April 2026 minutes
Kettlethorpe Parish Council
Minutes of the meeting of the Parish Council held on Tuesday14th April 2026
in Kettlethorpe Village Hall
PRESENT:
Cllr C Turner (Chair)
Cllr R Barnett
Cllr R Elliott,
Cllr C Smith
Cllr T O’Callaghan
Mr G Cleworth, Clerk
APOLOGIES:
Cllr C McGowan
MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING
The Clerk had amended the Minutes of the February and March meetings and these were agreed.
PROGRESS REPORTS
Speeding
The Clerk reported on a meeting along with himself with Mr Graeme Burke from LCC Highways regarding the placement of the posts. Owing to issues with the line of sight, the machine at the north end of the village would have to be sited on the offside of the road near he entrance to Millfield Golf Club. There was no issue with siting the post in respect of the south side of the village. There would be a time lag of around 3 months for the installation of the posts and these would cost £400 for the two..
The Clerk had also contacted Elan City regarding their current “two for one” offer. This will end on 31st July.
The meeting was asked to consider storage of the new equipment prior to installation. Various councillors volunteered their garages and Cllr Barnard said there was ample storage space at his place of business.
The Clerk advised of an issue regarding paying for the equipment. The Council currently had a daily limit of £1000 in respect of payments The equipment would cost over £5000 with the VAT. To resolve this, we could send 5 x payments of £1000 and a sixth one to cover the balance, if ElanCity would agree. This was dismissed as unprofessional. There is scope to increase the daily limit, but this would require authentification by two account signatories, with the same procedure if the limit were to be returned to its current level.
It was decided to ask ElanCity if they would accept a cheque. The Clerk will contact them.
It was decided to revisit grant availability.
Village Hall
Mrs Wilcox had made efforts to get membership of Lincolnshire Village Hall Association, so far without success. She will continue.
Cllr Snith advised that Village Hall sign had been put back on display.
Jubilee Park
RoSPA safety report outstandings: Cllr Barnard will chase the contractor up
Cllr Elliott had cleaning bird muck from the swings. This was an ongoing problem and it was decided to investigate costs of fitting bird spikes. The Clerk will enquire with Sutcliffe Play.
Cllr Smith had enquired with LALC about safety inspection training. This was fully booked quite a way into the future. The Clerk will investigate if he can be placed on their cancellation list. In view of the costs, it was decided that only Cllr Smith will receive the accredited training. We will ask LALC if offered to take the role over, but the meeting also discussed using an outside agency. The meeting was advised that there were no training courses available until April at least. The Clerk will check on the actual requirements for this.
Village survey / walk around / spring clean
The spring clean was set for 16th / 17th May. This will be in a leaflet which Cllr Smith had drafted and will get printed at a cost of around £20. This was agreed. He will also contact WLDC regarding the borrowing litter picking equipment and waste disposal.
AGAR assertion 10
Various issues were raised regarding the draft IT policy. The Clerk will revisit previous texts from other councils.
Defibrillator replacement
The Clerk will contact WLDC regarding their financial assistance scheme whereby WLDC donates £600 to the project and levies a maintenance charge of £110 per annum.
Cllr Barnard will investigate costs for a bleed kit for storage in the old phone box.
Posting on Facebook
The Clerk was asked to post publicity regarding the litter pick up and spring cleaning of village. The Clerk was asked to post the cutback of trees in Jubilee Park and cleaning of swing seats.
.
Fix Mt Street
There were five outstanding items, all involving the stretch of the A1133 between the Marsh Lane triangle and the triangle at the start of Sallie Bank.
The Clerk had emailed our County Councillor P Wimhurst to highlight this long running issue, in addition to the work in hand with Fix My Street. He had accepted the comments with enthusiasm and undertaken to place this in the appropriate hands. We have heard nothing since and the Clerk was asked to chase.
Cllr Smith had accessed Fix My Street and advised that the same five outstanding issues remained as yet. ,
rewilding
Cllr Barnard advised the planting was in hand.
CORRESPONDENCE
Correspondence for March/April to date had been circulated to all councillors
PLANNING
ref: WL/2026/00248: retrospective application for a fence to be kept at its current height
ref: WL/2026/00263: application re storage of hazardous substances
The Council discussed both these applications and decided there were no comments to order on either.
FINANCE
The payment of the following invoices for March were agreed by the Council:
already paid: F5 Computing £42.88 monthly;
Clerk – PAYE AND SALARY for March
Accounts to the end of March:
income £14522.09; expenditure £13893.10; balance £11315.75
These were agreed and accepted by the meeting
The precept for the new year has been received
ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION
(1) KrinklesUK fhad carried out the first grass cut. or our grass cutting in 2026.A number of issues were discussed:
lawns in Jubilee Park had not been cut;
no blowing of clippings back onto grass, with some on residents’ driveways
the grass that had been mown had been left very long and the work was of a poor standard
The Clerk will contact Krinkels to make these points.
(2) It was advised that our standing orders are not on the website. The Clerk will attend to this.
(3) Propeller memorial triangle
It was reported that the propeller memorial was in a poor state of repair. Cllr Smith and Mr P Lawrence had offered to repair the memorial. Cllr Elliott will enquire re. what material was used on the last repair.
Cllr Smith volunteered to take on the cleaning of the memorial.
A Cherry tree on the triangle was mostly dead. Cllr Smith will contact LCC Highways.
(4) It was reported that the planting of shrubs in two areas of both villages may be infringing on County Council property and will grow and threaten pedestrians. Cllr Smith will obtain the “what three words” for both sites and pass onto the Clerk to take up with LCC.
(5) The Clerk had received the insurance renewal quotation from AJ Gallagher. This was £592, an increase of £9 on the 2025/27 figure. This was agreed.
(6) The St George’s Flag will be flown from 23rd to 25th April.
(7) Cllr Barnard asked what condition each notice board was in. At the moment, not good, due to the expansion caused by water ingress. He asked whether it might be worthwhile to start a contingency fund.
(8) Cllr Bussoopun tendered his resignation from the Council, due to commitments elsewhere. He was asked to resign to the Clerk in writing.
(9) Mrs S Mosedale had emailed the Clerk to advise that a bench marking the Golden Jubilee of the late Queen in 2002 was in a poor state of repair and she asked that this be dealt with urngency.
The meeting decided that as this was presented to the Church by the Council, it became the Church’s property and it was not our responsibility to replace it. The Clerk will advise this to Mrs Mosedale.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
Following the Parish Meeting and Council AGM, the next meeting will take place in Kettlethorpe Village Hall on 12th May 2026.
The Chair closed the meeting at 8.45pm.