August 17 - Extra Ordinary Parish Council Meeting
Minutes of an Extra Ordinary Langtoft Parish Council Meeting held on
Thursday 17 August 2023 at 19:30 in the Village Hall
Present: Cllrs. Colin Gamble, Kevin Payne, Brian Branch and Yvonne McCulloch.
In Attendance: County Councillors Vanessa Smith, 2 members of the public and Sarah Gresty-Parish Clerk.
Agenda
23/24-119 Election of a Chairman. Cllr Colin Gamble was nominated and elected as Chairman. Proposed by Cllr. Branch, Seconded Cllr. Payne and unanimous in favour-RESOLVED
a) Cllr. Gamble signed his Declaration of acceptance of Office.
23/24-120 Election of a Vice Chairman. Cllr Brian Branch was nominated and elected as Chairman. Proposed by Cllr. Gamble, Seconded Cllr. McCulloch and unanimous in favour-RESOLVED
a) Cllr. Branch signed his Declaration of acceptance of Office.
Public Forum:
A member of the public wanted an update on the 12 social houses purchased by SKDC. County Cllr. Vanessa Smith gave an update of what she knew with regards to this. She has been speaking with head of SKDC Housing to gain more information having been unaware of this proposal until the evening of the press release. SKDC had acquired the houses for £1.8 million and would be used to house Ukrainian families in the first instance, these houses would form part of the housing stock for social housing.
She believes that 3 families have already moved into the houses.
Response: As SKDC will be attending the Public Meeting on 29th August, it was proposed that residents attend this meeting as formulate their questions and to hear SKDC’s rationale for the purchase.
23/24-121 Apologies for Absence. None received
23/24-122 Disclosure of Pecuniary Interests: None received
23/24-123 Casual Vacancies. Co option application had been received and circulated prior to the meeting from Steve Valentine. A general discussion took place and as Steve had been a Councillor and was familiar to most Councillors a vote took place.
Proposal to accept Steve Valentine to the parish council – unanimous voted in favour – RESOLVED. Steve signed his Declaration of Acceptance of office.
23/24-124 Finance - Cllr. McCulloch is the only remaining online Councillor signatory. Cllr Branch is authorised to sign cheques.
a) Proposal: To allow Debbie Hallam & Lewis Trickey, as current authorising signatories, to continue to authorise approved payments by the Parish Council until new signatories are mandated. Cllr. Payne, Seconded Cllr. McCulloch and unanimous in favour Resolved and adopted.
b) Proposal: Cllrs. Gamble, Payne & Valentine to become new authorising signatories. Cllr. Branch, Seconded Cllr. McCulloch and unanimous in favour RESOLVED. Action: Clerk to draw up bank mandate for signature.
c) Proposal: to pay addition 2hr per week to the Gardener/handman’s giving a total of 10 hrs per week to enable him to do additional tasks from 1 September. Cllr. Branch, Seconded Cllr. McCulloch and unanimous in favour – RESOLVED. Action: clerk to confirm with Gardener and to amend salary records.
23/24-125 Public Meeting 29th August 7pm at which Cllr. Dilks, Cllr. Baxter, Cllr. Trollope-Bellew and Craig Spence, SKDC Assistant Director of Housing have been invited to attend to answer questions and to give information regarding the purchase by SKDC of the 12 houses off Stowe Road
Structure for this meeting was agreed
SKDC and County Councillors to start the meeting with an overview of their rationale for the decision to purchase 12 affordable houses.
Followed by:
Members of the public wanting to ask questions:
1. To raise their hand and wait to be asked to speak
2. To stand and give their name before asking their question
3. Pending numbers attending wishing to ask questions. Limit to one question each. This will give everyone the opportunity for all who wish to fairly be heard.
It would be stressed at the beginning of the meeting for everyone to be respectful of each other to allow fairness and for only one person to speak at anyone time.
23/24-126 Future of the Grapevine Magazine.
It was Resolved and agreed unanimously that the grapevine magazine would be suspended until a new Editor could be found.
It was Resolved and agreed unanimously to return all advertising money to the Advertisers who had paid for forthcoming editions(pro-rata)
Meeting Closed at 20:10