk had issued all members with the details of the Audit prior to the meeting, he gave a breakdown of the expenditure and income for the year. A total of £32,588.77 was spent during the year against a total of £34,743.11 income. If the Newsletter had gone out in March as planned the difference would have been nearer to £1000. This Newsletter having now fallen during 2021/22 means that this year will overspend to that sort of figure.

The accounts kept on Scribe match exactly with the Bank Balances and there are no major differences on the year t year figures that will need reporting. The Internal Audit will be completed ASAP, when Face to Face meetings are allowed. The balances remain in a healthy condition.

Acceptance of the Accounts for Audit was proposed by G Parnham & seconded by A Gregory passed without dissent.

21/13   Leisure & Outdoor Committee: 

a.   Committee Meeting 30th March 2021. Items from this meeting are covered under the relevant headings below.

b.   Playground Safety: all items from the ROSPA report are in the work passed to WACS for the completion.

c.   Community Cleaner: the interviews took place in April and Mark Denton was appointed and started this on the 1st of May. He has had a meeting with Tony the retiring Cleaner to get to know the ropes and do a change over. A bouquet of flowers was sent to Mrs Parker as a thank you for all her support. A thank you card has been received.

d.   Covid 19 Update: All Playgrounds have remained open as allowed under the present government guidelines. 

e.   Withambrook: as agreed at the last full meeting the Leisure and Outdoor Committee reviewed the quotes for the replacement Trim Trail. The order has been placed with Vale for an item very similar to one they supplied at Londonthorpe. Cost around £4900. The improvement of the pathway from the bridge to our track to Ruston Road was also agreed with Vale at a cost of C £2000. It will be 1.5m wide to meet DDA regulations. A further Working Party is to be arranged to deal with the remaining tree work.

f.   Belfry: no known problems. A repair has been made to the neighbour’s fence though by WACS.

g.   Londonthorpe: The brash left from the working party in October, has now died down but due the lockdown and Cllr P Bavins’ work contracts we have been unable to get in and clear it. Paul has though kindly volunteered to bring in his Chipper on Friday to start the task. There were a couple of volunteers that stated they would help, the Clerk said he would contact them when required. The new Multi Item piece of equipment is still being well used. A letter of thanks was sent to Gary Gilder for cutting the hedges for us.

h.   Bridge End Grove:  Nothing heard yet from Buckminster Estates re their building plans and when they will affect our play area. The Basket Swing ideas has been shelved, although it was a very kind offer from Vale it does not really fit the criteria for what we would want.  

i.   Working Parties: Withambrook & Hills & Hollows. A working party will be held on the 12th of May @ the Hills & Hollows to remove all the self-set Hawthorns that are threatening to take over the area. Other work will include taking off the tree guards that are breaking up and spreading around the area as litter. The good ones will be left as the rabbit numbers have risen considerably again. 
Another Working Party will be planned soon for Withambrook to continue the tree work. 

j.   Woodland Trust Five Gates Project & Working Parties: all through Lockdown work on the project has been continuing but obviously very slowly. It is hoped that things will start to pick up soon. There have been no Working parties since the last Parish Council meeting due to the Covid Restrictions these will be restarting again soon.

It was also agreed that the Parish Council would award a small prize for the Sunningdale Scarecrow Competition as suggested by this committee. We have included an Advert in our Newsletter for the event in August.

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

21/14   Blessed Hugh More School Site Consultation: Progress has now been made in contacting SKDC and getting a response. The Clerk and the Chairman Geoff Parnham have now had two meetings with representatives from SKDC about what we can do on the site. The first meeting was on Teams, where we asked the questions about the limits of what we could do on site. Their representatives then went away to get further information and to involve other departments who will be involved.  A further meeting was held on site where the Clerk explained and demonstrated where we would wish to make improvements.

These include improving the access from the parish side of the site at Sandringham and Windsor Ave, a permeable material would have to be used due to the wetness of the area. Planting of native trees and shrubs along the perimeters especially where there are slopes would also feature in the early objectives.

We also stated that we would like to put up two posts to act as goals, these to be situated near to the middle of the field. We also mentioned the fact that later on we would like to consider putting in some play equipment but situated as far away from the houses as possible. A map of the site and the early proposals was sent to all councillors. Costings for the improved entrances are now being received.

21/16   Highways Notes: 

Londonthorpe Village Planters; agreed these were looking extremely good and warm welcome to the village.

Regular Highway updates: these have been forwarded as received from Cllr Wootten.

Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership: Due to the events of the last year and all the lockdowns this is still ongoing.  We do now have a new contact and the Clerk has completed the forms he was sent and has asked for telephone contact to be made. When it goes ahead it would have to be in two sessions. It is hoped we could use the church for the Londonthorpe one. 

21/17   Newsletter: The Newsletter was delayed from March to April due to the cancelling of the March Council Meeting.

Most items remained the same with some updates applied.

Deliveries started on April 23rd but stopped immediately when an article within was deemed by some to be inappropriate due to the closeness of the elections. They will restart on the 8th May. This was done only as a precaution against breaking any electoral regulations.

21/18   Policies:  All policies that have been amended to include the holding of Virtual Meetings as per Government Guidelines will need further work on them. 

21/19   Correspondence: As usual all relevant correspondence has been passed on as it arrived. This has allowed members to stay up to date with the ever-changing regulations etc.

21/20   Matters for the Next Agenda etc. 

The Clerk suggested that we could hold the TCA as part of the Open Evening and invite the recipients along to receive their cheques. He asked that members contact him about any possible nominations. This was proposed by A Gregory seconded by C Markwell and accepted by all. As was the renewal of the Best Kept Gardens competition.

Meeting closed 8.50pm. Diary Dates are as per these minutes and the Spring Newsletter. 

Next meeting:  Wednesday 7th July 2021 at 7.00pm.5th May 2021