Annual Parish Meeting - Chairman's Report March 2025
Chairmans Report March 2025
The Council have been busy this year with the regular maintenance of the village. We are in good shape financially and are within our allocated budgets. So, we have been able to replace all the floodlights on the playing field with LED lights which are not only more energy efficient, but will also last longer. The Multi Use Games area has been cleaned and re-lined. We have installed new litter bins and made sure that all council owned trees at the Village Green, the Penfold, Chapel Park and the Community Centre are properly managed and dealt with promptly when storm damage occurs. Work also continues to upgrade the shower facilities in the Pavilion and this year we have replaced the doors of the community centre boiler room and the Pavilion meter room with security doors. Some IT equipment in the Civic Office has also been upgraded, along with relevant software.
Once again, this year the Council decided not to raise the Community Centre hire charges or the sporting facilities tariffs. This was in order to support and encourage our village groups and teams and appears to have been successful as both the community centre and the playing field facilities are well used. A lot of work goes into maintaining these facilities and we are very fortunate to have the services of our Groundsman and Environmental Officer who work very hard to keep the Community Centre, Pavilion and sports fields in such good condition.
We regularly have the children’s playground inspected by Wicksteed to ensure that the equipment is safe and secure for the children to use. We are about to order some more surfacing material to go in and around the park and around the base of the exercise equipment to provide safer footing.
Our Community Centre bookings have gone from strength to strength and we now have a wide variety of clubs and activities going on there, everything from indoor Bowls to Belly Dancing.
In August we had an offer from North Kesteven to hold a Health and Activities Day at our community centre. We took them up on it and it was a very successful day with a seated exercise class and health checks being held indoors, while outside activities for children took place at the same time. In fact, the seated exercise class was so popular that we now have someone run a regular class on a Thursday.
In September we held our usual Macmillan coffee morning which was very well attended and we raised £268.72 for this excellent charity.
In October we did start to run the fortnightly coffee mornings, but sadly the take up for these was lacking this year, and so the decision was taken to discontinue these after Christmas.
However, in November we held a very successful Craft and Makers Market. Both the large and small halls were filled with stalls and the event was very well attended throughout the day. The Mothers Union provided refreshments and overall, everyone seemed to enjoy the event, so we have already decided to hold it again in November this year.
A lot of our attention this year has been on the problem of flooding in the village and we have been looking at this from various angles. Following the public meeting held in Nov 23 by Lincolnshire County Cllr Cawrey, we have been writing to all the relevant agencies and liaising with local Councillors to try to get some answers to the questions about why Washingborough is suddenly having all these problems, and what can be done about it.
We have most recently requested a meeting through Dr Caroline Johnson MP with all the relevant agencies to try and progress the issues.
Meanwhile we have set up a community emergency plan with volunteers from both the village and the Parish Council working alongside the Lincolnshire Resilience Forum so that aid can quickly be provided in the event of any disaster taking place in the village.
We do listen to our Parishioners when they come to ask us about things and two things in particular spring to mind here. We were asked at one council meeting about the possibility of us putting up Hedgehog Crossing signs on Canwick road between Pitts Road and Church Hill. The Council agreed to purchase and erect these signs and they should be installed this month.
The other thing that lots of people in the village asked us to do was to look into the possibility of replacing the footbridge across the South Delph (past the end of the playing fields). This bridge was damaged in storms at the end of 2023 and was removed by the Witham First IDB as it was causing an obstruction in the watercourse.
In early ‘24 some residents asked us about when the bridge would be replaced. The Parish Council does not own the bridge or the land on which the bridge was sited. Nor does it have a duty to replace such a crossing, but as we had been asked to look into it, we tried to find out who did. The clerking team obtained the title deeds from Land Registry which showed that that the land is owned by the Environment Agency. However, when we contacted them, they said they did not own the bridge and had not installed it. In order to establish who did, we wrote to the IDB, Anglian Water and Lincolnshire County Council, none of whom said that they had put the bridge in place.
As more people asked us about the bridge, we contacted the EA to ask if they would be prepared, in principle, to allow us to put a bridge up. It took some considerable time to receive an answer, despite chasing from the clerks, however eventually at the end of July we were told that the EA had no interest in replacing the crossing but that they would allow us to do it provided that:
1. The IDB had to be consulted as it required their consent, and they had made it clear that ‘for guidance, it was recommended that a clear span crossing be placed to remove the risk of obstruction to flows as much as possible. A footbridge similar to those deployed by LCC on public footpaths would be suggested.’
2 If a footbridge were to be installed it would have to be insured for public liability by the PC and the PC would also be required to maintain it.
3 If we wish to install the bridge, we would need to contact the EA again as it is likely that a formal agreement would need to be established between the EA and the PC.
We then contacted the LCC to request a site visit from their footpaths officer to advise us. He said that we needed to be careful in the choice of bridge as the usual footpath type of timber bridge design is not meant to withstand the kind of flood water depths, we had during Babet and Henk and if we were to install a timber bridge buoyance and subsequent displacement would be a real and present danger. Then we would not only lose our investment, but may also incur charges from the recovery of the bridge from whatever resting place it arrived at downstream. He added ‘without a responsibility to provide a replacement bridge here the short answer is that I would not do so’.
Nevertheless, following his visit we then contacted the contractors that the Footpaths officer had recommended and arranged a site visit for them to give us a quote for a bridge in both wood, and composite materials, plus the cost of the necessary groundworks to install it. It took some time to obtain this and the quote was discussed at the November council meeting. We are now faced with several courses of action ongoing. We have nominal permission from EA to place a bridge there, however the IDB has the final say and we have completed an application form to request permission from them and made a payment of their £50.00 fee for processing that.
We have a quote from the contractors that the LCC recommended, but it is substantial, and before we spend that large an amount of public money, we will need to hold a consultation with the village. We have held off from doing that thus far, because there seemed little point in this until we knew for certain from the EA, the IDB and LCC that this was something we were going to be able to do.
If the IDB approve the application and the village say yes, we will then of course look for public funding to help mitigate the cost.
I know all this seems to be taking an unacceptably long amount of time. However, long gone are the days when you can throw a few planks across and call it done. These days Health and Safety dictate that the crossing must be of a reasonably sturdy construction. There must be public liability insurance in case of accident or injury, and the landowners and agencies responsible for the smooth flowing of the watercourses must be consulted. And the Parish Council must be mindful of the responsibilities that it takes on and must pass down to those who follow. Considering the size of the task in front of us we have progressed the matter as quickly as we are able and hope that you will continue to have patience.