Annual Parish Meetings

Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting for Langtoft Held on Friday 11 April 2025 at 7pm in the Village Hall

Present:  Langtoft Parish Council (LPC) Cllrs. Brian Branch (Vice chair), Yvonne McCulloch, Julian Tatam, Steve Valentine, SKDC District Cllr. Vanessa Smith, County Cllr. Phil Dilks and 22 members of the public and Sarah Gresty (Parish Clerk)

Previous Meeting Minutes.

The meeting of the previous Annual Parish meeting held on 10 May 2024 had been signed as an accurate record of events at a parish council meeting by 2 attendees on 28 May 2024.

Agenda

Introduction by Vice Chair.  Cllr. Brian Branch opened the meeting and welcomed everyone for attending.  He introduced the County and District Councillors and encouraged everyone to mingle and look at the various displays arranged in the hall.

1. Langtoft Parish Council Brian Branch encouraged everyone to come along to Parish Council Meeting to see what is going on in the community.    He mentioned vacant seats on the Parish Council if anyone was interested in getting involved.  Posters were available on a display table of forthcoming events such as the annual Parish Walk and VE Day celebrations also provided was a breakdown of the last 7 years of the precept  and how it is calculated.

Issues Raised and Discussed:

Speeding in the village.  Suggestions bin 30mph stickers, more speed indicators.  Cllr. Dilks informed the meeting that concerned villagers could to form a ‘community speed group’ via Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership at which operation of hand held speed gun recorders could be use, training is available for this. A member of the public who lives near the crossroads said that speeding was more east to west in the village and not the A15 and was largely done by villagers.     A15 speed camera has been upgraded to digital and statistics go centrally

Safety at the Crossroads.The crossroads is increasingly dangerous to navigate.   Steve Valentine urged people to re familiarise themselves with the Highway Code as no white lines are now in the yellow hatch area and this will help if people seem unsure on how to use this area.

Dangerous parking at the crossroads by the shop was raised.

Black Bull Park (BBG).   John Gillett gave an overview of the potential upgrade of park equipment.   Funds known as S106 have been collected by SKDC from the development by Ashwood Homes on Stowe Road in the sum of £27,283.  It was thought that as the development was opposite BBG this would be the area of concentration for the money to be spent.

BBG equipment is aimed at small children, it was hoped to broaden the age range. The existing equipment needs some remedial repairs.7 companies have been approached to gather ideas to upgrade and introduce new equipment including some sensory and disability access equipment.

The next stage is:

• To narrow down to 3-4 options (plans and photos of which were on display). 
• To get feedback from questionnaire on what is felt needed by the Parish residents
• Full costings to be evaluated
• If a higher specification such as a wet pour surface was required a Lottery application applied for to cover the additional expense.
• Final proposal to be submitted to enable release of the funds

2. Cllr. Vanessa Smith – gave an outline on Devolution and Local Government reorganisations and explained what that means for local residents.   Currently there is a 2 tier authority (with District and County Councillors).  The Government want to  make this a unitary authority.   Devolution is the election of a Mayor.  This is going to be happening this year in May.

The local authorities have all been asked how they would like to reorganise themselves.SKDC have discussed proposals and their preferred option was to change the authority to include Rutland, North Kesteven and South Holland.Vanessa distributed some printed appendix from the discussion which shows the different options.There is still a lot of uncertainty.

3. Cllr. Phil Dilks.  SKDC currently serves 147,000 people, the Government request a plan to include 500,000 people.  The County has come back with a preference to stick with the County to disband all district councils and just have one authority based in Lincoln this will be 750,000 people.  They say Devolution will bring decision making closer to the people it affects, however geographically it is being taken much further away. 

Questions asked:

What powers would a Lincolnshire Mayor have?The Mayor will govern the whole of greater Lincolnshire, there is government money if a Mayor is elected.At a vote the majority of people did not want a Mayor.The Mayor will have direct access to Government Ministers.The fear is that the south of the county will be overlooked for the poorer north and monies directed accordingly.

Will Parish Council’s would get more power?It is hoped that this will be the case.

Local Plan.Planning authorities are obliged to have an up to date Local Plan (this is a 4 year process).SKDC were working on this draft based on providing 750 new homes a year.The government’s planning reform is for 912. The site in Langtoft in the Local Plan is Dickens Close for 55 houses.Because of these changes, SKDC will be going to consultation again in the summer so there is still time to have your say on this issue.

4. Church Warden Debbie Howard told the meeting about the recent project of new toilet and servery in the church from funds secured.  Outside drainage now installed but work still ongoing.   Still open for services on Sunday and coffee on Saturday morning.  These new additions will make a more community space.  The church has their AGM May 10th 12.30 come along and find out what is happening and there will be cake……always cake…!

5. VE Day Commemoration Day starting on 3rd May.  Information was printed in the Grapevine and posters distributed through the village.     Lewis Trickey, a WWII expert is producing a very informative interactive display on the Saturday in the village hall.  Please come along and bring the youngster.   Service of commemoration in the church on the Sunday at 10 am

6. Displays available
   1. Penfield Nature Reserve
   2. East End Restoration Project
   3. Odd Fellows
   4. Langtoft Players.

The meeting continued socially with everyone talking and networking over some delicious cheese and wine provided by the parish council.

Chairman:  ­­­­­­__________________                                                          Date: __________________