November 2019 Minutes
A meeting of the Parish Council was held on Monday 11th November 2019, in the Jubilee Hall, High Street, Heighington and commenced at 19.30.
Public Participation
There were six members of the public present.
Present:Councillor Buckley-Jones (Chairman)
Councillor Briscoe
Councillor Chantler
Councillor Rushby
Councillor Cann
Councillor Spencer
County Councillor Oxby
District Councillor Goodwin
District Councillor Carrington
Co-Clerk (Finance): J James
127/M/19 Chairman’s welcome.
The Chairman welcomed those present and thanked them for coming.
The Chairman thanked Councillor Chantler for attending the Memorial Service and laying the Poppy Wreath and Councillor Sargent for laying the Poppy Wreath on behalf of the Guides. Thanks, were also given to the volunteers who placed the poppies on display at St Thomas Church.
128/M/19 To receive Apologies for Absence, Declarations of Interest and Requests for Dispensations.
Apologies for Absence:
Councillors Sargent and Dziadkiewicz, the reason for this absence was not accepted.
Apologies were received from Councillor Sockell, Councillor George and District Councillor Tinsley.
Declarations of Interest: There were no Declarations of Interest.
Requests for Dispensations: There were no Requests for Dispensations.
129/M/19 To approve notes as minutes from the meeting of the Parish Council on 14th October 2019.
The notes having been distributed before the meeting were taken as read and it was resolved to approve them as minutes.
Planning Matters
Tree works received from NKDC.
There were no Tree work applications received.
Tree works decision notices received from NKDC.
There were no Tree works Decision Notices received.
Planning applications received from NKDC
130/M/19 - 18/1723/FUL (Resubmission 17/1876/FUL) Application for a non-material amendment (amendments to North facing elevation windows and South facing first floor reduced) following a grant of planning permission. Erection of dwelling with access off Chapel Lane – Land to the rear of Rudgard Farm, Potterhanworth Road, Heighington, Lincoln LN4 1RS. Members had no comments regarding this application.
131/M/19 - 19/1455/HOUS 45 Washingborough Road, Heighington, LN4 1QW, erection of two storey rear extension. Members had no comments regarding this application.
132/M/19 - 19/1485/FUL Jean Mary, Acre Dyke Lane, Branston Booths, Lincoln, Erection of one bedroom holiday let. Members had no comments regarding this application.
Planning decision notices received from NKDC.
• 133/M/19
• 19/1000/OUT Autumn Lodge, 18 Moor Lane, Branston Booths. Outline application for the erection of 1 dwelling. This application has been approved by North Kesteven District Council.
• 19/1241/HOUS 65a Charity Barn, High Street, Heighington, Lincoln. Erection of detached double garage. This application has been approved by North Kesteven District Council.
• 19/1242/LBC 65a Charity Barn, High Street, Heighington, Lincoln. Demolition of part existing stone wall to enlarge opening. This application has been approved by North Kesteven District Council.
134/M/19 Clerk’s Report (for information only).
• To receive the report from the Internal Auditor. Members noted that the Internal Auditor was satisfied that this Council is well run.
• Heighington in Bloom. Authorisation has been received from Lincolnshire County Council to place a flower box on the grassed area at the junction of Park Lane/Washingborough Road, (locally known as Town End)
• Heighington Parish Council response to localised flooding within Heighington.
The proposal is that the Parish Council leaflets properties likely to have been impacted by localised foul or surface water flooding. Likely properties include along Fen Road, Park Lane, High Street, Washingborough Road, Hawthorn Close, The Old Stackyard, Bells Meadow, Apple Close and those around Millfield Academy. The leaflet takes the form of a questionnaire re type of flooding (foul water or surface water if known), how long the inundation lasted and whether or not it ingressed into properties.
This information can then be collated and mapped.
This can form the basis of a short report, which can then be submitted to North Kesteven District Council and Anglian Water (probably around Easter 2020) and inform our ongoing dialogue with those bodies.
A minute is written at the next full Council meeting under the Planning item. This minute can detail our concerns about surface water being discharged into the sewage system and not into a soak-away. It can ask North Kesteven District Council Planning Committee/Department to take note when deciding planning applications.
135/M/19 Correspondence (Read file for Members’ perusal).
• Litter picker’s reports for October.
• Environmental Warden’s reports for October.
• Police Crime Reports August - September.
Financial Matters:
136/M/19 To approve the monthly accounts for October 2019. The monthly statements were signed by Councillor Cann. It was resolved to approve the monthly accounts for October 2019.
137/M/19 To approve payment of the annual licence fee for the accounts package. Members approved payment for the annual licence fee.
138/M/19 To request a volunteer to give a reading at the Carol Service, St Thomas Church on behalf of Heighington Parish Council. Councillors Rushby, Chantler and Councillor Buckley-Jones agreed to volunteer to give a reading at the Carol Service on the 15th December 2019.
139/M/19 To request volunteers for the musical film screening of Grease on the 11th January 2020. Councillors Cann, Chantler, Buckley-Jones and Briscoe together with the office staff agreed to volunteer.
140/M/19 To discuss the registration of open spaces with Fields in Trust. Members agreed that the process of registration should be passed to the Policy and Resources meeting on the 13th January 2020 to process. The cost of registration for each site to be included in the budget.
141/M/19 To note the installation of the Christmas Tree at Jubilee Hall. Members agreed that the installation of the Christmas Tree in the Jubilee Hall car park for 2019 is on a trial run basis.
142/M/19 To receive reports from County and District Councillors (for information only).
County Councillor Ron Oxby:
Last Decembers County's decision to invest £400.000 in to a falls service in partnership with the ambulance service EMAS, is paying dividends, helping over 700 people to avoid hospital admissions. A further £350.000 is to be invested to further boost this service.
It is twenty years since the introduction of 'co-responding' between Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue alongside Lincolnshire Integrated Voluntary Emergency Services (LIVES) and East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS). Originally two firefighter stations, Crowland and Woodhall Spa supported this scheme, now twenty six stations carry out co-responding through the county.
Proposals for a business park in Skegness have been given the go ahead. £2.398m will start the first phase and a further £1.279m will follow. The project is due to start early in 2020.
£1.3m in council tax fraud has been identified. A review of 75.000 properties across the county claiming single person discount has resulted in 3,441 discounts being taken away from those people and steps to reclaim the money has begun.
Lincolnshire trading Standard have been calling on tyre dealers to check if part worn tyres are legal, with some dealers being given advice as and where necessary.
Lincoln Eastern By-pass has had its six 250 ton steel bridge beams lifted in to place allowing the bridge deck, parapets, waterproofing and kerb laying to take place over the next few months. The C113 road from Heighington to Canwick will be closed a little longer than expected to complete the construction of the flyover which will span the by-pass.
Greetwell Road roundabout construction is having its earthworks, kerbing and street lights near to completion which were due at the end of November, as planned. The final roundabout on the B1190, Washingborough Road will be started early next year.
Three highways contracts will come to their conclusion during March 2020. A recommendation to award the leading bids was taken to the Highways and Transportation Committee, prior to the Executive committee on the 1st of October, who approved the award of contracts to;
Highway works to Balfour Beatty Group Ltd.
Traffic Signals to Colas Ltd. And
Professional Services to WSP UK Ltd.
These contracts will start 1st April 2020. The 2019/2020 program of works including Civils, Structures, Patching, Surfacing, Street Lighting and Traffic Signal works are available on our web site; www.roadworks.org. This site is updated daily and can be changed if urgent priorities are identified by Local Highways managers or local Members.
District Councillor Goodwin:
This report is only a short one this month, as normal council business is a little constrained by the national news of a General Election. As we are now in purdah, we are advised to ensure we are complying with the law and therefore not reporting on anything that could appear in any way political.
A recent report to council was presented with the news that the voter registration pilot was seen by all involved as a success with only a very small percentage of people turning up at the polling station without the correct identification. Central government will look at the data from all the areas involved in the trial, before making any possible decisions on future trials or changes to the system.
Full council approved the recommendations of the Electoral Review group, set up to look at the make up of the council and the numbers considered required, for presenting to the Electoral Commission. Next steps will be to consider the proposals from the Electoral Commission and then to commence work on the ward sizes review in the new year.
Members recently attended a workshop on the proposed NK Plan, to consider their views on the priorities and to have an input into how they want the priorities to be appropriate and valid for all our communities.
More recently, we have of course all witnessed the extreme rainfall and in some areas, flooding of homes and businesses. NKDC is doing all it can to work with the County Council, the Lead Flood Authority to do what it can, to assist in the first instance and look to what can be done in the future to lessen the impact of flooding in our villages and towns.
Yesterday I was pleased to attend the villages Remembrance Service at St. Thomas Church and see so many of the community there.
District Councillor Carrington:
Congratulations to PC and volunteers of the remembrance wall of poppies - a superb and moving tribute.
Flooding. Situation most severe since 2013. Some issues derive from the beck, but the gravest are from the water table which are harder to resolve. Anglian Water have been pumping out sewer on Park Lane. Pumps/personnel for groundwater/freshwater flooding allocated on severity of need. Essential that all instances reported to Floodline 01522 782082.
LCC is Lincolnshire Lead Flood Authority (LLFA). Cllr Carrington has requested they reissue basic crib sheet to all PCs with essential flood information.
Lessons for the future? Include a) town planning - planners and developers should listen to local information! b) Emergency planning - value of having a community emergency plan underlined by current flooding events.
NK Planning application regarding Sandhill Beck improvements - Cllr Carrington requested and received additional assurances that there would be no adverse impacts downstream in Heighington.
Garrett Rise S106. Lindum Homes view not yet accepted by NKDC. Cllr Carrington has discussed with Deputy chief Executive and Leader of Council. NK is taking further legal advice on the wording of the S106 and will engage again with Lindum to seek to preserve the original allocation.
NK’s Environmental Health team rated number 1 in the country in a recent report producing a league table of every council in the country.
NK currently engaged in developing the next version of the NK Plan for the coming years, and the financial plan for 2020/2021. The first Five Year Review of the Central Lincs Local Plan is also under way.
There being no further business the meeting closed at 20.31 hours.
Signed: Date: