December 2019 Minutes

Folkingham Parish Council

MINUTES OF the PARISH COUNCIL MEETING

held on Thursday 5th December 2019

Item

Action

  1. Welcome & Acting Chair’s Remarks

The meeting commenced at 19.30

The Acting Chair asked for it to be noted that Cllr Hannah Weston Smith will be on leave until at least March 2020.  Until her return, as Vice-Chair he will take the role of Acting Chair.  He nominated Cllr Lucy Robb for the role of Acting Vice-Chair during this time.  The proposal was unanimously agreed and therefore approved. Cllr Lucy Robb accepted the role of Acting Vice Chair

Acting Chair Cllr Richard Clark (RC), welcomed those present.  FPC Cllrs Lucy Robb (LR), Julie Watson-Grant, Dean Sturrock and Cath Lack (CL) were also present, along with the Clerk (EW), SKDC Cllr Jan Hansen and 3 members of the public.

 

  1. Apologies – Apologies were received from Cllr Anne Booth and PCSO Sandra Brommell.

 

  1. Declarations of Interest - There were no declarations of interest.

 

  1. Public Questions
    1. A member of the public made the following comments:
      1. The Millennium Green continues to experience flooding issues after heavy rain and there appears to be loose brickwork on the bridge. 

It was agreed to investigate further the ownership/responsibilities of these areas.  It is believed that the bridge will be the responsibility of SKDC.

  1. Who is responsible for the ditch near 19 Walcot Lane, near the gates to playing field as there have been flooding issues here too? 

It was agreed to investigate further who owns this land.

  1. Another member of the public noted that there had been no agenda for the meeting on the Parish Council’s website

The Clerk apologised for this oversight and explained that it had been posted on the notice board.

There were no further questions from the public.

 

 

 

  1. Notes of the Parish Meeting held on 19th September 2019

The notes of the Parish meeting were approved as the minutes with the following amendments:

  1. Cllr Sturrock had offered his apologies but they were not picked up until after the meeting

 

EW

  1. Matters Arising

There were no matters arising.

 

 

  1. Updates from SKDC

SKDC Cllr Jan Hansen was asked to provide an update and the following was noted:

  1. Cllr Hansen stated that he had nothing to report.

 

  1. Traffic Calming Update

It was noted:

  1. The 30 mph passive speed signs have been moved and will now be in situ in their new locations for several weeks.
  2. It is likely that future rotations will alternate between West Street, Walcot Lane and the main A15/Market Place.

 

 

 

  1. Playing Field

It was noted:

  1. No Pavilion rent has been received for 2019 yet.  RFFC had acknowledged this and requested that the Clerk resend the invoice to Pete Stanton invoice and include the 2020 invoice.
  2. Caps and bushels still need doing on the swings in the playground.  Cllr Robb has struggled to find someone to do the work.  Clerk to find out who did it last time. 

It was agreed:

  1. Clerk resend the RFFC Pavilion Rent invoice to Pete Stanton and include the 2020 invoice.
  2. Clerk to investigate who undertook repair work on the playground in 2018

 

 

 

EW

 

 

LR/EW

  1. Grass Cutting

It was noted:

  1. Correspondence has been received advising that RWGM Ltd have been bought by Streetwise Environmental Trading Ltd.  Rick Webster will continue to oversee contracts and works and the business will operate from the same base using the same staff and machinery.

It was agreed:

  1. It was agreed to investigate the SKDC groundworks team – Clerk to forward email to Acting Chair.

 

 

EW/RC

 

EW/RC

  1. Allotments

It was noted:

  1. A notice email had been received and the first person on the waiting list contacted, however keys had not been returned yet and no response to follow up emails has been received.
  2. 2 people are on the waiting list for the next available plots.

It was agreed:

  1. Clerk to send written letter asking if notice still valid.
  2. Invoices for 2020 rent will be sent out this month.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EW

  1. Village Green - Nothing to report

 

  1. Folkingham Flyer

It was noted:

  1. Cllr Clark has a New Year edition in draft.  Cllr Lack to assist in production and publication

 

It was agreed:

  1. All Councillors and the Clerk to provide a piece for publication.  Photographs particularly welcome.

 

 

RC/CL

 

ALL

  1. Planning

It was noted:

  1. S19/1702 – Permission granted to remove 1 x Leylandii Tree at 17 Chapel Lane
  2. S19/1425 – permission granted for a wooden summerhouse at rear of 47 Churchfields Road
  3. S19/1239 – Permission granted for single story rear extension at 64 West Street
  4. S19/1234 – Permission granted for full planning permission for a two-story studio/workshop and residential

accommodation (variation of S17/2286) at 3 Low Farm Drive.

 

 

 

 

  1. Finance

It was noted:

  1. A grant application from the Village Hall has been received.  The Committee would like to repair the floor. 
  2. The application for 2020-21 precept needs to be submitted in January.  The Clerk provided an up to date copy of expenditure to date against the 2019-20 budget which suggested that as a result of higher than anticipated income and funds carried over from the previous year, only a minor increase to reflect increases in expenditure should be considered.
  3. Cllr Clark raised the matter that the Clerk had recently been required to undertake considerable extra work on the processing of 2 individual Data Subject Access Requests (DSAR) from 2 village residents.  This work had taken the Clerk well beyond her usual required hours and so Cllr Clark proposed that the clerk be compensated for this extra work.  He had asked the Clerk to estimate the time taken and she had advised him that in total the 2 requests had taken approximately 10 hours.
  4. All payments and receipts were reviewed.

 

Following a brief discussion, it was agreed that:

  1. The Clerk would ask the Village Hall Committee for copies of quotes and ask if there are other sources of funding.  In principal no issue but further information required.
  2. The council agreed to compensate the Clerk for 11 hours of extra work processing 2 DSAR requests. 
  3. All payments were approved.
  4. Precept to be increased to £11,000 (an increase of 0.2%)  This was unanimously agreed and it was noted that more fund raising was needed.  Clerk to apply for a precept of £11,000.

 

 

 

 

 

 

EW

 

EW

 

EW

 

  1. Training Update

Cllrs Weston Smith and Clark attended Councillor training on 18th September and found it very valuable.  Cllr Weston Smith had asked the other Councillors to consider their availability and arrange a booking via the Clerk. 

It was noted that this is particularly important given the 2 recent DSAR requests.

 

All Cllrs

  1. Correspondence
    1. RWGM notice of change of ownership (see item 10)
    2. One Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) from a resident had been completed within deadline in November.
    3. A second DSAR had been received in late November from a different resident which has a deadline of 23/12/2019 to complete.
    4. Several members of the Council and the Clerk are working with the SKDC’s Monitoring Officer and Legal Department regarding 2 complaints - one from FPC and the other against FPC.

 

 

  1. Date of Next Meeting

The date of the next meeting was confirmed as Thursday 16th January 2020 at 7.30pm

It was agreed that:

  • Notes will be published within 28 working days of the meeting
  • The Agenda will be published at least 3 full working days in advance of the next meeting
  • Items to be added to the agenda must be provided to the Clerk no later than 7 days before the meeting.

 

  1. Close

There being no further business the meeting closed at 20.07