Annual Parish Meetings

Notes of the Heighington Annual Parish Meeting

The Annual Parish Meeting was held on Monday 24th April 2023 at 7.00pm, in the Jubilee Hall.

The meeting was attended by 29 members of the public, including Parish Councillors and officers.

The Chairman of the Parish Council, Councillor Sue Sockell, presided and opened the meeting with a welcome to those present. 

There were stalls/displays from the Parish Council, Heighington Bowls Club, A Good Yarn Group, the Garrett’s Charity, Heighington Ladies, Heighington and District Gardening Club, St Barnabas Hospice, LCC Waste Services.

1. Representatives from St Barnabas Hospice gave an informative presentation on the services St Barnabas can offer.

2. The notes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on 25th April 2022 were agreed.

3. Ron Oxby, Chairman of the Trustees of the Garrett’s Charity presented their annual report:

Background 

Garrett’s Charity dates back to around 1620 when Thomas Garrett a local man left money in his will for the founding of a boys school in the private chapel he had owned in Heighington. The buildings we know as the Heritage Rooms today were built in 1865 as a major refurbishment of the premises and these housed the village boys school until 1976. Both the chapel and Heritage Rooms continue to be owned by Garretts Charity. It is unusual for a functioning chapel to be under independent charity ownership, which makes this building in the heart of our community both distinctive and special.

The current governing document of the charity was registered with the Charity Commission in 1995 (1053847.) The stated purpose of the charity is the upkeep and maintenance of the premises – which include the old school rooms, the chapel and the surrounding grounds for the benefit of the community.

The 1995 document details 7 trustees: two nominated by the Parochial Church Council of Washingborough with Heighington; two nominated by Heighington Parish Council; two co-opted residents of Heighington and, ex officio, the Rector. In 2020 the Charity Commission agreed to increase the number of co-opted residents to four. The trustee body thus now numbers nine. During 2022 the Rev’d George Goalby, who as Rector was ex-officio trustee, retired and we have welcomed the Rev’d Lorna Brabin-Smith (Rural Dean) while the benefice is in vacancy.

Finances 

The modest capital funds of the Charity are invested in COIF Charities Ordinary Investment Fund. In common with many investments these have performed less well in 2022 due to the turbulence in the financial markets but still provide a valuable income and emergency reserve for the charity.

The charity’s main source of income is from hire of the Heritage Rooms to community groups. The Friends of the Garrett’s Charity manage the bookings on a day to day basis on behalf of Garret’s Charity. The activities undertaken there include glass making, felt work, needlework, art groups, wood-carving, coffee mornings, dance, and community choir. These ac.vi.es reflect the educational emphasis of the original benefaction. The aftermath of the pandemic meant that some groups took the decisions to fold, but there have been new enquiries and income has largely recovered.

Donations from the community include regular gifts and a cash collection box at Anderson’s butchers. The charity is registered with HMRC for Gift Aid and has registered on a digital giving platform. A leaflet has been produced to encourage legacy giving. The 100 Club has proved successful, and the Grand Prize Draw at Heighington Christmas Festival in November 2022 made a profit of £1218.50, the only cost incurred was printing of the tickets as all prizes were donated. The Friends of Garrett’s Charity hosted an Arts & Crafts Exhibition in October 2022 which was well attended raising over £270 and bringing together old friends and new visitors into the Heritage Rooms which created a vibrant social atmosphere. A similar event is planned for 2023.

There was a small operating loss over the year due to the discovery early in 2022 of a substantial external water leak from the pipe supplying the building which necessitated renewal of the entire pipe from the meter to the building. Negotiations continue with Anglian Water / Wave on the outstanding water bill. One positive aspect of this episode is that we can now be sure that the new and professionally installed water supply pipe is in good condition and should not present a future unforeseen cost.

The Annual Accounts to 31st December 2022 were examined by Mr C M Green and found to be sound. We thank him for his help. The Annual Return has been submitted to the Charity Commission.

Future Plans 

Grants from Heighington Parish Council and other bodies have enabled us to work with Soul Architects to draw up the preliminary plans for substantial refurbishment of the premises which will help to secure its future at the heart of the village. The initial plans are on display this evening and we welcome feedback. Our obvious first step and priority is to repair known defects with the building. Beyond that, we hope to provide simple enhancements to promote and sustain community use of the premises, including the chapel.

The Trustees acknowledge that overall these are ambitious plans and estimated costs exceed £500,000 at present rates. On a practical level we expect to phase the project as funds become available over several years.

We are currently researching potential grant funders. However, a substantial sum will still need to be raised by the community. We are hopeful that the local community will rally together to secure the future of this valuable and dis.nc.ve historic asset at the heart of the village.

Thank you 

The Trustees are grateful to the Friends of Garrett’s Charity for their support and particular thanks go to the Friends Management Committee for their dedication.

Trustees: 

C R Oxby 

D E Chantler 

C J Dunning 

M J Bowbanks 

G J Chard 

N A Hunter 

M Hunter 

N J Eyre 

L D Brabin-Smith 

Declaration

The trustees declare that the report above was approved at a meeting of the trustees on 18th April 2023.

4. Annual Report from the Parish Council

The Parish Clerk shared a review of Council activities in the last year.

Station Road Play area

Our main focus has been to get new play equipment installed on the Station Road playing field, along with fitness equipment for adults. Making our play area accessible to all, we have installed a boat swing seat and laid a path to enable wheelchairs and pushchairs to access this area. We have also listened to parishioners’ concerns about dogs in the children’s play area and have now installed fencing around it. 

Flagpole

We now have a new flagpole in the village. Unfortunately, the old flagpole was deemed unsafe and had to be replaced. Records show that the original flagpole was installed on the High Street after the First World War. We have retained the top part of the old flagpole and hope to be able to display this at the Jubilee Hall, with a suitable plaque. 

Community Litter Pick

In conjunction with the Spar and willing volunteers our community litter pick in October successfully collected lots of bags of litter from around the village. We are hoping to repeat this again this year. We also have a local volunteer who regularly litter picks for us and sends in quarterly reports to council, identifying ‘problem’ areas. We nominated them for the NKDC Community Champions Awards last year.

Festive tea and cake

This event has proved extremely successful, and it is so lovely to see our older residents getting together for a cuppa, cakes and a chat. It’s a really great atmosphere and it’s thanks once again to AF Blakemore & Son Ltd/Spar for their generous donations and support of councillors and volunteers. We are hoping that this year we can bring in a choir.

Beckfield House Care Home

Three of our councillors, Sue, Alison and Jacki have become involved in Beckfield’s monthly coffee mornings, where they go along to chat, read and have a giggle with the residents.

Holiday activities

Several very successful events have been put on during the school holidays, including Craft, Halloween and Circus Workshops. These events have been very popular with our younger residents, and we hope to be able to continue with these fun activities. 

Zero carbon

We were awarded a £5,000 grant from Lincolnshire County Council and with that we have been able to install energy saving LED lights in the Jubilee Hall. We also plan to install water butts and install cycle racks at Station Road, Potterhanworth Road and at the Jubilee Hall. Last September we had an open public meeting where various ideas were mentioned including seed bombing, which we are going to do, and putting up bat and bird boxes, which we will be considering subject to available funds.

Station Road redevelopment

Our application to the Woodland Trust to get trees for Station Road has been successful and in November we plan a community planting day to plant 200 trees and at the same time we plan to plant various bulbs.

Other achievements over the last year:

• A massive clean and tidy of the Potterhanworth Road pavilion
• Platinum Jubilee planters installed at Jubilee Hall and Station Road
• A very successful Scarecrow Festival along with our neighbouring villages of Branston and Washingborough
• Decoration of the phone box with flowers and hanging baskets in the summer, along with installation of a solar light and shelving
• Working with the WI and volunteers to get the knitted poppies up for Remembrance Sunday
• The clothing bank continues to be a good source of revenue and we will be using these funds for the Station Road development
• The speed deterrent is proving very useful in reminding residents of our battle to keep speeding through the village to a minimum
• The successful book swap, currently in the foyer of the Jubilee Hall, which is being enjoyed by many of our parishioners

Projects in progress:

• Station Road playing field
• Ongoing treatment of the Chafer Bugs
• Continuing to try and cut our village carbon footprint
• The possible creation of a Repair Hub run by volunteers
• Possible usage of the Station Road pavilion for smaller village groups, who don’t necessarily need all the space of the Jubilee Hall
• Possible extension of the Parish Office at the Jubilee Hall, allowing space for privacy when discussing sensitive or confidential matters with parishioners
• We would really like to see more usage of our tennis courts which are free for residents to use at any time. You just need to register with the Parish Office first. We are currently exploring the option of tennis coaching for the youngsters, and putting on tennis events in the school holidays
• We would also like to move some of the books, setting up a book and seed swap in the telephone box during the drier weather

Staffing

We would like to congratulate Barbara and Nikki in attaining their ILCA and FILCA qualifications respectively. Our new CILCA-qualified clerk, Elaine has joined us from Saxilby. Our caretaker Denis is doing a fantastic job keeping our village buildings, recreation areas and gardens tidy. He is also responsible for inspections of the play equipment in the village.

Feedback

If any parishioners have any burning issues, concerns or ideas, please contact the Parish Office or come along to one of our council meetings.

5. A representative from LCC Waste Services gave an informative presentation on Right Thing, Right Bin, demonstrating what items should be placed in what bins

There being no questions from the floor, attendees were invited to have refreshments and view the stalls and reminded that Councillors were on hand to answer any queries.

2022-23 Heighington Parish Council Annual Report