November 2022 Minutes
Hough on the Hill Parish Council
MINUTES of a Meeting of Hough on the Hill Parish Council held at Hough on the Hill Church Community area at 7 pm on Wednesday 2nd November 2022.
Present: Cllr D Lang (in the Chair), Cllrs A Ball, R Harris, M Ingham, L Moore, M Twelvetrees and Dist Cllr P Milnes.
There were no members of the public present and therefore no public forum was required.
38/22 – Apologies had been given by Cllr M Taylor.
39/22 – DPI forms were given to the Clerk but some had been forgotten and will be e-mailed to her.
40/22 – There were no declarations of interest.
41/22 – It was unanimously resolved to approve and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 17.10.22. As the Councillors present had not been at the meetings of 26th May and 28th July they could not be signed – a note will be made on them to that effect.
42/22 – The New Councillor Training Session by LALC on 29th November is fully subscribed and the next date not yet available. Clerk will advise when next date released.
43/22 – Vexatious Complaints Policy – it was unanimously agreed to adopt this policy which will be added to the website.
44/22 – Planning –
S22/0042 – siting 5 holiday pods at former station yard, Hougham – approved.
S20/0098 – Brandon Wood clay shoot – pending consideration. Cllr Milnes advised that this will go to committee on 17th November and may be approved with conditions. Noise impact is a big issue.
S22/0785 – Wayside Farm – change of use of barn to holiday let – approved.
S22/0869 – Tree works at 3 Gelston Road, Hough – allowed.
S22/0874 – Tree works at Manor Farm – allowed.
S22/1482 – New single storey dwelling at Thompsons Lane, Hough – Refused.
ENF22/0122 – Beechers Farm tree felling – nothing further has happened. Cllr Milnes will look into this.
45/22 – Dist Cllr P Milnes offered her best wishes to the new Council and said she hopes the Neighbourhood Plan will go ahead. SKDC now has a 5 year land supply but they are short of gypsy/traveller sites and have put out a “Call for Sites”. The Local Plan review will take place in February or March 2023 but the Plan will not be in place until 2026.
46/22 – Highways – The pothole at Hougham Road, Gelston has now been repaired. Clerk to ask Cllr Maughan if there is any update re the road signs advertising the play area ahead.
Clerk encouraged Councillors to report any highways matters on Fix My Street, Lincolnshire which is available as a link from the front page of our website. They should also advise parishioners to use it if necessary.
47/22 – SID – clerk explained that the previous Council had agreed to purchase a Speed Indicator Device and that £750 was held in the Parish Council reserves towards it. A previous councillor was also due to hold a quiz on 21st November to raise further monies.
After discussion, a vote took place as to whether this Council felt the need for a SID and the answer was NO by 4 votes to 2. Clerk to advise previous councillor so that he does not hold a quiz unnecessarily.
48/22 – Community Speedwatch - Andy Barrett is running this successfully and will continue to do so – thanks to him for taking this on.
49/22 -Dog fouling – it was agreed that a notice for parishioners concerning this matter should be put in the noticeboards – a note will be prepared for Councillors to approve. Cllr Milnes will supply a notice to go on the Brandon litter bin saying that it accepts dog waste and Cllr Lang will empty the bin. Councillors felt that Hough could do with a bin – Clerk to enquire as to whether the previous Chair still has a spare one. Emptying of the Gelston litter bin is still a problem as nobody has come forward to take it on. It was suggested that a litter pick take place twice a year by volunteers and this will be on the agenda for the December meeting.
50/22 – Defibrillators – Clerk advised that a parishioner looks after the Hough defibrillator and there is a resident in Brandon that does the one there, at present. The Gelston one has recently been checked and new pads installed but we need to find someone to check the defibrillator once a month. Cllr Milnes will try and source somebody from Gelston to do that one. CHT has been asked to do an annual maintenance check, which is included in their annual fee, and they will do this when next in the area. Clerk has information on how to check each defib. There was a question mark as to the number to call from the phone boxes that hold the defibs and Cllr Ball will call CHT to check this and report back. Also the VETS list of contacts needs re-addressing and updating.
51/22 – Play area – Clerk had distributed a rota (which was agreed) and a Checklist Report for the monthly inspection. Cllr Harris will do the first check this month and if he has any difficulties will report back to the Clerk. Once any inspection has been done, the report should be sent to the Clerk who will then circulate.
52/22 – Finance: all accounting papers for May to September inclusive had been circulated prior to the meeting and the Chair and Vice signed them as an accurate record. It was agreed that the Clerk can arrange the interim internal audit. It was resolved to pay CHT £210 for the annual VETS fee and BDG £156 for grass-cutting.
Clerk will prepare the Bank Mandate for the next meeting – Cllrs Lang, Harris, Ingram and Ball will be signatories – any two to sign each time.
53/22 – Social Media – first it was emphasised that only the Clerk and Chair can approve any postings on social media. It was further emphasised that the only things that can go on social media are the same things that go on the PC’s website. A lot of discussion took place and it was finally unanimously agreed that Cllr Moore may put a link on a Hough on the Hill Parish Council Next Door page, to the Hough on the Hill Parish Council website.
54/22 – Correspondence – there was none to hand but the Clerk asked about future meeting days. It was agreed, after discussion, that the best days are Tuesdays and it was requested that the first and third Tuesdays of a month be avoided. Meetings will be held in March, May, September and December as in the past. Clerk will put together a list of 2023 dated based on this information. Our next meeting is 1st December 2022 and mention was made that this would be a meeting for a briefing on the Neighbourhood Plan. The Chair asked where this had been agreed as she pointed out that the agenda for tonight’s meeting clearly stated that the NP would not be re-visited until some time in the new year. A proposal was made that the NP should not be on the next agenda and a vote was taken -the result was 4:2 that it would not be on the next agenda. It was agreed that the Clerk should circulate the Design Statement and LGS information to all councillors so that they have time to read and study them before any meeting does take place.
The Clerk handed out a list of generic e-mails that she had set up for councillors, with a request that they each go into theirs and change the passwords to their own.
They should then set up a Parish Council Group so that all emails are made available to the whole PC as a corporate body.
The meeting closed at 8.55 pm