May 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
The Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held on Wednesday 17th May 2023 at Belmont school. Meeting started at 7.15pm after all Councillors had completed the necessary paperwork. These were all witnessed by the Clerk.
Public Open Session: there were no parishioners present.
Councillors present: Richard Keeler, Paul Bakker, Geoff Parnham, Alan Bowling, Avril Gregory, Paul Nesbitt, Paul Bavin, Carol Markwell, Elvis Stooke and Yolanda Martin. 10 members were present. Roland Wright our past Chairperson was also in attendance.
Roland Wright thanked everyone for their assistance during his time in office he then took the Chair for the first item. Pete Armstrong the Clerk took the notes.
23/1 Election of Chairperson: Carol Markwell was proposed by G Parnham and Alan Bowling was proposed by Carol Markwell. Seconders were requested and P Bakker seconded Carol Markwell and Y Martin, Alan Bowling. A vote was taken, and the return was 4 votes each, the deciding vote then went to the residing Chairperson. He voted for Carol Markwell, she was duly elected and accepted.
23/2 Signing of Declaration by Chair: C Markwell duly signed the papers. R Wright left the meeting.
23/3 Election of Vice Chair: Alan Bowling was proposed by C Markwell and seconded by P Nesbitt, he was elected unan.
23/4 Declarations of Interest; None declared.
23/5 Casual Vacancies: there have been no applications, but there has been one enquiry which will be followed up. A big thing to be made of this in the autumn Newsletter which would still give us time to co-opt at the September meeting. Areas most in need are Sunningdale and Bridge End.
23/6 Co-opted to sign declaration: N/A
23/7 Clerks Notes: those of the 8th of March 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.
23/8 Clerks Update on Matters Arising: As usual most matters fall within the very full agenda.
23/9 Financial Statement No 1 of 23-24. 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. Some items were paid in the 22-23 Accounts after the last meeting and appear in the audit figures for that year, they are Defibrillator £752; Arc Construction £870; NatWest Bank Charges £4.90 & income £4.97. Agreed on a Prop by G Parnham, Sec Y martin.
2023-24 to 11th May. Salaries £1785.68; HRMC £823.69 this included a full year N/I. LALC £836.04, Scribe Accounts Package £414.72 Inc VAT£69.12; Malc Firth {Grass} £515.40, VAT £85.90. Plants etc for Belmont/Millennium Garden £67.38 VAT £11.21; Plants BHMS £10.00 Vat £1.67; Office £8.80; Newsletter £6.00 VAT £1.00; Repairs £152.00; Bank Charges: £1.05. Total expenditure for the report period was £4620.78. Reclaimable VAT was £194.24.
All payments made on the card by the Clerk were agreed by and signed off accordingly.
Income was, Interest of £4.58; Precept £16500.00; Donation Newsletter £125; A total of £16529.58.
Items known due for payment before the next meeting are, Grass Cutting? Repairs, BHMS, remainder of the Jubilee Projects, Memberships: 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 1 for 2023/24 plus the normal expected payments for up to the June meeting was proposed by A Bowling seconded by E Stooke checked off the accounts. Agreed Unan.
23/9a Change Mandates on the Account: R Wright to be removed and C Markwell to replace. Existing signatories P Bakker & G Parnham and the Clerk to remain. C Markwell completed the form. Interest rates on all accounts to be to be checked to see if anything better can be found.
23/10 To Confirm Acceptance of the Audit Governance Form. All councillors had been given the form inspect before the meeting to confirm that they agreed. A Gregory Proposed and E Stokes seconded that the statements were correct, agreed unan. The Chair duly signed off the paperwork.
23/10a To Accept the Audit Figures and sign the form. The Audit figures for 2022-23 had been shared earlier. The Clerk went through the salient points with members. He pointed out the difference in spending being much lower that the previous year. This was due to no work being done with regard to replacing play equipment, along with the Grass cutting contract suspending business and no invoices received.
This will be explained in the report to the auditor as the difference is more than 15%. Members then agreed the Audit on a proposal by A Bowling seconded by G Parnham.
23/11 Leisure & Outdoor Committee:
a. The meeting held 13th March 2023. Items not covered elsewhere are Belfry Fence now cleared and Crow damage reseeded and growing well.
b. ROSPA Report, followed up on, no major concerns reported, work being done as and when needed.
c. Withambrook: the tree works as required by the SKDC Report is to be completed by the end of the month. First quote came in at £2000, new quote from Crimson Kings of £800 was accepted this will include felling all four trees into the swale and smaller branches chipped in. Work will be done last week of May all smaller brash to be chipped to stop it getting into the stream. A small Working Party of the Clerk and two volunteers worked on the Oak and fruit trees in the wildlife area raising the crowns.
d. Blessed Hugh More Site: The original 6-month Licence has run out, but the clerk has managed to get a three-month extension to complete the path, etc. it is still too wet on site to do this. a further working party to be arranged ASAP. Trees planted looking well further planting to be undertaken. An application to the SKDC Community Fund for Fitness Equipment by Cllr A Bowling, is completing this on the same lines as the Bridge End Grove one. Verbal permission for it has been given by SKDC for this to be done.
e. Orphan Land: The licence had been sent out to councillors for perusal before we confirm our acceptance of terms. A 25-year term at £1 per ann. which is not to be collected! Just a couple of points raised which we need confirming. These are, A. 6.3 Rent demanded? B. 9.2 Approval to lop and fell trees etc? C. 18. Boundary Fence Maintenance. It was Proposed by P Nesbitt Sec by P Bakker and then agreed that we employ a solicitor to deal with the Land Registry.
f. Jubilee Mount: Work to continue with the next Working Party, hopefully the path will be covered with Chippings. Cllr P Bavin will supply FOC. The path from the Hall is much better after the work done at our last WP. The side gullies are also working well.
g. Hills & Hollows: Two more donated oaks have been planted one inside the fence and the other in a space outside behind the bench. One of last year’s replacement donated tree has died the clerk agreed for another one to be adopted already growing well (Field Maple). A request was made from David Holland to see if we would allow donations of trees from their clients at this site. The Clerks suggestion after talking with Paul Bakker was to allow one of our trees to be dedicated and plaque placed for a small donation. There is no longer any room left as all our trees are now growing well. Councillors agreed to possibly allowing the adoption of a tree for a donation but do not want a multitude of plaques outside of the Memorial Area. A record of all trees adopted under this project to be recorded. This was proposed by P Nesbitt sec P Bakker, proposal carried.
h. Grass Cutting: The first month’s cuts all looked fine, and I get a report each time they are on site. There has been one slight hitch as SKDC have now started cutting Fifth Ave again, we cut one day and two days later they came along and did it, so Firths have been asked not to. At Londonthorpe they are being hampered by the neighbour’s hedge, she was written too, and we have now received a reply giving us permission to cut. This should not be our responsibility Cllr Markwell as agreed to call and chat with her.
i. Working Parties: Those councillors with their names down to these following areas are to set dates for groups at (BHMS/Jubilee Mount, H&H and Withambrook). The volunteer group have already held a W/P @ Withambrook and done the required work on the coppice of Oaks etc.
The Clerk gave a brief review of his meetings with the “Reconnecting Grantham” project.
j. Bridge End Grove Grants: we have been successful in obtaining a grant for up to £6000 for the planned work. There are a few obstacles to overcome but these should not stop us from completing the work this year. Clerk is to obtain three quotes for the work, we have received two and he is meeting with another supplier on the 23rd of May. These are required to meet the criteria of Grant. This item will be discussed at the next L & O Group meeting.
k. Best Kept Gardens Competition: judging to start in earnest on the 1st July, each councillor will be sent a form for them to nominate possible contenders.
l. Defibrillators: Both up and running. A Gregory is checking Alma Park and A Bowling has offered to do the Sunningdale one. Sunningdale will need new pads and battery in the next financial year.
m. Parish Tour: June the 6th & 7th are the dates all councillors to attend a parish tour at some point as these are an important event.
n. Millennium Garden: the Belmont School have taken on this project and have set up a Gardening Club to do this, at present they are growing on geraniums that we have purchased as plugs. We will be providing all plants and sundries.
o. Historic PROWS: we have a chance to register any defunct PROWS to go on the register before the deadline date. Members required to look into this Cllr R Keeler to advise.
23/12 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 Belton Park/House application which now involves just the carpark revamp and the redevelopment of South Drive and fencing at the lion Gates.
The application to reroute all inbound traffic via the Lion Gates has been withdrawn. Our concerns are insufficient Electric Charging Points (ECP) as per Code. Also, the application states that the works will not be within 20mts of a watercourse, but the road crosses the watercourse to the Tolethorpe Ponds! Concerns also raised about amount of heavy traffic required to remove an import the materials.
Other expected plans include the revised “Somerby Hill Plans” from Bloor. Concerns have been raised about the possible access to Eastwood Dr, most other items have already been discussed with the developers. Harrowby Farm Buildings: correspondence has been received asking for our comments on house names, the flower ones suggested but councillors were unhappy with Bull Pen, this is now to be Rowan Cottage.
Questions were raised about what was happening in the field next to the Farmstead, as hardcore as already been placed on quite a large area. Planning to be informed.
23/13 Highway Matters: Water emanating from the springs on the hill behind Kenilworth crossing the Road. The Street light has had to be removed as the water was coming up inside the column. This water also appears to be coming up on Bedford Close. The Clerk believes that the cause could be a blocked conduit, as the water from the springs was routed underground when the estate was built, in fact the pond on Bedford Close was filled in. This water now comes out on Second Ave into the Withambrook. LCC have closed the case off as run-off water.
Speedwatch Team; we are short of volunteers at present, the last round of invites to members of the team resulted in only two people being available on any given date. A new round of invites to be sent out.
Cllr P Nesbitt showed an interest in doing the training.
23/14 Tom Childs Award: No nominations received so far. Cllrs Martin & Markwell are to look into advertising this more using our standard request template from the Newsletter.
23/15 Policies: Standing Orders. All Councillors were the amended standing orders before the meeting. All councillors should now be using the .Gov email addresses. One councillor still to be set up new password to be provided. The Clerks Old (Ntlworld) email address will gradually be phased out. This is 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 is now incorporated into the S/O’s. All councillors before this meeting signed to say they understand their liabilities etc. on the special document showing the basic rules. This shows the Seven Rules of Public Life.
23/16 Councillor Area of Responsibilities: Councillors entered their names onto the sheet provided alongside their particular interests, some areas still need volunteers.
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.
23/17 Correspondence: As usual all relevant correspondence has been passed on as it arrived or in this case brought up in the actual agenda heading.
23/18 Matters for the June 21st Agenda. etc.
Meeting closed 9:15pm
Next meeting: @ Belmont School Wednesday June 21st, 2023, at 7.00pm.