November 2020 Minutes
Minutes Of The Hogsthorpe Parish Council Meeting Held At 4.30pm On Wednesday 4th November 2020
Present: Cllrs L Wildman (Chairman), M Culley, M Banks, V Worley and K Stafford (Clerk)
Also present: J Midgley, prospective Councillor candidate,
Public Forum
No members of the public were present at the public forum.
1. Apologies – Cllrs P Smith, A Brown and T Smith who are self isolating.
2. Declarations Of Interest – None
3. Approval Of Minutes - It was unanimously resolved that the notes of the Meeting of 7th October 2020 be accepted as a true record of the proceedings and were duly signed by the Chairman.
4. Clerk’s Report
a) All letters with refunds to the exhibitors who were waiting to see if a Christmas fair would be held have now been completed.
b) Blocked Drains - Lincolnshire Highways have referred the matter to contractors but are unable to state a date for completion as they need enough drains in the area to come out. It was resolved that the Chairman would inspect the village for other problem drains, especially in the Mill Lane area so that the Clerk could report any further issues to Highways. Cllr M Culley also made the meeting aware of properties in the village affected by flooding issues. It was resolved Cllr Culley would draw up a list of affected properties so the Clerk could contact Anglian Water about the issues with the affected properties.
5. To Receive Reports From Outside Bodies & Other Meeting
a) Cllr Banks reported that all meetings for Charity Farm were still cancelled. Also, that a replacement Councilor would need to be found to replace ex Cllr B Hornby, to fulfil the role on the Charity Committee as Parish Councillor representative. Cllr Worley expressed an interest in fulfilling this role.
b) Cllr Banks reported that the Village Hall Committee had a meeting two days previously. The village hall will be closed again as from 5 November due to the national lockdown. It would only be used by the Good Neighbours Scheme to provide takeaway meals on a Tuesday for villagers in need and as an emergency foodbank.
c) The Chairman requested that an amendment be made to the allotment agreement that no bonfires should be permitted on a Sunday. This was unanimously agreed.
6. Correspondence – An e-mail had been received from a Hogsthorpe resident concerned about the state of disrepair of a wall in the churchyard between the two burial grounds. This is a matter that the Parish Council were aware of but were previously denied permission by the High Church to remove headstones from the wall in order to carry out the repair. It was resolved the Chairman would raise the matter again at the next Church meeting to ask the Church to either take responsibility for the structure or if it is the responsibility of the Parish Council to allow the Council to carry out the repairs. The Clerk to reply to the member of public raising the concern.
7. Financial Matters
a) Payment of accounts was approved for £520 for the Parish Clerk for her hours training the new Clerk, £20.40 to Hallgate for the fire extinguisher inspection, £196 to Stone Printers for the Autumn Newsletter and £100 to the British Legion Poppy Appeal for wreaths and donation.
b) The budget and accompanying explanations having been previously emailed out was discussed. It was agreed that £3,000 should be spent during the coming year to continue repairing the footpaths in the Church graveyard. It was agreed the new Clerk’s hours should be increased to 10 hours per week with immediate effect plus any extra hours incurred for initial training required. It was proposed, seconded and unanimously agreed that the budget as presented is accepted. c) Cllr Brown and Cllr T Smith objected to the Parish Council paying for the new website to be set up by an outside organisation as they felt this was part of the Parish Clerk’s role. In addition, Cllr Brown also stated that she had offered to do the website for the Parish Council free of charge. The Chairman was concerned that there could be a potential conflict of interest with Cllr Brown completing the website. The Clerk explained that the website needed to be set up before the end of December when Lincs County Council would be closing down all the old websites. She had taken advice from Jen Cooper, a senior Parish Clerk of several parishes. She advised there was training available for the Clerk to set up the website but that it would take many hours training. Her advice was to pay for Intellitech Services to set up the website initially and then she would train the Clerk in maintaining and updating it going forward. There was another service available offering free installation but she had some concern over it offering a correct website as certain criteria have to be fulfilled and the timescale in which they could do it. Intellitech Services who had set up Chapel Saint Leonards Parish website amongst others could complete the task for £300 within a month. It was agreed by the Cllrs present that Intellitech services build the initial website and the Clerk would investigate what maintenance would be provided going forward if needed and any additional costs for this.
8. Planning
a) WestView, Thames Street - granted
b) Common Farm, Skegness Road – granted
c) HillView Park, Skegness Road – No objections received
9. DF11 Speed Camera Indicator
The Chairman asked the Cllrs to look at the statistics produced by the DF11 whilst set up on the High Street over the previous two months in order to decide whether to refer the matter to the police. It was unanimously resolved that the Chairman would approach the police with the statistics produced by the DF11. Cllr Culley proposed the Council purchased a box of chocolates for ex Cllr E Carter for the hard work she had put in collating and presenting the data. The Chairman declared an interest, the other Cllrs agreed the Clerk to purchase the chocolates.
10. Playpark Update
A meeting preceded this meeting for which minutes are published.
11. Christmas Lights Competition.
It was agreed that Cllr Worsley would organise the Christmas Lights Competition this year on behalf of the Council. The Chairman will source some prizes. Three for the best decorated window and three for the best decorated garden. Cllr Worsley had also researched some Christmas banners to be put up at each end of the village. It was resolved to purchase two of these saying Merry Christmas from Hogsthorpe.
12. Newsletter
Cllr Worley has produced and passed around a draft copy of the December Newsletter. It was agreed to use black print on white to make it easily readable. The Chairman and the Good Neighbours Scheme will also provide articles by mid-November. Cllr Worley hopes the Newsletter will be ready to go out early December.
13. Date Of Next Meeting
As the country is about to go into national lockdown until 2 December it will not be possible to use the Village hall on 2 December. It was agreed that the meeting be postponed to the following Wednesday 9 December at 6pm.
Meeting closed at 5.55 pm