Present: Councillors:A Greenwood, J Kirkwood, D MacMillan and S Pennant-Jones(presiding),

Residents:

Others:Bernard Champness – Clerk,District Councillor M Wilkins.

Open Forum
As no members of the public were present there was no open forum and the meeting was formally opened at 19.07
Apologies for absence, acceptance of Apologies
76.1 / Apologies were received from Cllr Henriques (ill health)
76.2 / Resolved that the apologies be accepted.
Declaration of Interest – To receive Declarations of Disclosable Pecuniary and Other Interests, as set out in Chapter 7 of the Localism Act 2011 and the nature of those interests relating to any Agenda item
77.1 / No one declared an interest in any matter that was on the agenda.
Minutes of the last meeting held on the 18thJanuary 2016 (Mins15.05)
78.1 / Resolved: That the minutes of the 18thJanuary 2016were signed by the Chair as a correct record.
Matters to Report
79.1 /
  • The church clock is now working and chimes on the hour.
  • The play equipment has still not been repaired and District Cllr Wilkins said that he would make enquiries to see if it could be removed.
  • The black BMW is still parked in Bottom Street. Cllr Kirkwood said that she had made enquires of the Highways to see if the land on which the car was parked was their land. They had replied that it was their land. They understood it was an un-official passing place. Cllr Wilkins explained that we could contact the Environmental Officer at South Kesteven District Council and explain that an untaxed car had been abandoned. They would investigate and ask the car to be removed off the road but if it was not then they would notify the DVLA who would then have the car removed and crushed. The owner was a Adam Pond who lived at Walnut Cottage, Bottom Street, Witham on the Hill and the car registration number was YP03JVN. Councillors were asked to be kept in the loop with what was happening and the Clerk agreed that they would be.

To receive a report from the County and District Councillors.
80.1 / District Councillor M Wilkinssaid that South Kesteven District Council were issuing monthly press releases and there were a number of matters he wanted to report which were:
  • If you had a green wheelie bin the fee needed to be paid by the end of the month
  • Many people were putting the wrong rubbish in the silver/grey bins which meant that South Kesteven District Council get a financial reprimand and the rubbish is refused by the waste company.
  • Large items of rubbish can be collected by South Kesteven District Council at a cost of £12 and £6 for any additional item
  • Dogs needed to be micro chipped by 01/04/16
  • Smoking in vehicles is illegal and many people seem to be unaware of this
  • People needed to register to vote as there were two things happening this year. One was the referendum to say or leave the EU and the other was the election of the Police and Crime Commissioner.
  • Council Tax Band D was increased by £5 per annum but overall the Council tax had increased more than that.
  • Recently the Government announced that they were happy with the draft agreement reached with Lincolnshire regarding devolution. South Kesteven District Council had the option to opt out if they wanted but if it ever materialised there would be an elected Mayor. He was not sure if this would be a good thing for South Kesteven District Council.

80.2 / County Cllr Trollope-Bellew sent a copy of his report which is below and which he went through in detail:
Finance.
The Financial situation is bad the Gov is reducing the Revenue Support Grant by a large amount in 2011/12 it was £ 211M by 2019/20 it will be £ 20M and there is no opportunity to put up the Council Tax by more than 2% without a Referendum.
The Gov has announced some Transition Funding, but this only amounts to for Lincs £11,000 for 2016/17 & £9,000 for 2017/18 and a Rural Services Grant of £5.2M for 2016/17 and £2.5 M for 2017/18, this will mean no reduction in Road Gritting, Public Transport Subsidies and no closure of Children's Centres for the next 2 years.
The 2016/17 Budget was decided on Fri 19th Feb, the Council has to by Law pass a balanced Budget, so to find the £ 35M of savings, there are a lot of hard decisions to be made, it is proposed to use some of the Reserves.
The consultation earlier in the year (9000 responses) came back with spending on Pot Hole repair, Gritting & P.C.S.O. should be protected as much as possible, but Libraries were top of the hit list for cuts.
The Council has to for fill its statuary responsibilities, so anything that is not statuary is going to take a larger cut or be stopped all together. If one Service is protected another Service will have to take a large reduction in spending.
The main Services that are Statuary are Highways (this includes Gritting) Social Services (Children, Adults including Safeguarding) Waste (Disposal & Recycling) Education (Home to School Transport). There is some discretion on how much is spent on these Services but not a lot.
I support the Gov in trying to balance the Books, but why should the Rural arears take most of the hit. The Lincs M.P. s have been trying to get a fair settlement for Lincs, the result was the Transition Funding and the Rural Services Grant
There are some hard times ahead.
The Full Council had a Motion that " Lincolnshire would be better off outside the E.U. " it was passed by a large majority
Clerks Report
81.1 / The Clerk explained that he had received a few items of correspondence other than what was on the agenda.
  • A letter had been received from HMRC saying the Council owed £200 and interest of 0.72p The Clerk had spent some considerable time speaking to a man to explain that the reference on the letter was different to the one on the paying in book. The man said that he had no record of that reference number but the one on the letter showed that no payment had been made by way of PAYE and NI. The Clerk further explained that this came as a surprise as the cheques sent had been cashed by HMRC. He was asked to speak to another department to see if the matter could be clarified. He did and spoke to a women who was able to find files on both reference numbers. She said that she had no idea why a second account had been opened as the one in which we paid showed that three cheques had been received and the account shows a nil balance owing. The lady said that to try and resolve this matter she would close the account with the reference number on the letter which she did whilst on the telephone. She said that we should continue to pay the final instalment of PAYE using the reference numbers used in the letter we send the payment with. Despite this another reminder had been received to say we still owed £200 and 84p interest.
  • Notice had been received of a road closure in Village Street in the vicinity of Stonecot from 31/03/16 to 02/04/16. An alternate route was via the A6121 and B1176
  • A letter from South Kesteven District Council advising that if we are still eligible for a revenue Support Grant 2018/19 would be the last year we would receive such a grant.
  • An email from HMRC offering help on Health and Safety issues when we had a new employee.
  • A letter from Lincolnshire County Council saying that they were transforming the way they provided street lighting in Lincolnshire. This would save £1.7m per year. They were working with the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership to determine if it was safe to switch off up to 3000 street lights on rural roads. We will hear further from them if the changes affect our area.
  • Notice had been received of the forthcoming election of a Police & Crime Commissioner for the Lincolnshire Police area. The Clerk would put up the notice in the noticeboard when he left the meeting.
  • Notice had been received from Grant Thornton that the Audit would take place on the 3rd June 2016. The Clerk asked who audited the books last year and was told it was a Kevin O’Hara who should be asked if he would do the same again this year. His telephone number was given to the Clerk. The Clerk pointed out that this was the last year we needed an auditor as we would be working under the new Audit regulations.

Planning applications:
82.1 / To Approve: There are no plans to approvealthough after the agenda was posted 2 plans had been received. The Clerk explained that we had until the 5th April to respond but our next meeting was in May. We could one of two options. The first was to call a special meeting or second give the Clerk delegated authority to deal with the response if the plans were looked at tonight. Resolved: that the Clerk be given delegated authority.
The plans were:
S16/0366 – two storey extension to form additional self-contained dwelling at The Six Bells, Main Street. Resolved: no comment or objections
S15/0367 – two storey rear extension to public house to provide a managers flat and conversion of existing manager’s flat bedrooms to two letting bedrooms at The Six Bells, Main Street. Resolved: no comment or objections
Cllr Pennant-Jones said she wanted it recorded that she did not vote in favour of either application as she was opposed to them.
82.2 / To note permission granted:
S16/0011 section 73 for the removal of concition3 (Fire Hydrant Provision) of planning approval 15/1133 at Witham Hall Preparatory School.
16/0043 – approval of details reserved by Condition 2 (materials) of planning approval S15/3076 at Witham Lodge.
82.3 / To note permission refused: none to note
To agree the dates of the meeting in 2016-17
83.1 / Resolved that the meetings would take place on the third Monday of every other month and would be held on 16th May 2016, 18th July 2016, 19th September 2016, 21st November 2016, 16th January 2017 and 20th March 2017.
To agree a date for the Annual Parish meeting and if a speaker is required and a date for the Annual Meeting of the Parish Council
84.1 / Resolved that the Annual Parish Meeting would be held at 7 p.m. on the 16th May and the Annual Meeting of the Parish Council would be held on the same day at 7.30p.m. We would not have a speaker at the first meeting.
To discuss the Lincolnshire County Council Permit Scheme and to consider an appropriate response.
85.1 / The Clerk read the letter from Lincolnshire County Council to those present. Resolved: That we did not need to formulate a response.
To consider the request for financial assistance from the Parochial Church Council to repair the Church clock.
86.1 / As explained above the Church Clock was now working and we had not received a further request for funding. It was agreed the matter would be adjourned to such time we heard anything further.
To discuss the request from SMV Contractor Services to cut the green and all grass areas the council are responsible for in Witham
87.1 / The Clerk read the e-mail from SMV Contractors and it was agreed that we would write back to them advising we were not responsible for the grass cutting and that they should get in touch with South Kesteven District Council.
To approve the design and cost of the road sign advising of a concealed entrance
88.1 / It was reported that Cllr Henriques had notified the Clerk that he has spoken to Peter Smith saying that before the Parish Council formally gave approval we needed something in writing from Grimsthorpe Estate saying they were in agreement to the sign being erected. Mr Smith said that he was hoping such a letter would be received before the meeting. The Clerk reported that no such letter had been received. As a result it was agreed that the matter be adjourned until the next meeting.
To confirm Expenditure
£191.49 – B M Champness (Salary for January, February and March 2016)
£126.00 – HMRC – PAYE
[ ]denotes those payments paid between meetings, which have been approved by the Chairperson and Vice Chairperson of the Parish Council or at a previous meeting but not listed
89 1 / Resolved: that the above payment be made
Any other business – Reminder – by law no decision can be made under this item only information exchanged.
90.1 / It was reported that the stile on the footpath by Elm Avenue was in need of repair. The Clerk was asked to contact the Footpath Officer at Lincolnshire County Council to see if she could get the land owner to carry out the repairs.
90.2 / Cllr Greenwood said that we needed to advertise what we were doing and had done so that residents were aware of this and hopefully they might come along to our meetings. It was agreed that he and the Clerk would see if we could ensure the website was up to date and more information was put on it.
90.3 / As there was no further business the meeting was formally closed at 20.34
The date of the next meeting – to be held on Monday 16th May 2016 at 7.00 p.m. at St Andrew’s Parish Hall, Witham on the Hill.

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