March 2021 Minutes
Notes of the Parish Council Meeting of Great Ponton Parish Council
Held on 8th March 2021 at 7pm via zoom
Present: Councillors E.Booth, Chairman. P.Jackson, Vice-Chairman, D.Booth, J.Booth, A.Convery and I. Cruickshank.
District Councillor Bellamy, County Councillor Adams.
Welcome.
Public Forum. No public in attendance.
1. Apologies of absence.
a. Apologies received from Councillor G.Taylor Reasons given and accepted by all.
2. Declarations of interest.
a. None received.
3. Notes of the minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held on 18th January 2021 to be approved as the new minutes.
a. Resolved to accept these minutes
4. Outside reports: District and County Councillors and Police.
a. District Councillor David Bellamy. The budget has now been set for SKDC. The unveiling of the statue of Margaret Thatcher in Grantham which was underwritten by the District Council had set aside £100,000, this has now been paid for from private donations. Those staff who are on the lowest of salaries at SKDC will now get a pay increase, this amounts to £300,000 and the amendments to the budget had been accepted. The council tax increase shows a 3.3% for band D. No controversial planning applications had been received. Councillor Bellamy left the meeting at 7.20pm
b. County Councillor Bob Adams was not in attendance at this items on the agenda.
c. No Police report received.
Parish Clerk said that she had some information from County Council. The Lincolnshire County Council budget had been set with a 1.9% increase. £44 million had been received from government due to the pandemic. They had set aside another £12.5 million to add to the previous figure of £50 million for work on highways, there are some 5000 miles in the county so this extra will help in some way to repair these roads.
7.15pm County Councillor Bob Adams arrived.
5. Matters arising for the minutes:
a. Highways matters.
The potholes previously report had now been repaired although the drain cover still had barriers around it. Councillor Adams will address the problem. Flytipping had been collected from Pit Lane although there is still some at the entrance to the quarry and more seems to be pile seems to be increasing. Councillors Adams stated that it seems to be dumped on private land, but he will address this.
The handrail to steps leading down from the footpath to the road outside the church is still broken. Councillor Adams cannot give a definitive answer as to who actually owns them, neither District or County Councils claim ownership. It was agreed by all parish councillors to get this repaired at the small cost to the parish council.
The stone wall around the church and also a wall belonging to Buckminster estates had fallen down, both these have now been repaired.
The dyke owned by Buckminster Estates has now been cleaned out.
The grit bins are now empty and a request has been made for a refill.
The footpath leading from the paddock to the A1 is in need of a good clean up. Clerk to contact EnvironmentSK to ask for this to be done.
b. Speed Indicator Device.
Data received shows 10900 vehicles heading from the bridge up to the church, a max speed of 55mph and an average speed of 20.4 mph. It was agreed to leave it in the same place.
c. Boundary in village. Ongoing.
6. Village Centre Matters/Report.
Richard Street, treasurer of the village center committee, attended the meeting to report matters. After some discussions it had been agreed that a meeting of the current trustees be arranged to discuss the way forward. A meeting of the current management committee also be called. Face to face meetings can now be held as long as social distancing is in place. Updates on this at the next parish council meeting in May 2021. The loan of £1578.45 from the parish council can now be repaid back as the village centre was able to get both covid grant funds and also rent hire of the building from outside bodies.
7. Community Playing Field/Paddock.
a. Playing Field. Councillor Taylor had sent in a written report. He said that the grass had been cut and looks tidy, still problem with moles. The blue metal container needs a good tidy up. Weed spraying needs to be done in various areas. The security of the paddock access from the church car park needs reviewing, as there was someone on the field with a trial bike, perhaps a proper fence to stop access is required. Thanks got to Richard Booth for all the jobs he had done around the cabins. Some of the trees had died around the field perimeter.
The water trough which has now been sealed off has had reflectors attached which will then shine as a warning in vehicle headlights.
b. Football Club. No football has been taking place due to the pandemic.
c. Caravan & Camping Club. No caravans have been allowed to park up due to the pandemic. But looking forward to seeing them back soon. The advert was now live in the camping magazine.
Parish Clerk. Reported that she was able to get the camp site valued for business rates, with having this in place, she was able to apply for the covid grants from SKDC. The sum of £7573.21 had been received and as this is now ongoing, another amount will be given later in March. The business rates had been backdated for 5 years, although SKDC had sent a rates bill out, this had been reduced to nil as an application for business rates relief was successful.
d. Sandbags. Parish Clerk had received communication regarding Lincolnshire County Council offering sand and sand bags. This was free and advised this is something that the parish council should take up. After discussions previous to the meeting, Councillor Jackson offered to store both sand and bags at his farm. Thanks given for this offer and clerk to place the order.
e. Woodland Trust. Clerk had received communication from the Woodland Trust regarding free bushes and trees. After discussions previous to this meeting, it was agreed to place this order. The saplings are due to be delivered in April. As now some of the playing field boundary trees have died, some of these would be a good replacement.
f. LALC training. Parish Clerk had been approached by LALC asking if the parish council would like to subscribe to their training package. After discussions, it was agreed by all not to accept this offer. Clerk to write reply accordingly.
County Councillor Bob Adams left the meeting at 8.20pm.
8. Financial matters.
a. The latest financial report had been circulated and it was resolved to accept the figures given.
8. Browns Trust.
a. The Brown’s Trust monthly interest had been divided between 8 eligible ladies of the village. these cheques had now all been cashed.
10. Planning matters.
a. Any planning applications received had been dealt with and sent to SKDC.
11. Correspondence.
a. Correspondence received was included in the agenda. Chairman Eileen Booth read out an email from Anglian Water regarding the request the size of the sewer pipe. An on going problem with the sewer pump located near the river bridge, is that it get blocked up by the amount of contents and overflows, especially during heavy rain. Clerk had asked Anglian Water if anything could be done to alleviate this long term problem. It seems they are unable to increase the size of the pipe.
12. Councillors reports & items for inclusion at the next meeting. To consider the speed reduction of average speed cameras on the A1 between Colsterworth and Little Ponton.
13. Date of the next meeting. The Annual Parish Council Meeting also the Annual General Meeting will be held on 17h May 2021.
14. To resolve whether to exclude public, press or Police, who will be required to leave the meeting at this stage.
a. None.
Meeting closed at 9 pm