2023 Annual Parish Meeting DRAFT Minutes STILL TO BE APPROVED
Draft Minutes of Fiskerton’s Annual Parish Meeting held on Thursday 25TH May 2023 at Fiskerton Village Hall
Present: Cllr A Walker (Chairman), Mrs M Vail (Clerk), and 15 residents
Meeting started at 7pm.
1) Welcome from the Chairman of Fiskerton Parish Council:
All were welcomed and thanked for attending.
2) Minutes of the last parish meeting held on 31ST May 2022:
RESOLVED to accept the minutes of the last parish meeting as a true record.
3) Chairman’s report on the activities of the Parish Council:
The Chairman provided the following report:
* Explained the purpose of the meeting, noting that only he and the Clerk were present in their official capacity. Those parish councillors at this meeting were in attendance as residents only.
* Jeffrey McGeachie and Lester Matthews were introduced as newly appointed parish councillors.
* Parish Council activities in the last three months have been:
i. Installation of three Village gateway signs at a cost of approx. £1000. The 49th Squadron had contributed £500 towards this.
ii. Supporting the Village Hall Coronation party with a £500 grant
iii. Gifting residents with Coronation bookmarks costing approx. £800 (paid for from the Lark Energy Fund)
iv. Approached the Church Commissioners, through the services of a Land Agent, with a view to obtaining the paddock. This did not yield results so the Council will continue to pursue.
v. Moved to official Council email addresses; and use of Dropbox to streamline operations & comply with data protection. Consideration may be given in future to scanning historical Council documents.
* Chairmans Priorities
i. Bridge building and One Vision: these are priorities carried over from the previous year as further improvements can be made. The Council would like to see it and residents working together on a shared vision for the village. An improved relationship with residents will help to achieve this.
ii. To drive the Neighbourhood Plan forward to completion and adoption. Work had been paused whilst the Central Lincs Local Plan had been reviewed and formally adopted.
iii. Paddock or other recreational area: The aforementioned approach to the Church Commissioners had been unsuccessful as they did not want to engage in dialogue. The Council would like an informal conversation with them, and can explore with WLDC the idea of compulsory purchase. Should any planning application in respect of the paddock be made to WLDC, the following will help guide decisions made on the planning application: National Planning Policy Framework; Central Lincs Local Plan; and a Neighbourhood Plan.
iv. Complete the village gateway project – this has been a 6-year project. Village entry signs have recently been installed. Next stages of the project are: flashing SID, white marker gates, upgraded 30mph signs
Data from flashing speed indicator devices can be used to support future requests to help tackle speeding; and record traffic both entering and exiting the village. A Community Speed Watch Scheme can be effective, but requires enough interested volunteers to make it viable to run.
v. To continue to deliver improvements and value for money: gradual improvements have been made. The Council is now back up to full strength so has more Councillors to move matters along.
* Budget and reserves
i. The precept in the previous year was £24,687, which equates to £65.84 per household per annum, or £5.49 per month. The estimated precept figure is agreed in November and the final agreed and submitted to WLDC in January each year.
ii. The budget is divided into three areas: Administration; Village Maintenance and Projects. Once essential expenditure has been taken into account, only approximately £5000 remains for improvements (projects). Noted that having a Neighbourhood Plan in place will increase any Community Infrastructure Levy payments to the Council from 15% to 25%.
* Summarised communication matters as follows:
i. Questionnaire – suggestion that one be carried out every 4 years to allow Council activities to reflect what residents want. One resident has in-depth experience and offered their help.
ii. Annual parish meeting – feedback at this meeting feeds into the budget setting process
iii. Monthly council meetings
iv. Via the clerk, website, notice board, Fiskerton News
v. Social media is not used at present but may be revisited.
4) Clerk’s financial report:
A report was presented by the Clerk. The Chairman then explained the problems with a leaky village hall roof; and the subsequent project which led to the whole roof being replaced. Despite the whole project costing approximately £50,000.00, due to several grants being awarded the final Council/Village Hall financial outlay was only £2000.00. The National Lottery had allowed the unspent contingency monies to be spent on sundries for the village hall.
5) To receive a report and statement of accounts from the trustees of Fiskerton Village Hall:
A member of the Village Hall Management Committee advised that the final accounts had not yet been received. Whilst a formal report had not been provided for this meeting, they noted that a small financial surplus was anticipated for the first time in 5 years. The Management Committee has more members and is more pro-active; and is running some activities which will attract extra income. Energy prices are of concern at approximately £1000.00 per month. An electricity agreement has just been signed. A gas agreement is still to be finalised.
6) To receive Police report – Lincolnshire Police:
There was no police presence at this meeting; nor had a report been provided. Noted that a new Community Police Inspector is keen to re-establish links with parishes; and that he has advised that incidents should be reported to the police to enable these to be logged and resources allocated appropriately. Police presence is data drive, so the more reports from Fiskerton, the more likely the Police will be seen in the village.
7) To receive audited statement of accounts in respect of Hodgson’s Charity:
A report was read out. It was confirmed that the Hodgson Charity own the land on which the allotments sit; and that the Council rents this land from the Charity.
8) To receive a report on Fiskerton Primary School:
A report was read out to the meeting. Queries were raised as to the capacity of the school given the allocations for new housing as set out in the Central Lincs Local Plan. Noted that all secondary schools on this side of Lincoln are currently oversubscribed. This can be included within the Neighbourhood Plan.
9) To receive a Neighbourhood Plan report:
A Neighbourhood Plan meeting is planned; and feedback from residents is desired.
10) To receive a report on Fiskerton’s History & Archaeology Group:
A report was read out.
11) To receive a report from Neighbourhood Watch:
No report was available. There was uncertainty as to if this scheme still exists.
12) Comments from your District Councillors:
D/Cllr Christopher Darcel: With a small 2 vote Liberal majority, and 2 Independents, the May 2023 election for District Councillors was interesting. D/Cllr I Fleetwood is the new Leader of the Opposition.
D/Cllr Maureen Palmer introduced herself as a new District Councillor for the Cherry Wilingham Ward. She is currently undertaking several days of Induction training at WLDC. The Liberal Democrats are running WLDC.
D/Cllr Trevor Bridgwood, the second new District Councillor for the Cherry Willingham Ward, was not present at this meeting.
13) Comments from your County Councillor:
C/Cllr I Fleetwood advised that:
He is also a District Councillor for Bardney Ward; as well as Leader of the Opposition for WLDC and is hoping to keep past initiatives together under the new leadership.
LCC spends £3million per day. Lincolnshire has a large road network; the Social Care budget is substantial; expenditure on School Transport (including out-of-county) continues to rise; and that the bulk of an individual’s Council Tax goes to LCC to help fund their expenditure. Settlement funding from Central Government has steadily decreased over the years at both LCC and WLDC levels.
14) To receive ideas from residents for parish council work in 2024/25 (to feed into budget setting):
Residents raised the following matters:
* Concerns in respect of cars parked in the vicinity of one resident’s home, causing issues around lack of visibility in exiting the property and the associated potential for a serious collision. Some householders’ hedges are overhanging pavements which can lead to impaired visibility. It was suggested that this could link into the Neighbourhood Plan; and the setting up of a Community Speed Watch Scheme could be beneficial.
C/Cllr I Fleetwood advised that the police MAY get involved (more so if a dropped kerb is involved). Such matters should be reported to the police, and these will be logged on the police system.
* Hall Lane – Five Mile Lane – the path is half overgrown.
* Weeds in road gutters – although WLDC spray twice-yearly, the weedkilling solution is weak.
* Damage to footbridge over delph.
This, and many other Highways issues should be reported to LCC. Fix My Street is the recommended reporting tool for those able to access a computer.
The Council is developing a way to use its email account so that it can monitor all Fic My Street reported issues.
* There is a gap between the positioning of the Ferry Road bus shelter and its bus stop sign. Noted that this has previously been investigated and the Council were informed that they were deliberately positioned between two houses.
* Some Fiskerton residents have joined the Witham Valley Access Group which has the aim of improving local footpaths and footpath links. Two aspirations are to create a footpath from Fiskerton, through Cherry Willingham to Lincoln; and 2) to improve the Nelson Road- river footpath, including steps up the bank. The Council supports these aspirations.
15) Any questions from the public:
No further matters were raised.
C/Cllr I Fleetwood thanked Cllr A Walker for the evening.
Everybody was then thanked for attending.
Meeting ended at 9.04pm.
Mrs Michelle Vail
Parish Clerk
8th June 2023