March 2023 Minutes
Kettlethorpe Parish Council
Minutes of the meeting of the Parish Council held on Tuesday 14th March 2023 at 7pm in Kettlethorpe Village Hall
PRESENT:
Cllr R Elliott, Chairman
Cllr R Barnard
Cllr P Bussoopun
Cllr T O’Callaghan
Cllr C Turner
Mr Geoff Cleworth, Clerk
D/Cllr J Ellis
C/Cllr R Butroyd
APOLOGIES
Cllr J Willis
MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING
The Minutes of the meeting held on 14th February 2023 had been circulated to all councillors and were proposed, seconded and approved by all Councillors.
PROGRESS REPORTS
Jubilee Park
Two dates for the work had been arranged, but not carried out due to adverse weather and illness. Cllr Elliott had spoken to Richard Bingham and was awaiting a new date.
Highways
WLDC Enforcement had been in touch with the users of the Park Farm site and had closed the file.The residents had been advised and asked to maintain a log of further breaches, when WLDC will re-open the file and get involved.
Christmas lights
There had been no progress. WLDC had been approached for advice via D/Cllr Ellis and the Clerk will chase her re progress. Northern Powergrid had advised that the supply to the cupboard in Jubilee Park had been disconnected since 2019 and that SSE were currently the only supplier offering unmetered supply. The Clerk will approach them. Cllr Barnard will test the supply in the cupboard to confirm its status.
The Clerk offered an alternative, whereby if a supplier cannot be found, he would allow the Council to supply and fit an external power source at his property without charge for the electricity used.
Parish notice boards
There had been no progress
Update of website
The Clerk had booked into the LALC course in April and will liaise with Cllr Turner for the handover when this has been attended.
Contribution to Church grass cutting expense
The Clerk had written to Mrs B Gilbert and had received invoices for £560 in respect of 2021 and £440 in respect of 2022. The copy invoices had not been forthcoming. The meeting felt that we must have substantive proof of what the Church’s costs are. The Clerk will contact the Parochial Church Council for this.
LOCAL POLICING ISSUES
The Police crime report for February had been received. No incidents affected the Parish.
RECTORS WALK
The End of Project report had been submitted and the surplus of the grant amounting to £2260 had been repaid to the Lottery. The Clerk advised that due to an oversight on his part, the item for refreshments at opening day had been understated on the report by £12.98. NHLF had rounded up the refund payable creating a discrepancy of 48p.
The steel stakes had been installed.
CORRESPONDENCE
Correspondence for February/March to date had been distributed to all Councillors.
PLANNING
Application reference 144120
Nothing further had been heard with regard to this issue. The Clerk had raised a written complaint to Severn Trent Water. If no reply to this received within 8 weeks, he will raise the matter with the Ombudsman.
FINANCE
The payment of the following invoices for February/March to date were agreed by the Council:
already paid: F5 COMPUTING – invoice 12102 Monthly charges - £40.86; HSBC bank charges for February - £8.00; reimburse Mr C Fowler expenses re Rectors Walk - £49.58; Mrs A Brownlow expenses re Rectors Walk - £82.82; LALC – Invoice 1371 re annual subs for 2023/24 £150.70; Barrett Steel Ltd – invoice for steel re Rectors Walk £166.20
Noctice from HSBC of the monthly charge £8 for March had been received
CLERK – PAYE AND SALARY for February had been paid.
PARISH ACCOUNTS
end of February – balance £11568.63; expenditure £17244.15
These were agreed and accepted by the meeting
Further to the receipt of a letter from HMRC advising we have a credit balance of £360.60 on our account, he had now received his phone account. Resolving the issue had taken over 2 hours of phone calls, at a cost of £34.05. The meeting agreed this could be added to his next expenses claim.
With the Clerk absent, the meeting considered the Clerk’s salary for 2023/24 and decided to award the Clerk an increase of 4%. This will produce a figure of £390 per month, plus PAYE £97.50. It was decided that in future, the Clerk’s salary will be considered before the precept is submitted to WLDC.
ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION
(1) Mr C Smith – a parishioner – addressed the meeting on several points:
(a) speeding through Laughterton. This was becoming an issue and a Police presence had recently increased. At their most recent visit on March 12th, four speeding vehicles had been caught. The Police advised that this made the village a priority area for further preventative measures. In an attempt to make a case for further measures, the Clerk with contact Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership for speeding statistics to support our case.
D/Cllr Ellis will ascertain the whereabouts of the ‘Smiley Sid’ speed detection sign to which we have some access. C/Cllr Butroyd will enquire if we are a priority area for speed cameras.
We will ask the Police if we can be advised when their speed detection vehicles have attended.
(b) Today had seen the latest of three recent occurances of dogs off the lead attacking parishioners. It was felt that it was a matter for the victim to determine if incidents such as these merited reporting to the Police, but we will deliver flyers throughout the Parish to remind parishioners of their responsibilities (regarding this and dog fouling) with reference to the Country Code. Cllr Turner will attend to this. The Clerk will post similar notices in the notice boards.
(2) It was decided that the Council will not be directly involved in celebrating the upcoming Coronation. The Clerk will ascertain details of the issue of commemorative Crowns, for distribution among the children of the village. He will also ask D/Cllr Ellis if any grant money was available, possibly to drefray the costs.
(3) The Clerk collected some nomination forms for the Election in May. He reminded councillors of the deadlines for submitting the paperwork.
(4) It was felt that we should try to make greater use of our Facebook page, using the Clerk’s domain address as control.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
This will take place in Kettlethorpe Village Hall at 7pm on Tuesday 11th April 2023.
The Chairman closed the meeting at 8.50pm