July 2025 DRAFT Minutes
TALLINGTON PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting
held in the Village Hall on Wednesday 16th July 2025.
Present: Chair Cllr P Sagar, Vice Chair Cllr J Smith, Cllr J Knox, Cllr R Sorrel, Clerk N Smith, District Cllr V Smith and NO members of public.
Minutes
Public Forum (The Public Forum does not form part of the meeting of the Parish Council)
No points raised.
Cllr Sagar opened the Council meeting.
037/25. Chair’s remarks: Cllr Sagar commented on lack of public attendance at the meeting. Cllr Knox said that this may be due to the email updates sent out to the village residents by Cllr Sagar being very informative.
038/25. Apologies for Absence and reasons given: C Cllr A Baxter sent apologies due to another engagement, D Cllr R Trollop-Bellew sent apologies.
It was resolved to accept the apologies.
039/25. To receive any Declaration of Interest: None declared. All Councillors confirmed that their DPI forms are up-to-date.
040/25. To agree and sign minutes of Annual Parish Council Meeting held on 28th May 2025: The minutes were approved as a true and accurate record and signed by the Chair.
041/25. To review and adopt the 2025 updated versions of the Standing Orders and Financial Regulations: Clerk had amended both documents where allowed and asked Cllr Sagar to confirm changes. Due to time constraints only the Financial Regulations had been circulated to all Councillors for review.
It was resolved to adopt the Financial Regulations.
Action: Clerk to add FR to website.
Standing Orders to be circulated for adoption at September meeting.
042/25. To review and adopt the Records Retention Policy: Clerk explained the need for a Records Retention Policy as high-lighted in the Internal Audit. The policy shows that meeting Minutes must be kept for ever, and has a table for all Council documents.
It was resolved to adopt the policy.
Action: Clerk to add RRP to website.
Clerk described how documents e.g. Agendas/Minutes, are added to the website as a ‘website page’ to ensure Accessibilty. The documents are also added as pdf documents, which means they are duplicated. The current ‘Documents as pdfs’ section has not been kept up-to-date. Clerk asked for Council agreement that the pdfs be removed from the Council website. It was resolved to accept this change to the website.
Action: Clerk to ask LALC webmaster to remove the pdf section.
043/25. To agree and sign minutes of Parish Council Meeting held on 28th May 2025: The minutes were approved as a true and accurate record and signed by the Chair.
044/25. Matters arising from above minutes not on Agenda: None
045/25. Finance:
Payments:
|
LALC subs |
£ 305.62 |
|
LALC webmaster (10 hrs) |
£ 216.00 |
|
Clerk Salary/Expenses (Apr to June + 50hr extra) |
£ 1,764.78 |
|
MG maintenance |
£ 245.40 |
|
MG trees watering hoses/connectors |
£ 210.53 |
|
Adele (Post mistress) retirement gift voucher |
£ 50.00 |
|
Zurich Insurance renewal |
£ 1,157.07 |
|
Playing Field installation of tyres – postmix |
£ 142.00 |
The Zurich Insurance was renewed for a 3 yr Long Term Agreement at a reduced premium.
Zurich to refund £100.23 due to Council over payment.
It was resolved to accept payments as presented.
Grants:
VH&PFA were given £500 in 24/25. It was resolved to award £600 for 25/26 towards maintenance of Village Hall since the income from the Post Office had stopped.
Church grant was missed in 24/25 and a figure was needed for 25/26. It was resolved to award £600 for 24/25 and £700 for 25/26 as the cost of maintaining the Churchyard grass cutting had increased.
The Heron’s Trust had awarded the Church a grant of £ 850.
Action: Clerk to draw up invoice to VH&PFA for their contribution (75.47%) of the VH Insurance and deduct the grant from the figure.
Bank Reconciliation: The adopted Financial Regulations state that ‘At least once in each quarter, and at each financial year end, a member other than the Chair shall be appointed to verify bank reconciliations for all accounts produced by the Clerk/RFO. The member shall sign and date the reconciliations and the original bank statements as evidence of this. This activity, including any exceptions, shall be reported to and noted by the Council.’
After discussion it was agreed that Cllrs Knox and Sorrell will alternate doing the Reconciliation. Clerk handed Cllr Knox folder of April to June Bank Statements and Invoices for checking before the September meeting.
Bank Mandate: Chair and Vice-Chair signed prepared Metro forms to change mandate.
Action: Clerk to submit forms and signed minutes of May meeting to bank.
Vat Reclaim: The adopted Financial Regulations state that ‘The Clerk/RFO shall ensure that VAT is correctly recorded in the council’s accounting records. Any repayment claim under section 33 of the VAT Act 1994 shall be made six-monthly where the claim exceeds £500 and, at least annually at the end of the financial year.’
Action: Clerk to submit Vat Reclaim as stands at over £2,000.
046/25. Planning: - Planning application S25/1227 received. This was discussed by Council and it was resolved that there were no objections. Cllr J Smith commented that the householder should ensure contractor vehicles do not enter through the arch to Red Paddock and to use the bollarded entrance from the Main Road.
Action: Clerk to forward ‘no objections’ to SKDC Planning by 29/7.
- SKDC Local Plan workshops being held Bourne 30/7 and Grantham 11/8.
- Kilnside – Council had been asked for comments on Scoping Opinion by 21/7.
- Local Government Reorg. information session at Stamford Arts Centre on 22/7. Cllr Sagar to attend.
The weekly Planning Update from SKDC is circulated to all Councillors for information.
047/25. Reports from District and County Councillors: D Cllr V Smith gave a report.
- Local Plan consultation until 28th August.
- SK Today magazine now online.
- Food Waste collection to start 2026.
- SKDC bin collection routes being reorganised. Households will receive letter.
- Mallard Pass new owners anticipate commencing build in Spring 26.
- Kilnside: new proposal near Great Casterton will be larger than Mallard Pass.
Full report attached below.
048/25. Clerk’s report:
- Envelope of passwords used for Council administration explained and handed to Chair. Action carried forward from Annual Parish Council Meeting.
- Documents adopted at May meeting now on website.
- AGAR forms submitted to External Auditor on 16th June and logged acknowledged on 2nd July.
- Cllr Knox is attending a Flooding Awareness event on 28/7.
- LALC Summer Conference on 16/7.
- Clerk reported that 5 hrs/week averages at 21.5 monthly. June work had taken 29 hours and so far 20 hrs in July.
- HMRC Basic payroll system set up with help of Ian Cole, West Deeping Clerk, who has offered ongoing support. Clerk still waiting for further information from the accountant to enable payroll to function from July.
- Clerk is working to cover requirements of The Pensions Regulator as identified by the IA.
- Cllr Sorrell had varnished the Notice Board on Bainton Road. However both standing Notice Boards are not weather proof and the pin boards are warping.
Action: Clerk to investigate carpenter to quote for repairs.
049/25. Multi-Agency Meetings (AW, EA, NR, LCC, IDB):
- National Grid work in Mill Lane had broken a road drainage pipe. It was noted that the pipe was solid with debris which caused flooding in the Lane during heavy rainfall.Cllr Sagar had been able to delay the infill of the trench in the hope that LCC Highways and/or Anglian Water would attend and clear out the complete pipework. Anglian Water could not reallocate resources in time. LCC eventually responded that they would not be taking the opportunity but had visited and observed problem and felt it was an Anglian Water issue (later confirmed at MAG meeting that LCC would be tackling this blockage at a later date as not main AW surface water culvert). The NG contractor replaced the broken pipe with a smaller diameter pipe on 14th July but nothing was done to clear the remaining pipe line of debris.
- Network Rail have budgeted £110,000 to correct the blocked pipe under the crossing. No date for the work has been set.
- Anglia Water work on the Blue marked areas on the Main Road to commence in late September/ October 2025 (TBC).
- National Grid work on the Main Road through the village to run 11Th August to 4th November with lane closures and traffic lights.
- LCC Highways, The County Highways chief, who has been available 7 days a week since Feb 24, has sadly moved on, and Cllr Sagar reported concerns, following a meeting of 27th June with LCC Highways area team members, over some resistence to fully implement all that had been agreed by him and minuted at the past monthly MAG meetings. This has been raised at a higher level and will be discussed at the 23rd July MAG meeting.
- Section 19 report, LCC Floods and Water management have now visited Tallington for a detailed walk around to review all of the draft conclusions and reccommendations mentioned in the last version 10 report. A revised and final Version 11 of the report is being distributed next week.
- Next MAG meeting 23/7, Cllrs Sagar and J Smith will attend.
050/25. Millennium Green: The hot weather has affected the saplings on the MG. Cllr Sagar and volunteers have set up a watering system with 150 metres of flat hose and wheelbarrow water sacs purchased by the Parish council. Water coutesy of Sue Olver via the dovecote. Possibly 6 trees have not survived. To be reviewed in Autumn and Cllr J Smith to approach supplier for replacements.
- A strimmer has been purchased to cut areas of MG the lawn mower cannot access.
- Full cut of whole MG including wild flower area done.
- There are a lot of nettles growing. Suggestion made to kill them off.
- Contractor due to return to carry out snagging repairs to PF walls and MG wall commencing 28/7.
- Cllr J Smith to approach Ketton Cement for donations to purchase daffodil bulbs. To be planted Nov/Dec.
- Rabbits need to be dealt with in Autumn.
Action: Cllr J Smith to write to Ketton Cement and book ferret man.
051/25. Website & Email changes: An account has been opened with NetNerd.
- The next task is to decide on domain name. Using prescribed format the options are TallingtonParishCouncil.gov.uk or Tallington-PC.gov.uk. This is a national requirement affecting all Parish Councils ref national government decree.
It was resolved to use the shorter version.
- Email addresses will use titles only i.e. Chair/Vice-Chair/Clerk/Councillor1etc.
- Cllr J Smith concerns covered NetNerd services and agreement, status of emails on old systems, list of contacts needing new email. Clerk explained that there are various documents covering these concerns which would be sent to Councillors to read.
Action: Clerk to email explanatory documents.
052/25. Dates of Next TPC Meetings: Wednesday 17th Sept 2025, Wednesday 19th Nov 2025. Further discussion on Annual Parish Meeting resolved to keep new date of March.
The meeting closed at 21h30.