MINUTES of the Annual Parish Meeting of Harlaxton Held at 7

MINUTES of the Annual Parish Meeting of Harlaxton held at 7 pm at The Village Hall, Harlaxton on Tuesday 24th March 2015.

Present: Cllr Edwards (in the Chair) Cllrs Evans, Harris,Holden, Taylorand Waite, Mark Heaton (MH) of County Highways, PCSO Stuart Bowden (SB) and Cty Cllr Bob Adams (BA) plus 20 members of the public.

The Chairman started by asking for a one minute silence for Parish Council Chairman, Peter Hawkins.

Apologies for absence : Dist Cllr P Carpenter and Mrs Darcy of 48 Swinehill.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 13th May 2014 were read, and it was resolved to accept the same and they were duly signed.

Matters arising – none.

The Clerk gave a report as to what had happened during the year, a copy of which is attached.

The Chair then asked MH for an update with regard to traffic issues. He referred to the annual walkabout with Cllr Edwards in October where it was obvious that parking issues around the school were prevalent. If we go for yellow lines at the Swinehill/Manor Drive junction, then a TRO is required but the issue then is enforcement. SB then updated us on what he had been doing around the school – he had attended during school drop off and pick up times to see the problems for himself; he had spoken to the school and letters had been sent to residents of Swinehill. SB believes that enforcement should come by encouraging educations. At the beginning of each school year there is anew influx of children (and their parents) who need educating. He proposes to get the children to make imaginary parking tickets and to then put them on cars that the children believe are wrongly parked – this is the most achievable side of things. Cones work because people can’t park on top of them and SB will ask the school to put them out on odd occasions. Highways Code says that you must not park within 10 metres of a junction which is why there are no yellow lines. If we have yellow lines we will have to consider the extra signage that will be required and this may detract from our lovely village. MH said that it is not cost effective to send a traffic officer to villages to enforce TROs. There was then a lot of discussion with the public as to the benefit, or not, of yellow lines. Manor Drive/Swinehill junction is the critical area to get sorted out and the LRSP may help with education within the school. A TRO needs looking into and MH will draw up some plans for agreement by the PC. Then there will follow consultation with the Services and finally with the public. If any public complain then reports have to be done for an LCC committee decision. It will take about 6 months. A show of hands proved that the majority of the public in attendance were “for” yellow lines.

Chairman thanked MH and SB for attending and we then had a 10 minute break for drinks and nibbles. (7.45 pm)

The meeting reconvened at 7.55 pm.

Members of the public were asked whether they had any questions for BA. Hedges along The Drift overgrow the footpath by a long way – whilst people do trim them they are not taking them right back to the property boundary and they therefore still take over the footpath forcing people into the road. Branches of a tree are overhanging the road at Rectory Lane/Pond Street junction. Old white posts along the verge outside the Doctor’s surgery need removing. If people fly flags in their gardens, they cannot be prosecuted.

There are some dead branches that have dropped off the trees at the top of Gregory Close – this is the responsibility of the PC and they should be collected up. Road signs and cones remain in the village since works by Highways – these should be removed by Highways immediately the work has finished.

Andrea Large stated that students at Harlaxton College were keen to become involved in the community and have offered to do things such as litter picking or planting bulbs and are generally open to suggestions. Perhaps they could collect the dead branches/twigs at Gregory Close and tidy around the Social Club.

8.10 Best Kept Village. Chair Malcolm Edwards had distributed a handout giving information on what the judges look for in the competition, the first round of which starts on 26th May. He had given some ideas for strategy to provoke discussion and listed various areas around the village for individuals to be responsible for. The list worked out as follows:

Swinehill and School : Dr Thomas and Sue Taylor

Manor Drive and Parklands Drive: Claire Waite

Sports and Social Club : Jenny Evans

High Street, Pond Street and Church Street : Malcolm

Village Hall : Wendy Whitton

Church : Sue Taylor

Rectory Lane and West End : Janet Hindmarch

Trotters Lane : Irvin and Pam Metcalf

Gregory Close : Jean Lattimore

The Gregory including car park, and Pearson Gregory field : Carole Harris

The Drift : Alan Parker

It was stressed that people must NOT go to private properties.

8.25There were no other matters from the public.

Meeting closed at 8.25 pm.