2025 Meetings

NORTH SCARLE PARISH COUNCIL

DRAFT Minutes of a meeting held on 28 May 2025 at 7.30pm in North Scarle Village Hall

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting at 7.30pm.

PRESENT

Cllr D Jennings                                  Cllr K Coram

Cllr A Walsh                                       Cllr S Walsh

Cllr K Ward

Mrs H Broderick (Clerk)

5 parishioners attended.

825        APPOINTMENT OF CHAIRMAN

It was proposed by Cllr S Walsh that Cllr Jennings should be our Chairman. All Cllrs agreed and this was resolved. The Chairman and Clerk signed the Declaration of Acceptance of Office.

The Chairman suspended the Parish Council meeting to allow the public session to take place.

Parishioner informed PC that there has been a Heritage Room User Group formed, and they have had a meeting, attended by 9 people were ideas were discussed about how HR could be developed. Purpose of the group is to prove the use, interest and need of the Heritage Room for parishioners and visitors. They have ideas for other items to be added. They don’t think the HR should be moved to the Village Hall due to accessibility issues. The Parish Councillors hadn’t received an invitation to the meeting. The meeting was held whilst the PO was open. Noted that PC had previously asked to add extra shelving for more items and suggestion was not welcomed. Chairman asked what intention was for future meetings – future meetings haven’t been scheduled. Parish Councillors feel that much of these problems could have been resolved if the offer of a Working Party had been accepted. Comments will be taken into account.

The Chairman closed the public session and the Parish Council meeting recommenced.

826        APOLOGIES

None.

827        TO RECEIVE ANY DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

None.

828        MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 12 MARCH 2025

The Chairman proposed that the draft minutes should be adopted as a true record, this was resolved and they were signed by the Chairman.

829        PLANNING

Applications.

25/0511/FUL – Enfield 1 Spalford Road.  Conversion of agricultural building to 3 dwellings (part retrospective).  NKDC planning had met to discuss this application and will contact the applicant with a proposal. No further information had been received by the PC. Cllr S Walsh proposed that the PC should not object to the application and this was resolved.

Applications - comments submitted to NKDC after collation of email responses due to timescale and in accordance with Standing Orders

25/0173/FUL – demolition of existing silo’s weighbridge, offices, mill and bin block and construction of new silos.  Cranswick Pet Products, Lodge Farm, Wigsley Road.  No objections (4 in favour, 3 no reply).

Decision Notices – for information only

24/0956/FUL – Proposed replacement warehouse, creation of additional parking and drainage lagoon - Cranswick Pet Products, Lodge Farm, Wigsley Road.  Approved by NKDC.

830        MILL DAM DYKE AND WATER COURSE

Via our MP we had received a letter from the EA with a schedule of work to be carried out. The Chairman reiterated that silt is a problem although the EA won’t do anything to remove it. Cllr S Walsh had photos of branches in the dyke which she will send to FANS.

Rob Cobb FANS had emailed to say that they have largely given up with the EA who seem to be a law to themselves with no accountability.  He is focusing on LCC as lead Flood Authority and has been assured of a visit by our new Councillor.  He has also met Andrea Jenkins who is very much on the side of the village.

831        SEWERAGE WORKING PARTY

Cllr S Walsh’s report is at the end of these Minutes. She also reiterated that we need to prove that it is a combination sewer and we need parishioners to provide the information needed. We had submitted a FOI request to NKDC for historical information on the sewers but their reply stated that they don’t have that information.

832        FINANCES

A schedule of payments made between 1 March 2025 and 30 April 2025 was circulated to the Parish Councillors ahead of the meeting. There were no queries and the Chairman proposed that these be agreed and this was resolved.  Invoices paid were signed and countersigned.  Individual payments made in the period which exceeded £100:

833        2024/25 ANNUAL GOVERNANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY RETURN (AGAR), AND SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS

These had been circulated to the Councillors ahead of the meeting. There were no queries and the Parish Councillors resolved to agree:

AGAR Certificate of Exemption (page 3). This was signed as appropriate.

AGAR Annual Governance Statement (page 5).  This was signed as appropriate.

AGAR Accounting Statements (page 6).  This was signed as appropriate.

Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Account

Bank Reconciliation.

Schedule of Material Variances.

834        WHITE HART PUBLIC HOUSE

The White Hart is currently listed as a Community Asset.  A parishioner had requested that this be renewed as the current application runs out in September 2025.  Clerk provided some information on the legislation for this.  Cllr Coram proposed that the application be renewed and this was resolved.

835        HIGHWAYS MATTERS

Correspondence received from a parishioner:

Fence outside 1 Chapel Lane.  Highways will not replace but will tidy it up. Cllr S Walsh proposed that we should contact the EA/LCC Highways stating the fence needs replacing for health and safety reasons as the school children embark/disembark the bus at this point and this was resolved.

Blocked drain at the entrance to South Scarle Lane.  It is blocked and broken by tree roots. Chairman proposed that we should contact LCC Highways and this was resolved.

836        ALLOTMENTS

The Chairman confirmed that he and the handyman had fixed the fence between Plots 5 and 6. The Chairman proposed that we should price up to get the gates fixed and rearranged for plots 8 and 9 and this was resolved.

837        LCC REPORT

Cllr Woodruff did not attend and no report provided.

838        NKDC REPORT

Cllr Goldson had sent his apologies. Cllr Johnston had nothing to add since the Annual Parish Meeting. Clerk commented that she had confirmation from NKDC that they are responsible for the grass outside the bungalows on South Scarle Lane and will copy NKDC Cllrs in on the correspondence.

839        DATE OF NEXT MEETING.

The Chairman proposed that the provisional date of the next meeting would be 18 June 2025 and this was resolved.

840        CLOSED SESSION

The Chairman proposed that the meeting should move into closed session and this was resolved. Cllr Johnston was invited to stay to help regarding the NKDC lease agreement for the Heritage Room.

841        HERITAGE ROOM TENANCY AGREEMENT

The Chairman proposed that this item be moved up the agenda and this was resolved.

After lengthy discussion, it was proposed that a letter should be sent to NKDC setting out the PC’s position/inability to support a private business and ask for NKDC’s support in being flexible with renewal dates during ongoing negotiations and a request to provide a simpler agreement with NKDC taking more responsibility for the building rather than passing it all on to the Parish Council.  This was resolved. It will be copied to NKDC Cllrs for their input. Cllr Johnson left the meeting.

It was noted that the new HR user group is operating separately from the PC and is not covered by any PC Terms of Reference.

842        INSURANCE RENEWAL

After a comparison of quotes the Chairman proposed that the quote from Zurich for £363 be accepted and this was resolved. 

843        STAFF MATTERS

The Chairman proposed the following:

that the handyman be allowed to work up to 4 hours April to November and up to 2 hours December to March without prior permission so that he can do some general maintenance when he judges it needs doing – path tidying, weed killing, hedge trimming etc. Cllr Coram left the meeting.

that the Clerk should write to the handyman regarding his pension query.

that the handyman should order work boots at a cost of no more than £20 and be reimbursed for them.

that the lawnmower may possibly be serviced in the winter.

All these matters were discussed and resolved.

The Chairman closed the meeting at 9.25pm.

Item 831 Sewerage Working Party report

Sewerage Working Party Report for the PC meeting on 28 May 2025

A productive meeting was held on 22 April 2025 at 6:30 pm at the Village Hall between The North Scarle Sewerage Working Party (SWP) and Glenn Evans Group Head of Sustainability for Nobles.

Nobles Purpose Report states that they, as a company, want to be held to the highest standards of social and environmental responsibility. It was therefore felt that we would benefit from working together to achieve an improvement to the system and ask them to support us in reducing the negative environmental impact on the local community.

Glenn was firstly thanked for the recent support from Nobles to North Scarle School.

The sewerage working Party detailed the issues that North Scarle have faced, with the sewerage system, over the years and how it has long been thought by residents that Nobles Factory is a cause of some of those problems particularly when the system is under pressure as a result of poor weather. The Members asked Glenn if he would support them by looking for and investigating any improvements that Nobles could make at their premises and assist us in persuading Severn Trent in upgrading their system.

It was felt by all at the meeting that Anglian Water would also have to have some responsibility for any resolution.

It was noted what progress the Sewerage Working party have made over the years notably:-

Overall, there has been a reconfiguration of the pump station pipework to increase pump capacity.

August 2020 One -way valves and additional storage capacity were fitted to individual properties (including the school), that had experienced difficulties with sewage disposal in the past.

Various dates since 2020: Severn Trent have had cameras down to look for evidence of ingress due to damaged/cracked pipes. This has been resolved.

2021 - New pumps to replace the old pumps that were not working at capacity.

12th January 2021 Non -return valve fitted in the road at the end of School Lane (Pumping Station end) to prevent flowback from Mill Dam Dyke.

February 2021 Flow meter fitted at pumping station on outgoing flow.

25 Jan 2022 Ice Pigging resulted in 50% increase in flow. An amount of debris was removed.

May 2022 flow meter fitted School Lane where Nobles pump into the system.

September 2024 ‘The recent survey by ST in the village was in effect a repeat of work already carried out by ST. They were double checking for surface water leaks into the system.’

March 20th 2025 ST carried out the second cleansing of the outward flow line from North Scarle to Eagle to increase flow rate, by reducing silt build up. This second round of Ice Pigging again, resulted in 50% increase in flow.

Glenn asked questions to clarify the situation and agreed to go back to the company to investigate and respond in writing to our questions.

We received a response on Friday. Glenn has stated that Nobles are willing to work with the Sewerage Working Party and Severn Trent to agree a contingency plan. This is during times of heavy rainfall, when the system is inundated, they are willing to have Severn Trent tankers onsite to discharge the waste from their site, rather than all tankers working from the pumping station on Chapel Lane. This will relieve traffic being queued up on Chapel Lane when multiple tankers are in use.

There is no flow meter fitted to the outfall of the final discharge point from Nobles site to monitor the discharge, but the discharge is based on the maximum flow rate of the pump assembly, therefore Glenn is confident that Nobles are working within their discharge licence consent.

They will supply the Working Party with contact numbers onsite who can be notified when the village encounters problems.

They are also going to complete a feasibility study commissioning a new flood risk assessment as it was pointed out their last one, used for planning, was dated 2005.

They do believe the primary cause of flooding in the village is surface water entering the foul sewer.

There has to be the question regarding what Noble’s consent is, in comparison to what the pumping station is managing to discharge, and the discharge consent that Severn Trent have with Anglian Water.

Some of the answers require further clarification, which the Sewerage Working Party will endeavour to secure!

The SWP are trying to persuade Severn Trent to upgrade the pumps to further increase flow capacity, reduce silt accumulation in the pump line and alleviate periodic problems in North Scarle. Whilst Severn Trent are listening, they are not yet persuaded that this should be prioritised over other projects. Cost of tankering and ice-pigging is believed to far out way the cost of upgrading the pumps.

Severn Trent have also been invited to a future meeting with the Sewerage Working Party however, we are still waiting for a reply as this has been forwarded on to the Community Support Team.

The Sewerage Working Party intend to have a further meeting with Glenn Evans and invite Severn Trent and a representative from Anglian Water.

It should also be noted that the response to the Sewerage survey included in North Scarle Matters is very disappointing as we only received 7 completed questionnaires and one e-mail to date. 

Appendix 1

Questions:

1)Can you confirm that Nobles are at all times complying to their discharge license? This is not the volume but the litres per second. Can you tell us what that is?

2)The Working Party wrote to Nobles asking for them to support Severn Trent’s request to allow them to install a flow meter at Nobles’ pumping station. This is, to monitor their discharge volume to ensure that they are in compliance of their Discharge Licence. Nobles responded by saying they were working with ST. This would eliminate Nobles from being part of the suspected cause and validate Noble’s performance.

Have you since given permission, to Severn Trent to access your flow meter data?

3)Nobles’ licence to discharge into Severn Trent system - was it inherited at the current volumes or has it been adjusted to take into account the vast increase in the size of the operations at North Scarle over the years?

4)What happens to the surface water when Torksey Drain is at its limit. There was communication on one of the planning applications Flood Risk Assessment (08/0081/FUL|Extension to despatch warehouse and provision of additional parking -5.3 proposed drainage solution -) that a non-return valve would be fitted to stop flow back. Where does your surface water go in this instance? For example, in October 2020 when there was an issue and Torksey main drain was full!

5) When was the last time you had a Flood Risk assessment thinking of climate change and water levels? Planning applications for 2018 also used this outdated risk assessment. (2005)

6) We understand that water is recycled and captured to wash the transport vehicles, however where does the dirty water eventually go? One of the planning conditions was that this waste water would be contained in a sealed vessel and either recirculated or appropriately disposed of off-site. 18/1388/FUL