March 05 - Parish Council Meeting Minutes
Minutes of a Langtoft Parish Council Meeting held on 5 March 2024 at 19:00 in the Village Hall
Present: Cllrs. Colin Gamble (Chair), Yvonne McCulloch, Kevin Payne, Steve Valentine, Julian Tatam & Beverley Farrington
In Attendance: District Councillors Vanessa Smith, Pete Coles, 0 Members of the public and Sarah Gresty-Parish Clerk
Public Forum: As no public were in attendance Cllr. Gamble requested proceeding straight to the meeting. Proposed: Cllr. Tatam, Seconded Cllr. Valentine and unanimous in favour.
Agenda
23/24-287 Chairman’s welcome Cllr. Gamble opened the meeting by welcoming all present.
23/24-288 Apologies for absence. None received.
Other Apologies received from District Councillor Rosemary Trollope-Bellew.
23/24-289 Disclosure of Pecuniary Interests: None received.
23/24-290 Minutes of:
a) 23 January 2024 Parish Council Meeting were presented as a true and accurate record of events. Proposed acceptance Cllr. Tatam, Seconded Cllr. Farrington, Cllr. Payne abstained due to being absent, remaining unanimous voted in favour-RESOLVED.
23/24-291 Items from previous minutes for information exchange
a) Annual Parish meeting/Meet and Greet the New Councillors Event. Several Councillors were unable to be present at the first date proposed, a new date of Friday 10th May in the Village Hall commencing at 7pm was agreed.
Action: Cllr. Farrington to lead on this event, to reconfirm date with village hall, to produce an advertising leaflet, to invite local business’ and to organise the refreshments.
Photo’s of all Councillors to be sent to Cllr. Valentine for the facebook page.
b) Noticeboards for play parks. The clerk presented an option for small noticeboards for each parkas previously requested. Proposal: Cllr. Gamble proposed the purchase of 2 at a cost of £320 + Vat each from KBS Depot. Seconded Cllr. Valentine and unanimous in favour-RESOLVED Action: Clerk to order
c) Village Hall Registration of Land. The clerk confirmed that she had instructed Nick Scutt of Taylor Rose Solicitors to register the village hall and the adverse possession land ‘ramp area’ with the Land Registry on behalf of the Parish Council (quote costs £1250 + VAT + registration charges). It was noted that there may be addition costs for the ramp area land to be registered.
d) Ditch and path had been cleared on New Road, Gibbs Close.
23/24-292 Reports from:
a)District Councillor Vanessa Smith. Report had been circulated with the agenda prior to the meeting.
Additions comments: The fence had not been repaired as stated in her report (mesh fence at the end of Aquilla Way before the dyke) this will be done by SKDC.
SKDC Local Plan. There are 2 webinars for further information. One on Wednesday 20 March 7.30 – 9.30 subjects covered: housing, employment infrastructure and viability. The second one on Thursday 11 April 7.30-9.30 subjects covered: climate change, energy, design and environment. Questions can be submitted ahead of these dates via E: planningpolicy@southkesteven.gov.uk. Langtoft planning issues can be found on page 636 of the draft plan.
b)Police Reports are received and circulated and made available on website/noticeboard upon receipt.
23/24-293 Finance & General Purposes :
a) Financial Report for the period 01 April 2023 to 30 January 2024 with bank statements were presented to the meeting.
b) Precept Increase and Budget explanation for 2024/25 Action: A full explanation of the decision process for the increase in precept will be posted on the website on the Council page along with the areas of responsibility of the Parish Council.
c) Payments as follows:
To Whom/Detail/£
294 Kevin Johnson Inv. 2841 Nov/Dec gritting 360
295 N Bright Dec expenses 14.55
296 wave water bill to 4/1/24 14.78
297 IONOS invoice 203040141214 3
298 S Gresty Qtr. 3 clerk expenses 264.99
299 S Valentine Penfield expenses 94.71
300 N Bright Jan Gardeners salary 409.8
301 S Gresty Jan Clerk salary 534.28
302 A Hallam Penfield expenses 19.98
303 S Gresty padlock for container 70.55
304 Branch Brothers Inv. 63640 EE Pond 7.5
305 Kevin Johnson Inv. 2860 Jan gritting 360
306 John Eley Signs Inv. 8456 Penfield signs 183
307 S Valentine Penfield expenses 43.99
308 S Gresty clerk Feb Salary 534.28
309 N Bright gardener Feb salary 409.6
310 IONOS 2.03041E+11 6.6
d) To Note Income
311 Cemetery R Alderton interment 90.00
312 Cemetery M Dolby 135.00
313 Mcculloch repayment 57.36
Proposal: To resolve and adopt all the financial matters presented above. Proposed Cllr. Gamble, Seconded Cllr. Payne and unanimous voted in favour-RESOLVED.
23/24-314 Working Group current issues (standard agenda items):
a) Amenities – Action: An onsite meeting TBA early April.
b) Events - Cllr. Payne has arranged for a member of SKDC to visit the village hall on Friday 15th March at 7.30pm to give further information on Devolution and its implications.
c) Penfield - There has been trouble with flooding over the winter causing several times for the lake side path to be closed. The Committee are speaking with Hansons Aggregates regarding the problems with their pump. Unfortunately, the Winter Walk had to be cancelled due to flooding. Other issues have been horses in the reserve. Working parities continue. A grant has been submitted to the SKDC Prosperity Fund for approx. £17.5k for a viewing area, signposting and information boards.
d) Cemetery - Cllr. McCulloch reported the cemetery is looking nice. No immediate problems.
e) East End Pond – Pete Coles gave an update on the pond progress. It is looking nice, lots of daffodils and full of water (more than for many years). All practical work has finished until September. Since receiving the Grantscape grant, trees have been pollarded, dead hedges and log piles built and explanation of habitat signs completed. The signs are part of the grant to encourage others to replicate these habitats in their own gardens. Pete has 18 volunteers involved help him.
Action: Pete will claim the money spent so far and ask permission with Grantscape to extend the project by a year as scheduled works due to the bad weather have been delayed.
Pete to contract the grass contractors to arrange the areas for “no mow may”
f) Grapevine - a full discussion on printing a leaflet or an edition of the magazine took place. It was decided to run a May edition to relaunch the magazine and at the same time request recipients for feedback as to how they would like to receive the Grapevine in future.
Action: Cllr. McCulloch would coordinate copy and proof read.
Cllr. Valentine to produce a tear off voting leaflet for future copy feedback
23/24-315 Planning applications since the last meeting.
- s24/2109 Wentworth House, 49 West End proposed rear flat roof extension and a timber flat roofed car port to front no comments submitted SKDC Decision pending
- s24/0075 27 Wheatfield two storey extension to rear of dwelling There were no objections raised to this application.
- PL/0083/23 Cemex West Deeping quarry, king street For A 1.97 ha south-eastern extension to the existing sand and gravel extraction operations with restoration to amenity/nature conservation Planning Committee hearing 12/2/24 SKDC Decision pending
- S24/0117 Langtoft Stables Cross Road Langtoft Lincolnshire PE6 9NX Certificate of lawfulness in relation to a dwelling house at Langtoft Livery Stables Langtoft Parish Council make no comment.
A request to the clerk was made by Cllr. Valentine to ask the SKDC Enforcement Officer to explore the area of land on East End Road. A large ditch has been dug now a great big pile of scalping’s has arrived. Large lorries turn up and tip and there is now a huge pile covering the hard standing.
23/24-316 SKDC Langtoft Pavilion Playing Field. A full discussion to consider the financial consequence of taking the ownership of the playing fields from SKDC took place.
Outcome: Cllr. Gamble would meet with all the present users of the park to see if they are willing to form a Committee, (who could then form themselves into a charity, the better to access funding). This committee would do the everyday running of the playing field and would include representatives from the Parish Council. At present because of the costs involved, the Parish Council would have to go to a public consultation to see if the village would want to take on the liabilities of this park. It was strongly felt that the only benefit for the village would be for it to be developed and become something better and this would need enthusiasm and funding. Action: Cllr. Gamble to go back to the users to gauge their views.
23/24-317 Correspondence was duly noted from the Agenda. Items discussed:
- Market Deeping Town Council invite to chair and vice chair for Civic dinner 20 April - noted
- Bourne Corn Exchange 27 March SKDC funding sessions - noted
- Electric vehicle charger locations request from LCC – Action Clerk to respond
- Liz Jarman request to car boot sale – unfortunately it was felt that both parks were not really suitable.
- Paul Wood – Vantage community group of cumulative impact of quarrying – noted
- Defibrillator unit’s power supply not compliant - Action: Clerk to pursue rectification
- SKDC Local Plan Review – discussed above
- Speed wheelie bin stickers – decision not to go ahead
23/24-318 To receive Items for Future Meetings
Policies Donations and Reserves
Emergency Plan – May Agenda
Date of future meetings: 2024: 23 Apr, Annual Parish Meeting Friday 10 May, Annual Parish Council Meeting 28 May, 16 July, 12 Sept, 22 Oct, 26 Nov
Meeting Closed 21:30