Minutes October 2024
Kettlethorpe Parish Council
Minutes of the meeting of the Parish Council held on Tuesday 8th October 2024
in Kettlethorpe Village Hall
PRESENT:
Cllr C Turner Chair
Cllr R Elliott,
Cllr R Barnard
Cllr P Bussoopun
Cllr C McGowan
Cllr T O’Callaghan
Mr G Cleworth, Clerk
MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING
The Minutes of the meeting held on 10th September 2024 had been circulated to all councillors and were proposed, seconded and approved by the meeting.
PROGRESS REPORTS
Emergency plan
The previous meeting had granted time to the Clerk until the November meeting to work on this.
Jubilee Park
There had been no progress on the following:
repairs to brickwork
overhanging trees
repainting of barriers in the chicane
The Council reviewed the outstanding items from the RoSPA report. It was decided to replace the two swing seats as these are relatively inexpensive. The Clerk will attend to. Cllr Barnard will enquire with Sutcliffe Play regarding the current safety regulations re the boat shaped swing chains.
Cemetery
Cllr Barnard had produced an information sheet regarding the rewilding project, including an illustration of what is being proposed, which includes an illustration. It was decided to turn this into an information sheet for distribution around the parish. He will liaise with the Chair on progressing this. The grass removed to facilitate the rewilding could be used to block rabbit holes in the churchyard.
It was decided to clarify how the Church viewed the contribution from ourselves and Fenton PC to their grass cutting costs. Cllr Elliott will investigate.
There had been no progress on the matter of the treatment of residents of Fenton. It was decided that until the Chair has an opportunity to discuss this with Fenton PC, the Council will accept requests from residents of Fenton, subject to the existing surcharge on fees.
Village Hall
The Chair expanded on her meeting with Mrs Wilcox. She was concerned that the Village Hall wished to have an ad hoc arrangement for assistance with the running of the Committee. Cllr Turner felt that this would not work and should be more formal. She was prepared to host a public coffee morning to try to enlist more people. This will be held in the New Year.
The Clerk had investigated the Charity Commissioners website. The Trustees of the Village Hall are Mrs Wilcox and Mr A Straw.
Cllr Barnard felt we ought to consider a quarterly flier to publicise upcoming events.
Water ingress to propoerties on Main Road Laughterton
In the absence of D/|Cllr Pilgriam, There had been no progress.
Laughterton bus shelter refurbishment
Cllr Barnard had inspected and reported that the major area for work was the bottom three courses of timber planks. He felt we could treat with bitumen or similar and repaint the remainder.
He reported that several publicity items were attached to the inner walls of the shelter in a haphazard manner. The meeting felt that an open notice board in the shelter could work. It would be necessary to police this for suitability and the removal of out of date items.
Kettlethorpe village sign
The Clerk had that day received a further email from Mrs Nunn. She has made contact with the creator of the original artwork and was awaiting a quotation from him to produce a new sign. This will be forwarded when received.
Separate enquiries had been made. In addition to the cost of the new sign, the surround will need to be repainted at a cost of around £200. It was felt that as they derive the most benefit from the sign, volunteers from Kettlethorpe might be sought to carry this out.
Letter from Mr A Scawthon
There had been no reply to the Clerk’s letter to Mr Scawthon and it was assumed that he was now satisfied
Defibrillator batteries
These had now arrived and had been installed. The meeting authorised the Clerk to reimburse Cllr Elliott £156.00 regarding this.
Remembrance Day wreath
This had been obtained and will be laid by the Chair. The meeting authorised the reimbursement of the cost to the Clerk.
CORRESPONDENCE
Correspondence for September/October to date had been circulated to all councillors
PLANNING
Nothing to report although the Clerk had received advice from WLDC re a new platform for dealing with planning.
FINANCE
The payment of the following invoices for September:
already paid: HSBC ,monthly charge £8.00 F5 Computing invoices £43.50; reimburse Clerk re remembrance day wreath £24.49
Clerk – PAYE AND SALARY for September
PARISH ACCOUNTS
end of September: income £11652.31; Expenditure £7620.24; balance £14592.18
These were agreed and accepted by the meeting
The Clerk had received a purchase order from LCC regarding their contribution to grass cutting costs for £1201.99. He had submitted our invoice but awaited the payment.
The Clerk had received the paperwork for the precept request. He will put this on next month’s agenda so that the precept estimate could be arrived at.
ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION
(a) Newton on Trent School were represented at the meeting to discuss the Christmas lights switch on. They had received the offer of a donation of £500 towards the cost of the switch on. This came with conditions:
The lights should be displayed on the tree, not the flag pole. The drawbacks to this were
pointed out, in that the tree is now too tall to have lights all the way to the top and it would require the hiring of a cherry picker. There was also the exorbitant cost of mains power. It was felt that we could display the old lights using batter power until it ran out.
There should be food available with that for the choir from the School free of charge as part of the donation.
(b) The meeting considered making an appeal to residents for consideration in letting of fireworks. Cllr Barnard had produced a flyer for distribution over the weekend 19th/20th October. This will also be placed on Facebook.
(c) The Clerk advised that the poor quality road repair on Kettlethorpe Road, Fenton was deteriorating, but that there were yellow markers painted on the road as if to suggest work was imminent. It was decided the monitor the situation.
(d) Reports were received of very poor quality tree trimming on Marsh Lane, Laughterton, which has damaged a numb er of trees. Without the identity of those responsible, little action could be taken.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The next meeting will take place in Kettlethorpe Village Hall on 12th November 2024 at 7pm.
The Chair closed the meeting at 835 pm.