2020 Meetings

NORTH SCARLE PARISH COUNCIL

Minutes of a remote Meeting held on

8 July 2020 at 7.30pm via Zoom

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.  1 parishioner attended.

PRESENT

Cllr D Russell                                                    Cllr D Jennings                                 Cllr R Cobb

Cllr K Coram                                                    Cllr S Walsh                                      Cllr A Walsh

Mrs H Broderick (Clerk)

Before the Chairman opened the meeting, he sincerely thanked the Covid 19 Support Group which has now ended.  Suggested an open letter from the PC expressing these sentiments – Agreed.

Open session

               •             Parishioner asked who was responsible for the Well at the cemetery and could the shrubs be trimmed in the memorial garden.  Cllr Jennings agreed to spray the weeds in and around the well and trim the shrubs.  Parishioner thanked him.

261        APOLOGIES

None

262        TO RECEIVE ANY DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Cllr Russell declared interests in Item 4. 20/0639/FUL and 20/0553/LDEXI

Cllr Cobb declared an interest in Item 4. 20/0680/HOUS

263        MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 13 MAY 2020

It was resolved to adopt the Minutes as a true record.  It was resolved that these would be signed by the Chair at the next physical meeting of the Council.

264        PLANNING having already been circulated to Cllrs

Cllr Jennings read out the determinations for information only:

20/0225/LBC – Pear Tree Farm, Eagle Road -determined and approved.

Applications for consideration and resolution:

20/0680/HOUS – 8 Chapel Lane – resolved that there were no objections.

20/0639/FUL – Grove Pet Foods, Wigsley Road – resolved that there were no objections.

Responses had been collated by email and forwarded to NKDC in line with our Covid-19 Policy, regarding the following applications:

20/0553/LDEXI - No comments were received.

20/0673/TCA – Plum Tree Cottage, 1 Eagle Road (tree works).  No objections.

20/0484/VARCON – adjacent to Sundara 43 South Scarle Lane.  PC objected to this application.  Note:  This application has been determined and approved by NKDC since our agenda was issued.

265        FINANCES

A schedule of payments made between 1st May and 30th June 2020 was circulated to the Parish Councillors.  There were no queries.  It was resolved to sign and countersign invoices paid via BACS at the next physical meeting of the PC

           Individual payments made in the period which exceeded £100:

              For                                                Amount £                          

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266

CLOSURE OF METHODIST HALL

Cllr Jennings has had a letter from All Saints Church offering the building for PC meetings – this will be discussed at the September meeting.

•             Telephone line update – Cllr Russell has cancelled the account with BT which has incurred a charge of approx. £145.  However, this was a lesser amount that remaining with BT until the end of the contract.  Clerk has purchased a mobile phone to replace the land line.

•             Notice board – new location required.  Also, notice board near the Post Office isn’t in a good state.  Several locations were suggested but needs more consideration.

•             Post – new postal address required.  Resolved to have a PO Box address at a cost of £293.75 (+VAT) per annum.

•             Post – temporary redirection required.  Reconsider in due course.

•             Post – drop off point required for parishioners.  Needs further consideration as to location.

•             Filing cabinet – resolved to agree a budget of £110.

•             Disposal of PC fixtures/items – should be advertised and the best offer will be accepted.  PC would like to look at moving shelving into the Heritage Room to display heritage items.  NB.  Action delayed due to cleaning and building access requirements.

267        SEWERAGE WORKING PARTY

Cllr Cobb gave an update.  Size of group is now smaller (5 members) – resolved to agree.  Letter was sent to ST in June.

Proposed strategy circulated to WP. 

LCC Cllr Thompson had received a copy of Severn Trent’s response to PC (received whilst office closed).

Cllr A Walsh – no sign of none-return valves being fitted.

268        PINFOLD GARDEN

Correspondence received regarding the poor state of the bench.  Agreed needs repairing/replacing.   Cllr Cobb happy to repair bench if appropriate.  Need to consider planting in there.

269        HERITAGE ROOM

Sub-lease has been signed following amendments agreed at the PC meeting in October 2019.  It was resolved to chase the solicitor re position regarding the lease (between PC and NKDC).

270        QUANTUM FIBRE BROADBAND

Cllr Cobb had acquired information.  In line with a Government voucher scheme.  Not air broadband.  Based in Lincolnshire.  Require 20 households to sign up to receive fibre.  infrastructure in ground will be theirs, will use ducts already in ground.  Assured there will be no digging and they would do a survey once 20 addresses were received.  Installations costs are paid for by Government and Quantum.  Have a tiered scheme of monthly contract price based on size of traffic per household. 

Cllr Jennings expressed concerns about PC being seen to recommend one (unknown) company over another.  Should we be asking two other companies for prices?

LCC Cllr Thompson suggested looking at LCC website to look at their broadband assistance (On Lincolnshire).

Cllr Cobb thought parishioners should be aware of opportunity.

Cllr Jennings suggested Cllr Cobb look at a couple of other companies and put together some information for our Facebook page.

Clerk will try to find out if other PCs have used this company and speak to LALC.

271        VE DAY/VJ DAY end of WWII hostilities

Following cancellation of our VE Day celebrations and not being able to give the children in the village a memento, it was resolved that Cllr S Walsh would speak to school about a suitable commemorative item and PC would contribute £100.

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272        AGAR 2019/20

It was resolved to agree The Annual Governance and Accountability Return for 2019/20.  Clerk and Cllr Jennings to arrange appropriate signatures.

273        COVID 19 POLICY

It was resolved to amend, agree and extend the policy to 30th September 2020.

274        POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

It was agreed that there are many policies required and they will be amended and added when Clerk’s time permits.

275        PLAYING FIELD

There were no volunteers to join to playing field committee.  It was noted that it would be good practice to have a PC representative join the committee.

Cllr Cobb also suggested a regular interaction with other village groups would be beneficial – subject will be added to a later agenda.

276        LCC REPORT

Cllr Thompson read his report (attached).

Highways are aware of the state of the road on Chapel Lane since Seven Trent’s tankers were present.

277        NKDC REPORT

Cllr Overton questioned whether the non-return valves mentioned by Severn Trent would solve the school’s problems.

Hardship fund available for Council Tax.

Planning – Government changing planning procedures.

Committees trimmed to ½ due to IT.

278        DATE OF NEXT MEETING

Resolved to agree the date of the next meeting as 9th September 2020 at 7.30pm.

The Chairman closed the meeting at 9.31pm

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LINCOLNSHIRE COUNTY COUNCILLOR REPORT – 6TH JULY 2020

A full council meeting and AGM were held remotely on 26th June. Cllr Mike Brookes was elected as our new Chairman and Cllr Tony Bridges is Vice-Chairman. The meeting lasted for over 5 hours. As well as routine AGM business with council appointments the meeting included presentation and discussion of a report from Overview and Scrutiny covering the activities of all the council scrutiny committees. Details are available on the LCC website.

LCC staff who are able to work from home during the Covid19 restrictions have been asked to continue to do so for the next six months. Although there has been some relaxation in Government advice it is hoped that sensible precautions will continue to be maintained and observed to prevent relapse and imposition of further restrictions to deal with this deadly disease.

I have made contact with the new Police Inspector based at North Hykeham and hope that we can work together effectively to deal with issues affecting residents in our Division. Despite moves to recruit and deploy Lincolnshire Police resources are still stretched. The lack of a visible presence of uniformed officers was highlighted and this is indicative of two scenarios. One is that there are no immediate local targeted issues and officers are responding to other problems within the area. The second is that raised issues are being dealt with, but a visible presence may not be the most effective means. Examples of this there have been a number of recent incidents in local communities which have been attended by plain clothes officers and where arrests have been made. This is thought to be a more effective way of resolving these situations.

I have received a request for a meeting between representatives acting for a resident  and Highways to deal with drainage issues affecting a property on School Lane which I forwarded, and have received acknowledgement from our new Highways manager. Meeting arrangements are planned.

Mike Thompson

LCC Cllr Eagle and Hykeham West

6/7/20

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