September 2019 Minutes
2019-09-17 Minutes
Parish Council Meeting held in the Village Hall on Tuesday
17th September 2019
In Attendance: Parish Councillors Joan Brocklebank, Rob Golland, Geoff Mayling and John Smith and 23 members of the public, also in attendance, District Cllr Rosemary Trollope-Bellew.
Agenda I tems
19-09 / 1. Public Forum:
The Parish Council were asked to consider a skate park in the village. A sketch plan and signed petition prepared by two local boys showing the layout and petition was received. An item for the next meeting.
Action: Parish Clerk
A number of residents on the electoral roll and paying council tax are not receiving voting papers. District Councillors to explore.
A meeting with District and County Councillors will be arranged to discuss this and other grievances of these residents. A resident is to be nominated as a point of contact.
Action: Cllr R Trollope - Bellew
19-09 / 2. Opening of Meeting: Cllr Mayling welcomed everyone to the meeting.
19-09 / 3. To receive any apologies for absence: Cllrs Isaacs, Otter and Sagar. Clerk Wendy Gray.
19-09 / 4. Declaration of Interest: (Councillors are reminded of their obligation under the Codes of Conduct to declare pecuniary interests): None.
19-09 / 5. To agree Minutes of 9th July 2019:
The above minutes be signed as a true and accurate record, Cllr Smith proposed, seconded Cllr Brocklebank, all Cllrs in agreement.
19-09 / 6. Matters Arising from Minutes: All later on this agenda.
19-09 / 7. Finance/Authorisation of Payments:
Parish Clerk Salary - July /August £365.00.
Parish Clerk Expenses - £72.55.
Community Cleaner - £149.58.
Zurich Insurance - £919.79.
Tallington Village Hall and Playing Field Association - £500.00.
St Lawrence Church - £500.00.
LALC - £17.50 (LCR Magazine)
Glasdon UK Ltd – £33.48 (dog bin bags).
SKDC - £676.62 (Contested Election costs – payable by Tallington Parish Council).
Cllr Brocklebank proposed, Cllr Smith seconded, all in agreement for the above payments to be made. Appropriate cheques were written.
19-09 / 8. Update on closure of the level crossing:
Cllr Smith reported that a Committee had been formed for this matter and intended to meet on a regular basis. He attended the last meeting on 10 September and was asked to chair that meeting at short notice. He was able to report key items discussed at the meeting were as follows:
• An extensive amount of research and surveys had been carried out in the summer by committee members and volunteers particularly bus usage and traffic flow through the village by local and other vehicles. A survey at the level crossing from 7am to 7pm recorded open and closed times of the crossing gates and the number of trains going through the crossing. The surveys are necessary to get a clear picture of the problems and reassure villagers.
• The question arose as how to disseminate this information. The object of the committee was given. The committee meetings are open and anyone can attend.
• At the July and September committee meetings slides were shown of different routes of the bypass, referred to as the blue and red routes with different locations of the roundabouts. Villagers had been requested to provide their thoughts on these routes and roundabout locations to Justin McKenzie of the bypass committee
• The routes and roundabout locations generated much discussion in the meeting such that no unanimous conclusion could be drawn on the preferred route / roundabout location for presentation to this full Parish Council meeting. Cllr Smith concluded this discussion by asking Cllr Otter to provide this Parish Council meeting the following:
• Prepare one slide stating pros and cons of having a roundabout at the ‘red’ site
• Prepare one slide stating pros and cons of having a roundabout at the ‘blue’ site (‘strawberry’ layby)
• Prepare one slide showing a roadmap of how he thinks the bypass work will now evolve. In simple terms roadmap means showing defined actions, who will action them and best guestimate of when they might be completed covering his plan of work moving forward to progress the Bypass. This can be presented in either a table or diagrammatic form. (Unfortunately Cllr Otter was not able to attend this Parish Council meeting to present the above information)
• At present there is no funding from Network Rail for the Bypass Project and development. The 10 September Committee meeting requested Tallington Parish Council to invite Network Rail to our next meeting and inform us of the current status of the level crossing.
• Cllr Rosemary Trollope Bellew stated that she wished to remain neutral to avoid a conflict of interest.
• The question arose as to why do we need a bypass solution now since the problem has been in existence since the 1940’s. The answer given was that there are more and faster trains and the crossing closing time is increasing with critical impact on traffic flow.
Action: Cllr & Parish Clerk
19-09 / 9. Planning: Approval has been given to reroofing St Lawrence Church.
19-09 / 10. Planting on LCC Land:
To date no proof has been received that the property deeds have been amended and costs of licence received (if any). The removal of one shrub for safety of access and egress has not happened. We will proceed as long as everything is legal.
Action: Cllrs Mayling / Sagar /Resident
19-09 / 11. Correspondence:
John Olver has confirmed that he has completed the work at the lock gate in Herons Close. We will explore using a contractor to continue this work.
It is suggested that the speed limit in Mill lane be changed to 30mph.
County Council to provide missing road name plates.
Action: Cllr Trollope - Bellew
19-09 / 12. Community Fund Application for village hall floor repairs:
Works are nearing completion. A huge improvement to the main hall and annex.
19-09 / 13. To receive a report on the Village Hall:
Lettings of the hall are good. A party will be held on 27th September to celebrate bringing the hall into the 21st century. The next project would be to update the play equipment in the playing field behind the hall. ROSPA have inspected the playing equipment. Standard 3-year-old children cannot access the equipment. Some equipment needs replacing as strimming has caused damage. Quotes for approx. £10,000 have been received for new equipment. Funding to be explores so that works can commence next year. Initial thoughts are that the skate park would not be compatible with small children and take up too much space on the playing field. There is a need to accommodate both ends of the age spectrum and perhaps another site for a skate park could be found as we applaud the way in which the boys have gained support and presented their case with proposal and plans. Thanks, were expressed to Cllr Rosemary Trollope–Bellew and SKDC for providing a grant of 75% of the costs for repairs and improvements to the village hall. The roof to the village hall is in need of repair as slates are slipping due to rusting nails. A local roofer is providing a report.
19-09 / 14. Field in Trust Dedication (Millennium Green) – Update:
We were requested to provide more Land Registry information. Cllr Mayling to chase up. Ongoing.
Action: Cllr Mayling
19-09 / 15. Parish Council ownership of the Stamford Canal Lock Gate in Herons Close: No Change from previous minutes.
19-09 / 16. Adoption of Constitution for Tallington Parish Council:
Adoption proposed to be carried forward to next meeting – Agenda item for next meeting.
Action: Parish Clerk
19-09 / 17. Trees on Millennium Green:
Cllr Golland looking at planting new trees October/November this year.
Action: Cllr Golland
19-09 / 18. Action Group for Works on Millennium Green: Agenda item for next meeting.
Action: Parish Clerk
19-09 / 19. Reports from Councillors:
Cllr Rosemary Trollope-Bellew confirmed that a meeting would be held with residents and council officers to try and resolve the voting problems and any other grievances.
19-09 / 20. Public Forum: No new matters to be carried forward to the next meeting.
19-09 / 21. Date of Next Meeting: Tuesday 12th November 2019 commencing at 7.30 p.m.
Meeting closed at 9.30 p.m.
Signed: Geoff Mayling Dated: 17/9/2019