November 2019 Minutes
Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held in the Village Hall, Kettlethorpe, on Monday 04th November 2019 at 7.40 pm
Present
Cllr Richard Elliott, Chairman,
Cllr Richard Barnard,
Cllr Lauren Flinders
Cllr Catherine Turner,
Cllr Tony Scawthon,
Cllr Lizzie Smith,
Cllr Tim O’Callaghan
Mr. Ron Gee, clerk.
1. APOLOGIES - PCSO Glenn Patchett.
2 MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING
The minutes of the October meeting had been circulated to all members and were proposed as a true record by Councillor T. O’Callaghan seconded by Councillor A. Scawthon and agreed by the meeting.
3. MATTERS ARISING
3.1 Local Policing issues – The Crime Report for October listed 3 x burglaries, 11 x thefts, 1 x vehicle crime and 3 x criminal damages, but there were no reports affecting Kettlethorpe Parish. (see Correspondence 4.1).
3.2 Jubilee Park
i. Fences –– A quote of £480 using Council supplied preservative had been forwarded by Mr D. Morrish, a contractor who had painted the fence previously. Two further quotes had been received, but it was proposed by Cllr Tim O’Callaghan, seconded by Cllr Tony Scawthon and approved by the meeting that the quote from Mr Morrish should be accepted. (Correspondence 4.3).
ii. Soft pour tarmac – Richard had intended making enquiries about the soft pour problem when he visited the Saltex exhibition in Birmingham recently, but unusually there were no appropriate merchants there this year. The clerk has contacted WLDC who had e-mailed that loans were available for certain play area benefits, but no answer has been received to date.
3.3 Highway Matters
i. Speed Watch – Lincs Road Safety Partnership have been advised that the Parish wishes to sign up for Speedwatch. In response, LRSP promised to be in touch shortly to arrange the training and asked the Council to come up with suggestions for locations where the gun could be used. It was thought that Marsh Lane to Hatchery Lane could be one check point and Main Road from the start of the Park wall towards Sallie Bank Lane could be another. The clerk is to forward the information upon receipt to each volunteer and advertise details on the notice-boards.
ii. Fault Reports – A letter has been sent to LCC Highways about the Council’s dissatisfaction at the poor clear-up of reported faults and an acknowledgement received. Members discussed what methods Highways are likely to use when they come to fix the flooding on the Marsh Lane / Main Road link. iii. Road sign and bollards - Following a recent vehicle accident, the give-way sign adjacent to Propeller Island, has been demolished; one of the island bollards needs reinstating and another appears to be missing. The clerk is to report the issue to LCC Highways, and the Chairman offered to check with the Highways depot at Sturton to see if they still held the spare bollards returned there last year. iv. Grips in verges – A discussion was held on the poor siting of grips dug in verges to drain such road surfaces as Newark Road. Tony suggested that the best procedure is to visit during rainy weather and fix markers in the verges where flooding is taking place and dig out the grips there, rather than the present method which appears to be providing grips (if any) a uniform distance apart.
3.4 Parish Council Surgery – The Surgery on 18th November will be covered by the Chairman and the next, which is due on 20th January will be attended by Tony.
3.5 Parish Facebook – Lizzie has volunteered take over Facebook and suggested that it will be necessary to build an audience by a variety of means such as notices, word of mouth, extension of personal contacts etc. Richard felt that once it is up and running, it could be a useful tool to publicise the Christmas Switch-on and Catherine suggested incorporating a QR code.
Lizzie is later to create a domain, which will be a user-friendly system allowing an easily identifiable name on the website and providing members with e-mail addresses in the form of Peter@kettlethorpepc.org.uk which can be integrated with Facebook and will simplify change, should anyone leave the Council. As this will require fees in the region of £20, Cllr Richard Barnard proposed, and Cllr Catherine Turner seconded, that any such costs should be borne by the Council. This was fully agreed by the meeting
3.6 Troughs – The Chairman has cleared the old trough plants, cleaned them up and set them aside for over-wintering until next year and has purchased cineraria and winter pansies as replacements to be planted shortly (See Finance item 6.3). He pointed out that attention will be needed to some of the troughs which are separating at the joints.
3.7 Planning for Christmas event
i. Date of event will be December 1st.at 5.00 pm – Lauren will ensure that the new secretary at Newton School has been advised.
ii. Floodlights - loan and fixing in hand with Richard.
iii. Friendship - food such as burgers and hot dogs will be sold by the landlord at the Friendship to his own benefit. Tim to confirm.
iv. Richard is to arrange the cut-outs that will be hidden for the Treasure Hunt
v. Prizes will be small selection boxes at £1 each. Large box as special prize. Tim to deal.
vi. Catherine’s father will be Father Christmas.
vii. The 4 wheeled carriage owned by Lizzie’s mother will bring Santa. Parking to be confirmed
viii. Carriage will have road lights with spare tree lights to give festive appearance.
ix. Persons in high viz: jackets to slow traffic. Clerk to advise police of arrival of Santa’s carriage.
x. Npower now disconnected. Battery pack to be used for tree lights – Richard.
xi. Mr Cleworth to be sounded out for a power supply for the music.
xii. Parish insurance company advised of event by clerk.
Richard suggested that considering the current wet weather, a contingency plan may be needed for December 1st and wondered if the event could be moved to the Friendship after switch-on.
3..8 106 bus service – Letters had been sent / received from LCC Transport, Stagecoach and the issue appears to have reached an impasse. (See Correspondence 4.7) Tony said that it looks like a battle lost - the problem is that very few people use the service and even those who do, seem to have free passes. Remove from agenda.
3.9 Repairs to Propeller Memorial – The clerk had tried 3 companies, 2 of which felt that the job was too big for their equipment. The third, Robin Summers of Tuxford sounded more promising and a report / quote is awaited. In case the solution is unacceptable, other ideas were put forward e.g. Mike at Newark Air Museum, East Kirkby Aviation Centre or Andy Rawden, a contact of Liz’s. Tony suggested that maybe a simple fibre-glass mould would protect the propeller. (Correspondence 4.12).
3.10 Breach of Planning – It was said that the Park-home type building can hardly be seen now, and it appeared that the caravan has been taken off site. It was put forward that as West Lindsey are fully aware of the situation, they are unlikely to let it go. Item can be removed from the agenda.
3.11 Parking – Sallie Bank Lane – a letter was sent as requested to the police at Saxilby and the PCSO had offered to visit when time permits.
4. CORRESPONDENCE
4.1 Police Report for October
4.2 What the Flood – Action Campaign
4.3 Quote for painting Jubilee Park fence
4.4 Report to WLDC of fly tipping of tyres – now cleared
4.5 Request to Lincs Road Safety for Speed Watch training and start-up
4.6 WLDC – Notice of Meetings
4.7 106 bus service - letters
4.8 Letter to LCC re poor clear-up of Highways faults
4.9 Citizens Advice, Lindsey – Application for funding - rejected
4.10 Community Lincs – merging with YMCA
4.11 Pocket Parks Programme - Grants available
4.12 Propeller Memorial refurbishment
E-mailed items for October – circulated 01 / 11 / 2019
Items received after agenda printed
5.1 Planning Application 140228
4.13 D/Cllr J Ellis – Meeting with Kettlethorpe PC
5. PLANNING
5.1 Application Reference 140228 – Replace 11kv overhead lines, Silver Trees Farm – noted by the meeting.
6. FINANCE
6.1 Precept for 2020 – Using a budget spreadsheet created to project the estimated expenditure to the end of the year and the cash likely to be remaining, it was originally suggested that £9,000 should be requested as in the last three years. However, Richard pointed out some of the work that is likely to be needed next year, for example, repair of the Propeller, fixing the soft pour park surface, Speed Watch set up and camera. In addition, he had noticed that the two rocker toys in the children’s play area were looking tired and may need replacing. As a result, Councillor Richard Barnard proposed a Precept of £9,250, that was seconded by Councillor Tim O’Callaghan and agreed by the meeting.
6.2 MKS Groundcare - grass cut for October- Invoice No 1610 - £157.20 Payment proposed by Cllr Richard Barnard, seconded by Cllr Lizzie and agreed by the meeting. Expenditure to date is £1,965 + VAT, number of cuts should be 10, but 15 done. When challenged, they said that they were doing two cuts a month which they thought we needed. Last year - only did 8 cuts for £1167 + VAT but charged for each area that was cut separately. Meeting agreed that even so, they were doing a good job.
6.3 Purchase of trough plants / Chairman - Invoice No 000006 - £20 Payment proposed by Cllr Richard Barnard, seconded by Cllr Catherine Turner and approved by the meeting
6.4 PAYE / Salary – for end October Payment of these items was approved by the meeting following the proposal in May
6.5 Parish Accounts – for end October. A balance of £13,845 with an expenditure of £6,803 to date was confirmed by the HSBC bank statements and the corresponding accounts sheet. It was agreed by the meeting that the monthly Parish Accounts should be signed by the Chairman and the clerk.
7. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION
7.1 High hedges - The Chairman had visited the resident who had originally raised the breach of planning issue and had also sought help over high trees around the site in question. As per last month’s minutes Richard had discovered two helpful websites dealing with high hedges and the Chairman passed these details to the person concerned.
7.2 Poppies - Tim had seen large poppies in a Notts village to commemorate the Remembrance and thought they would be ideal for the Parish next year. Also, for next year, the Chairman is to investigate poppy collections in the village.
8. DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The next meeting will take place in Kettlethorpe Village Hall on Monday 2nd December 2019 at 7.40 pm
As there was no further business the meeting closed at 9.25 pm