2023 Parish Council Minutes of Meetings

Minutes Parish Council 7.00 Wednesday 12th July 2023

Council Members:

Present: Geoffrey Dorrity [Chair]; Jenny Taylor [Councillor]; Andrew Watkins [Councillor]

Absent: Zoe J North [Vice Chair and Acting Clerk]; Teri England [Councillor];

OPEN FORUM

There were no comments, queries or suggestions from those residents present

UPDATE FROM LINCOLNSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL [Cllr Alex Maughan]

See Appendix 1

UPDATE FROM SOUTH KESTEVEN DISTRICT COUNCIL [Councillor Penny Milnes] see Appendix 2

Opening of Formal Parish Council Meeting by Chairperson

1.0 Apologies for Absence : Cllr North - due to bereavement; Cllr England - away for work commitment; Cllr Maughn – other commitments; Cllr Milne – family illness

2.0 Conflicts: None

3.0 Minutes of Last Meetings
Motion : To adopt the draft minutes as a true record of the previous meetings of 15th May 2023 and those of the extraordinary meetings of 15th March 2023 and 12th April 2023

Proposed : Cllr Dorrity, Seconded: Cllr Taylor Minutes adopted

4.0 Clerk’s report on any matters outstanding

The only outstanding issue is the flash flooding on Doddington Road. Cllr Dorrity has contacted LCC but has received no response.

ACTION 1: email Cllr Alex Maughan to follow up

5.0 Finance

5.1 Finance Report: see appendix 3

5.2 Budget for 23/24:

Estimated total expenditure – 1550

addin: any other contingencies – 2000

plus: Working balance required – 3550

Income 23/24 – 4960

Surplus 23/24 - 1410

5.3

Motion: Payment of expenses to a resident (withdrawn)

Resident A at the meeting queried why this was being withdrawn. This was explained as follows: The claim had been for expenses for buying plants for common areas. Resident B had requested payment after her purchase. She was informed in writing that whilst we agreed to payment it would need to be ratified at this meeting. Resident B subsequently withdrew her claim and removed the plants. The council saw that there is a need for clearer understanding for when council money can be spent by residents or councillors.

Motion: That the finance report be accepted

Proposed: Cllr Dorrity; Seconded: Cllr Watkins

Motion: No expenditure should be made by councillors or volunteers without the prior agreement of the Parish Council.

Proposed: Cllr Dorrity; Seconded: Cllr Taylor

6.0 Clerking arrangements -

The Chair contacted The Deputy Chief Executive, Andrew Everard at LALC for advice regarding payscale point and hours for a clerk for a parish of our size and income.

He was directed to useful information from:-

1. The Good Councillor’s Guide – pay rates, type of advert

2. Recruitment Manual (Knowledgebase on LALC website)

3. Register as an employee on HMRC– rules apply

4. For 65 hours per annum at scale point 9=£12.06/hour - £785.85 pa

 pay expected to increase by £1 an hour for the financial year April 2023/24 = extra £65 - £850.85 pa

Training and equipment extra – e.g. laptop, files, mileage, postage (if admin costs)

It is proposed to move this discussion to the next meeting since two councillors are absent and would need to be involved and further work is required to assess the impact on the budget and any future precept requirement.

Proposed: Cllr Dorrity; Seconded: Cllr Taylor Proposal to defer to next meeting agreed

7.0 Ukrainian Flag Flying

Yes: 73%; No: 27% - flying the flag

See article in News section on website for full results

Motion: The Ukrainian flag will continue to fly on days other than when the Union Flag or others are flying to mark special days or anniversaries until the end of the war or government policy towards supporting Ukraine changes. This will be reviewed annually as with other policies.

Proposed: Cllr Taylor; Seconded: Cllr Dorrity Motion adopted

8.0 Upkeep of public planting areas

The Chair has received several offers of donations of plants and help to maintain the areas.

All areas continue to be managed as current arrangements from volunteer residents such as:-

Watering under the Hawthorn tree, mowing grass in designated areas (The Green, grass around the hawthorn tree, end of Cherry Lane, verge outside Ivan’s and outside the Village Hall)

Moving forward, in summary: -

1. Short term (ie this planting season) Donations of plants for the Green area to complement the dahlias honouring Pip North (see later) – Cllr Dorrity to coordinate –meet at flag pole 10am, Saturday 22nd July 2023. (Update – sufficient donations received)

2. Long Term – The Gardening Club uses their knowledge to come back at the next meeting with a planting scheme for the Green and beneath the Hawthorn Tree on Brandon Road.

3. The ring-fenced budget of £300 to be spent on bulbs and plants that will be long-lasting over the years as this income will not be replenished via the Best Kept Village Scheme in the future.

4. Community Herb bed to be planted in the troughs next to the bus shelter for residents to pick and enjoy.

(a request was made by a resident that water resistant plants are used in any scheme to save excessive use of water from the butt at the bus shelter!)

Motion: A planting scheme be agreed by residents to guide the development of those areas.

Proposed: Cllr Watkins; Seconded: Cllr Taylor

Motion: A group be established to share the maintenance of the public areas in the village, such as the Green, and to promote the donation of plants for these areas.

Proposed: Cllr Taylor; Seconded: Cllr Watkins

9.00 Update on residents priorities

9a) Further progress toward the potential purchase and installation of a moveable electronic speed signs.

Community Fund – this may support the purchase of electronic speeding devices.  The Chair had contacted SKDC and was given an application form together with the relevant criteria for application.

Next deadline for application: 29th August 2023 then 28th November 2023 / 27th February 2024

The Chair also contacted ‘Staying Alive’ Lincs Road Safety Partnership asking for available data. The officer stated that the last survey of data for speeding was 2011 so a new survey was proposed (no date as yet and unlikely to be given since the data will be collected unannounced!) Covert radar recording devices will be installed on lamp posts for one week period. Report will include injury collisions over the past 3 years and this will inform the decision to install mobile or fixed digital camera technology or other resources at their disposal to monitor any future problems. 

Mr. Rob Thornton had made contact with the Brandon Speed Awareness Group on our behalf. They have purchased the old electronic warning signs from Marston and are willing to share them with us. Mr Thornton will follow up to find out what planning is needed and how the group funded the purchase.

9b) Further progress the design and installation of a village sign and link this with coronation commemoration.

ACTION: This was deferred to the next meeting

9c) Research the establishment of a footpath Stubton to Claypole for road safety, and/or the improvement of the current footpath from Fenton Road to Claypole.

Cllr North contacted Peter Savage LCC to ask about upgrading of styles on the public footpath. The reply regarded that the schedule of work was already planned for the Stubton end of the footpath for the first six styles to be replaced by kissing gates, with further improvements towards Claypole to come over the next 2 years. (see previous minutes)

The Chair then contacted Cllr Alex Maughan about the Development Fund for Public Rights of Way to secure further funding that could reduce the timescale for completion. In Cllr Maughan’s reply, he fully supported this request and will put this forward for the expenditure of the development fund monies allocated to the Hough Division.

Re: the roadside footpath from Stubton to Claypole. Whilst this would be a welcome aid to walkers between our villages, Cllr Maughan was not confident that this would be something agreed by an already financially stretched fund. A tarmac footpath would cost over £100k and this is too costly with the maintenance of the existing network being a priority. It is something that could be requested, however, with a view to the future.

10) Date and time of next meeting as agreed previously

7.00 Thursday 21st September.

Appendix 1

CLLR ALEXANDER MAUGHAN LINCOLNSHIRE CC UPDATE – JULY 2023

County Council budget for 2023/24 The Council will spend £595million on delivering public services across Lincolnshire next year. Of this £177million will be spent on Adult Care and Wellbeing, £97million on Children’s Services, £47million on Highways maintenance and £22million Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue Service. Inflationary cost pressures of £9million in Highways have been funded through the county precept in addition to an extra £7million budgeted for additional highway maintenance activity in areas such as traffic regulation orders, pedestrian crossings and rural road schemes in 2023/24.

Lincolnshire children’services retain ‘outstanding’rating Ofsted inspectors visited the county in April to review the help, protection and care afforded to children and young people from our Children’s Services. They found that families across Lincolnshire continue to have access to localised services that help to keep them safe and support young people to make good progress. Inspectors particularly noted how council staff, schools, and other adults involved in children’s lives, worked together to ensure that help was provided quickly when needed, before any potential issues had a chance to escalate. It is wonderful to see the hard work of our staff recognised, and this ‘outstanding’ review will no doubt inspire staff to build upon this success and find ways to improve the support we provide to families even further, so that Lincolnshire remains a great place for children to flourish.

Supporting independent living Lincolnshire’s Integrated Community Equipment Service (ICES) is providing an important lifeline for people who need support with aids and adaptations around their home. The service helps provide a range of items, from something as simple as a walking frame to mobile hoists. This can be provided for people of all ages so that they can get about their own home independently. Our recently agreed ICES contract with NRS Healthcare now also includes additional support services such as new stairlift and hoist services, and from April 2024 a wheelchair service. We are already making a life-changing difference to people’s lives with these services, so it is great to see our support expanding so we can help even more people across Lincolnshire live their lives to the full.

Highways maintenance performance data for Q4 2022/23 Measure Number of reports/schemes % within response time Emergency call outs – 2 hour response time 548 99.82 Reactive works – 22 hour/6 day/25 day/80 day response time 12,582 94.46 Planned highway schemes/maintenance works 47 97.87 Highway programme of works for 2023/24 The programme for 2023/24 has now been agreed, and we have over 700 schemes that are planned throughout the year that include: • 240 Footway micro surfacing sites that commence in April • 87 Carriageway micro surfacing sites that commence in August • 26 Footway reconstruction sites planned across 2023/24 • 53 Carriageway lining replacement sites that commence in June • 25 Carriageway patching schemes planned across 2023/24 • 80 Carriageway resurfacing sites planned across 2023/24 • 170 Surface dressing sites that commence in June • 20 Drainage improvement scheme planned across 2023/24 Details of all the schemes can be found on the interactive programme map within the LCC website.

Devolution deal for Greater Lincolnshire Following release of the Government’s levelling up white paper the three upper tier councils of Greater Lincolnshire (North Lincolnshire, North East Lincolnshire and Lincolnshire County) have been in talks with Government Ministers on a devolution deal for our region. This would see a number of powers, and additional funding, handed to a combined mayoral authority for Great Lincolnshire, with a directly elected mayor. We believe now is the right time for Lincolnshire to embrace devolution, albeit accepting this comes with a Mayor which few are enthusiastic about. It has been clear that successive governments prefer to talk to mayoral authorities covering lager regions when it comes to investment and infrastructure, rather than individual district, borough and county councils. This was evidenced in the recent 25% cut to our highways budget, where combined mayoral authority areas had their budgets protected. There is a further risk that if Greater Lincolnshire does not become its own recognised region we are in future forced into a much larger East Midlands arrangement, which would be against the interests of Lincolnshire. Subject to successful negotiations and a public consultation, it is anticipated that we would be holding elections for the directly elected mayor in 2025 alongside the next County Council elections. Negotiations are underway with a public consultation expected soon, followed by a formal bid to Government sometime in the Autumn. However, any such bid would need to be debated and approved by each of the upper tier Councils prior to this. I welcome your views on this topic ahead of the next steps in the processes, please email me at cllra.maughan@lincolnshire.gov.uk

Vapes – a new battleground for Lincolnshire Trading Standards Between April and December last year, Lincolnshire Trading Standards seized over 5,000 illegal vapes from shops in the county. These were oversized vapes, containing too much nicotine - sometimes as much as 16 times the limit. The service has also seen a rise in the number of complaints of vapes being sold to children in our area, and has done a lot of work informing local businesses of their legal duty to make sure these products aren’t sold to under-18s. Many of the shops where we find illegal cigarettes, we’re now also finding these illegal vapes. But, while dodgy cigarettes are hidden away behind the counter, in a back room, or in some elaborate hide, illegal vapes are often brazenly displayed at the counter, making them seem legitimate to the average customer. We’re working hard to remove these illegal products from the market, and keep vapes out of the hands of children and young people, in what has become a new battleground for Trading Standards. Alexander Maughan Lincolnshire County Councillor for Hough Division Mobile: 07707 060 022 Email: cllra.maughan@lincolnshire.gov.uk

APPENDIX 2

District Councillor Penny Milnes Report

Community in Bloom
There is still time to enter this competition details of which are on the SK website.

UKSK Prosperity Fund
I would like to remind you to take advantage of this money allocated for this year and next year. Details are on the SK website.

Planning
S23/0496, Extension, The Cottage, Brandon Road. Pending awaiting further drawings and consideration of impact on the neighbouring bungalow, the Millstone.

SKDC Local Plan Review
This is deferred for further clarity on the government’s updates. The parish council will be consulted later in the year.

SKDC
Purple lidded bins, for clean paper and cardboard, are coming to SK in an attempt to diminish contamination and increase recycling rates.

Current financial statement July 2023

Mr Pip North 

‘Much loved, respected, revered, admired...and missed’.

Geoff Dorrity – We all awoke on Monday morning to the tragic news of the passing of Pip North. Whilst I only met him in the past 12 months I know the impact he had in his life on the village, from all that is being said about him. I found on my meetings he always had a strong sense of humour, gave wise words of advice and wisdom, was straight talking and was a font of knowledge about the history of the village having lived here all his life. A life now so sadly cut short. We are lucky to have known a true villager, who had the community’s interest at heart. I’m sure nearly all of us have made use of his wide range of country skills over the years. We are lucky that part of him lives on through Zoe and Tom. I know they, and Linda will miss him terribly, but hopefully as time goes by they will remember the happy times with, and funny stories told by Pip. He was truly one of life’s good guys. I am sure the village will together surround his family with their love and support during this time.

 Gary Senior – Pip kept himself to himself but he was always there to help. I tried to move a heavy stone trough from the field to the front of the house and asked Pip if he had forks on his tractor and any chance of helping me with it. Within a twenty minutes a tractor arrived at the bottom of our drive with Pip driving. The tractor was already fitted with forks! We went down to the field and got the trough loaded up then we must have stood there for about an hour in the field just chatting about all sorts of things rather than driving it round. Pip chatted about wildlife and was a fount of all knowledge. One thing he told me was about birds of prey hunting for mice and voles. Did you know that some birds of prey, kestrels I think, follow voles while they’re hunting for prey from the sky? Voles leave a trail of urine that the birds easily follow, like an ultra violet light, before swooping down. Pip’s records of wildlife were totally fascinating records!

Meanwhile, Pip simply and easily moved the trough to the front and refused any payment for his work…wouldn’t take anything. A very nice man and a good character. We’ll miss him so much...so sad that we’ve lost him so early.

(a many times repeated comment in these eulogies!!)

Cath Senior – We were so lucky to have had Pip...he’ll be so sadly missed!

Geoff Dorrity -  Pip told me that on Doddington Lane pre-war there were trees planted on both sides which made a green tunnel. These were taken out for the 2nd World War but never got replaced. As a child he had lived for a time in Lindum House on Doddington Lane when it was just a little cottage. His family used to rent houses in the village because they couldn’t move into a farmhouse at that time. I have since been told he also lived in the Old Forge Cottage, now Mayglen for part of this period of his life. Pip led a fascinating life. He knew so much of the village history and the drainage system having dug a lot of it!

Hugh Wilson – as Chair of the PC, before me, Pip knew everything and everyone. He was a remarkable guy with so many attributes. He was also very skilled at hedge laying and if you ever saw him doing it he was second to none. Just wonderful to watch. At one time he also ran the bar in the Village Hall. You could usually see Pip driving his tractor with the inevitable fag hanging out of the corner of his mouth. He always offered his services freely to the good of the village. Pip was a fantastic character and the village has lost a very remarkable man!

Rob Thornton – we back onto Pip’s field, a shared boundary, and there was a rickety old post and rail fence there which was definitely our responsibility. I contacted Pip to ask him about replacing the fence. Although my responsibility, he instantly proposed that if I bought the materials he would install the fence for free which he did quite easily with his tractor bucket. When I asked him about layering the hedge at the front of my property but it so full of disease that it couldn’t be layered. Pip had a plan to help by getting it out and putting a new one in. He assessed the hedge, in an hour it was dug out and set on fire to clear it completely. I offered to give him a hand. He said we’d put in beech and hornbeam. Got a pole, made a hole, measured and put the next one in and Pip layered that hedge as it he was walking! He got from one side of the hedge to the other in about the same time that someone would walk it!! All the parts were perfectly spaced. Pip was a fantastic workman with a wealth of knowledge about countryside maintenance...especially layering hedges. If there was anything you needed doing he was only too pleased to help.

Jenny Taylor – My husband and I, on our first walk along Claypole road to the footpath along the side of Pip’s farmhouse, noticed the layered hedging along the side of the field after the white gates. What a work of art it is, we said! So woven and securely made. We couldn’t believe how it had been made. On walking past the farm, we spoke to Pip who was planting some shrubs and trees on the area before the footpath. He spoke of wildlife that would benefit from his planting and the creatures that would come out at night and enjoy the area with its aromas only noticed by animals.

I have seen Pip’s garden area develop and grow into a beautiful myriad of colours at many times of the year! I can imagine many birds and animals benefiting from the pleasure of living close by. Pip was happy to guide us onto the footpath warning us of the muddy troughs at the sides of the fields since it was early Spring and had been very wet.

Following the tributes the Chair proposed that the village buy a tree and plaque in memory of Pip, if Zoe and Linda and Tom agreed. Gary Senior made the generous offer that he will donate a site by the footpath near the style (which is going to be changed to a kissing gate) that opens onto Pip’s field. That way people will be able to see it at a time when they are enjoying the countryside...just as Pip would want! (Subsequent to this Gary has realised that the site he has chosen could also be seen from Hilltop Farm)

The PC have agreed to donate £50 towards this with other funds raised by public donations.

The family will be asked whether it is something they would appreciate and, if so, what would be their choice of tree. Subsequently they have proposed that an oak be planted.

Following these eulogies and memories a toast was raised ‘To Pip’.

The family have asked us to publish the funeral arrangements for those who wish to attend. They are as follows:

Service at St Peters Claypole on Monday 7th August at 11.00 a.m. followed by refreshments at Stubton Hall.