November 2021 DRAFT Notes
Londonthorpe & Harrowby Without Parish Council
Clerk; Peter A. Armstrong 27 Belton Ave Grantham Lincs NG31 9JE
Tel 07929321426 E-mail londonthorpeharrowby@ntlworld.com
Clerks Notes of the Parish Council Meeting held on Wednesday 10th November 2021 at Belmont school.
Meeting started at 7.00pm.
Held under Covid 19 Regulations.
Public Open Session: there were no parishioners present.
The planned presentation by Maisie McMahon was cancelled.
21/54 Councillors present: Geoff Parnham, Richard Keeler, Paul Bakker, Carol Markwell, John Anderson, Paul Bavin, Alan Bowling and Paul Nesbitt Avril Gregory, Roland Wright George Chivers Yolanda Martin all 12 members were present. LCC Cllr L Wootten was also in attendance.
Geoff Parnham the Chairperson took the Chair. Pete Armstrong the Clerk took the notes.
21/55 Apologies: Cllr A Stokes LCC
21/56 Declarations of Interest; None declared.
21/57 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.
21/58 Clerks Update on Matters Arising: As usual all other matters fall within the full agenda.
21/59 Financial Statement No.4.
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, Bank Transfers or Debit Card payments were made out for the following:
Community Cleaner & Clerks Salaries for the two months Sept & Oct £1674.91 HMRC £427.00
Leisure & Outdoor Grass Cutting £991.20 VAT £165.20
Councillor Badges £11.88 VAT £1.98; Audit £240.00 VAT £40.00
Open Evening: £80.60 VAT £9.89; Best Kept Gardens Comp.£196.00 VAT £2.67
Tom Childs Award and other S137 £1250.00 (£250 each to St Barnabas, Lincs Air Ambulance, South Lincs Blind Soc.) Also £250 was donated back to assist in the purchase of the Jubilee Memorial Seat. The usual £250 donation towards the Grass Cutting at Londonthorpe Churchyard was made.
Tom Childs Award costs £22 VAT£2.33
Pathway @ Withambrook £2700 VAT £450.00; Part Payment Purchase of Jubilee Seat £650
Hills & Hollows, machine hire and repairs £184.80 VAT £30.79
Items paid cash totalled £23.50 VAT £3.25 All payments made on the card by the Clerk were signed off by Cllrs Parnham & Bakker and signed off accordingly
An expenditure total of £8428.39 including £702.86 VAT.
Income was Second Half Precept £15500 and.27p Interest from HSBC.
Items known due for payment before the next meeting are Grass Cutting, Land Purchase, BHMS and Salaries and anything else to do with the ongoing projects already agreed within the parish.
Agreement to accept the Financial Statement No 4 for 2021 and all the options suggested, plus the normal expected payments for up to the September meeting was proposed by J Anderson seconded by R Wright. Agreed Unan.
21/60 HSBC Bank:
No Change to what has already been advised. Many other banks are doing the same and those that aren’t, are not processing new business
21/61 Leisure & Outdoor Committee:
Two Parish tours were organised by the Clerk items arising from them have been dealt with or are in the process of. All members attending stated they found them useful.
A Committee Meeting was held on 20th October to set the Budgets and required Precept for 2022-23.
Items from the parish tours all dealt with.
Cllr R Keeler the Committee Chairman stated that all items of note regarding L&O are covered under the relevant headings below.
a. Playground Safety ROSPA Inspection booked for the end of November beginning of December.
b. Covid 19 Update: All Playgrounds have remained open as allowed under the present government guidelines. No Change.
c. Withambrook: the new Path is in we have had some nice compliments but also a complaint made to LCC, the clerk has been reprimanded by LCC for not asking for permission first! The replacement Trim Trail is now complete with the steppingstones added. The suppliers were not happy with some of the uprights which they thought might work loose so have taken them out and reset them. Another Working Party will be arranged to deal with the remaining tree work.
d. Belfry: no known problems now fence has been repaired.
e. Bridge End Grove: At the L&O meeting R Wright asked if some further equipment could be placed on the site as no money had been spent there for some time. A suggestion was put before members to consider some “Children’s Keep Fit Equipment” for the next financial year if monies available. Should we lose the site we could move it to another one. Repair work to Railings underway etc.
f. Londonthorpe: Hedgerow infill saplings and trees requested from the LCC tree scheme have been confirmed and we expect delivery December/January.
g. Hills & Hollows: the trees purchased and planted in the spring, that we have lost are to be replaced by Thorpe Trees. This amounts to three Cherry, one Crab Apple and the Oak. These we again expect delivery from Late November onwards. The Working Party on Friday 24th Sept to mow the grass and some other tasks was quite successful and the hired machine worked well. The Clerk raised the prospect of buying one as it could be used in several locations around the parish. this will be looked into at a later date.
h. Working Parties: Woodland Trust Working parties 14th Nov and 12th Dec. Plus Withambrook as mentioned in 21/61c.
i. Woodland Trust Five Gates Project: this looks to be progressing well now. The layby is nearly complete, and the carpark is being surfaced. We still as a council though have grave concerns about the positioning of the cycle path crossing being in a dangerous place. The new pathways where accessible are being quite well used.
j. PROW Cold Harbour Lane: Supposed ROW Footpath from Cold Harbour Lane to the corner of the PWOG lands. It does not appear on the definitive map. Walkers are trying get it registered. It is unclear who owns it. Cllr R Keeler who is a LCC ROW walker stated that he had found out that there is a request for it to be register going back to 2010 but this remains at number 120 on the list! We will keep an eye on this over the coming months.
Questions were also raised about the ROW running through McCanns and the state of it. The Clerk and R Keeler explained how the new on is under construction to the North of the present one. We do not currently know the timescale of when this one will replace the present one.
Other Matters: Cllr C Markwell will lead the teams doing the winter planting at the Londonthorpe Planters. The Clerk will hopefully be able to get the relevant plants this weekend.
P Bakker and the Clerk paid an Inspection visit to the Walnut Memorial Tree in Belton Park this week and have stated it is now starting to grow better.
21/61a L&O Precept: Considering the possible extra expenditure due to the land surrounding the Blessed Hugh More Site and the site itself being an unknown at this time, it was agreed to increase the L&O Precept by £1000 to £16000. Monies will be taken from the Projects Fund in the first instance and paid back over time. No allowance as such has been made for any major works on the BHMS site itself in this budget setting.
21/62 BHMS; After the Clerk kept applying pressure on SKDC’s different factions, we are now at the stage that a draft Licence has been received. It has many factions to it that councillors wish to consider more carefully. The Clerk will this week send out a questionnaire to all members for their input. A meeting of the Working Group will take place as soon as the replies are received from the councillors. There does appear to be some anomalies that we will have to sort out though be froe we can proceed. We still have no answer to whether the scrubland owned by SKDC is included in this.
Land Purchase ex Jenkinson Trustees: this is in the hands of the solicitors; they require a copy of the minutes containing councils’ decision to buy. This is being put to members again now we know the details of the actual fee of £250 to purchase. Other costs such as the legal fees have already been agreed.
C Markwell Proposed and Paul Nesbitt Seconded the proposal to confirm the original intention to purchase. This was passed Unan. A £500 deposit has been paid over to the solicitors already, the balance due on completion.
This is being vired from the Projects Fund at present and will be repaid in April. This has been considered in the Precept
21/63 Planning:
Still awaiting any further Planning information re PWOG and Saltersford developments.
Two matters are still outstanding with SKDC Enforcement Dept: Holscot lack of trees as per plans and Turnor Rd
App no’s during last period:
S21/1855 43 Turnor Road with SK planners & Enforcement
S21/1910 42 Wentworth Dr Queried details with SKDC 2 stories or Ext upwards on existing? No reply received
S21/1814&1815 Garage Block & conservatory Hall Farm still to be decided by SK
S21/1813 Agricultural Storage, Hall Farm still to be decided by SK
S21/1807 38 Fifth Ave, Above Garage Ext Passed SK
S21/2017 14 Seventh Ave side Ext with SK
S21/2118 Landover Bridge E R, 2 storey Ext (Closes 16th Nov)
S21/2103 7 Bedford Cl, two storey Ext (Closes 16th Nov)
PWOG: a reply has been received from Prince Charles’s Office giving a link to the Environmental law Foundation.
A Planning Application from LCC for alterations at Little Ponton Quarry was discussed and certain matters will be requested t be added or amended. Clear access arrangements on to the SLRR plus Bunding and Tree Planting to screen between the site and the new Spitalgate Heath development.
21/64 Lion Gates: Face to Face meeting to be arranged with the Manager at Belton, early in December. Matter of concern being the plan that has been raised traffic to leave the park via the Lion Gates.
21/65 Highway Matters:
Several successful outings have been held with the Speed Gun, the most successful areas in the terms of catching speeders have been Harrowby Lane & Belton Lane. Londonthorpe has been a success in a slightly different way, although the number caught speeding is not such a high percentage they are slowing down!
Getting groups together to hold the events is proving slightly more difficult than we thought as some people are not replying with availability, in fact some have not done a shift since doing the initial familiarisation training. This needs to be remedied, a suggestion was made that more councillors should become involved.
Cllr Carol Markwell it is hoped will lead her volunteers at Londonthorpe to replant the planters ready for winter/spring. The Village Gateways require cleaning, this is something that will need investigating.
Reports of limestone falling from lorries delivering to the SLRR, to be reported to Galliford Try.
The Clerk reported on his attendance at the Grantham Transport Strategy event. He raised items pertinent to our parishioners, especially with reference to accessing the town, especially with all the new builds due for the parish. he stated that out of over 200 people invited only about a dozen attended and not a single councillor for the areas that will be affected.
Cllr Wootten to ask once again for Galliford Try to send us their newsletter.
21/66 Open Evening: this worked well in the new venue and the combining of the BKG and the Tom Childs Awards worked well. Kath Childs attendance was welcomed, and a letter of thanks has been received from her and her daughter. All recipients have now received their awards. The last was presented by G Parnham and the Clerk to Rob Dixon at the Blind Society venue. The monies are earmarked for “ThePlaceToBe” a section of the society dealing with problems such as PTSD.
21/67 Policies: The Health & Safety Policy was reviewed and agreed on a proposal by J Anderson Seconded by A Bowling.
61/68 Queens Jubilee Planning:
Bench ordered and a £650 deposit paid. As mentioned, £250 was received from Cllr G Chivers SKDC funding and £250 from Terry Claxton’s TC Award donation. Positioning to be confirmed when BHMS sites confirmed. Other ideas may be added later if deemed feasible, especially naming an area after her majesty.
Cllr L Wootten as also added to the fund with £500 from her funding. Councillors are very grateful for all this support. Renaming of an area within the parish is still under review.
21/69 Working Groups: The working group members list was updated to include our newest councillors.
21/70 Precept 2022-23: With the projects in the pipeline and an expected increase in the Grass Cutting and other Leisure & Outdoor budgetary items, this became inevitable.
The members had studied the figures provided by the Clerk prior to the meeting which recommended an increase of £2000 to £33,000. After a full discussion including explanations of all budget headings by the Clerk members voted on a proposal by C Markwell seconded by G Chivers to increase the Precept for the first time in three years. This was passed unan. This represents a £1.09 per annum increase or just over 2p per week for a home in Band D.
21/71 Casual Vacancy: Due the disqualification because of non-attendance a vacancy has occurred, this has been advertised as required by law. The Clerk took advice from SKDC on this, and the Vacancy has been advertised on the website in accordance with the law.
21/72 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.
21/73 Matters for the January Agenda etc.
Meeting closed 9.08pm. Diary Dates are as per these minutes and the Spring Newsletter.
Next meeting: Wednesday January 12th, 2022, at 7.00pm.
Signed as a true copy of the meeting held 10th November 2021