March 2023 Minutes
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 8th March 2023 at Belmont school. Meeting started at 7.15pm after the Annual Parish Meeting
Public Open Session: there were no parishioners present.
22/90 Councillors present: Richard Keeler, Paul Bakker, Roland Wright, Geoff Parnham, Alan Bowling, Avril Gregory, Paul Nesbitt, George Chivers, Carol Markwell and Elvis Stooke, Yolanda Martin was held up at work and arrived @ 7:45. 11 members were present. LCC Cllrs L Wootten and A Stokes were also in attendance.
Cllr Roland Wright took the Chair. Pete Armstrong the Clerk took the notes.
Apologies: Paul Bavin Work,
The Clerk announced the deaths of two people who had close ties with the council over the years. The Rev John Cook who came out of retirement to assist at St Johns Church Londonthorpe was also a councillor for 13 years passed away in late
Feb. Graham Leicester an original member of the councils Speed Watch team died suddenly in early March. Both will be sadly missed.
22/91 Declarations of Interest; None declared.
22/92 Clerks Notes: those of the 11th of January 2023 meeting were accepted as a true record and therefore became the minutes. Proposed by A Bowling seconded P Bakker, all members were fully in agreement.
22/93 Clerks Update on Matters Arising: As usual all matters fall within the very full agenda.
22/94 Financial Statement No 6 of 22-23. Councillors as usual had received the reports taken off the Scribe system prior to the meeting. The Clerk went through the report in the detail explaining all the payments.
Salaries £2532.63 this included back pay to April 2022. Litterbin Fitting £75, BHMS first instalment for the work being undertaken £2400 Inc VAT. Materials for the BHMS site Workday £99.81, Skip Hire £205 Inc Vat. Room-hire £196. Newsletter £1386. Working Parties £8.19. Bank Charges: £5.60. ROSPA £300 £50 VAT, No Grass Cutting Invoices received... Total expenditure for the report period was £8046.08. Reclaimable VAT was £579.18.
All payments made on the card by the Clerk were agreed by and signed off accordingly.
Income was, Interest of £8.14, National Grid £81.32, Donation Trees @ H&H £120, Donation to Trees @ BHMS £200 and Refund of Skip Licence Fee £85. A total of £494.46.
Items known due for payment before the next meeting are, Grass Cutting? Repairs, BHMS, remainder of the Jubilee Projects, Memberships: LALC, SLCC, Website Maintenance, Insurance and Salaries plus anything relating to any of the other ongoing projects within the L&O section including ROSPA report. A total possible outlay of up to ££13000 before the next meeting. Agreement to accept the Financial Statement No 6 for 2022/23 plus the normal expected payments for up to the May meeting was proposed by G Chivers seconded by E Stooke Agreed Unan. Cllrs C Markwell & G Chivers signed off the accounts.
22/95 Leisure & Outdoor Committee:
a. Playground Safety: No major equipment issues reported. ROSPA Inspection report received 11/1/23, all items listed are Low or Very Low Risk and have been checked. Work will be done where necessary.
The Tri-annual tree report has been received from SKDC for the Withambrook Amenity Area, ten trees were listed for attention, two that require felling. The other eight are work that can be done by the council working party members. The clerk requested permission to get quotes for the removal of the trees in question. There is one of the trees though we are not sure if it actually is ours it could be SKDC’s as its right on the boundary. A Bowling Proposed and P Nesbitt seconded he motion for the Clerk to get quotes and use his powers to manage them.
b. Community Cleaner: nearly back to full strength, as just litter picked Londonthorpe Lane from Belton Lane to Alma Park and collected 11 bags of litter. He also collected another 7 bags full from nearby.
c. Withambrook Play Area: Litterbin fitted near the bridge being well used. Main thing here is the Tree Survey and the work required as of 22/95a above.
d. Belfry: Neighbours fence repaired. Work required on the crow damaged grass, L&O to deal with
e. Londonthorpe Play Area: more hawthorn saplings planted into the hedgerow.
f. Hills & Hollows: Three trees paid for by donation and have been planted an Oak, Silver Birch, and Midland Hawthorn. Others have been requested but little room left.
The Clerk had received a telephone call for one of the tenants of land up there. She rents the land to house her horses, she was asking if she could lock the main gate. she stated that a woman was running two Alsatians loose up there and these had harassed her horses and the Sheep in a neighbouring field. She told the clerk that there are several motorcycles and quadbikes using the area in the evenings and at weekends. She also told him that the combo lock had been taken off, but she wished to put lock on herself and lock it each night, the clerk told her that she could not do that as access must be available even if the gate is locked. This would mean her giving a key to all landowners and ensuring the emergency services had access. Members agreed this should go down as police priority for the next quarter.
g. Bridge End Grove: now a priority after the SKDC decision that we would not lose the area to Grantham Parish under the new Town Council Plans. Replacement of the dilapidated wooden structures to come first with the possibility of some fitness equipment. Application to the Levelling Up Fund or the ASDA Fund.
h. Working Parties: See BHMS notes. Working party to be planned to work at the Withambrook as per Tree Survey.
i. Woodland Trust update: In Alma Wood, the group have now planted Beech/Oak saplings in the area they cleared of scrub. Work has also been done on the Londonthorpe Wood removing further diseased Ash and clearing up after a Tree experience group. Most members have signed up for to the joint project with the National Trust.
j. Jubilee Mount & New Land from SKDC:
Twenty-one Volunteers worked on our area as part of the BHMS/Jubilee work morning. Trees were planted, a skip full of rubble and around ten bags of Fly Tipping were removed. The contractor working on the BHMS site did some of the work with his machinery whilst on site. This was a great help as there are now drainage channels running off the side of the path. The chippings from the wood left on the site were spread on the path and this helped tremendously with the muddy conditions.
New Land: The negotiations about the scrubland between us and the BHMS site has moved on. We have agreement that in principle we will take it on a 25 year lease at a peppercorn rent which it seems we will not pay. There will be restrictions as to what we can do on it just as there is on the BHMS site. These will not bar us from doing what we have planned though. SKDC have confirmed they will be rectifying the broken fence. There will be no legal fees. We thank Cllr L Wootten for keeping the pressure on for us.
k. Millennium Garden: No volunteers came forward from the Newsletter. The Clerk has though reached an agreement with Belmont School for them to look after it as a joint “Community Project”. We will provide the plants etc. Cllr G Parnham and the Clerk will liaise with the school and at least one of them will be present when they are working on it. If neither are available a volunteer will be required from other councillors.
l. Defibrillators: It was agreed to replace the one stolen from Alma Park Road at a cost of £785 from the London Hearts Charity Trust. This was proposed by A Bowling sec by R Keeler agreed unan. Cllr A Bowling offered to check the Sunningdale unit regularly, a volunteer is required to do the same at Alma Park Road.
m. A meeting of the L&O committee to meet on Monday to go through the items raised at this meeting as several items have tight time deadline especially the Grant Applications
22/95a BHMS Site: The work commenced on site on the 17th Jan 23 to deal with the Winsor Drive Scotney Drive entrance, this was completed but the Sandringham Dr Entrance at the time was deemed too wet. The working party mentioned in 22/95j above, they planted trees including Cherry, Silver Birch, Downy Birch, Hornbeam and Wych Elm all damp loving species. On the lower slope work was started to plant some species likely to be of sensory nature, starting with some Lavender. Others will follow at the next working party.
Cllr A Bowling has kindly put together a draft prospectus for a grant from either the SKDC’s Levelling Up Fund or ASDA’s fund. Reports of people short cutting across the newly sown grass where we have put in the new path!
22/96 Levelling Up Fund: Our applications are covered under 22/95g and 22/95a. As previously stated, Cllr A Bowling is using his expertise on this for us. Bridge End Grove is a priority and quotes have been sought for this to attach to the bid. A cost analysis is required for the BHMS/Jubilee Mount one.
22/97 Grantham Parish/Town Council: During a meeting on Wednesday 1st March, members of South Kesteven District Council welcomed the idea of a new parish council following further consultation from the Community Governance Review Working Group. The council will consist of a total of 22 councillors, four of which will represent the St Vincent’s Ward with the remaining wards having three. Elections will take place in 2024, there will be no change to the Boundaries of parishes.
22/98 Planning: Applications dealt with as arising, these are sent to all councillors with at least five of the most local councillors requested to comment. Several smaller applications mainly with no comments received, the exception being S23/0167 National Trust (Belton Park). This involved a carpark revamp but the main concern being the proposed new access arrangements.
This would reroute all inbound traffic via the Lion Gates, Belton Lane and Londonthorpe Lane would be become much busier. Our response was to object on safety grounds, mainly about the arrangements for Lion Gates corner and the proposed junction arrangements. It would also put more pressure on the Belton Lane/Manthorpe Road junction as well as traffic through Londonthorpe. It has been “Called In” so will go to committee possibly not until after the Elections.
22/99 Highway Matters: SGRR; Galliford Try’s latest newsletter was passed onto members when it arrived.
Clerk replied in Feb and asked if a site visit could be planned, no reply yet received. Some road maintenance undertaken on Londonthorpe Lane between the Golf Club and Five Gates Lane, along with some potholes around the parish. Inconsiderate parking observed by contractors n Harrowby Lane/Kenilworth Junction. Broken street signs reported into SKDC. Cllr Wootten informed us of a road closure imminent on Hall Lane for Anglia Water.
22/100 Coronation Celebrations: nothing received from parishioners. We will possibly plant a tree on the Jubilee Mount, another option is to see if we can get another two of the granite slabs like we used at the H&H for another bench.
22/101 Newsletter: All delivered in plenty of time with no fear of falling foul of Purdah. In time also for the Working Party and this Parish Annual Meeting. The information about our PCSO raised a valid point about the new planned reduction in PCSO’s by 50%. A letter to be sent to the Chief Constable stating our disappointment. Requote our police priorities for the next quarter including items from 22/95f.
The printing costs have gone up, especially as we had to add an extra page. Budget over spent.
22/102 Policies: Standing Orders. After the Elections all new councillors will be given the .Gov email addresses and be expected to use them. The Clerks Old (Ntlworld) email address will gradually be phased out. At present there are so many contacts on there that it could be a while before this can happen. This will be amended in the S/O’s.
Code of Conduct: After I and two councillors (G Parnham & A Bowling) attended the briefing by SKDC we came away knowing that we had to update ours to read as per the 2021 version, this will now be incorporated into the S/O’s. All councillors upon election or co-option will have to sign to say they understand their liabilities etc. there will be special document for this showing the basic rules. This shows the Seven Rules of Public Life.
22/103 Working Groups: This is something that will be brought in after the Elections in May. With each councillor taking on a section of your responsibilities by overseeing/leading on an area of you remit.
Things such as Finance, Leisure and Outdoor which could be split (BHMS, Play Areas, H&H, Etc), Highways, Planning, BKG, Open Evening, Newsletter, Defibrillators and Community Cohesion.
22/104 Correspondence: As usual all relevant correspondence has been passed on as it arrived or in this case brought up in the actual agenda heading. Other than Elections and the nomination packs handed out to members for completion.
22/72 Matters for the May Agenda etc. Cllr E Stooke took the opportunity to apologised for comments published in the Journal re an article on the BHMS site, these were accepted.
Meeting closed 9:05pm
Diary Dates are as per these minutes and the Calendar passed to members and available on the Website and Noticeboards. Next meeting: @ Belmont School Wednesday May 17th, 2023, at 7.00pm.