22 January 2020
22 January 2020
Thimbleby Parish Council
Minutes Of The Council Meeting Held At 7pm On The 22nd January 2020 At Thimbleby Village Hall
Present
Councillors Cllr Jamieson (chair)
Cllrs Mrs A Doody, M Doody, E Barrett, P Devlin
In attendance Ben Wills representing Beeswax Dyson Farming
2 members of the public
The meeting began with a Q & A session with Ben Wills, who kindly attended in order to meet the Parish Council and to answer questions. In addition, Ben offered for Beeswax to attend the Annual Parish Meeting on 6th May, together with their Environmental Stewardship Trailer.
1 Chairman’s welcome
The Chairman welcomed those present
2 Apologies for absence
Clerk Mrs Newton, ELDC Cllr Mrs Campbell Wardman, PCSO Nigel Wass all sent their apologies. These absences were formally approved.
3 Declarations of Interest
Cllrs Devlin and Barrett both expressed an interest in item 10, concerning St Margaret’s Church.
4 To sign as correct the minutes from the last meeting held on 20th November 2019 - it was unanimously agreed that these should be signed.
5 Matters to Report from last meeting:
a) The following Policies have been added to the web site Communication Policy, Complaints Policy - Noted
b) A Laptop, and accessories has been purchased - Noted
c) The mobile phone numbers of Cllr Mr Doody and Cllr Devlin have been forwarded to the Resilience team - Noted
d)The Annual Parish Council Meeting & The Parish Meeting have been booked for Wednesday 6th May – advertised on the web site. Noted
6 Correspondence Received – Sent to Councillors between meetings
a) LALC – Local Council Clustering – results of questionnaire
b) LALC – Buckingham Palace garden party – No response from Councillors
c) Village Plan group Bolingbroke – offer of assistance
Noted
7 Planning
a) Submitted
S/201/01555/17 - Planning Permission - Erection of 4no. additional poultry rearing units and siting of 4no. silos on existing agricultural site.
Valley Farm, Hemingby Lane, West Ashby, Horncastle, LN9 5PW
No Objections
Noted
8 Feedback from the ELDC & LCC Councillors - No representatives were present hence no feedback received
9 Finance
a) Bills to pay
Councillor Mileage - for courses) less lunch £15.30
LALC Training Scheme £90.00 inc £15 reclaimable VAT
Salary - Dec & Jan £149.12
Inland Revenue £ 55.20
The Village Hall meeting rent £200.00
PC World – Laptop & accessories £552.97 inc £92.16 reclaimable VAT
It was unanimously agreed that the above should be paid
b) Balance of Accounts
Current account £5368.41 Petty Cash £8.77
Noted
c) The Precept claim has been sent off – receipt acknowledged. Confirmed increase on a band D property is £5.38 (13.56%)
Noted
d) The Re declaration details have been sent to the Pensions Regulator – acknowledged.
Noted
10 St Margaret’s Church
a) Letter sent to St Margaret’s Church advising that the Council are unable to provide funds for the financial year 2020/21 – Receipt of this letter has been acknowledged by the church. Noted
b) It was proposed that the council request a detailed breakdown of how the funds provided by the Council to the Church are allocated including receipts; this in order to ensure transparency, bearing in mind the law pertaining to this area. Cllr Devlin (speaking as Church Warden at this point) confirmed that the church would readily provide a breakdown of spend, including receipts.
11 Speed watch - Cllr M Doody
A single speed watch session had been held since the last meeting; opportunities somewhat curtailed by short daylight hours. During the session 8% of vehicles were recorded travelling in excess 35mph.
Cllr Doody suggested a poster onto the noticeboards, asking for speed watch volunteers, may help to enlarge the group and therefore hold more sessions. This was unanimously agreed.
12 Footpaths & Highways
Cllrs M Doody and Jamieson had met with representatives from LCC Highways on 17th Dec to highlight the issues with the highway’s drains. Acknowledged by LCC that there are issues to resolve; expectation set that the jetting service will spend a day in March to clear blockages, to be accompanied by LCC and Parish Council reps.
13 Policies & Procedures - To Propose Portfolio holders for Staff Matters & Others as appropriate
a) Portfolio holders discussed; Cllr Devlin managing the finance portfolio is working well. Cllr M Doody proposed that he might hold a portfolio for Footpaths, Trees and Environment - this was unanimously agreed as a sound proposal and important for the village.
b) To discuss the draft Standing Orders and amendments - thanks extended to Cllr Devlin for updating these; unanimously agreed to adopt and ask Clerk to publish accordingly.
14 Neighborhood plan/community review
Cllr Devlin attended LALC conference which included a talk on local plans. Felt that a Neighborhood Plan is probably too much for Thimbleby at present, however suggested that a community plan along the lines of that created at Old Bolingbroke is the right approach to take. Evidence-based grants may be available. Proposed first task to meet and discuss with reps from Old Bolingbroke; Unanimously agreed that Cllrs Devlin and Jamieson would move this forward.
15 1st Comms out from Parish Council to residents – Cllr Jamieson
Cllr Jamieson thanked Councillors for their feedback; a draft document has been created; Cllr Mrs Doody offered to edit this to a single side of A4; volunteers required for distribution of a paper copies. Unanimously agreed.
16 Relationship management - business and residents
Discussion as to whether this required an activity or just monitoring. Unanimously agreed to monitor at present, and feedback through a standing agenda item at each meeting.
17 Siting of the Post Box – Cllr Jamieson
A resident had suggested that the post box is sub-optimally sited, being hidden from casual view, in a muddy puddle for much of the winter, and on the wrong side of the road for parking purposes. Unanimously agreed that re-siting in front of the pony paddock would be preferable. Clerk to be asked whether / how we might effect re-location.
18 Use of Notice Board
following discussion, it was agreed that the noticeboards should be retained for Council documents only, and therefore be locked; the rationale being that any notices displayed may have the appearance of being approved by the Council. In certain circumstances non-council notices may be approved for display. Unanimously agreed, will require a notice to be displayed directing prospective users to contact Clerk in 1st instance.
19 Newsletter – Horncastle Matters
Discussed and agreed to donate £25 to the group, and to look to utilize the magazine to publicize village events / aspects of interest.
20 Councillor Feedback – None
21 The Emergency Plan - This was discussed at length; unanimously agreed to re-visit in 18 months’ time. The Council felt this was too onerous a task for such a small village, one that would probably fall to the same group of willing volunteers as other activities.
22 Agenda Items for the next meeting
To consider council clustering
Communications / Council Identity / Strapline / Branding
Community Plan review
Relationship Management (to become a standing agenda item)
23 Next Meeting Date March 18th, 2020