2025 Minutes

 STICKFORD PARISH COUNCIL

PARISH COUNCIL STATUTORY MEETING

at STICKFORD Community Centre

Tuesday 11th March 2025 @ 7.30pm

 

DRAFT  MINUTES

 

No. of Residents present : 9                Official attendees read Y for attending, N for non-attendance 

Chairman Councillor Mrs Lesley Reeson     Y         ELDC Councillor Mr Terry Taylor                     N

Vice Chairman Councillor Mr John Howlett  Y         Lincs C C Councillor Mrs Wendy Bowkett          Y         

Councillor Mr Clive Kingswood                   Y         Parish Clerk Mrs Nicki George                         Y                                                

Councillor Mrs Pam Bryant                        Y         Councillor vacancy x 2                                   

Councillor Mr Tony French                        Y        

                                                                                    

1. Residents Public Forum : 

 

a) A resident asked about the possibility of a speed limit reduction on A16 through the village covering the junctions with Church Road, Fen Road and Hagnaby Road.  This has been investigated on 2 separate occasions within the last 3 years and Highways have not approved it each time. 

 

b) A resident asked about the speed limit on Church Road. The Parish Council will be joining the Lincolnshire County Council Road Safety Partnership when the Precept monies are received and will investigate purchasing new signage for the village, including Church Road.

 

c) A resident asked if the pump at the end of Church Road had been looked at by Anglian Water following the floods in January. The Chairman had reported it to Cllr Bowkett in January and Cllr Bowkett will follow this up with Anglian Water. Other pumps have been looked at around the village.

 

d) A resident asked if the trees along the A16 can be cut back as vision is impaired at the junction of Fen Road and A16, looking towards Keal Cotes / Spilsby. This has been reported on Fix My Street previously. The clerk will resubmit it. There is a question if the trees are the responsibility of the Highways or the landowner of the field that the trees border. The clerk will endeavour to find out the name of the land owner in case a letter needs to be sent. 

 

e) Councillor Howlett has reported that the street lamp and bollard on the junction of Fen Road and A16 are not working/lighting up on to Fix My Street. 

 

2. ELDC Report

 

No report available. Cllr Taylor not in attendance.

 

 

3. LCC Report

 

Cllr Wendy Bowkett     07917494478        Cllrw.bowkett@lincolnshire.gov.uk 

County council elections will be on the 1st May and these will take place alongside the Mayoral Elections for Greater Lincolnshire.

The first meeting of the Greater Lincolnshire Combined County authority took place last week at Lincoln Cathedral, Cllr Martin Hill and Councillor Patricia Bradwell attended the meeting from county council as chair and vice chair.

The section 19s have now all been completed from the Storm Babet and Hank and the results are now being worked through.

Church Road and Fen Road will be having maintenance and cleaning of the drains by Anglian water there may be traffic delays.

I met with highways at Hagnaby lane two weeks ago, we walked the areas of concern and looked at culverts, the dykes and the flows.

Further investigations will now be taking place, to determine if the piped area in front of the bungalows on the left-hand side is in order and flowing. A dead tree to be removed and the back dyke investigated. The opposite side works will look at the piped section and dykes flowing off it.

A flow test will be done on the piped areas.

EA / Witham Fourth are monitoring the bank slippages until funding is available to repair.

As always please get in touch with any issues.

 

4. Lincolnshire Police Report –  no report

 

Meeting started at 7.42pm        3 residents left the meeting at this time

 

5. The Chairman opened the meeting and welcomed all present. 

 

6. Apologies for absence – ELDC Councillor Terry Taylor – apologies accepted

 

7. There were no declaration of interest

 

8. Approval of Minutes of the Annual Parish Council Meeting held on 11/01/2025

 

Proposed: Cllr John Howlett           Seconded: Cllr Tony French   

  

9. Matters Arising from previous meeting

 

a) Grit bin has been refilled 

b) Letters have been sent re parking near corner on Hagnaby Road to both National Grid and Platform Housing. 

c) Email has been sent to the Environment Agency re. badgers & bank slippage on Catchwater Bank. Email was acknowledged. No update to date.

d) Resilience/Emergency Plan meeting was held on 21.1.25. 

e) Laptop & Microsoft package has been purchased and installed.

f) Cllr Taylor is still investigating the issues raised re. Evergreens Railway. He has not yet had replies to his emails. 

 

10. Finance Report 

 

a) Authority for Payment:

 

1) £937.50 January to March 2025 salary for Parish Clerk

2) £ 70.00 Interim Internal Audit – Victoria Clark, Clarks Clerical Services

3) £ 50.00 Community Centre hire 14.1.25 & 11.3.25

4) £ 75.90 Sandbags, TSSC, Cllr Reeson

5) £ 33.54 Shovels for sand, The Range, Cllr Howlett

 

All payments approved by all Councillors.

The Clerk requested approval of payments due before the next meeting :

1) £40.00 (last year’s cost) ICO – Data Protection – due end March

2) £180.00 + vat (last year’s cost) LALC Annual Website Maintenance – due end March

All councillors approved these 2 payments.

Insurance renewal will come through early May. Councillors gave approval for the clerk to gain quotes ahead of the next meeting, for a decision to be made at the meeting due on 20th May. 

b) Bank Balances to end of February 2025 : 

Current account £7915.01 (after all cheques to date have been cashed) 

       Savings account £8,302.69 

 

11. Interim Internal Audit

 

The clerk read out the report received from the Interim Internal Audit. The clerk has put in to place corrective measures for all of the points raised within the report, ready for the full audit due in May. 

On recommendations during this audit, the format of the Agenda and Meetings/Minutes layout/order has been changed.  

 

12. Clerks Report including update of Standing Orders

 

1) Vat 126 claim has been submitted for payments March 2024 to February 2025 - £255.35 due

2) Vat registration has lapsed as not necessary for local authority

3) Risk Assessments are due in April – Cllr Reeson will complete them 

4) Bench on Hagnaby Road junction with A16 needs repairing or replacing. Quotes for repair to be obtained. 

5) Reminder that bench still needs to be sited by War Memorial Clock.  Quote obtained last year for the siting of the bench still stands, so the councillors confirmed that they still want the job completed.

 

13. Financial Regulations to be reviewed & resolved 

 

All councillors have been sent by email ahead of the meeting a copy of the current Financial Regulations along with the format that LALC have as a template on their website. All councillors have checked the Financial Regulations and agree that no changes are required. The Chairman signed the 2025 version. A separate meeting is to be called to discuss the changes required to reformat them into the LALC version (along with the Standing Orders agreed at the last meeting held in January) 

 

14. Complaints Procedure to be discussed and adoption to be resolved

 

All councillors have been sent by email ahead of the meeting a copy of the updated LALC version of the Complaints Procedure. All councillors approved to adopt this version. The Chairman signed the 2025 version. 

 

15. Allotments Update  

 

Allotment 17: The clerk has contacted the tenants to discuss when they wish to end their tenancy. The current crops will be finished by September so they wish to keep the tenancy until 30th September 2025, on the revised rental charge. The clerk has drawn up a 1-year Agreement 1/10/24 – 30/9/25 which has duly been signed. 

This allotment will now be advertised for rent from 1/10/25 on a 2-year tenancy to keep it in line with the other tenants’ agreements who all signed a 3-year agreement started 1/10/24. 

Letters requesting the half yearly rental due 1/4/25 have been hand delivered by the clerk. 

 

The clerk now has signed tenancy agreements on the 2 outstanding allotments mentioned at the last meeting in January. 

 

16. War Memorial Clock – annual maintenance payment

 

Following the discussion at the last meeting in January and the approval by all councillors to issue a cheque for £150 + vat to Time Assured for an annual maintenance agreement, the clerk has contacted Time Assured to ask if the clock can be repaired as it has not been working since November 2024.  After a conversation with the clerk and Councillor Howlett, they have agreed to do a site visit to assess the current condition of the clock and its mechanism. If it can be mended, then the maintenance plan can be put in place. Time Assured have suggested glass/Perspex covering of the 3 clock faces to protect them from the weather but this will be additional costs which would need fundraising for. It has been suggested that the clock is in operation during the warmer, drier summer months only and then stopped over the cold winter months, as it seems to be the wet and cold that prevents it from working. To be discussed again at the next meeting in May, after the site visit has taken place.

 

17. Planning – discuss planning applications. 

 

Park Farm, Hagnaby Lock, Stickney. application for extensions/alterations to an existing dwelling which is a scaled down version of an application for which consent was given in 2024. We have supported the application.

 

Grimsby to Walpole pylons scheme. No update on this application although we have been notified of an application which is connected to it for the Ossian Offshore Wind Farm. Village residents should have received a card in the post with details of public consultation events locally. There are varying dates as to when the consultation periods expire. Ossian is a proposed floating offshore wind farm off the east coast of Scotland which will connect to the new national grid infrastructure near Spalding and Alford. The Planning Inspectorate are making this consultation on the scoping opinion for the scheme. All Parish Councils in East Lindsey have been consulted. Ultimately the proposals will be determined by central government.

 

Land on the East side of West Fen Lane, Hagnaby Lock, Stickney. An application has been received for the erection of a dwelling in place of a farm building. The consultation period is open and comments are being made. The land did flood in Storm Babet and is next to a nature reserve which seem to have been ignored in the application.

 

Land at Poplar Farm, Main Road, Keal Cotes (application address stated as Land North East of Magers Farm Back Lane Stickford). A Section 73 application has been received to vary two conditions on a permission granted in 2024 to David Wright/Wright's Eggs for the erection of a free-range egg production poultry unit with ancillary accommodation structures and hard standing. The consultation period is open and comments are being made.

 

18. Other Business – matters for next Agenda

 

a) Resilience/ Emergency Plan – the clerk needs to update the Plan and arrange another meeting - update

b) War Memorial Clock - update

Date and time of next meeting: 20th May 2025 starting with the public forum at 7.30pm.

This is the Annual Meeting of the Parish Council

 

The Annual Meeting of the Parish will be held on Tuesday 13th May at 7.30pm at the Community Centre.

 

Meeting closed at 20.40pm