2022 Annual Parish Meeting

As advertised The Annual Parish Meeting was held on Tuesday 17thth May 2022 at 7:00pm in Tallington Village hall followed by the Annual Parish Council meeting and the May Council Meeting. The Meeting received reports from the Parish Council (see below) the Village Hall & Playing Field Association, Herons Trust, the Neighbourhood Watch and our County and District Councillors.

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 12 months. 

PARISH PLAN

The Council continue to monitor the conclusions in the parish plan and where possible implement improvements in the village. A continuing theme that repeats in the Plan is “to encourage further social cohesion and friendly community spirit”.

VILLAGE HALL & COMMUNITY

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

Queen’s Platinum Jubilee events. A Window decoration Competition and Card for the Queen competition are being run. However the Barn dance planned for Friday 3rd June has been cancelled due to lack of support.  

Playing Field

Some play equipment on the Playing field has recently been painted. Further painting planned this summer.

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 damaged though vandalism. 

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

During the last years the 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.

VILLAGE ENVIRONMENT

The centre of Village life is the Village Hall and playing fields. Bookings for the Hall have slowly increased. The Table tennis club has restarted. 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 the village hall Association Facebook page where bookings can also be made. tallingtonvillagehall@gmail.com

Thanks to Adele for keeping the Mobile Post Office going on Tuesdays 2- 4pm throughout lockdown in the village hall. Please do use this service if you can.

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

Millennium Green

The Council continues to maintain the green and its footpaths by cutting the grass, (Thanks to Watts farm Services). It should be noted that it was always intended to be maintained as an open space, rough cut and not a lawn finish.

The Council has now agreed with the LCC Countryside officer that part of the footpath (along the old canal basin) will be adopted and maintained by LCC to correct the historic inaccuracy of footpath No 4 that is currently shown on plans as being along the old tow path next to the hedgerow that has long been inaccessible.

The remainder of the footpaths on the green have recently been widened back to their original widths and funding is being sort to top dress these paths. 

The Millennium green is now legally registered with ‘Fields in Trust’ as are the playing fields. Both are protected for residents to enjoy in perpetuity without fear of unwanted development.

Green areas and Trees

The area of green verge at the entrance to Church Lane that was decimated in previous winters by inappropriate car parking has had an extended kerb installed by LCC highways. The Council has also recently installed 4 wooden planters (licensed by LCC) with signs to protect the grass verge from further damage from cars. 

The large dying chestnut tree at the western end of the Millennium Green that the Council have been monitoring for the last 3 years received further wind damage earlier this year. Sadly and following professional advice it was decided that it would have to be felled and the stump ground out due to the size of the branches that were falling onto the footpath. This work has now been completed. It will be replaced by a suitable hardwood variety in the next planting season.

The Council is currently seeking to obtain free ‘native species’ trees to plant on areas it has responsibility for. We have been offered free trees from eforest.co.uk and are currently seeking other councils we can work with to accept the minimum 150 trees required. It is hoped this can be achieved in time for the next planting season.

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 some years ago along with the speed indicating device have shown some benefit but further action is needed and volunteers are being sort to carry out speed checks in the village under the Community Speed Watch scheme.

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 have 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 Council. The Council continues to explore every opportunity to leverage funding from any source for this and continues to work with all parties (LCC, Network Rail, SKDC and Land owners) 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 historic problems of surface water flooding the roads and the February 2021 issues with blocked drains. After continued pressure from the Council Anglian Water have recently in partnership with LCC carried out some improvement works to the drainage systems in the village with more work yet to be done. Anglian water are also we understand going to carry out some alterations to a number of private properties surface water drainage systems as some currently drain into the foul sewers.

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

The Council are still chasing the issue of the overgrown ditch and hedge and lack of any maintenance on Casewick Lane opposite Hawthorn Lodge with Taylor Wimpey and the local authorities.

Welland River Flood defences

Further work has been carried out by the Environment Agency to repair the flood valves on the waterside next to Bainton Road Bridge.  Also the replacement of wooden timbers on the eel pass footbridge. This follows the extensive repair works last year to over 700 metres of flood bank from the waterfall to Copt Hill. Considerable effort and expenditure was applied by the Environment Agency to relocate existing badgers and repairing the areas of rabbit damage.

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. (Volunteers required please).  There have been reports of burglary in the last year unfortunately. Can all residents remain vigilant and report any unusual activities vehicles loitering. 

COUNCIL FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION 

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 ground works to footpaths on Millennium Green and new planters on Church Lane, 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 2021/2022. The Council Precept for this current year 2022/23 is £7,800 (an increase of £299), equal to a % increase on a band D property of 0.4% to £22.41.

The Council and its Meetings

The Council currently has six councillors with one current vacancy due to sad demise of Cllr Gash over Xmas. The Council usually meets bi monthly during the year on a Tuesday although extra meetings are occasionally called.  Attendance generally has been good and we are now back in the village hall 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 District Councillors, Rosemary Trollope-Bellew, and Kelham Cooke along with County Councillor Ashley Baxter. Representatives of national agencies and local firms are invited and do attend from time to time.

Any residents wishing to be kept informed of news and meetings or wishing to be considered for the Councillor vacancy are invited to contact the clerk Wendy with their email details.       wendy7wansford@gmail.com

Philip Sagar
Chairman

Wendy Gray
Clerk

for and on behalf of the Council
May 2022