January 2021 Minutes
Minutes of a meeting of Crowland Parish Council
Held on Monday 11th January 2021
Remotely, via Zoom at 7:00pm
Present: Mr B Alcock, Mr D Kempton, Mr P Green, Mr G Searle, Mrs J Woodroffe,
Mr R Boot, Mr L Quince and Mrs A Williams
Clerk: Mrs A Harrison
County & District Cllr Mr N Pepper
District Cllr Mr J Astill
In the Chair: Mr Kempton
1) 128. Apologies for Absence
Mr D Ancill, Miss C Elphee, Mr D Ringham, Mr J Boor and Mr M Atkinson
2) 129. Declaration of Interests as per the LGA 2000
Mr G Searle: Crowland Cares & South Holland Voluntary Car Scheme
Mr B Alcock: Normanton Land (if discussed)
3) 130. To Agree as a correct Record the Minutes of the Previous Meetings
Proposed: Mr Green
Seconded: Mr Boot
All agreed
4) 131. Matters Arising from the previous minutes and Clerks’ Report - to receive the Clerks’ report of actions outstanding.
A copy of the Clerk’s report had been circulated prior to the meeting.
· Replacement heaters for the Parish Council buildings is urgent.
· Request a proper meeting of the Amenities Committee, in particular to address the plan to resolve the issues in the Pavilion and Parish Rooms heating.
· Lease of the land from the Diocese;
o DK had a conversation with the guy at Saville’s who promised something in time for this meeting, but nothing received.
· Mr Boor will give Clerks an inventory of the Implement Shed, not “itinerary”.
· Stopping up of the Chase - agreement needs to be signed - contact Mr Atkinson.
5) 132. Chairman’s Report - to receive the Chairman’s report
A copy of the report had been circulated prior to the meeting.
· Conversation needs to be had about how we make discretionary payments decisions;
o Propose that we have a working party meeting on a Monday evening in February to discuss
Action: Mr Kempton & Clerk
6) 133. Amenities Committee - to receive the Chairman’s report.
A copy of the report had been circulated prior to the meeting.
· Painting of the roundabout is in planned
o Sample of paint from FLP to match it with the other equipment
o Need to ensure that a proper primer is used so that the paint does not chip off as it did before
· RB reported that he had replaced the drain cover in the car park by the surgery.
· Hole has appeared in one of the tiles under the swings on the children’s playground
o RB will look at it tomorrow
Action: Mr Boot
7) 134. Finance and Admin Committee - to receive the Chairman’s report and to agree the Parish Precept for 2021/22
A copy of the report had been circulated prior to the meeting.
· Going to be another tight year and we have put a prudent budget forward
o Propose an increase per Band D property of 2.52% which equates to 3 pence per household, per week
· If the CIO comes into existence and takes over the running of the Sports Hall and if the ratable value of the allotment shed comes down, and if we get our houses built and rented out, things will start to get better towards the latter part of the year
The Finance Committee recommended an increase of £5,000 to last year’s Precept
Moved: Mr Alcock
Seconded: Mr Green
It was agreed to set the Parish Precept for 2021/22 at £110,000
8) 135. Farms & Gardens Committee - to receive the Chairman’s report
A copy of the report had been circulated prior to the meeting.
· Some allotment holders have not paid the rent on their plots, despite sending out invoices in October and following up with reminder letters
o Mr Boor is now telephoning the holders to find out whether they wish to continue with their allotments, before taking any further action
· There are plenty of allotments available
· Waiting for Seagate to finish their marking out before we decide exactly where the barrier will go
o Might be an opportunity to get some hard standing put down for parking
9) 136. Planning Committee - to receive the Minutes of the Planning Committee held on 14th December 2020
· Out of all the applications to be discussed, there was only one contentious planning application, which was a retrospective one.
· Mr Alcock questioned the comment, ‘the Parish Council relies on the expertise of the Officers’, on a number of applications and felt that the Planning Committee could come up with something else, as local knowledge should be used to give opinion on these applications.
· West Street bus shelter is on the Agenda for next week’s Working Party meeting
· Mr Boot stated that he had received a complaint from a resident concerning the West Street bus shelter, which he will pass on to the Chairman of the Planning Committee.
o Mr Alcock advised that this has been reported to the Police and the Antisocial Behaviour team at SHDC
o Issue of extreme noise and nuisance
It was agreed to accept the Minutes of the Planning Committee
Moved: Mr Searle
Seconded: Mrs Williams
10) 137. Safety & Security - to receive the Chairman’s report
A copy of the report had been circulated prior to the meeting.
· Mr Searle added that hare coursing has been a major concern 28 cases within 8 weeks
· With the assistance of Mr Boor and the 2 grounds men 7 risk assessments have been carried out
o Clerks to keep electronically in the PC files
· It was agreed that, with regards to the Sports Hall, the CIO should do their own risk assessment and Mr Searle will assist
· Taking into consideration the seriousness of the situation, provided that the quotation is within a reasonable percentage, (no more than 10% above what we paid last year), we will have the extinguishers serviced by Fenland Fire
Action: Mr Searle
Proposed: Mr Kempton
Seconded: Mr Green
All agreed
11) 138. Fitness & Well-being Centre - to receive the team’s report
A copy of the report had been circulated prior to the meeting.
· Contractors are on-site as of this morning
o Site manager employed by the school is a useful addition to the team, as a go-between from the school and the contractor
· Standard acknowledgement from the Charity commission but we will now have to answer further questions.
· S106 money continues to be put into the pipeline and we should have enough to complete these works and pay for the new equipment for the children’s play area
12) 139. Assets Working Party - to receive the team’s report
A copy of the report had been circulated prior to the meeting.
· Contractors and builders seem to be moving on quite well, with a digger and dumper truck on site today, to formally start the Abbey Field development
o The first load of stone was delivered this afternoon
· Action list of things we need to be working on, e.g., tender for Estate Agent to take on the letting of the properties once built
o License required for the developers to abide by before they come onto site. Any damage, etc. will be covered by them
· End of February/beginning of March, building will start in earnest
· Letters from the developers were dropped into all the dwellings within the vicinity, with contact numbers if needed
13) 140. GDPR
· Mrs Woodroffe had done some work on this and had decided that the documents used by Deeping St Nicholas Parish Council were straightforward and user-friendly.
o The Clerk had been a member of the Task Group, working with the Compliance Officer at SHDC, on the creation of a GDPR policy, when it was first brought into law. Therefore, the documents created for DSN PC were born of this work.
It was agreed that Mrs Woodroffe would work with the Clerk on the background papers and circulate the documents to all Members in order that they can be discussed and formally adopted at the next Council meeting.
· Following that, an audit would need to be carried out to ensure that we are compliant with the policy.
· The Clerk will register the PC with the ICO
Action: Clerk & Mrs Woodroffe
Mrs Woodroffe proposed that the Council adopt the Policy
Seconded: Mr Green
All agreed
14) 141. Accounts for Payment
· There were no S137 payments
· It was agreed that the payment of £10 to the Diocese of Lincoln would be put on hold due to the ongoing issue regarding the Lease
Moved: Mr Alcock
Seconded: Mrs Woodroffe
All Agreed to make all other payments as listed.
15) 142. Matters to be considered for inclusion on a future Council Agenda
· Mr Boot mentioned that he had had an altercation with people using a metal detector on the Kissing Ground
o Need to erect some signs, as this activity is not allowed
Action: Mr Boor & Mr Ringham
Meeting ended at 8:50pm