January 2019 Minutes
Draft Minutes of the Billingborough Parish Council Meeting held on Monday 14th January 2019
Venue Billingborough Primary School, Victoria Street, Billingborough NG34 0NX
Present Cllrs C. Woodhead (Chairman), P. Pocock, R. Stafford, M. King, V. Vince & F. Stevenson In Attendance: Christopher Clark (Clerk), Mrs Michelle Free (Outgoing Clerk) & 2 prospective Cllrs Pamela Harvey-Volanakis & Ari Volanakis
The meeting opened at 6.30 for the Public Forum. There were no members of the public, so it was unanimously agreed to commence the meeting.
1. Chairman’s Opening Remarks
223. The Chairman welcomed everyone and introduced the prospective councillors. She welcomed the new Clerk to his role and agreed that the meeting would be overseen jointly by Mr C Clark and Mrs M Free.
2. Apologies for absence 224. None
225. Formal notice of resignation from his role as a councillor was received from Andrew Salvidge
3. Receive any new Declarations of Interest 226. None declared.
4. Councillor vacancies and possible co-option 227. Mrs P Harvey-Volanakis and Mr A Volanakis, prospective councillors by co-option, were welcomed and requested to give a brief overview of themselves and reasons for their interest in becoming a councillor, after which they adjourned to another room, while the council debated their applications.
228. It was unanimously resolved to Co- opt both Pam Harvey-Volanakis and Ari Volanakis onto the Council. After signing the necessary paperwork, they were welcomed and joined the meeting.
229. The minutes were unanimously accepted as a true record of the meeting and the Chair signed the file copy.
Approve the Minutes of 10th December 2018 meeting
5. External Reports 230. Cllr M King, speaking as a District Councillor stated that he had nothing to report.
231. Councillor V Vince – Police Liason – Nothing to report.
232. Forthcoming meeting of the local Neighbourhood Watch Group, to be held on Monday 21st was discussed, it was agreed that The Chair and Cllr F Stevenson would attend.
6. Community Group Reports 233. The Toller Trust – Cllr Stafford stated that he had nothing to report
7. Parish Matters
234. a. Tree work.
Cllr Stafford reported that he was still waiting to hear from the contractor re a date for the work to commence and for planning permission from SKDC. The Chair enquired if the price was agreed despite the delay in commencing the work and Cllr Stafford confirmed that it was.
235. b. Recreation Ground
i) Income - Cllr King informed the council that the cricket and bowls club do not pay rent. They do however make a voluntary yearly contribution for their use of the facilities and that these contributions may need to be reviewed.
ii) Expanding use - Cllr. Harvey-Volanakis suggested encouraging other groups to access the facilities available. It was suggested to do this via a notice in our newsletter.
236. c. Spring Wells sluice gate and weedcatcher update. Cllr Stafford reported that he was still waiting to hear from the contractor re a start date for the work to be undertaken. Cllr King asked if this matter could be expedited and the Chair asked Cllr Stafford to contact the contractor again. It was agreed that Cllr Stafford, accompanied by the Chair, would meet the contractor on site asap to finalise the details and start date.
237. d. Aveland Site Ownership i) Cllr King reported that that there was still no date as to when the completion of the land
238. e. Emergency Plan. The Chair advised that the Fire Service had offered to assist with compiling a new emergency plan for the village as the current one is out of date. She asked for volunteers to work with her on this. Cllr Harvey-Volanakis volunteered to assist. Cllr Pocock stated that he wished to stand down from this role.
239. Newsletter. The Chair reported that she had obtained a quote for printing and delivery i.e. £ 45-50 for printing 500 A5 double sided leaflets and £20 for delivery. She is to re-visit this for a quote for 650 units. Yellow paper was suggested to make the leaflet stand out. ‘YourLocalLincs’ magazine will distribute the newsletters on a bi-monthly basis. Suggested March as a start date? Cllr A Volanakis volunteered to edit the newsletter.
240. Finance Matters.
i) The payments and invoices were presented for approval and discussion. The Council unanimously agreed the list of expenditure & Cllrs Stevenson and Vince signed the invoices and expenditure sheets and will also authorise the BACS payments. ii) The final account for the allotments water repair has now been paid. To enable him submit a claim to LCC for a possible reimbursement of all costs incurred, Cllr King requested a full breakdown of these – clerk to supply this.
iii) Maintenance – the clerk remarked that on his tour of the village, he had noticed that the pavilion appeared to be in need of routine maintenance work. The Chair responded that funds had been allocated in the 2019/20 budget to address this transfer to BPC will be complete and that its progress is being hindered by minor niggles, which he continues to challenge.
ii) The Chair advised that the boundary fence which is the responsibility of LCC is broken in several places.
a. Accounts to date. These were presented electronically to the meeting by the outgoing clerk.
241. b. Budget 2019/20 due to technical difficulties this document wasn’t available for the council to ratify. Consequently; it was agreed that as the budget was drafted in November and discussed and agreed in December, that agreement could and would be undertaken via e mail. However, if any objections were raised following its circulation, then an EGM would be called to discuss and agree the 2019/20 Budget. All comments both of agreement or not, to be received by the Clerk and Chair by Saturday 19th January 2019.
i) Precept. It had been provisionally agreed by the Council at their December meeting that the Precept for 2019/20 should be £14,000. Cllr King challenged this amount and proposed that the Precept be increased to £14,155 being the same as last year’s precept plus the government grant (now withdrawn) so that the total for Billingborough was not reduced. Vote Taken - IN Favour 2, Against 5. No abstentions. The Chair then proposed that the original agreed precept figure of £14000 be adopted. This motion was carried by five to two. Cllr King asked that his vote against this proposal be noted. The Chair asked the other Cllr who voted against the proposal if they also wished to be identified, they responded that they did not wish to be. ii) Grass cutting in Blasson Way. It was agreed that the council would continue cutting the grass in Blasson Way and invoice Parkers for the work.
242 c. Amendment to Financial regulation 10.4. It was proposed by the Chairman and unanimously agreed by the Council that an amendment to this financial regulation be made. It shall now read ‘A member with the prior agreement of the Chairman or Vice chair, may issue an order for work up to the value of £50’. Consequently, the wording in 10.5 now requires adjustment to reflect this. ie. The RFO shall verify the lawful nature of any proposed purchase above £50………etc. These amendments are to be implemented immediately.
243 Planning Applications S18/2243 – resubmission of a previous approval S17/1982 - Chapel Street - a retrospective planning application has been submitted, in respect to the installation of additional windows. As this appears to compromise the original order, Cllr King proposed that the council should re-issue its original objection. The Council unanimously agreed with this proposal.
244 Urgent Reports. Michelle Free requested the images of the BT van hitting and damaging the height bar in the recreation ground car park. Chair to provide these.
245 Clerk’s Report. The new clerk gave a verbal report which included information he had received regarding defibrillators. He was requested to explore this topic further. He also expressed his interest in studying for a CILCA qualification, he confirmed that this would incur no costs for the council. It was agreed to revisit this later in the year.
246 Any other business. Cllr V Vince raised the issue of the recently closed fish and chip shop. The Council has no information regarding this recent closure.
There being no further business the Chairman closed the meeting at 2035
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Next Parish Council Meeting -- Including Policies To Be Reviewed:
Monday 11th March 2019
To be held in the Billingborough Primary school, commencing at 6.45pm