May 2019 Annual Meeting
Item
1. Welcome & Introductions
The meeting commenced at 19:02. The Chairwoman – Cllr Hannah Weston Smith, welcomed those present.
FPC Cllrs Richard Clark, Lucy Robb, Anne Booth, Dean Sturrock and Julie Watson-Grant were also present,
along with the Clerk, Cllr Jan Hansen (SKDC) and 7 members of the public.
Apologies – No apologies.
The Clerk reminded each member of the Council of their responsibility to review the Code of Conduct and
the Disclosable Pecuniary Interests Regulations of 2012 and asked them to review the documents carefully
to ensure they were clear on the roles and responsibilities of a Parish Councillor.
It was noted that there would be some minor changes to the order of the published Agenda and that the
advertised guest speaker (regarding a Neighbourhood Plan) was now unable to attend and that this would be
rescheduled.
2. Elections
a) Chair: The Clerk invited those who wished to be considered for 2019/2020 Chair to make themselves
known. Cllr Hannah Weston Smith expressed her wish to continue in role and this was unanimously agreed.
b) Vice Chair: The Chair invited those who wished to be considered for 2019/2020 Vice Chair to make
themselves known. Cllr Richard Clark expressed his wish to continue in role and this was unanimously
agreed.
The Chairwoman welcomed new Councillors: Cllr Julie Watson-Grant, Cllr Dean Sturrock and Cllr Anne
Booth. These councillors are welcomed following an uncontested election. It was noted that there is still one
remaining position available on the Parish Council - interested parties should contact the Clerk.
3. Minutes of AGM held on 17th May 2018
The minutes of the AGM held on 17th May 2018 were approved.
4. Matters Arising - There were no matters arising.
5. Annual Chairwoman's Report
The Chairwoman read aloud her report for the Year 2018/2019.
6. Annual Financial Report
The Clerk provided all members of the Council with a copy of the Financial report for 2018/19.
a) Summary:
a.i) FPC donated £350 as a community grant for the Children’s Christmas Party.
a.ii) FPC have also spent £1,500 on grass, verge and hedge cutting within the village and have
supported St Andrews Church with Clock maintenance and a 50% contribution for grass cutting within
the Churchyard – a total of over £1,200. 2 skips were also provided for the use of villagers at a cost of
almost £600. Expenditure also included funding the new swing at the playground at a total cost of
£2,322 (with a grant of £1392 claimed towards this) and the new village gateways at approx £2,500
including fitting. FPC also pays a Community Cleaner (for Litter Picking) just over £1,000 per year and
the Clerk £2,000 per year.
a.iii) We brought forward £7,181 from 2016/17. FPC receipts totalled circa £13,232 received in grants,
precept and other income through 2018/19. Total outgoings for 2018/19 totalled circa £12,238.
a.iv) The Clerk reported that the budget for 2018/19 had been very closely adhered to and that the
amount carried forward from 2017/18 had been utilised as intended to offset the extra anticipated
expenditure. The Council’s finances were as expected and that the amount of £8,175 is expected to be
carried forward - though it was noted that there are several uncashed cheques outstanding and
invoices to be presented that will impact on this in the next financial year. Parish Councils are expected
to maintain a contingency of at least £2000 in case of unexpected expenditure.
It was noted that Council Finances are available to be viewed after submission to the auditors and that
details are published later in the year.
b) Budget for 2019/20
b.i) The Clerk provided all members of the council with a draft budget for the year 2019/20. The Council will
carry forward circa £8,000 – some of which will be used to cover uncashed cheques from 2018/19. The
budget predicted an approximate income of £12,500 and approximate outgoings of £11,000; which the Clerk
suggested leaves a tight but reasonable reserve of funds for unforeseen circumstances.
b.ii) The council voted and unanimously approved this proposed budget but again queried the funds being
spent on the Church Clock and Grass Cutting – it was proposed, seconded and unanimously agreed that the
Council would:
• continue to only cover the cost of the annual service to the Church Clock (crica £250) and not any
repairs that may be required. Any further funds required by the Church towards Clock repairs must
be applied for in the form of a Community Grant request.
• continue to limit the 50% contribution to Church Grass Cutting to a maximum of 8 cuts per year. Any
further funds required by the Church towards additional grass cutting must be applied for in the form
of a Community Grant request.
c) Annual Return (External Audit)
The Council agreed to approve the figures detailed on the required Annual Audit Return. The Clerk will ask
the internal auditor to complete the paperwork and it will be returned within deadline.
7. Committees Review
Committees: The Chair requested Councillor volunteers to support the running of 3 sub committees who will
focus on specific areas that may require further input than a FPC meeting can support. These were agreed
as follows:
a) Finance Committee – Clerk, Cllr Weston Smith, Cllr Clark and Cllr Robb
b) Traffic Committee – Cllr Weston Smith, Cllr Clark and Cllr Watson-Grant
c) FPC Allotment Committee (with the existing allotment committee) – Cllr Robb, Cllr Sturrock and Cllr
Booth.
8. Any Other Business - None
9. Close
There being no further business, the APM closed at 19:29 and was followed by the Parish Council Meeting
FOLKINGHAM PARISH COUNCIL
NOTES OF PARISH COUNCIL MEETING
held on Thursday 16th May 2019
Item Action
1 Welcome & Chair's Remarks
The meeting commenced at 1930.
The Chairwoman – Cllr Weston Smith (HWS), welcomed those present: FPC Councillors - Vice Chair
Richard Clark (RC), Lucy Robb (LR), Julie Watson-Grant (JWG), Anne Booth (AB) and Dean Sturrock (DS);
along with the Clerk (EW). Also present were SKDC Cllr Jan Hansen (JH) and 7 members of the public.
2 Apologies – no apologies were received.
3 Declarations – The Chairwoman declared an interest in a planning application for 32 Market Place.
4 Public Questions
There were no Public Questions.
There being no public questions the chair advised that this section of the meeting was closed and
members of the public were no longer permitted to speak unless invited to do so.
5 Notes of the last meeting held on 21st March 2019
With some minor changes agreed, the Notes of the last meeting were approved as the minutes and will be
amended and published as such.
6 Matters Arising – None
7 Presentation on a possible Article 4 Direction for Folkingham by Ian Wright from SKDC
This presentation was postponed at the request of Mr Wright and will be rescheduled at a later date. EW
8 Updates from LCC/SKDC
Cllr Jan Hansen provided the following update from SKDC:
• Newly elected Cllr Jan Hansen is currently completing his induction program at SKDC so has
limited reports at this time.
• He has noted that an amount exceeding £75,000 has now been spent on protecting the Toll
House. Cllr Hansen will attempt to get onto a committee that will investigate this further to
look into resolving this issue.
JH
9 Traffic Calming
• The 3 village 'gateways' have now been installed with mostly positive feedback received.
• The new 30 mph 'passive' signs have all been placed on West Street for this round. The
Chairwoman noted that it is felt that 'spreading' the signs around the village has minimal impact and
that as they MUST be rotated every 6 weeks anyway under conditions of the LRSP scheme, it is
better to concentrate them in one area at a time. On the next round they will be concentrated in
and around the Market Place/A15.
• The Chairwoman reported that she will be contacting LRSP regarding getting Speed Gun Radar HWS
training for Councillors and residents.
• Residents are asked to record vehicle registrations and details of frequent speeding offenders in
order to report the details to Bourne&Billingborough@lincs.pnn.police.uk
10 Playing Field
• Cllr Robb reported that the two new bins have been received for the playing field – one for within
the play area and the other for the picnic bench area. They will be installed on concrete slabs and
the keys passed to our Community Cleaner. **NB: It is with regret that the Clerk reports that since
the meeting took place, one of the new bins has been stolen. This obviously causes great upset to
the Council and Folkingham residents – the bins were not cheap and a great deal of effort was put
into obtaining and installing them to help keep our village tidy. This matter has been reported to the
Police – if anyone knows anything about this incident please contact
Bourne&Billingborough@lincs.pnn.police.uk or call 101.**
• Cllr Robb reported that the remainder of the grant for the new swings has now been received.
• There have been more complaints about loose dogs and dog mess on the playing field. It was
noted that the sign stating that 'Dogs must be kept on leads' has disappeared so a new one will be
ordered. It was suggested that more 'clean up after your dog' signs also be purchased. Residents
are reminded that bagged dog waste can be put into any bin.
• Cllr Watson-Grant suggested an initiative to create some dog waste bag dispensers that could be
attached to bins and around the village. JWG to investigate further.
• Cllr Clark asked that it be clarified that the 'hedge' under discussion for removal adjacent to the
football pitch is not a hedgerow, but rather an area of overgrown scrub that has spread and become
unkempt. It was noted that several villagers had expressed concern about removal of a hedgerow.
Cllr Clark clarified that FPC could and would not remove existing hedgerows but rather that this
area of scrub that is separate from the hedgerow that borders the field will be managed and
heavily cut back to help stop the RFFC losing so many match grade balls in future.
Cllr Hill (LCC) arrived at 19:46 and provided the following update from LCC:
• Cllr Hill offered his congratulations to the newly elected volunteer councillors for Folkingham Parish
Council and then gave an update on plans to campaign to parliament to adjust the formula to obtain
more funding for rural areas such as Lincolnshire.
• Cllr Hill shared that there had been a recent review of the Highways team to improve service –
there is a new Head of Highways now in place.
• On more local issues it has been noted that we were experiencing issues with hedgerows
encroaching onto the Highways. Landowners will be written to.
LR
JWG
11 Grass Cutting
The Chairwoman noted that the strip of verge running alongside the Millennium Green had not been cut in
the recent LCC round of verge cuts. Cllr Hill confirmed that LCC will cut grass with 1 metre of the roadside
and apologised that this had been missed. The Chairwoman offered thanks for the resident who had cut
this themselves following a complaint received.
12 Allotments
• Cllr Robb advised the Council that some of the fencing posts containing the plots were beginning to
rot. It was agreed that quotes to replace them should be obtained.
• The Clerk asked the Council to consider a request from an existing allotment tenant to take on an
extra vacant plot. The Clerk pointed out that the request had been 'held' as it has been previously
agreed that no resident should hold more than one plot; but that as the plot remained vacant, the
tenant had repeated her request. The Council agreed that it was not an ideal situation to have a
single resident having 2 plots when there are only 10 in total for the entire village, but that it may be
better to have it used than unkempt and untidy. It was agreed that the tenant could take the extra
LR
plot.
**NB: It should be noted that very shortly after this meeting (and before the other tenant had been given an
official decision) another villager approached the Clerk about tenanting the vacant plot. As the other tenant
had not been informed, a decision was made to allow the new resident to have the plot. The existing tenant
was displeased with this action so Councillors were then asked to have an extra-ordinary vote to decide
whether to uphold the decision made at this meeting or overrule it to allow a new tenant to take on the plot.
Council voted in favour of over-ruling to allow a new tenant to have the plot. This is in line with previous
agreements that there should be no more than one plot per household. It was also agreed that the 'one
plot per household' rule would be strictly adhered to in future .**
13 Village Green
• A replacement tree has now been planted as a result of a dead/damaged one being removed
earlier in the year.
• The Chairwoman asked for it to be noted that the Parish Council had been kindly donated a Walnut
Tree by a resident. Following discussions with the Millennium Green Committee it had been
agreed to plant it in the Millennium Green. FPC offers their kind thanks for this donation.
14 Folkingham Flyer & Feastival
The next issue of the Flyer will be planned for Summer – any suggestions for articles should be submitted
to Cllr Clark. Councillors were asked to provide Cllr Clark with a head-shot photograph of themselves along
with an introductory paragraph. The Clerk will provide a financial summary for publication.
The Feastival and Craft Fair will be held on Saturday 13th July with proceeds being shared between FPC,
the Millennium Green Committee and the Village Hall Committee. It has been agreed that the primary
focus of the event is not about making money but rather on getting the community together.
ALL
15 Planning
Following the granting of outline planning approval for a house on Low Farm Drive and the subsequent
application for a second house, also on Low Farm Drive, the Chairwoman asked Cllr Jan Hansen (SKDC)
to investigate further on the apparent relaxation of planning conditions within the village.
JH
16 Finance
All payments were reviewed & approved
17 Training Update
The Chair reminded all Councillors of the need to be proactive in attending the training available for
members. The Chair asked all Councillors to consider the available dates and to try to attend a Councillor
training session as soon as possible. The Clerk noted that available training dates are forwarded to
Councillors as they are released from LALC and that requests to attend should be made via herself.
ALL
18 Correspondence
• Correspondence had been received regarding a lack of communication about the village skip. The
Chairwoman agreed that FPC need to be more proactive about advertising the upcoming skip. The
next one is likely to be in late October.
HWS
19 Next meeting confirmed as Thursday 11th July 2019
20 Any Other Business
• It was noted that following the decision of Cllr Cameron-Clark not to stand for election there was a
need to have the management of the village defibrillators handed over.
• Following the decision of Cllr Cameron-Clark not to stand for re-election this year, the Chair
proposed a charity donation of £25 in support of his work for the Parish Council. This was
unanimously agreed. Cllr Clark to ascertain which charity Cllr Cameron-Clark would like to support.
• Cllrs Weston Smith and Clark are now on the committee for Folkingham Village Hall. It had been
noted that access to electricity outside the hall can be an issue when running events – particularly
on the Millennium Green and it had been noted how useful it would be to have this facility and how
it could extend the possibility of holding events here. The Chairwoman requested approval to
obtain quotes for an outside socket to be installed with the view that FPC could contribute to the
cost. This was agreed.
• The Chairwoman reviewed councillor responsibilities across the village in line with the recent
Councillor changes and asked for volunteers. HWS to update this table or responsibilities and
share with the Clerk for publication.
RC
HWS/EW
21 Close - There being no further business the meeting closed at 20:26