October 2019 Minutes
MAREHAM LE FEN PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the meeting held on October 23rd 2019
Chairman, Mr J Huggins
Councillors:
Mr P Bourn.
Mr P Chilvers.
Mr R Cox.
Miss P Fytche.
Mr D Loveridge
District Councillor S Avison also attended.
County Councillor B Aron had sent his apologies, saying he would be arriving late due to another meeting.
5 members of the public also attended.
2919. Apologies for Absence.
Councillor C Wentzell sent his apologies, he was working.
2920. Declaration of interests.
No one had any interests to declare.
2921. Minutes of the Ordinary Parish Council meeting held on 18th September 2019 to be approved.
The minutes had already been circulated to the Councillors. Following the alteration of ‘black’ to ‘block’ on item 2914 it was proposed by Cllr Bourn and seconded by Cllr Chilvers that these were accepted. All Cllrs voted in favour and they were signed by the Chairman.
2922. Matters Arising.
The Clerk had contacted the contractor to ask him to carry out the work at the Cemetery, and informed the other applicant that he’d been unsuccessful. Cllr Chilvers had been notified that the owl box was ready and it was hoped it would be fitted on 31st October.
2923. Correspondence.
An email had been received from the secretary of The Community Centre answering the questions put to the Trustees by the Parish Council. This will be put on the agenda for discussion at next month’s meeting, it had not been received in time for inclusion at this meeting.
A Parishioner had written about the state of the grass in front of his property. This was not received in time for discussion at the meeting. It will be included on the agenda for next month’s meeting. Cllr Avison pointed out that the Parish Council is only responsible for the grass between the road and the footpath.
HMRC had sent a letter saying the tax payment of tax was late and a penalty could be charged. The Clerk said this was because her salary and tax were not paid until too late in the month, meaning that the tax couldn’t be paid in time. It was agreed that in future these would be paid earlier.
2924. Resignation of Councillor.
Cllr A Hawkes had resigned from the Parish Council, saying his work load had increased and he was unable to continue doing both jobs. The Clerk will write and thank him for his work for the Parish Council. The Clerk has notified East Lindsey District Council and put up a notice advertising the vacancy. If there are no applicants by 29th October a new Cllr can be co-opted by the Parish Council.
2925. Planning.
S/114/01514/19 for erection of a bungalow and house 3 houses on land adjacent to the playing field at Fieldside. Approval has been given to reserved matters.
S/114/01742/19. Online permission for a dwelling and garage on land at Fen Lane and Beggars Lane. Individual Parishioners had notified the Parish Council of their disapproval. Councillors discussed this and all agreed that the Clerk should contact ELDC, giving the following reasons:
- The land is agricultural.
- It is not within the curtilage of the Village.
- The dykes at the site are not far enough away from the proposed dwelling and there is a danger of flooding.
- The sewerage system, which is already having to be emptied twice weekly, is not able to cope with any more properties because it could leak into the drains.
- The application does not meet policy development SP3 or the NDF section 6.2.
Cllr Aron will investigate the drainage capacity.
2926. Benches for the Village.
Cllr Hawkes had been organising the benches, painting etc.
The school had replied to the Clerk’s email, asking for more details of the project. Cllrs still wanted to involve the school children in this.
Cllrs thought it would be better to use marine ply boards which the children could paint t school, the boards could then be attached to the bench. The Clerk will inform the school of the progress so far.
The siting of the benches was discussed, Church Walk and the Cemetery were thought to be the best positions. Cllr Avison said that planning permission was not required from ELDC but Cllr Aron said that if they were placed near roads planning permission would be required from LCC.
2927. Cemetery
Several Councillors were meeting the Savills representative, Romina Llorente, and Mr Sewell, who currently farms the land, to peg out the land which is being purchased.
2928. Finance.
The following bills were presented for payment:
£313.27 Mrs S Hendy Clerk’s salary and expenses.
£192.00 H M Revenue and Customs tax on Clerk’s salary
£402.00 Mr D Lawrence grass cutting Sept 2019
£21.00 Royal British Legion wreath for Remembrance Day
It was proposed by Cllr Cox and seconded by Cllr Loveridge that these were paid, all voted in favour.
2929. Grass Cutting and Management.
Everyone agreed that the contractor is doing an excellent job.
It was noted that, during the next season, Revesby Corner would need cutting more often.
Mr Lawrence reported that one of the new graves had sunk and asked the Parish Council for permission to fill this, this was given. He had purchased 4 new watering cans for the Cemetery.
Mr Lawrence said he would remove the grass cuttings from the compound after he’d finished the last cut.
2930. Maintenance and Church wall.
The Church Warden had emailed to ask the Parish Council if they could help with a donation towards the cost of repairing the wall on the south west corner of the Churchyard. Cllrs asked the Clerk to reply to find out if there were any pricings available before any decisions were made.
2931. Highway issues.
Cllr Aron reported that the new Highways Manager was now in post. He said he will chase up the problems that the Parish Council had already reported. Cllr Aron suggested that the Parish Council should write to the Highways department and complain about the length of time the Village had been waiting for the directional signs and report the dangerous state of the pavements. In the meantime, he will chase them up again.
Cllr Aron was asked to report a damaged cast iron grating in the road at the corner of Main road.
Cllr Avison had made enquiries on behalf of the Parish Council regarding the damaged road signs, the sign on Watery Lane would be replaced by the 1st November and the others checked.
There had been flooding on the road at the top of Lamins Lane, this was thought to be caused by the pond on land owned by the Revesby Estate. The Clerk will write and ask if they could sort out this problem.
Cllr Aron had taken photographs of the overhanging trees at Revesby corner and the high hedge at Wood Enderby and reported them to the Highways department.
2932. Path between Community Centre and Church.
Cllrs had received complaints that they could not park to get to the Church, there was disabled parking at the front of the Church but some parishioners were abusing this and parking here even if they were not disabled. The Chairman of the Community Centre was asked to comment on this issue and told the Parish Council that parking was available at the top of the Community Centre car park for Church goers to use, they could then go straight through the gate to the Church. He said that if anyone complained to the Parish Council about the parking, they should be referred to the Community Centre Trustees who would be able to deal with the issue. A Cllr also suggested that the Parishioners should be asked at the Church service not to park in the disabled spaces.
2933. Grit Bins.
Cllrs had investigated sites which would be advantageous for putting grit bins, these were at Revesby Corner, near the foot ball pitch, at the top of Watery Lane, by the green on Horncastle Road and near the 2 bends towards Wood Enderby. The Clerk had sent these
suggestions to Cllr Aron and he said that the Highways department had approved those by the football pitch and the bends towards Wood Enderby. These will be put in place before the winter and should be kept topped up by LCC.
2934. Parish matters and items for the next agenda.
Cllrs said that there were some concerns about flooding following the recent heavy rain. There were empty sandbags in the Chapel and apparently there was a pile of sand stored at Moat Farm which could be used by the Parish Council. Cllrs will check that the bags were still intact and Cllr Chilvers will check that the sand was still available, if not a bulk bag could be purchased. Cllr Bourn suggested that bags were filled and put on a pallet in the Chapel ready for use in an emergency.
The Community Centre was built on a higher ground so would be the ideal meeting place in such an emergency.
Cllr Avison reported that it was planned to build new ELDC offices at Horncastle. These would replace the old ones at Manby. The old site would be sold to help finance the new buildings.
Cllr Huggins said he would write the articles for the magazine.
The following items will be put on the agenda for the November meeting:
Letter from Parishioner regarding the grass cutting.
Venue for Parish Council meetings in 2020.
Letter from Community Centre Trustees.
The meeting closed at 9.00 pm.
The next meeting will be held at the Bowls Club at 7.30 on 20th November 2019.