January 2022 Minutes
KEXBY PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of a meeting held on 12th January 2022
Present; Cllr. R. Gore (Chair), Cllr. S Farrow, Cllr. C. Hunt, Cllr. C. Cuckson, Cllr. L. Hoggarth
Apologies; had been received from Cllr. J. Milne.
01/22 Minutes of meeting held on 10th November 2021 had been circulated and were approved
02/22 Matters arising;
a) Banking arrangements – despite further chasing by the Chairman Barclays had made no progress with this. It was decided to leave the matter in abeyance until after the end of the financial year to avoid unnecessary disruption at the year end.
b) Fibre Broadband – The Clerk had held a remote meeting with Hayley Silvester of Quickline to get an update. She requested that the Parish Council put a request on Facebook and the village website to encourage residents to register their interest. She suggested a “drop-in” session in the village hall on Saturday 12th March between 10:00am and 2:00pm, Quickline would finance this and arrange the publicity. The Clerk was asked to check the availability of the hall and to liaise with Upton Parish Council.
Action GP/CH
c) Parish Cottage – the landlord check had been carried out from which there were no issues arising (tidying of the garden had been agreed as an on-going task). The annual tenancy renewal was still outstanding and the Chairman agreed to get this signed off.
Action RG
d) Platinum Jubilee – there had only been 5 children identified in response to the request on Facebook and other attempts to obtain a comprehensive list had proved unsuccessful. Cllr. Hunt had investigated alternatives to the mugs discussed at the previous meeting and had examples of a tea towel (£3) and a commemorative coin in a presentation pack (1.80). It was agreed that a commemorative coin pack would be presented to every household in the parish rather than presenting mugs to the children. Cllr. Hunt was authorised to go ahead and order 150 packs.
Action CH
The Clerk was asked to contact Sue Roberts (organiser of the Jubilee committee) for an update and to offer any support she may need from the Parish Council. He was also asked to inform Upton Parish Council of Kexby’s plans for the event.
Action GP
e) Public footpaths – the overgrown area of the path between the well and Willingham Road had been cleared. The Chairman agreed to speak to the occupier of the house adjacent to the path between High Street and the sports field to ask if he would ensure that it did not become overgrown.
Action RG
f) Telephone box – the Clerk had spoken to Chris Petty about the paint peeling off the woodwork, he was aware of this and was planning to address the issue once the weather was dry enough.
g) Playing field ¬– no further updates had been received regarding the likely cost of replacing the children’s play equipment. It was agreed that no further action was required of the Parish Council until a request for funding support was received.
h) Energy Park – further correspondence had been received which included dates of consultation events, both virtual and live meetings. Details would be posted on Facebook and the website and the Chairman agreed to shrink the A3 poster which had been provided to A4 so that it could be displayed on the notice board.
Action RG/GP
3/22 Financial Report – the financial position remained strong and there were no major items of expenditure expected before the end of the financial year. Cllr. Farrow proposed the confirmation of the 2022 precept at £2,000, seconded by Cllr. Hunt and passed unanimously. The form was signed off and the Clerk would forward it to WLDC and put a copy on the website.
Action GP
4/22 Correspondence
a) Post Office – a complaint had been received about unreliability, the Chairman had reported this to the MP (Sir Edward Leigh) who had promised to look into the matter. Subsequently it had been discovered that Covid vaccinations had rendered the hall unavailable on Thursdays which may have been part of the problem. It was difficult to communicate effectively when the service was not going to be available but the Clerk would liaise with the village hall committee to see if this could be improved.
Action GP
b) LIVES – a request for funding support had been received, Covid restrictions had made fund raising particularly difficult and the organisation still had running costs to meet. It was agreed that LIVES provided an extremely valuable service and that they were worthy of support. Cllr. Hunt suggested a donation of £1 per household would be appropriate, this was agreed and the Clerk was authorised to send a donation of £150.
Action GP
5/22 Speed Indicator Report – there were still issues of vehicles speeding past the village hall, 755 having been recorded exceeding 50mph in the 40mph limit in November 2021 (out of a total vehicle count of 27,784 – 2.7%). The Clerk would continue to monitor the situation, times were recorded and the police could be asked to conduct speed checks at specific times if this became necessary.
6/22 Any Other Business
a) Fly tipping – this was a big problem down Glentworth Road, previous instances had been reported via “Fix My Street” which had eventually resulted in the Council removing the material. The Clerk was asked to report the current spate and everyone was asked to remain vigilant and, if they were able to collect any evidence, report it to WLDC. The Chairman agreed to write to WLDC about this problem
Action GP/RG
b) Potholes – there were numerous potholes along the length of Glentworth Road and it was getting quite dangerous. The Clerk was asked to report this on “Fix My Street”.
Action GP
c) Council Tax increase – Letter received from LCC stating that they proposed to increase Council Tax by 3% to cover increased cost of adult social care in line with local government finance settlement. Parish Councils were given the right to comment if they wished to do so but the feeling of the meeting was that this would make little difference so no action would be taken.
2/22 Time and place of next meeting – the main hall was now booked on a regular basis on every evening except Fridays, it was therefore agreed that subsequent meetings would be held in the downstairs committee room. These would normally be held on the second Wednesday of the month and access would be via the outer door so as not to disrupt activities in the main hall.
The next Parish Council meeting would be on Wednesday 9th March at 6:30pm
The May meeting would be at 6:30pm on Thursday 19th May to be followed by the Annual Parish Meeting at 7:30pm.
There being no further business the Chairman closed the meeting at 7:40pm.