November 2018 Minutes
MAREHAM LE FEN PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the ordinary meeting held on 21st November 2018
Mrs S Millen. (In the Chair)
Councillors Present:
Mr P Chilvers
Mr R Cox.
Mr A Hawkes.
Miss I McLachlan.
Mr C Wentzell
District Councillor S Avison.
9 members of the public also attended.
Before the meeting the Chairman reminded the members of the public that they were not allowed to speak during the Council meeting. She told them that if they had any items they wished to discuss they must notify the Clerk and they would be put on the agenda
2749 Apologies for Absence.
Apologies were received from Miss P Fytche who was away and Mr A Pinder who was working.
2750 Declaration of interests.
There were no interests to declare.
2751. Minutes of the last meeting.
Minutes of the meeting held on 24th October 2018 had already been circulated to the Parish Councillors. The following amendments were made to Item 2742:
The date in the 1st paragraph should be 2019 and not 2018.
In the 3rd paragraph the word ‘letter’ should be replaced by ‘petition’.
The word ‘heated’ was removed, to now read; A debate followed and after this sentence the addition of ‘There was disruption from parishioners and some of the Councillors felt that the Chairman did not control the meeting’.
These alterations were read out and approved by Councillors. However, no one was prepared to propose that the minutes were correct. The Chairman therefore proposed that that they were accepted as a true record. Cllrs present neither approved nor opposed and
were silent. The Chairman signed the minutes. It was suggested that in future the Clerk should email the minutes to Cllrs so that they could be looked at before the meeting and so avoid any further alterations. The Clerk will do this.
2752 Matters Arising.
Following a request from Cllr Cox, the Chairman reminded the audience that they were not allowed to speak during the Parish Council meeting. Cllr Chilvers said that he had no intention of attending another meeting where friends and family of the Chairman were allowed to disrupt/sabotage the Council meeting. Following an interruption from a parishioner Cllr Avison advised the audience of the consequences of interrupting a meeting. The Chairman informed Cllrs that she had a meeting with the Monitoring Office so would make no comments on this.
Cllr Wentzell said he wished to propose a vote of no confidence in the Chairman. Cllr Avison said that this vote would be inappropriate until after the meeting with the Monitoring officer. Cllr Cox asked the Clerk to write and thank the builder who pointed the War Memorial.
Romina Llorente from Savills had replied to the Clerk’s email, saying that she hoped to receive final instructions from their clients at her meeting on 4th December.
2753 Co-option of a new Parish Councillor.
Two Parishioners had applied to fill the vacancy for a Parish Councillor. They were both asked to introduce themselves and to say briefly why they wished to become a Parish Councillor. A closed vote was taken, Mr John E Huggins was duly elected. He signed the relevant paperwork and was asked to join the Parish Councillors.
2754 Correspondence.
All correspondence would be dealt with under the relevant items on the agenda.
Cllr Avison told the Parish Council that correspondence should be read to the Councillors but should not be discussed at the meeting. The items concerned must be put on the agenda for the following meeting.
2755 Planning.
There were no planning items to discuss.
2756 Report from the local police officer.
The PCSO did not attend or send a report.
2757 Finance.
The following invoice was presented for payment:
D Lawrence £281.50 grass cutting to 31st October 2018.
It was proposed by Cllr R Cox and seconded by Cllr C Wentzell that this was paid, all voted in favour.
2758. Venue for Parish Council meeting 2019.
This item was revisited following a request to the Clerk by Cllrs Chilvers, Cox and Wentzell. Councillors complained that no venues other than the Community Centre were discussed.
The Clerk was asked to write to the Bowls Club for confirmation that the decision not to hire out the Bowls Club Hall to the Parish Council had been raised and decided by their Committee. The Clerk had been informed by LALC that if the school was run by the local authority, they were required to allow the Parish Council to use the Hall. The Parish Council would obviously be required to pay costs for the caretaker to open and close the school and for electricity etc. The School Governors will be contacted and asked for their hiring fees. These were proposed by Cllr I McLachlan and seconded by Cllr J Huggins. All voted in favour.
Cllr Cox read from a copy of a covenant dated June 1924 which stated “The Council hereby covenants with the trustees that they their successors and assigns will from time to time and at all time hereafter maintain and keep in good repair and condition the said Memorial Hall and permit the inhabitants of the said parish to have use and enjoyment of the same” It was proposed by Cllr Chilvers and seconded by Cllr McLachlan that this document was taken to the Parish Council’s solicitor for verification. All voted in favour of this. The Clerk will make an appointment for Cllrs Chilvers and Huggins to discuss this with the solicitor. She was also asked to contact the Red Lion at Revesby to make enquiries about the hiring of a private room for meetings. Cllr McLachlan proposed and Cllr Chilvers seconded the motion that the venue for the meeting on 16th January was put on hold until after the above questions had been resolved. Cllrs voted in favour of this.
The petition brought before the last meeting was discussed. Cllrs said that this suggests that the Parish Council are not supporting the new Community Centre because they (the Councillors) “wish to make life as difficult as possible and do as much harm as they can to the Community Centre and it’s management team and potentially deprive the community of what should be an important and successful social hub”. Cllrs said it was not the intention of the Parish Council. They had hired the Bowls Club Hall at a very competitive price, saving parishioners money and also supporting another part of the Village community. Cllrs also noted that not all parishioners had been approached, the Cllrs view was that the petition was very biased because only selected residents had been approached to support the petition. The Clerk was asked to write to all of the parishioners who signed this petition and to also put a copy of the letter on the notice boards. This was proposed by Cllr Chilvers and seconded by Cllr McLachlan, Cllrs voted in favour.
Cllr Avison remarked that it was a shame that there was so much animosity in the Village.
2759 Cemetery to discuss Cemetery Memorial safety Policy.
This item will be discussed at the next meeting to allow Cllr Huggins to read the proposed policy.
The dangerous grave stones had now been dealt with by relatives of the deceased. The Cllrs said there were 2 war graves that they were aware of so the Clerk will contact the War Graves Commission and ask if they have records of any war graves in Mareham le Fen and what their policy is for dealing with any unstable graves. This was proposed by Cllr Huggins and seconded by Cllr Wentzell, Cllrs voted in favour of this. Cllr Avison suggested that the Clerk could also contact the Clerk at Conningsby to ask for her advice as they had dealt with the same problems.
2760 Grass Cutting and management.
The Clerk had emailed the contractor to ask if he could empty the bins at the Cemetery but had been informed that they were no longer able to do this. Cllr Chilvers had spoken to the maintenance contractor and been informed that several of the trees in the Cemetery needed work doing to them and that one of them needed removing. Cllr Chilvers suggested Cllrs should meet the contractor to discuss this and also to discuss removing part of the hedge leading to the new Cemetery plot. This would mean that the hedge/ tree cuttings could be put on the new plot and burned, this would also solve the problem of emptying the bins. Cllr Chilvers will arrange a meeting with the contractor and inform Cllrs. An email had been sent to the Clerk by Joshua Hague of JJH services giving details of the services his firm provided and the equipment they had. The Clerk had replied to say that she would keep his details for future reference.
2761 Verge Cutting.
LCC had sent notification of the verge cutting budget for 2019/20. These details had already been circulated to all Cllrs. If the Parish Council decided to subscribe to the scheme LCC would pay a minimum contribution of £655.91 towards the cost of verge cutting. Cllr Wentzell proposed that the Parish Council should accept this and cut the verges, it was seconded by Cllr Cox, 1 Cllr abstained and the rest voted in favour.
2762 Grit Bins.
Cllrs had decided that they didn’t want to participate in this scheme, however Parishioners had asked if a grit bin could be sited at Revesby Corner. The Clerk will write to ask for a bin on this site. Proposed by Cllr Millen, seconded by Cllr Hawkes. Cllrs voted in favour.
2763 Dog waste issues.
Cllr Pinder had had a lot of complaints about the lack of waste bins. These complaints had also been put on the Mareham website. Bins were needed at the end of Church Walk where at least 20 dog waste bags had been noticed in the hedges on the Village Green. The Chairman will get the forms and a map to apply for more dog bins in the Village.
2764 Precept discussion meeting
A meeting of Cllrs must be held in early January 2019 to discuss the precept and community donations. This will be an informal meeting and be held at The Red Lion at Revesby. The Clerk will arrange this.
2765 Dates for Parish Council meetings 2019
The Clerk said that the 1st meeting of the year must be held on 16th January 2019 because the Precept had to be in by 23rd January 2019. The venue for this meeting has yet to be confirmed.
2766 Parish matters.
Cllr Huggins suggested that a there should be a list of any residents who required help. It was suggested that a “flag” system be used so that residents could put this in their window to show when help is required. Cllr Hawkes will compose a leaflet to advertise this. This item will be put on the next agenda.
Cllr McLachlan reported that the pot holes at the top of School Road where it meets Main Street. The Clerk will ask Cllr Aron to deal with it.
Cllr Chilvers said that the Memorial Lawn had never looked so bad. The Parish Council had approached the VHMC with an offer to reseed and maintain the Memorial Lawn but the offer had been declined. They said that a new memorial was being prepared at the new community centre. Cllr Wentzell asked if the Clerk could send a box of chocolates and a Christmas card to the lady who cleared rubbish around the Village. All Cllrs approved of this.
The meeting closed at 9.22.