2025 Parish Council Meeting Minutes

THESE ARE DRAFT NOTES OF THE MEETING AND WILL BE RATIFIED AT THE NEXT COUNCIL MEETING

Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held on Tuesday 4 March 2025 at St. Peter's Church, Louth Road, South Somercotes

Present:                            Chair                                Cllr Antony Baker

                                            Vice-Chair                      Cllr Brian Lewis

                                                                                      Cllr Julie Stretton

Also Present:                    Clerk                               Mrs Binal Sawjani                      

                                            Members of Public      2 members of the Public

                                             District/County             Cllr Daniel McNally

Item 1125/64 Welcome to the meeting: Chair opened meeting at 17.59 and welcomed the councillor and members of the public.

• A villager has proposed that we have a Summer Fete as the village has in other years. Proposed date 31 August as there are no other local events and villagers would have returned form summer holidays. The discussions entailed -
  • Stalls: board games, tombola, animal corner with Alpacas and sheep, Bric ’n’ Brac
  • Raffle: Butlins, cinema voucher, donations of unwanted gifts
  • Prizes: boxes of chocolate, Butlins, Cinema, smaller items for the tombola, voucher form Axe and Cleaver, Churchills, Holme Farm
  • Promotion: request donations in the village magazine and Facebook post, plus promote the event
  • Refreshments: Tea/coffee, ice cream van, BBQ, bar

Cllr McNally arrived 18.09

Agreed an additional five minutes for the public session.

Chair invited Cllr McNally to speak 18.18

• New council combined authority ready for the Mayor election on 1 May
• Expansion of the business areas in Horncastle and Louth provided needed investment for the business communities
• Planning policy meeting for further housing in the area to 1,100 home form 500 for the year. Councillor is unsure how this number can be matched as the local plan seems out of date and the councils five year will take over.
• New grant year has commenced for 2025/26 for community projects. Awards from April 2025
• Official opening of the paint shop in Louth. Unwanted paint can be dropped of and other paint taken as needed as a community initiative.
• Councillor is happy to volunteer for the summer fete
• No update about the police locally
• The furniture project that was setup for parishioners to leave unwanted furniture has saved circ.£1,500 for the community.                                                            

Item 1125/65 Apologies for absence received and approve: Apologies received and accepted from Cllr Ricketts.

Item 1125/66 To receive declarations of interest in accordance with the Localism Act 2011 and to consider any requests for dispensations: None

Item 1125/67 To approve as correct records the notes of the meeting of the Council held on 14 January 2025 and to authorise the Chairman to sign the official minutes.

Item 1125/68 Training – Staff and elected Members To receive the latest training availability via the Lincolnshire Association of Local Councils (LALC) and consider and book relevant places for staff and elected Members.New training schedule to be circulated.

Item 1125/69 Future Events Update – review of the current and future events for the parish:

1. Indoor Car boot Sale Saturday 29 March 2025 cash box provided, we have had some interest and the other stalls will now be agreed and the event has been advertised in village magazine. All councillors to attend.
2. VE Day Sunday 11 May 2025 (VE Day 8 May) event at midday to 3pm with refreshments and bring a plate from the parishioners. Councillors to decorate the church
3. Summer Fete Sunday 31 August 2025 as outlined in public section and agreed to set up working party with volunteers and councillors to allocate the tasks 

Item 1125/70 Parish Matters:

1. Dog waste bin – has been erected on the junction between Town Street and East Row.
2. Renew insurance – Parish insurance has been renewed with Zurich
3. Tree community orchard – Awarded grant from Kings Community Fund for a community orchard for a set of fruit tree for the side of Jubilee Field. Trees will be delivered with all materials needed to plant before end of the month.
4. VAT – has been calculated and posted for £649.81

Item 1125/71 Correspondence: To receive and dispose of correspondence received since the last meeting.

Louth Sports Association is awarding grant towards a project or development to promote participation in healthy active recreation – no requirement

Email form Keep Britian Tidy initiative by joining the #GBSpringClean! Which is a litter picking activities. Would the villagers be interested in undertaking this for the area? After much discussion and invitation form Chair for one of the parishioners to speak it was decided that we would support this initiative on an ad-hoc basis with requiring green bags (from local council) and purchase litter grabbers for the villagers. This was proposed, seconded and RESOLVED. Clerk to report to Keep Britian Tidy.

Item 1125/72 Future meeting dates: Next meeting Tuesday 13 May 2025 at 6pm. Annual Parish Meeting 5.30pm with refreshments.

Item 1125/73 Financial matters

1. To note bank balances on bank statements as on 19 February 2025: £8,138.63
2. To note income £649.81 VAT reclaim
3. To authorise the signing of orders for payment for previous months

Meeting ended 18.42