July 2023 Minutes
Kettlethorpe Parish Council
Minutes of the meeting of the Parish Council held on Tuesday 11th July 2023 in Kettlethorpe Village Hall
PRESENT:
Cllr R Elliott
Cllr R Barnard
Cllr P Bussoopun
Cllr T O’Callaghan
Mr Geoff Cleworth, Clerk
D/Cllr R Pilgrim
APOLOGIES
Cllr C Turner
In the current situation of Cllr Turner stepping away from Council duties, Cllr Elliott was elected as Interim Chairman.
The Chairman welcomed D/Cllr Pilgrim as our newly elected District Councillor. In picking up from his predecessor, D/Cllr Pilgrim enquired regarding the long-running issue of vehicles accessing Park Farm at unsocial hours. Whilst the Council are awaiting future issues, he will enquire regarding the position with the District Council.
MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING
The Minutes of the meeting held on 9th May 2023 had been circulated to all councillors and were proposed, seconded and approved by all Councillors. The meeting in June had not taken place as there had not been a quorum.
PROGRESS REPORTS
New councillor vacancies
The Chairman had spoken to Rebecca Roberts, who was interested in becoming a councillor. He will follow this up. D/Cllr Pilgrim advised the meeting that Mr Willis will need to be present at a meeting to be co-opted back onto the Council, as he needs to sign the paperwork at a meeting.
The election of a Vice-Chairman for the coming year was deferred to the next meeting.
Jubilee Park
The new springies had been installed, otherwise no progress. The Chairman will follow up on a contractor regarding the re-instatement of missing bricks and treatment of the fence panels. He will also contact Mr Bingham to ascertain if he is able to replace the soft pour tarmac.
Christmas lights
The Clerk had obtained a quotation of £120 + VAT for the fitting of an exterior power socket at the Clerk’s address. This had already been agreed by councillors and was due to be installed on 14th July. It was felt that a double socket might be preferable. The Clerk will enquire with Martin Flinders Electrical.
Cemetery
Following advice from former councillors/officials, it had been learned that we could not permit more than one coffin burial per plot as this would encroach on the water table. The Clerk will amend the rules appropriately.
D/Cllr Pilgrim noted that in his Parish, the system of pre-purchase of plots had resulted in plots not being utilised and caused gaps in the cemetery. It also raised issues with the ownership of leases for cremation burials in the event that the purchaser of the lease dies first. The Clerk felt that this would not arise, as the lease can be transferred on as part of the estate of the deceased. He will refer this to LALC for guidance.
The rewilding of the cemetery grass was deferred to the next meeting.
Update of website
The Clerk had undertaken the necessary training. However, owing to domestic circumstances, he had had very little time to look into the updating of the website. The trainer had noted that the website needed considerable work to tidy up and organise it. LALC offer a website management service to undertake this work and the meeting authorised the purchase of 10 hours work by LALC at a cost of £170 + VAT.
Contribution to Church grass cutting expenses
The Clerk had paid the costs for 2022.
Speeding
The Clerk had raised the speeding anomaly on Kettlethorpe Lane with Lincolnshire CC, but had received no response. He will chase.
Elsewhere, there had been no progress on attracting volunteers for Community Speedwatch. There had been an upswing in Police activity recently, and whilst this was under way, it was decided not to take further action.
Planting of flower troughs
The Chairman had purchased plants and planted out the troughs. He presented an invoice for £32.00 which was authorised.
LOCAL POLICING ISSUES
The Police crime reports for May and June had been received. In both cases, there were no incidents affecting the Parish,
CORRESPONDENCE
Correspondence for June/July to date had been distributed to all Councillors.
PLANNING
Application reference 144120
The Clerk had reported the lack of action from Severn Trent Water to the Consumer Council for Water. He had not as yet received a reply. It was decided to leave the matter open pending developments.
Application reference 146928
This new application was discussed by the meeting. The main query was why two buildings were proposed, one being sited behind an earth bank between the site and housing, the other not. D/Cllr Pilgrim will sound out the planning department at WLDC to ascertain their view on this. Given the deadline for objections, this needs to be submitted by the end of July.
FINANCE
The payment of the following invoice from May to July to date were agreed by the Council:
already paid: F5 COMPUTING – 2 x invoices re monthly charges - £43.50 each; All Round Gardens £230.00 x 2; Kettlethorpe Church – grass cutting contribution for 2022 - £440.00; HSBC monthly charge £8.00 x 2; Arthur J Gallagher – insurance 2023/24 - £592.37; WLDC costs re election - £106.69
Clerk – PAYE AND SALARY for May and June had been paid.
Clerk’s expenses December 2022 to June 2023 was agreed - £77.89
PARISH ACCOUNTS
end of May – income £11832.61; expenditure £2987.50; balance £17645.73
end of June – income £11854.93; expenditure £3863.19; balance £16792.36
These were agreed and accepted by the meeting
ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION
(1) A report had been received from a parishioner that the owner of Church Farm had placed logs on the grass verge in front of his fence to deter parking. The verge does not belong to him, rather to Lincolnshire CC. The Chairman had visited the owner to discuss, but this had ended acrimoniously and the owner had sent a complaining email to the Clerk. In an effort to settle the matter amicably, which the owner had stated he wished to achieve, the Clerk had been asked to contact the owner with a view to arranging a meeting between the owner, the Chairman and the Chairman of the Village Hall committee. The owner had since then moved some of the logs so that they now only cover half of the land, but had not responded to the Clerk’s email. He was asked to send a further email and if no reply is received within a week, report the matter to LCC highways.
(2) The Clerk had received a report from LCC regarding vandalism of the bus shelter on Kettlethorpe Road, as the shelter belong to the council and not LCC. This was the first he had heard of the matter. The vandalism amounts to spray painted graffiti As it is not in any way offensive and the shelter is not now used, no further action was decided.
(3) The Clerk had received from LCC a report on public right of way grass cutting to enable a check of the standard of the work within the Parish. This was deemed satisfactory.
(4) LCC were offering litter picking kits to parish councils. The Chairman had already obtained one on our behalf and had this in storage.
(5) The Chairman will chase up the inspection of the propeller memorial for deterioration.
(6) Post election paperwork:
Acceptance of office papers were progressed. Only that applicable to Cllr Turner remained outstanding.
New councillor paperwork relating to Mr Willis and other(s) could not be progressed until they were present at a meeting.
(7) The Clerk asked for consideration to be given to reverting to the first Tuesday of the month for meetings. The date had been changed to accommodate former D/Cllr Ellis. It was decided to leave the meeting dates unchanged.
(8) It was reported that the effects of weather and intervention by cattle had caused some damage to the trees on Rectors Walk. This had been rectified and will continue to be monitored.
(9) Cllr O’Callaghan had been advised that recent grass cuts had omitted strimming in some areas of the village. The Clerk was asked to remind All Round Gardens of the need to include strimming.
(10) Cllr O’Callaghan reported that areas of Main Road in Laughterton were suffering rain ingress from the road onto the pavement, causing this to be damaged. This was due to the last resurfacing raising the height of the road above that of the low level kerbs. The Clerk will report this to LCC highways.
(11) Cllr O’Callaghan had spoken to the head teacher of Newton on Trent school regarding the school choir’s participation at the Christmas lights switch-on. He had arranged this for Sunday 3rd December 2023. The Clerk was asked to put this on the agenda for the September meeting.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The next meeting will take place in Kettlethorpe Village Hall at 7pm on Tuesday 12th September 2023, there being no meeting in August.
The Chair closed the meeting at 9pm.