MAREHAM LE FEN PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the meeting held on the 23rd November 2016.
Chairman: Mr P Chilvers
Councillors Present:
Mr R Cox
Miss P Fytche
Miss I McLachlan
Mrs I Moorhouse
12 members of the public also attended.
Apologies were received from CllrC Wentzell who was working.
2453 Declaration of interests.
There were no interests to declare
2454 Minutes of the last meeting
These had already been circulated to the Parish Councillors. An amendment was made to item 2435, The nomination for Cllr C Wentzell was seconded by Cllr I McLachlan, not Cllr I Moorhouse and item 2433 should read ‘the local shop’ not the local pub. After these adjustments were made the minutes wereapproved and duly signed by the Chairman. Proposed by Cllr I McLachlan and seconded by Cllr I Moorhouse.
2455 Public Telephone boxes
A letter had been received from East Lindsey District Council notifying the Parish Council of the proposed removal of the public telephone boxes at Mareham le Fen where 15 calls had been madeduring the last 12 months and Tumby Woodside where no calls had been made in the previous 12 months. The Parish Council will not object to the removal of the boxes.
2456 Village Hall Management Committee
Mrs J Palmer, secretary of the Mareham le Fen Village Hall and Memorial Lawn had written to the Clerk again and said that the VHMC did not consider that any further action was necessary on their part. The Parish Council discussed this and agreed that their objections were not the comments made by Cllrs R Cox and I McLachlan but the fact that they had been accused of contravening the Localism Act. The ELDC Monitoring Officer had confirmed that this was not the case. Cllrs also objected to the fact that private addresses and email addresses had been displayed. It was decided that the Parish Council will get legal advice regarding this. This was proposed by Cllr P Chilvers and seconded by Cllr I McLachlan. All Cllrs were in favour.
It was also agreed that in the future any comments or statements which the Parish Council considered incorrect will be dealt with immediately and corrections put on the website and Parish Council notice board.
2457 Correspondence
J Hague had emailed to ask if there were any tenders required for grass cutting. He will be notified when these are required next year.
Mareham le Fen Village News wrote to ask the Parish Council for a contribution of £450 towards the running costs of the magazine. Cllrs decided that no donation would be made this year. Previous articles submitted by A Hawkes on behalf of the Parish Council had been censored in the past and the Cllrs said any items of interest could be put on the website and the notice board. The decision not to send a donation was proposed by Cllr P Chilvers and seconded by Cllr I Moorhouse all Cllrs were in favour.
L C C Had notified the Parish Council that there was to be a consultation on school admissions.
The local Citizens advice bureau had written asking for a donation.
J Warren had sent an email drawing attention to the triangle of land opposite the Post office which had been re seeded by Western Power following work done by them. A vehicle had parked on this area and it was now very muddy. The Clerk will contact the Highways Dept. at L C C.
J Warren also asked the Parish Council to reconsider their decision not to put an article in the Village News.
2 letters had been received by Maj R Crowshaw. The 1st asked that the complaints procedure contained in the Standing order should be put on the notice board and the website. The Clerk will attend to this.
The 2nd included a copy of the inaugural meeting of the VHMC which he said did not show any conditions imposed on the monies paid to them by the Parish Council. He also pointed out that any such conditions should have been put in the minutes.
The Chairman said that any verbal agreement made was in the past and current Cllrs had no real knowledge of this, only hearsay. As the grant was not paid this year this will now be concluded.
2458 Election of new Councillors
E L D C has confirmed that the next date for the election of Parish Councillors will be 19th January 2016. Nomination papers and the Notices of Election will be sent to the Clerk. They also reminded the Parish Council that the cost of these elections will have to be paid by the Parish Council. The Clerk will contact E L D C and ask for an idea of the costs and also enquire if the number of Parish Councillors can be reduced.
2459 Planning
3 planning application had been received. These were:
S/114/02294/16 for a telecommunications mast replacing the old one at Fe Lane. This had been discussed at a previous meeting and all Cllrs had supported the application.
S/114/02301/16 from the Lincoln Diocesan Board of Trust for the erection of 4 dwellings on land adjacent to the playing field at Fieldside. Following a vote by Cllrs 3 voted to object and 1 abstained. The following reasons were given for the objection;
The sewerage capacity in the Village is not good and further properties will make the situation worse.
The development is not in keeping with other properties in the village.
Flooding is already bad in Watery Lane and further development will add to this.
The properties are on agricultural land.
There is no provision for social housing.
S/114/02141/16 for 3 detached houses and 5 detached bungalows, with associated garages at Moat Farm, Watery Lane.
The Cllrs again voted to object to the application, for the same reasons as the listed above. It was also noted that the traffic on Watery Lanewould increase and there would be considerable noise pollution.
Cllr P Fytchesaid that a survey should be carried out by a qualified ecologist because bats and owls use the existing buildings on the site.
The Clerk will write to E L D C with these objections.
2460 Visit by a Police Officer
Police officer Alison Evans was unable to attend the meeting so sent the following report.
1 x Civil dispute.
1 x Concern for safety.
1 x Sudden death.
1 x Report of person driving without a valid licence.
1 x Report of dangerous driving
1 x Transport hazard. The vehicle was un insured and seized by the police.
6 x hare coursing.
2461Finance
Copies of the new Financial Regulations were approved by Councillors.
The following accounts were presented for payment:
Mareham le Fen Bowls Club£10.00 donation for use of the hall.
Mareham le Fen Village Hall£19.00hire of hall for the October meeting.
Grant Thornton£120.002016 external audit fee.
Mrs S E Hendy£593.32Salary and expenses to 31st December.
HMRC£100.00Tax on Clerk’s salary
P Barnett£757.13 Mowing etc to 22.11.16.
A direct debit of £9.29 had been paid to Anglian Water for water to the Cemetery.
The payment of these was proposed by Cllr R Cox and seconded by Cllr I Moorhouse.
ELDC had sent notification that the Precept request should be made by 23rd January 2017. An informal meeting will be held by Parish Councillors to work out the budget and this will be presented at either an extraordinary meeting or at the next Parish Council meeting.
The Clerk was elected as the RFO. All Cllrs voted in favour.
The Chairman had prepared the bank mandate forms. They were signed and will be sent to the bank.
2462 Standing Orders
A date will be arranged to discuss the Standing Orders before the next Annual Parish meeting.
2463 Public Defibrillator
The Parish Council were still interested in the purchase of a pubic defibrillator but felt that
no decision could be made until the costs of the elections were known.
The Clerk will contact the local representative of L.I.V.E.S and ask for advice on fund raising.
2464 Cemetery
Jas Martin had written to advise the Parish Council that their clients were ready to proceed with the sale of land to enlarge the Cemetery. The agreed price was £2000 and legal and surveyor’s fees would be £750 plus VAT. Jas Martin also asked for details of the solicitor who would be employed by the Parish Council. It was agreed that Cllr P Fytche would ask N Brown if he would act on behalf of the Parish Council.
2465Allotments
No requests have been received for the rent of allotments.
2466Neighbourhood Plan.
There was nothing further to report.
2467 Councillors check around the Village
It was reported that hedge along the footpath on Shop Hill was very overgrown, the Clerk will write to the owners and ask if they could cut the hedge.
It was felt that the verges needed strimming.
The Cemetery was in need of tidying and there was also a mole problem, the Clerk was asked to contact Mr Kime to deal with the problem.
The cherry trees at the edge of the Village needed cutting and following a vote in which 3 Cllrsvoted in favour and 1 abstainedit was agreed that the quote of £260 was accepted and the contractor should be asked to prune the trees.
It was also suggested that a fuchsia hedge could be planted to and that bulbs could be planted along the front of the Cemetery, Cllr P Fytche will buy some bulbs and find out how much the hedging would cost. It was suggested that a workparty was formed to tidy and plant it up
2468 Grass Cutting and footpath maintenance
The current contract for the requirements was checked.
Cllr P Fytche reported that the group ‘Payback in the Community’ would be able to clear the footpath to Revesby where it is overgrown, the cost would be £120 per day. She would be meeting them for an estimated time for the work.
L C C had sent the form to the Parish Council to claim back £1819.44 towards the cost of amenity grass cutting. The Clerk will deal with this.
L C C wrote to the Parish Council asking if they would be able to take over some of the maintenance of the footpaths.
Parish Matters
A complaint had been received that vehicles had been driving across the grass at the bottom of Revesby Avenue and Revesby Corner.
The Clerk had been contacted to report that a street light at Fieldside West was not working, it had been reported by the resident but still hadn’t been repaired. The Chairman said he had had reports of other lights which were not working so he would deal with this.
The meeting closed at 8.55 pm
The next meeting will be at 7.30pm on 18th January 2017.