2020 Parish Council Minutes of Meetings

Washingborough Parish Council

Minutes of the Annual Parish meeting held at Washingborough Community Centre on Thursday 5th March 2020 at 7.00pm.

AP 20/1. CHAIRMAN’S WELCOME

• Cllr Fothergill opened the meeting and welcomed all in attendance.

AP20/2. PRESENTATION BY G. S. JONES AND SONS

• A presentation on the building of The Fields estate was given. It was advised that the estate will take up to 5 years to complete, local tradesmen and apprentices are being used where possible.

AP20/3. PRESENTATION BY THE ENVIRONMENT AGENCY

• A presentation regarding flooding advice for residents, given the adverse weather conditions of the previous autumn and winter. Residents were advised to sign up to the Flood Alerts warning of the Gov.uk website.

AP20/4. NOTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING held on the 21st March 2019

• The Notes had previously been circulated and were signed as the minutes.

AP20/5. MATTERS OUTSTANDING

• There were no matters outstanding.

AP20/6. VILLAGE CHARITIES’ REPORT

1. PIKE AND EURE

   1. The annual accounts were read out at the meeting. This charity awards grants to students and apprentices, from the interest earned on capital savings and had awarded £3550 during 2018. The George Walker Foundation, which is incorporated with this charity, awards grants for sporting purposes and had awarded £80 in grants during 2018.

2. WASHINGBOROUGH GARRATTS

   1. The annual accounts were read out at the meeting. This charity provides small payments to villagers who may appreciate a gift at Christmas. Twenty-eight grants of £15 each had been awarded during 2019.

AP20/7. CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

Cllr Fothergill gave the Annual Report 2019 - 2020

When I started to compile this report, I didn’t think there was a lot to report, however, when I looked into what we as a council had done, we were busier than I had realised.

The watercourse on our eastern boundary has to be cleaned about every 5 years to ensure there is an unobstructed flow as this now takes surface water from Malvern Avenue as well as drainage flow from the playing fields. As this is now part of the flood alleviation scheme from Keeble Drive, we ask the Witham Internal Drainage Board to take on this responsibility which they have agreed to do.

Following a request from local residents we have agreed to leave a section of Chapel Park unmown allowing wild flowers and grasses to flourish to form a wild flower meadow.  We will monitor this to see if in future years additional planting is needed.

Cleaning and re-marking of the Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) as well as repairing and replacing floodlights was carried out for the benefit of all users of this facility.

The Council now has a rolling 3-year survey of all trees under its care. with over 200 on and around the playing fields, plus Chapel Park, the Penfold and the Village Green.  Additionally, work is carried out on damaged trees during the year especially where there may be a danger to the public.

For those of you who regularly use the Community Centre we hope that you have will have noticed the redecoration of the Main Hall, the bar area and corridor which follows the refurbishment of the kitchen and toilets a couple of years ago. Further work is planned and we hope this will lead to more people hiring the centre for their functions or regular activities.

The sporting facilities have been well used by those clubs based here including bowls, tennis and netball as well as existing local football clubs and by some new football clubs.  We are now at the point where we have to limit the use of the pitches to avoid permanent damage to the playing surface.

Following the closure of the local cricket club we were pleased to get an enquiry from a local organisation for use of a MUGA court and some grassed area for “Street Cricket” an ECB initiative to get young children (5-9-year olds) interested in the game. We hope that if we can accommodate them it will eventually lead to the reformation of a cricket club.

The Youth Club for years 5 and 6 children is well attended and flourishing. It operates weekly, but due to the numbers attending it has had to work on an ‘every other’ week basis so that all those wanting to join can be accommodated.

We continue to support the Army Cadet Unit by giving permission to use Council Land for training and manoeuvres.

Last year during the school holidays we had the NKDC Climbing wall at the Centre which was very well attended and would like to do so again this year if NKDC offer the facility.

We have requested LCC Highways provide a footpath and cycleway from the railway bridge to the Crematorium as this will improve the safety of cyclists and pedestrians using the B1190.  This has been supported by Heighington, Branston and particularly Canwick Parish Councils. We have yet to be advised of the outcome but have heard some encouraging comments from LCC.

With the support of our District and County Councillors and following concerns raised by residents, speed restrictions on Church Hill are going through consultation and if no objections are raised, LCC Highways will introduce an extension of the 30mph to the bridge over the railway and from there to the junction with Heighington Road/Canwick Road a 40mph will be introduced. This should help as this is currently a through road. with the local road closures. as well as when the new housing estate is completed.

Last year I advised that we had introduced a “Grants Policy”. I am pleased to say that we had 2 applications which we approved for the coming financial year. Any club or organisation that would like to apply should see the Clerk for an application form.

This year we applied to the Co-op Community Champions scheme for funding of another defibrillator to be located at the shopping Precinct on Park Lane. I am pleased to say that we qualified for a grant. The Co-op have advised us that they may themselves install a defibrillator there. If this happens, we will be free to use the award in a different area, and will probably look at improvements to the childrens play area on the playing fields.

The “Best Kept Village Scheme will not be run this year which is a pity as we normally enter and have been winners on several occasions.

This year will see the retirement of our Groundsman, Mike Garfoot, after many years of service, we all wish him a long and happy retirement. We have employed a new person who has been working alongside Mike to get to know the ropes.

This year also saw our longest serving Councillor Betty Bland win the NKDC Community Champions Award for her many years of public service. Among other things she was one of the instigators of the building of this Community Centre

This is the second time in recent years that we have invited guest speakers to the APM and would welcome your feedback and any suggestions for next year’s topics.

We have recently set up 2 working parties, one to look at improvement of village amenities and the other to look at public events.

Last year we held a MacMillan Coffee Morning which was very well attended and will be doing so again this year.

We are currently organising a 75th VE Day Anniversary event for 17th May involving the Waddington Military Wives Choir, Charlotte Porter and the Lincoln Ukulele Band. This will be held at the rear of the pavilion If the weather is good or in the Community Centre if not.

If you want to keep abreast of Parish Council activities throughout the year there is a Parishioners Forum at 7.10pm before each monthly Parish Council meeting where questions, requests, suggestions and observations can be put to the Council with part of the agenda being reserved for responses to the parishioners’ questions.

At the moment we are three councillors short of our entitlement which puts an additional burden on Councillors so If anybody is interested in joining the Parish Council, please contact the Clerk

AP20/8. FINANCIAL REPORT

Cllr Mrs Simons gave the Finacial Report

Once again this year Washingborough Parish Council have managed to run the village whilst staying within their precepted budget.

I will try to give you an overview of what we have been spending some of the precept money on. Our main project for this year was the redecoration of the community centre corridor and entrance hall which has been done, and looks very much better.

For our next project we are looking at replacing the curtains in both halls and the bar area as well as the civic office. This is a significant expenditure as in addition to being expensive items in and of themselves, the curtains need to be fireproofed. However, this all forms part of our policy to keep the Community Centre refreshed and refurbished so that it is attractive to hirers. And as part of that policy this year we have kept our hire rates the same as the previous year.

Another capital project that we are looking at in this financial year is replacing one of the biggest pieces of equipment in the play area, the Slide. This is likely to cost approximately £7,000 so it may be that we cannot afford it this year, but will put some money aside towards doing it next year.

We have also paid to have the Multi Use Games Area cleaned and the lines repainted.

Water softeners have been installed in the Pavilion to help stop the pipes from furring up, and we are beginning a programme of refurbishing some of the facilities in the Pavilion.

We will be hiring Escape to run our youth club for the next year.

This year we introduced our grants policy and were able to give out 2 grants.

We continue to maintain the trees in our Parish on a rolling programme: this year all the trees in the vicinity of the Community Centre and Playing Fields are being done.

Also, this year we have had to run a recruitment exercise as our Groundskeeper Mike has retired, and so we welcome our new Groundskeeper Steve.

These are just a few of the expenses we have had this year in addition to the normal Staff salaries and running costs and maintenance of the Community Centre, Pavilion and Playing Fields.

For next year we will be asking for a precept of £155,595 at 5.9% increase a very slight reduction on last year.

AP20/9. ELECTORS’ QUESTIONS WERE AS FOLLOWS

1. Amount of rubbish in the River Witham, when the sluice gates are opened in Lincoln.
2. Cutting back of overgrowth along the River Witham.
   1. The Environment Agency will look into these matters and reply directly to the residents.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 8.30pm.