July 2020 Minutes
STUBTON PARISH COUNCIL
Members
Martin Davis - Chair
Bob Warren - Clerk
David Butler - Councillor
Rick Crooks - Councillor
Andrew Smith -Councillor
Ann Wise - Councillor
Minutes of the Meeting held on Wednesday 29th July 2020 at 7.30pm
Present
Cllr Martin Davis - Chair
Cllr David Butler
Cllr Rick Crooks
Cllr Andrew Smith
Bob Warren - Clerk
SKDC Cllr Penny Milnes
1. Cllr Davis welcomed everyone to the meeting and briefed the participants on the Zoom protocol for the meeting. He stated that the meeting may be recorded by anyone present.
2. Apologies for absence were received and accepted from Cllr Ann Wise and County Cllr Alexander Maughan
3. There were no declarations of interest.
4. There were no members of the public in attendance and therefore the open forum was bypassed.
5. The Minutes of the last meeting held on Wednesday 3rd June 2020 were agreed and approved.
6. Several sets of example Model Standing Orders were circulated to Councillors prior to the meeting. The unanimous consensus was to adopt the Model Standing Orders issued by NALC. These will initially be adopted as written, with an ongoing review to amend them as required to fit the needs of Stubton Parish Council. A number of optional parameters were agreed for the future conduct of meetings, namely: the duration of meetings shall not exceed 2 hours, the public forum shall be set at 15 minutes and any member of the public may only speak for 3 minutes.
7. Financial Matters
7.1 Receipt of exempt status for purposes of external auditing was acknowledged by the Councillors
7.2 Payments made since the previous meeting were read out and acknowledged by the Councillors
£10.10 Repairs to telephone box housing the defibrillator
£50.00 Grant to village planting
£188.12 Payment of PC insurance to Zurich Municipal
7.3 There were no outstanding payments to report.
8. Alexander Maughan provided a report on behalf of LCC. The report is attached to the minutes.
9. Cllr Penny Milnes provided a report on behalf of SKDC. The full report is attached to the minutes.
In summary Cllr Milnes made reference to:
• Grantham Hospital and the ‘temporary’ closure of A&E and the loss of beds.
• The submission by SKDC for a grant of £8 million for the redevelopment of Grantham town centre.
• Changes within the planning department along with a wide reaching review.
• The consideration of the Brandon Wood Clay Pigeon shoot being still ongoing.
• The planning application surrounding the coffee shop at Toll Bar Road Marston and the implication that this could involve the closure of the right hand turning from the A1 onto Toll Bar Road.
10. Community Matters.
10.1 Cllr Butler advised the meeting that he was the co-opted PC representative for the Neighbourhood Plan committee and that due to Covid-19 no meetings had yet taken place. The council was informed that SKDC had started major planning reviews and that as a consequence there may be a requirement to review the Neighbourhood Plan for Stubton as some minor amendments may be required.
Policy SP2 outlining the planning review was discussed and a copy is attached to the minutes.
Cllr Milnes was asked if it would be possible for the Stubton Neighbourhood Plan Committee to meet with someone from the Planning Department to discuss the implications. Cllr Milnes informed the council that she would provide contact details for the best person to contact.
10.2 Cllr Crooks provided details of the trial traffic survey that had been conducted on Doddington Lane. The survey took place on Friday 3rd July between the hours of 8am and 8pm by a group of volunteers. A total of 220 vehicles were counted, 85% of which was described as non-commercial. There were notable peaks in the early morning, lunchtime and the early evening. It was felt that any future survey should commence at 7am as it was believed this covered one of the busiest times.
Cllr Crooks advised that the volunteer group would be happy to carry out the survey again on different days and that they would also be happy to incorporate Fenton Road as well.
Cllr Butler stated that Brandon Road should also be included to provide a wider picture.
The Councillors agreed unanimously that more surveys should be carried out.
10.3 Cllr Davis informed the Council that the contractor had now installed the 16 posts for the speed reduction gates at a cost of £1200.
The gates have been costed at a price of £628 from Mussons timber and the Councillors moved to accept this quote.
The Council was advised by Cllr Davis that the gates would be painted once fitted and that the posts would receive an additional coat of paint.
Cllr Crooks raised a question from a resident as to what would happen in the event of damage from agricultural or wide vehicles. Cllr Davis advised that the gates have been fitted to the correct specification so there shouldn’t be any reason that they are treated differently to any other collision with highway furnishings.
10.4 Cllr Davis advised the Council that the Village Litter pick arranged for Sunday 21st June was reluctantly cancelled due to social distancing rules and inclement weather.
Cllr Davis and Cllr Butler both expressed their thanks to the local residents that already carry out litter picking during their daily walks.
Cllr Butler suggested that as social distancing rules have been relaxed slightly there was no reason why the litter pick couldn’t be reinstated.
Cllr Crooks suggested that an opportunity existed to promote the date and recruit residents at the Annual Potato in a Bucket Competition taking place at an outside location on 5th August and a date of Sunday 9th August was unanimously agreed. The event would be advertised on the PC noticeboard and on the website.
10.5 Cllr Crooks advised the Council that he had been approached by a resident with a view to having Doddington Lane adopted under the ‘Quiet Lanes’ initiative. This has proved successful in some parts of the country.
The initiative is not necessarily all about speed reduction but about making motorists aware of the use of this road for leisure purposes such as walking and cycling.
The re-designation of the road would have to be sponsored by LCC Local Transport Plan and it was pointed out that at the moment Lincolnshire is one of the few counties without a ‘Quiet Lane’
Cllr Milnes advised that she supported the idea in principle and was not sure why LCC have not introduced it anywhere although it had been proposed unsuccessfully before for Hough.
Cllr Milnes advised that Cllr Maughan would be the best person to discuss the proposal with. Cllr Maughan had already provided a statement on ‘Quiet Lanes’ that reads ‘In respect of quiet lanes, I have discussed these before Councillor Richard Davies, Executive Councillor for Highways at LCC, but my understanding is that they are difficult to implement and enforce, and I think generally speaking most Lincolnshire "lanes" are certainly used for heavy agricultural traffic which we wouldn’t want to restrict.
However, if interested parties have information and evidence to suggest otherwise then I am of course happy to raise this again with colleagues if they write to me with the information they have’
It was proposed by Cllr Crooks that residents of Doddington Lane should be initially canvassed to judge the strength of feeling for the proposal. This was seconded by Cllr Smith. A leaflet drop will be arranged in order for this to happen
11. Date and time of next meeting:
The next meeting of Stubton PC will be Wednesday 23rd September; 7:30pm