September 2021 Minutes
Londonthorpe & Harrowby Without Parish Council
Clerks Notes of the Parish Council Meeting held on Thursday 9th Sept 2021 Held at Belmont school.
Meeting started at 7.00pm.
Held under Covid 19 Regulations.
Public Open Session: there were no parishioners present.
Councillors present: Geoff Parnham, Richard Keeler, Paul Bakker, Carol Markwell, John Anderson, Paul Bavin, Alan Bowling and Paul Nesbitt (8 Members were present.). LCC Cllr L Wootten & Cllr A Stokes were both also in attendance.
Geoff Parnham the Chairperson took the Chair. Pete Armstrong the Clerk took the notes.
21/37 Apologies: Yolanda Martin Holiday, Avril Gregory, Roland Wright both unwell, George Chivers another meeting, these were all agreed as an acceptable reason for absence
21/38 Declarations of Interest; None declared.
21/39 Clerks Notes of the 7th of July 2021 meeting were accepted as a true record and became the minutes. Proposed by A Bowling seconded R Keeler, all members were fully in agreement.
21/40 Clerks Update on Matters Arising: As usual all other matters fall within the full agenda.
21/41 Financial Statement No.3.
The Clerk went through the report in the detail explaining all the payments etc.
Councillors had again received the reports taken off the Scribe system prior to the meeting.
Cheques or bank transfers were made out for the following:
Community Cleaner & Clerks Salaries for the two months July & Aug £1919.91 HMRC £477.88
Leisure & Outdoor Grass Cutting £961.20 VAT £160.20
Newsletter £700, Stamps/Envelopes £44.34 VAT .79p
Website £126.00 VAT £21.00
Community Speedwatch, Hi-Viz £45.96, VAT £7.66
Scarecrow Competition £25
Open Evening Room Rent £60
Play Equipment Withambrook £5880 VAT £980.00
Part Payment of Legal Fees re Land Purchase £500
Items paid cash totalled £29.50 VAT.75p Visa Payments of £110.80 inc. £7.70 VAT were also made and signed off accordingly
An expenditure total of £10805.29 including £1169.65 VAT.
Income was £2072.48 VAT Reclaim and.27p Interest from HSBC.
Items known due for payment before the next meeting are Grass Cutting, Withambrook Path S137 Donations BKG Awards, Open Evening, BHMS and Salaries and anything else to do with the ongoing projects already agreed within the parish. the annual payment to St John’s Church towards the Grass Cutting was agreed at £250 on a proposal by J Anderson Sec P Bakker
Agreement to accept the Financial Statement No 3 for 2021 and all the options suggested, plus the normal expected payments for up to the September meeting was proposed by C Markwell seconded by J Anderson. Agreed Unan.
21/41a HSBC Bank:
As previously advised by the email received, HSBC are going to start charging £8 per month plus other charges for services used. The clerk has done work on this already. Many other banks are doing the same and those that aren’t, are not processing new business the Clerk will though investigate further with his clerking colleagues for other options.
21/42 Leisure & Outdoor Committee:
No Committee Meetings since the last full council meeting. Cllr R Keeler stated that all items of note regarding L&O are covered under the relevant headings below.
a. Playground Safety: complaints about noise from the MUGA into the early hours of the morning received from a resident of Third Ave, she was advised to call the police when this happens. The clerk has also informed the PCSO as the Community Cleaner has again found evidence of drug dealing bags.
No problems reported with any play equipment.
b. Community Cleaner: the new cleaner continues to work well and is still being very proactive.
c. Covid 19 Update: All Playgrounds have remained open as allowed under the present government guidelines.
d. Withambrook: The replacement Trim Trail is now in place and paid for. Good use of it has been evidenced. The steppingstones have still to arrive, they are reputedly stuck in a container in Rotterdam along with 1000s of others. The pathway from the bridge to our track to Ruston Road has been done this week. Slightly more work was done than the original plan to give splayed connection to the drive.
A further Working Party will be arranged to deal with the remaining tree work.
e. Belfry: no known problems.
f. Londonthorpe: The new Multi Item piece of equipment is still being well used. With some very good comments from the users and parents.
Hedgerow infill saplings and some trees have been requested from the LCC tree scheme.
g. Hills & Hollows: as previously reported the trees purchased planted in the spring have not been as successful as other years with three out of the five Crab Apple failing along with the Oak. These will be replaced in the Autumn also with trees from the LCC scheme. Working party planned for Friday 24th Sept to mow the grass and some other tasks weather permitting. Next door resident asked if she wants any trees but no response so far.
h. Working Parties: As above. The school are going to have a working party day if anyone wants to join in. We will be demonstrating how to build a Hazel Hurdle to the pupils.
i. Woodland Trust Five Gates Project & Working Parties: The next Working Party will be on Sunday, and it is possible we could have three young ladies doing their DoE volunteering now. Other dates as per the newsletter.
j. Best Kept Gardens: all judging complete, winners will receive their notifications this week or early next.
k. PROW Cold Harbour Lane: Supposed ROW Footpath from Cold Harbour Lane to the corner of the PWOG lands. New signs appeared stating private road!! It does not appear on the definitive map. Walkers are trying get it registered. It is unclear who owns it.
The Sunningdale Scarecrow Competition, the Parish Council awarded a £25 voucher. This to be awarded to the best Junior entry.
The delayed Parish Tour will be organised for later this month one weekday and one weekend. Councillors to inform clerk of preference
All Areas covered by this Committee are as usual reported in this item.
21/43 BHMS; Pressure is being applied to come to some agreement with SKDC but the lack of response from them is more than frustrating. We had great assistance from both our district councillors but still we get more and more disillusioned by the ability of anyone at the council offices to respond, that is except for one person who holds no great responsibility within the organisation. Even when the deputy chief executive has been involved no-one seems to carry out their duties.
We now believe though that the scrubland outside of the fence is part of the site, we will have this confirmed when Legal actually get their act together. On the afternoon of this meeting, after once being prompted by the clerk a response was received from the Deputy Chief Exec, stating he understood our frustrations. He obviously had some effect in some departments as the Head of Amenities (another new name) emailed later asking for a site meeting next week. The Chair and Clerk will attend. He also confirmed the quote from Environment SK will be with us by the end of this week. Both Cllr Wootten and Cllr Stokes offered us their continued support. Cllr Wootten has been at the forefront of this for us all along with Cllr Chivers. Trees have been requested from the LCC scheme and SKDC.
Legal have still not contacted us and we don’t a have a contact person/number. We need confirmation of what and where of what we can do things.
The clerk has put together a dossier of the emails since we started, it runs to ten pages prior to this meeting.
Land Purchase: this is in the hands of the solicitors; The Clerk has held a preliminary meeting them where the information required from us was relayed. The three signatories for the contract have got to take in identification before the legal documents can be drawn up. We hope to have this completed by the end of the year.
This will need consideration in the Precept
21/44 Planning:
Awaiting further information re PWOG and Saltersford.
Very little in the way of applications received during this last period. One to follow being the flood alleviation scheme at the rear of the Belton Lane properties. This is due to commence on the 27th September, councillors are welcome to attend a briefing by a project leader on site at 12.00 noon. All applications forwarded to councillors for comment upon receipt.
An email was sent to SKDC Enforcement about the lack of room for the promised screening of the new factory unit. Hardcore and parking is right upto the boundary fence.
Second Ave Bund, a letter received from Cllr Wootten which she passed on states that the developer of the proposed starter units is not intending to build on or use the area. The letter also mentions the covenant.
21/45 Lion Gates: These are now re-open with times from 9.00 to 5.00. Ian Cooper is to attend our Open Evening and he also put a letter in the Newsletter. We will continue to monitor the situation.
21/46 Highway Matters: Road conditions on Sunningdale after the top dressing are still very poor, even after the so-called remedial work. Cllr Wootten has been backing up the local residents’ complaints on this on this. Cllr Anderson has been conversing with Highways but not getting any satisfaction, Cllr Bowling has also been making complaints from neighbours known to LCC. The cost of the work is known to be in excess of £37000.
A letter received from a resident of Belton Lane about road conditions and speeding was passed on by Cllr Wootten to the clerk. Cllr Wootten informed the resident that we have now got in place a CSW Team who would be operating on this road. Cllr Stokes informed us that Saltersford Road repairs are now down to be completed in January.
Community Speedwatch Team; we now have eleven volunteers trained, but two have still to do their familiarisation training. Other Volunteers are still welcome, there is one more training session planned by the Lincs Road Safety Partnership in October.
Getting the details own correctly is the prime thing and this is something that members will get better at with practice. There are several things which need doing at the same time, so you must be on the ball.
The Clerk reminded members about replying to the LCC consultation on travel and transport in Grantham. He had attended the stall in the Morrison centre where he expected some idea of what was being thought about, but they had no information at all.
21/47 Newsletter: this was delivered in late August as planned. We have had many nice comments about and one negative who said the print was too small.
21/48 Open Evening: this will be on Wednesday 22nd September, in the Church of Ascension Hall on Edinburgh Road and open to the public at 7.00pm. Helpers required from 6.00pm to set up. As we cannot put anything on the walls, Paul Bakker has made some notice stands for us. (Thanks Paul) We will be serving hot drinks etc on the night as well.
The stands that we will have is still open for discussion, but will include BHMS Site update & Plans, Queens Platinum Jubilee, Working Parties, CSW, Lion Gate (Ian Cooper), Relevant Planning Matters and others as decided before the date.
21/49 Policies: none changed.
21/50 Queens Platinum Jubilee: A working party met to discuss this subject in late August, they have come up with the following suggestions including: Steel Benches around the Parish, Commemorative Tree/s Planting, renaming the Blessed Hugh More site “Platinum Jubilee Park” and a Beacon to tie in withal the others planned in the locality. Comments and further Suggestions will come from the Open Evening with residents. Costings are to be done on all the above ideas. His will require consideration in the Precept.
21/51 Working Groups: The working group members list was updated to include our newest councillors.
21/52 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 and news etc.
21/53 Matters for the November Agenda etc. Inspection of the Machine Gun Commemorative Tree and possible replacement.
Meeting closed 9.10pm. Diary Dates are as per these minutes and the Spring Newsletter.
Next meeting: Wednesday November 11th, 2021, at 7.00pm.
Signed as a true copy of the meeting held 7th July 2021