2021 Parish Council Minutes of Meetings

Tallington
Annual Parish Meeting

As advertised The Annual Parish Meeting will be held on Tuesday 4th May 2021 via ZOOM at 7:00pm followed by the Annual Parish Council meeting and the May Parish Council Meeting.  The Meeting will receive reports from the Parish Council (see below) the Village Hall & Playing Field Association, Herons Trust, the Neighbourhood Watch and our County and District Councillors, and there will be the opportunity to raise any issue of concern to the village.

Parish Council’s Report to the Annual Parish Meeting

Introduction
The Council* aims to make the village a good place in which to live, with a healthy and safe environment, and pleasant and peaceful surroundings.  This report summarises the way the Council has tried to achieve this in the past 24 months. There was no Annual Parish meeting last year due to the pandemic restrictions.

PARISH PLAN

The Council continue to monitor the conclusions in what is now in truth a dated parish plan and where possible implement improvements in the village.

Village Hall & COMMUNITY
The Council is grateful to the Committee of the Village Hall and Playing Field Association (now a registered Charity) for maintaining the village hall and playing field.

Over the last 2 years The Village hall has had the damaged part of the main hall floor replaced, the hall painted and a new kitchen installed in the annex. More recently the main hall roof has been repaired and retiled, the exterior painted, kitchen door repaired and a new annex door fitted. A new more efficient heating system installed and a commercial dishwasher fitted in the main hall kitchen. Cold water pipes to the Old school house rerouted and the Hall has been made Covid compliant with wall mounted hand sanitizers and signage.

We are most grateful to the Herons Trust and SKDC for providing substantial grant aid to allow these works to be carried out.

Playing Field

Some play equipment on the Playing field has recently been updated. The zip wire has been refurbished with some further painting and improvements planned when the weather improves. The children’s roundabout now has new safety rubber bonded mulch around it.

The Parish Council takes responsibility for insuring the village hall, playing field and play equipment. The Council are grateful to the Village Hall and Playing Field Association for reimbursing the insurance premium.

Quotes are being obtained for the repair of the stone walls in the playing fields that have been damaged though vandalism.

Lottery monies for a children’s holiday play scheme were obtained by the Council in 2020 and by the Village hall association in 2021.

During each of the last 2 years the Parish Council gave £500 to the Church to help maintain the graveyard and £500 to the Village Hall and Playing Field Association to help maintain the village hall.

Social Media / Updates/ Website

The Council will continue to use the church “Towers and Spires magazine” to publish updates and important information for residents. T & S is distributed free to all households every month.

Regular updates, agendas and minutes of parish council meetings are posted on the Council Website regularly.
The Parish Clerk maintains the Council website at https://tallington.parish.lincolnshire.gov.uk/

The Tallington village hall Association also has a Facebook page and can be contacted at  ‘tallingtonvillagehall@gmail.com’. The village hall association also runs a 200-club raffle.

Newsletters to all households are issued as and when necessary.

The “Stamford Mercury” newspaper generally prints our meeting minutes and press releases.

VILLAGE ENVIRONMENT

The centre of Village life is the Village Hall. Unfortunately due to the pandemic is has been mostly out of action for the past 14 months.

A senior’s fitness class is commencing from 19th May and it is hoped other classes including the table tennis will recommence shortly as well.

The Residents of Tallington Lakes are now a large part of the village and are warmly invited and encouraged to participate in Village activities  (i.e. Parish meetings, Village socials etc.).

Thanks to Adele for keeping the Mobile Post Office going on Tuesdays 2- 4pm throughout lockdown in the village hall.

A continuing theme that repeats in the Parish Plan is “to encourage further social cohesion and friendly community spirit”. The hall is available to hire and is available for village residents to use for social events for young and old.

Other events are held on an ad hoc basis in the village hall and details of all events can be found via tallingtonvillagehall@gmail.com or mobile telephone 07939 986817 and the village hall Association Facebook page.

Millennium Green

The Council continues to maintain the green and its footpaths by cutting the grass at regular intervals (Thanks to Watts farm Services).  

A committee of the TPC is currently investigating options for the repair/relaying of the footpath and are endeavouring to keep the weeds and grass from encroaching any further onto the footpaths in the meantime.

The Millennium green is in the final stages of an application to protect it by placing in Fields in Trust as the playing fields are protected for residents to enjoy in perpetuity.

Green areas and Trees

An area of green verge on the entrance to Church Lane has been decimated over the winter by inappropriate car parking. LCC highways believe that this area should be maintained as verge and to continue to look like a verge and have offered the Parish Council assistance in reinstating the grass and protecting it from further damage.

The Parish Council is closely monitoring the condition of the large chestnut tree at the western end of the Millennium Green. Although it still shows signs of limited growth it may be that this tree will have to be felled in the not too distant future. We hope not but if so it will be replaced by a suitable hardwood variety.

Speeding in the village

The speed of traffic (especially along Main Road and Bainton Road) continues to be a cause for concern. The passive speed signs that were installed on lampposts in the village 2 years or more ago along with the speed indicating device (location moved regularly) have shown some benefit but further action is needed.

Fast or Superfast Broadband

Fast or Superfast broadband is available in the village via a green cabinet in Bainton Road as “fibre to the cabinet” from BT.

Or via “Gigaclear” who has installed “fibre to the home” availability via access points at the entrance to every home in the village.

Gigaclear has installed free Wifi in the village hall. 

Bypass & Closing the railway crossing
Closing the level crossing and By Passing the whole village continues to be the aspiration of the Parish Council. There is a separate committee that meets regularly to review the situation. The Council continues to explore every opportunity to leverage funding from any source for this and is currently working closely with SKDC and Network rail to examine opportunities as they present now and in the future.

Defibrillator

A defibrillator is located next to the entrance to the village hall. Instructions for access and use are clearly displayed on it.

Drainage and Flooding issues

Following the February 2021 issues with blocked drains that resulted in a number of properties being unable to use toilets, washing machines etc. Anglian Water advised that even small volumes of rainfall that were falling on already saturated ground, caused significant challenges as groundwater levels were extremely high and inundating into the sewer network. This coupled with the fact that wider drainage systems were at capacity and several rivers had burst their banks resulted in flooding affecting some nearby communities.  You may have noticed tankers and increased activity at the pumping station and an emergency pump on Bainton road/ Church Lane junction. There was also a severe blockage at the pumping station that took several days to mechanically clear. 

Anglian water have asked that we make all residents aware of their Keep it Clear campaign  to help avoid future blockages.

There is still the outstanding issue of collapsed drains on Main road that need repairing.  The Council has been chasing the repairs for some years now. The advice received is that Anglian water has the responsibility to repair the surface water drains before passing future maintenance onto LCC highways. 

Welland River Flood defences

Following the flood event at Tallington during the Christmas period 2020 the Environment Agency mobilised its Recovery Team to repair the damaged flood defences upstream of Tallington. 

The Agency advice that it has recently completed extensive repair works that involved the breaking up, consolidating and rebuilding of over 700 metres of flood bank from the waterfall to Copt Hill. Including the closing down of a number of badger setts and repairing areas of rabbit damage.   Artificial setts have been built as part of the works. The newly re-built bank has been reinforced with steel mesh, prior to top soiling and re-seeding to prevent future excavation by burrowing animals. The Agency also advice that they plan to reinstate/renew the outfall from the ditch nearest the bridge/field into the Maxey Cut to provide a gravity outfall for any water that collects there and to review the annual maintenance for this flood bank.

Development/planning applications

The Council receives copies of all planning applications within its boundaries and is invited by SKDC for comment.

CRIME

There is a Neighbourhood Watch scheme. Tallington thankfully continues to enjoy a low crime rate.

Council Finance & Administration
As noted above, the Council made grants of £500 to the Village Hall and £500 to the Church to help maintain the graveyard.  As summarised in the accounts at the end of this report, the Council’s other expenditure related mainly to repairs to Village hall in liaison with the village hall association, insurances that the Council must carry, the subscription to the Lincolnshire Association of Local Councils (which is an invaluable source of advice to parish councils) and other necessary administrative expenses adopted for 2019/2021.

The Council and its Meetings

The Council currently has six councillors with one vacancy and usually meets bi monthly during the year although extra meetings are occasionally called.  Attendance generally has been good in person in the village hall before lockdown and via Zoom during the pandemic with many residents taking time to attend. Wendy Gray continues to act as Parish Clerk in an efficient and professional manner. The Council also appreciated the regular attendance and wise advice of County & District Councillor, Rosemary Trollope-Bellew, and District Councillor Kelham Cooke. Representatives of national agencies and local firms such as Tarmac are invited and do attend from time to time.

Any residents wishing to be kept informed of news and meetings are invited to let the clerk Wendy have their email details.

wendy7wansford@gmail.com

Philip Sagar               Wendy Gray
                            
Chairman                 Clerk
for and on behalf of the Council
April 2021

*In this report “Council” means Tallington Parish Council; “SKDC” means South Kesteven District Council; and “Lincs CC” means Lincolnshire County Council.