Minutes February 2024
Kettlethorpe Parish Council
Minutes of the meeting of the Parish Council held on Tuesday 13th February 2024
in Kettlethorpe Village Hall
PRESENT:
Cllt C Turner Chair
Cllr R Elliott
Cllr R Barnard
Cllr P Bussoopun
Mr G Cleworth, Clerk
D/Cllr R Pilgrim also attended the meeting.
Apologies Cllrs C McGowan, T O’Callaghan
MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING
The Minutes of the meeting held on 9th January 2024 had been circulated to all councillors and were proposed, seconded and approved by the meeting.
PROGRESS REPORTS
Jubilee Park
Approaches to Hutchinsons of Gainsborough regarding the renewal of the soft pour tarmac and replacement of bricks had been met with no reply, and the search had been turned elsewhere. Cllr Barnard had contacted Owen Improvements who had appeared interested. He awaits a date for a site visit. If this clashes with work, he asked if the Clerk and/or Cllr Elliott could deputise.
The treatment of the fence panels remains in abeyance pending advice of date from LCC.
RoSPA report
Cllr Barnard was attempting to source a special tool to replace of the bearing on the see-saw.
Cllr Bussoopun advised that the repairs to the fence panels required access from the Home Farm Close side of the panels. He will speak to Mr Needham at No. 28.
Rewilding of Cemetery
there had been no progress.
Street lighting on Main Road and Broom Hills, Laughterton
The issue had finally been resolved. Cllr Barnard felt we should engage positively with LCC to monitor progress on future issues.
Poor state of Westmoor Lane
There was some confusion about who was responsible for the maintenance of green lanes. The Clerk will investigate.
Hedge trimming at The Gables, Main Road, Laughterton
This work had still not been carried out. It was decided to conduct a survey of all overhanging hedges across both villages and write to the homeowners requesting action.
Lorry movements at unsocial hours
Planning ref: 145186: D/Cllr Pilgrim had been advised by a householder that drivers who had been spoken to had said they would not access the site from Park Farm Road outwith agreed hours if there was a sign posted. It would be necessary to establish ownership with LCC, which D/Cllr Pilgrim will pursue.
Planning ref 136009: an issue had arisen regarding lorry access to Park Farm from the A156. The grant of planning permission seemed to indicate that this access was open to all users of the site, but the road was gated to prevent access to Wood View Road. This was possibly impacting the issue under ref 145186. The installation of the gate could possibly be in contravention of the planning consent. D/Cllr Pilgrim will pursue with WLDC.
Notice to the public regarding potentially meetings being recorded
The Clerk had produced the requested sign and this was displayed at the meeting.
Insurance quotation
The Clerk had been asked to obtain a quotation for insurance for comparison purposes. He advised the meeting that this was only available 60 days or less from the date the insurance was required. He has this diarised for action.
CORRESPONDENCE
Correspondence for January/February to date had been distributed to all Councillors
The Clerk had noticed a large upswing in junk and promotional emails during the month. These were all circulated to councillors, creating unnecessary work and time wasting. The Clerk was asked to exercise discretion in forwarding these to councillors and the following organisations were blacklisted in respect of these emails:
Broxap NBB Outdoors
Cognitive Publishing Oscar Research
Jennifer Cook Public Sector Executive
Finding Fitness Suregreen
Glasdon
Any further organisations sending junk email will be referred to a meeting with a view to adding to the blacklist.
PLANNING
nothing to report
FINANCE
The payment of the following invoices for December were agreed by the Council:
already paid: F5 COMPUTING – domain maintenance £49.44; HSBC £10.00 (monthly charge £8.00 plus £2.00 charge for paying in a cheque); LALC annual subscription £162.08
Clerk – PAYE AND SALARY for January
The payment from LCC in respect of contribution to grasscutting costs had been received.
PARISH ACCOUNTS
end of January – income £12748.05; expenditure £9854.60; balance £11694.07
These were agreed and accepted by the meeting
The meeting reviewed the Clerk’s salary and agreed that for 2024/25, this should be set at the estimate used for the precept request. This will therefore be salary £420.83; PAYE £105.21 TOTAL £526.04
ITEM FOR DISCUSSION
(a) The Clerk had received notice from the Village Hall of increases in the rental charge for Council meetings. This will rise to £25 per meeting in 2024 and £30 per meeting in 2025. The meeting reluctantly accepted that the Council has little alternative other than to accept these rises. Cllr Elliott will speak to Mr Alan Straw, Chair of the Village Hall Committee, to try to ascertain the current state of the Village Hall’s finances.
(b) The meeting discussed the possibility of joining LALC’s Annual Training Scheme for discounts on training costs. It was felt that this would be uneconomic.
(c) The Clerk had received a request from Torksey PC to include our contact details in their emergency plan. This was agreed.
It was decided it would be beneficial for us to have our own emergency plan. D/Cllr Pilgrim will forward details to the Clerk.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The next meeting will take place in Kettlethorpe Village Hall at 7pm on Tuesday 12th March 2024.
The Chair closed the meeting at 8.15pm.