Annual Parish Report

The Annual Parish report 2024/25 and accounts to be presented at the Annual Parish Meeting on the 28th May at 7pm in the Village Hall is below. The Annual Parish Council and May meeting will follow the Parish meeting. A Hard copy of the report will be distributed to each household at the beginning of June.

GRIT SALT, SAND & SANDBAGS.  FREE TO RESIDENTS.  Collection from Village Hall Car Park. Bring your own containers. AQUA SACS. A limited supply available to properties who have been or could be affected by flood water.

­In this report “council” means Tallington Parish council; “SKDC” means South Kesteven District council; “LCC” means Lincolnshire County council.

Tallington
Annual Parish Report 2024/25

Parish council 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”.

Community

During the last year the council gave £600 to the Church to help maintain the graveyard and £500 to the Village Hall and Playing Field Association to help maintain the Village Hall and Playing Field. Thanks to a grant from the SK UK Shared Prosperity fund new heating and lighting have been installed in St Lawrence of Rome church.

Village Hall & Playing Field
The centre of Village life is the Village Hall and Playing Field. The council is grateful to the Committee of the Village Hall and Playing Field Association for the management of the Village Hall and Playing Field.

Thanks to a further substantial grant from the SKDC prosperity fund (part of Levelling up monies) the stone walls around the Playing Field have been repaired and in places rebuilt.

The Parish Council takes responsibility for the insurance of the Village Hall, Playing Field and play equipment. The Council are grateful to the Village Hall and Playing Field Association for contributing to the insurance premium.

Bookings for the Hall continue to grow. The Table Tennis Club continues. 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, the 3 Village notice boards and on the Parish Council website. Bookings can also be made via tallingtonvillagehall@gmail.com

Social Media / Updates/ Website

The council continues to use the “Towers and Spires magazine” to publish updates and important information for residents. T & S is distributed free to all households every month. Copy is supplied at least 14 days before publication and distribution so can sometimes be slightly dated. It is recommended to visit the Parish Council’s own website for the latest updates and information on forthcoming meetings and agendas. Minutes of Parish Council meetings along with local information and links to other local services and useful websites are posted here. The site is maintained by the LALC Website Maintenance Service. https://tallington.parish.lincolnshire.gov.uk/

The Parish Council also posts important updates on The Tallington Village Hall Association Facebook page. The VH Assoc can be contacted at ‘tallingtonvillagehall@gmail.com’. Important updates are also posted on the “Tallington Village Community Facebook Page”

There is also a bcc email update list that you can receive. Please contact the Parish Clerk to add your email to the list. It is secure and you will not receive unwanted emails from anyone else on the list.

Village Environment

Thanks to Adele for keeping the Mobile Post Office going on Tuesdays 2- 4pm over many years in the Village Hall. Sadly, this service will be ending on 23rd June this year,

The Residents of Tallington Lakes 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 and Trees

The Millennium Green is legally registered with ‘Fields in Trust’ and protected as open space for residents to enjoy in perpetuity without fear of unwanted development. The second and third stages of tree planting are now complete with 32 lime trees & 12 Cherry trees added to the 5 Copper Beech & 5 Hornbeam planted in spring 24 along with the triangle of Wild Flowers to the East of the Green. A substantial grant for the last 2 stages was provided from the SKDC UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

The Green continues to be cut by 2 -3 metres from the path around the Green by volunteers, with the remainder cut by our contractor as required, so as to maintain a meadow grassland appearance. It was always intended to be maintained as an open space, rough-cut and not a lawn finish. Thank you to all the volunteers who helped plant trees and cut back years of overgrown hedgerow and bramble; this will help provide better access to tackle the ongoing infestation of rabbits. Volunteers are encouraged to keep the trees watered through dry periods until they are fully established.

Speeding in the Village

The speed of traffic through the Village continues to be a cause for concern. We have 3 passive speed signs that were renewed on lampposts in the Village in 2023 along with the speed indicating device that is moved to different locations regularly. Speed limits are now also painted on the A1175. Volunteers are still required 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” via “fibre to the home” availability via access points at the entrance to every home in the Village.  Gigaclear continues to provide free internet access 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. New guardians have recently been appointed.                                   

Drainage and Flooding issues

Following the flooding of the 3rd and 4th January 2024 that caused damage to 25 properties in varying degrees and the repeated flooding of the 22nd February 24 through rising ground water the Council continues to work with and apply pressure with the assistance of our MP, County and District Councillors to - the Environment Agency, Anglian Water, LCC Highways, LCC Floods and Water, and SKDC to continue the work to rectify the historic failings of the agencies to maintain the drainage system. Monthly Multi Agency meetings continue to be held with all agencies  and the council. In January LCC Highways contractors jetted the culverts under the St Lawrence Way Road, and covered dykes along and under Casewick Lane. There is evidence of a partial collapse were the culvert goes under Casewick lane before heading across Casewick fields. LCC plan to replace the damaged old drystone wall culvert with a plastic culvert. Water is flowing under the road at the present time. The junction manhole has been cleaned and it is functioning allowing overflow water from Hawthorne Lodge dyke & the St Lawrence Way Road drains and the open dyke past an emergency gate flap in the manhole into the dyke going down Casewick Lane.

Detailed reports continue to be circulated regularly in Towers & Spires & all past updates can be viewed on the Council website.

The statutory Sect 19 report whilst being published late last year continues to be under review by LCC Floods & Water. The Parish Council Flood Plan can be viewed on the website. The Village Flood Response Team now has access to 5 pumps including the ‘Heron’s trust’ funded 4” pump capable of moving 1600 litres a minute that is stationed on a trolley close to the river. The blockage at the Rail Crossing is still NOT cleared, despite numerous attempts. Further work by NR is planned & they are committed to clearing the blockage. Further clearance work is also planned by AW to clear the blockages in surface water drains at the junction of Mill Lane, the ‘Old Post Office’ & next to The Gables on the Main Road. The major landowners have over the last 9 months cleared miles of dykes from Casewick Lane & beyond and to the north of the Village, along with the ditches to the side of the A1175 beyond the crossing toward West Deeping. The work done to date has resulted in releasing some of the trapped water from the Village. The priority for the Parish council is still to get the whole length of the existing surface water system cleared by AW in conjunction with LCC and NR and working as it should to take water out of the Village providing the protection that was missing in January / February 2024. Water to the north of the Village is now flowing away from the Village through the cleared field culverts towards Barholm.  

Welland River Flood defences

The Environment Agency have this month, at long last, replaced the Bainton Road River bridge flap valve with a new heavy duty one. This replaced the valve that has since been shown to have been poorly fitted in 2022 and that in any event, save for a few weeks in February 2024 (& after the flooding of Jan 24) had been sandbagged off due to its sporadic effectiveness since the river bank work commenced in November 2023. We are currently in discussion over the fitting of a mesh filter and/or a penstock gate as added protection on the Village side of the bank. The Environment Agency have for the time being finished the tree & vegetation clearing work on the river banks of the Maxey Cut. We have though, brought to their attention two further areas of trees growing in the river banks upstream of the waterfall that they have agreed to look at.

The EA will shortly be starting a major survey of the Maxey Cut to establish what work might be required to improve the long-term stability of the bank infrastructure over the coming years and develop a business case for any such work. Long term repair of the erosion to the bank downstream near Lolham is unlikely to happen this year. The temporary repair done last year is deemed to be working well.

The EA large pump for the river bridge remains on standby if and when needed. 

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 need to reinvigorate the Neighbourhood Watch scheme. (Volunteers required please. Please notify your interest to the Parish Clerk in the first instance). Please be aware of daytime distraction burglary attempts. Please remain vigilant and report any unusual activities and any unrecognised vehicles loitering.

Council Finance & Administration
The council made grants of £500 to the Village Hall Assoc and £600 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 improvement works on Millennium Green, Flood equipment and insurances that the council must carry, and other necessary administrative expenses adopted for 2024/2025. The council Precept for this coming year 2025/26 is £9,250 (an increase of £550 + 6.32%), equal to a % increase on a band D property of 1.5% to £25.11

The Council and it’s Meetings

The Council currently has four councillors with three current vacancies, having bid farewell in April to Cllr Joan Brocklebank who has moved to be nearer her daughter. Our grateful thanks for her support and service. The Council meets bi-monthly during the year now on a Wednesday. We meet in the Village Hall with many residents taking time to attend. The Council also appreciates the attendance and contributions from District Councillors, Rosemary Trollope-Bellew, and Vanessa Smith along with County Councillor Ashley Baxter.

Residents wishing to be kept informed of news and meetings or wishing to be considered for one of the Councillor vacancies are invited to contact our clerk Nicola with their email details at parishclerk.tallington@gmail.com

Philip Sagar                                                        Nicola Smith
Chairman                                                                Clerk
for and on behalf of Tallington Parish council                                                                        May 2025.

The next Parish Council meeting is on Wednesday 16th July in the Village Hal starting at 7.30.