Minutes of Irnham Annual Parish meeting, 16th May 2018
Minutes of Irnham Annual Parish Meeting
Held in St Andrew’s Church, Irnham on Wednesday 16th May 2018 at 7pm
Present:- Cllrs Amanda Ayre, Jenny Crow, Lynda Hall, Trevor Vanson.
Parish Council Clerk: Jenny Crow
Also in attendance:- Cllr Martin Hill, Cllr Nick Robins, 25 residents.
1. Apologies for absence
a. Mr T Bagge, Mr C Overend
2. Approval of last year’s minutes
a. In previous years the Minutes of the AGM had been approved at the next PC Meeting. The Minutes were approved last year on 21 June 2017.
3. Matters arrising
a. None.
4. Chairman’s report on the work of the parish council during the last year (Full report available on the website.)
a. Thanks were given to Councillors for all their hard work during the year which is all on a voluntary basis. Residents were also informed that no expenses are claimed. This, together with other generous donations of time and facilities has enabled the funds for the Parish Council, raised through the Council Tax, to be kept to £1400 per year. The Landlord of the Griffin Inn, Chris Overend, was thanked for the use of his room for meetings, which is again at no cost to the Parish Council.
b. Achievements in 2017/18 include two sessions of Defibrillator training, a 3rd annual Christmas singalong, participation in the SKDC Big Clean, continued discussions with Onlincolnshire regarding Broadband provision and pressing for deer management in the Parish.
c. The Chairman also thanked Ian & Mandy Dawson for work done to maintain the Irnham ‘phone box as a Book Swap. Work is also progressing to develop the Bulby ’phone box as an information/history centre. David Hall was thanked for his continued maintenance of the water pump and also for his work installing the 30mph signs for periods of time in Irnham.
d. The Chairman reminded residents that the contribution of £300 towards the Churchyard maintenance helps keep this facility available to anyone in the Parish. Charles Leggatt was thanked for all his work mowing the grass.
e. Irnham Parish Council belongs to the Lincolnshire Association of Local Councils and this has also enabled them to secure a grant of £600 for the purchase of computer equipment for Parish Council business.
f. A bench seat has now been purchased for Bulby.
g. Councillors have agreed that at present it is not appropriate to do any work on a Neighbourhood Plan.
5. Finance report for 2017/18
a. Precept remained this year at £1400 to enable a small contingency to build up for any future election expenditure.
b. Two grants have been received this year. Transparency Code funding of £600 has been received towards the cost of complying with the new code. This is a one off payment. A contribution of £97.50 has been received in respect of the work done in the Parish to keep the environment tidy. This grant covered the period January to March 2018. The grant will continue next year.
c. Major expenses: Fridge Magnets £87.60,Contribution to Irnham Churchyard Maintenance £300.00, Insurance £248.68, Replacement pads for defibrillators at a cost of £538.56 from the Defibrillator Fund.
d. Main Account has a balance of £1372.27. £350 is earmarked for a bench to be sited in Bulby and £400 is a contingency for election costs. Approximately £600 is therefore carried forward to 2018/19. The Defibrillator Fund has a balance of £5750.79.
e. The accounts have been audited by Martin Fuggle and under the new arrangements for authorities with income and expenditure less than £25,000 an Exemption Certificate has been sent to the new Auditors PKF Littlejohn.
f. Councillors formally approved the accounts as a true record of our income and expenditure at their meeting on 11th April 2018. They were signed by the Chairman.
g. Documents are formally available for inspection for a set period of time and this will be Monday 4th June to Friday 13th July 2018.
h. Cllrs have now purchased the bench for Bulby at a cost of £273.60.
i. Cllrs approved the Insurance premium for 2018/19 of 251.20.
6. Report from parochial church council representative
a. Cllr Ayre reported that following the receipt of Planning permission for the toilet block at the Church work is progressing to appoint contractors.
7. Public forum on work of parish council and future priorities
a. Cllrs invited Cllr Martin Hill to respond to concerns about the state of the roads in the Parish. Cllr Hill began by also thanking Parish Councillors for their work. He explained that by 2020 LCC will have had a reduction in funding, during the previous 10 years, of 90% from 210 million to 20 million. Difficult decisions have had to be made with Adult Social Care and Highways budgets being protected. Cllr Hill also highlighted the work being done on the Fairer Funding Campaign which, if achieved, would see LCC 116 million a year better off. Funding to provide faster Broadband coverage to 100% of properties using fibre or alternative by 2020 has also had to be found. Cllr Hill turned to the state of the roads explaining the County has 5500 miles to maintain. The County has a lot of roads with a more sparse population than other counties and hence a smaller revenue. Approximately 34-40 million is spent by Highways each year. Recently an extra 9 million has come from the Government. The local roads were not built for the traffic seen today, they are too narrow and heavy vehicles damage the sides of the roads. Cllr Hill explained that proper surface dressing is the correct maintenance and cited Corby Road Irnham and Bulby Main Street as good examples where there are few potholes due to surface dressing having been carried out. The bad winter has clearly exacerbated the pothole situation. 30 teams are working around the County filling in the holes properly rather than just doing a temporary fix. Cllr Hill then offered to take questions from residents.
b. Residents expressed most concern about Swinstead Road, Irnham. Cllr Hill apologised for the state of the road and agreed it does need surface dressing. Parish Councillors expressed concern that this work does not currently appear in the LCC schedule. Residents also expressed the opinion that potholes need filling first before surface dressing work is carried out. This was not done on the two roads in the parish mentioned under 7a. It was also agreed that at least two of the potholes on Swinstead Road could be considered dangerous. Dangerous potholes should have an emergency fill within 28 days. On the narrow roads in the Parish potholes at the side of the road can cause a lot of damage as motorists pull off the road to enable vehicles to pass. The view that these potholes must be fixed as well as those further into the carriageway was expressed strongly. Residents who have suffered damage to vehicles are claiming costs from LCC and the opinion that these should be considered sympathetically, bearing in mind the state of the road, was expressed. Parish Councillors have been reporting the same potholes for over a year now and have become frustrated at the lack of information coming from the Highways team. Cllrs acknowledge the Highways Manager doesn’t want constant interruption to his work, to answer queries, but communication via the website is not working. Cllr Hill accepted the Highways Fault Reporting system is not functioning usefully and said LCC may need to look for an alternative system, such as Fix My Street, for the purpose in the future. The matter of speeding lorries was raised as well as the damage caused by these and the introduction of a weight limit could be investigated. It was acknowledged that the road from the A15 to the A1, passing through Hawthorpe and Irnham, is used as a ‘rat run’.
c. The way forward: Cllr Hill hoped to see potholes across the County filled by July. He also indicated that teams should visit an area and repair all the potholes rather than keep making return visits as further potholes are reported. Cllr Hill will arrange for a site visit with the Highways Manager for the area. Longer term the possibility of local help to fill holes more quickly could be investigated. Parish Councillors to investigate the possibility of introducing a weight limit on the Parish Roads. Cllr Hill was thanked for his support for the Parish.
d. Cllrs invited Cllr Nick Robins to update residents on the work of SKDC. Cllr Robins explained the change of administration in April 2017 and the new ways of working. One impact for Irnham was the Big Clean which has been an excellent initiative. The District Council is following this up and appointing Environment/Crime Officers to deal with fly tipping as well as dog fouling problems. Much work is being done on the regeneration of the market towns in the district.
e. The Clerk thanked LCC and SKDC for the recent grass cutting and weeding work carried out in the Parish. This seemed to be an improvement over work done previously. The next cut is scheduled for September.
8. Date of next meeting:- Wednesday 27th June, 7pm, Griffin Inn. The AGM in 2019 will be Wednesday 15th May.
Meeting ended at 8.30pm.