Annual Parish Meetings

Helpringham Annual Parish Council Meeting

Minutes for the Annual Parish Council Meeting held in the Memorial Hall on Wednesday 17th May 2023

Councillors present: Cllr G Hotchkin, Cllr J Frizzell, Cllr G Frizzell, Cllr R Spencer, Cllr M Robinson, Cllr C Taylor and the Clerk Julie Dixon.

Meeting commenced 7:30pm following the Annual Parish Meeting

1.0 Election of Chairman and declaration of acceptance of office

Nominations for the Chairman were called for. Cllr J Frizzell proposed Cllr Hotchkin and this was seconded by Cllr R Spencer. All in favour. Cllr Hotchkin accepted the position and took his place at council. Declaration of Acceptance of Office signed and witnessed by the Clerk.

2.0 Election of Vice- Chairman and declaration of acceptance of office

Cllr Hotchkin proposed Cllr J Frizzell and this was seconded by Cllr C Taylor. All in favour. Cllr J Frizzell accepted the office of vice-chair. Declaration of Acceptance of Office signed and witnessed by the Clerk.

3.0 Election of Responsible Finance Officer.

Cllr G Hotchkin proposed the Clerk, Julie Dixon and this was seconded by Cllr J Frizzell. The Clerk accepted the position.

4.0 Councillors declaration of acceptance of office

Cllr G Frizzell was nominated as Cemetery Officer, proposed by Cllr G Hotchkin and seconded by Cllr R Spencer.

Cllr G Frizzell was also nominated as webmaster, proposed by Cllr J Frizzell and seconded by Cllr G Hotchkin.

Election of signatories for the signing of cheques remains as per the bank mandate as Cllr G Hotchkin (Chairman) and Cllrs R Spencer, M Robinson and W Watts.

5.0 Completion of GDPR Compliance

All Councillors completed GDPR compliance forms

6.0 Signing of the minutes

The minutes of the Annual meeting of the Parish Council held on 11th May 2022  were signed as a true and correct record. Proposed by Cllr J Frizzell and seconded by Cllr R Spencer.

7.0 Appointment of Representatives

It was resolved by Council to appoint the Clerk as the single point of contact for any village organisations.

8.0 Finance

            8.1 The RFO Julie Dixon gave the financial report for the year 2022 -2023:

RESPONSIBLE FINANCE OFFICER REPORT 2022-2023

Income and expenditure have been very similar to that of the previous year, with a slight increase in income and decrease in expenditure.

Income                                                Expenditure   

2021/2022      2022/2023                  2021/2022      2022/2023

£16,403.99      £17,191.50                  £17782.40       £16,050.29

Income is derived from the annual Precept ( £13,750.00) for the year 2021/2022 and Cemetery invoices.

The greatest expense, as expected is the Grass Cutting being a total of £5860.00 which is slightly lower than the budgeted amount of £6000.00. I am sure everyone in the village will think that this is money well spent.

The Clerks wages were a total of £4,021.81

Grants with a total of £2,059.28 were given out to Helpringham Playing Field, HAVCS, The Platinum Jubilee celebrations and insurance for Helpringham Feast.

Asset purchase and repair had a cost of £1852.99 which includes £900.00 for the posts for the recently purchased Speed indicators. The cost of the speed indicators falls into next year’s accounts.

Utility prices, as with everyone have risen significantly with the cost of water and electricity being £329.78.

The remaining £1926.43 is made up of payments to LALC (Lincolnshire Association for Local Councils), hall hire for meetings, HMRC and accounts and a few miscellaneous payments.

All payments are authorised at the monthly meetings with all bank statements and financial statements presented to Councillors.

The Asset register has a total cost value of assets standing at £61,433.94.

We are in a good position going forward, however, I believe that we need to be mindful moving forward that we have been unable to transfer any funds into the savings account which stands at £15,120.90 which is a contingency fund should the Parish Council be required to make any large purchases or indeed hit hard times.

             8.2 – 8.5

Items 8.2 to 8.5 were provisionally adopted and will be completed at the June meeting of the Parish Council.

8.6 The Clerk presented the Insurance for payment in the sum of £1014.24. This was proposed by Cllr G Hotchin and seconded by Cllr J Frizzell. There is a slight increase on last years premium due to the addition of the speed cameras.

8.7 Payments at the meeting were approved as follows:

8.8 Declarations of pecuniary interest forms were completed and signed by all Councillors.

9.0 Cemetery Report

Cemetery Officer Cllr G Frizzell reported that the cemetery grounds are looking very tidy, thanks again to Chris Pell.

It was suggested that due in part, to the cost of living crisis, fees should remain the same for the foreseeable future. This was agreed by all Councillors.

The rules and regulations have been updated to include the removal of spoil from graves.

10.0 Review of Policies and Standing Orders

Parish Council policies and standing orders were reviewed, it was unanimously agreed to adopt the policies.

The standing orders have been reviewed and will appear on the website.

All policies can be found on the website.

11.0 Planning.

            11.1 Application Ref: 23/0411/FUL

         Proposal: Erection of 1 detached dwelling

         Location: Land to the rear of 22 School Lane NG34 0RG

The proposal was discussed and it was resolved that the Parish Council have no objections to this proposal and therefore support the application.

12.0 Highways.

12.1 The new speed indicators are working well and the first sets of data are attached to these minutes. The Parish Council would like to extend sincere thanks to Aaron Walker for volunteering to download and present the data to the parish Council prior to each meeting.

12.2 It was noted that recently work commencing signs are being erected and either work does not commence on the given days or signs are not removed in a timely manner afterwards. This is something that will addressed with the local council.

12.3 South Fen road is now an absolute disgrace, it has been reported on several occasions. The pot holes, especially in wet weather are extremely dangerous and the road itself is sinking and breaking away.  These points will be taken up with our District and County Councillors.

14.0 Matters of Urgency

There were no matters of urgency to be discussed.

15.0 Future Meetings

It was resolved that future meetings will be held on the second Wednesday of each month commencing on

 14th June 2023

 12th July  2023

 9th August 2023

 13th September 2023

 11th October 2023

 8th November 2023

 13th December 2023

 No meeting in January

 14th February 2024

 13th March 2024

 10th April 2024

 8th May 2024 Annual Meeting                           

Meeting Closed at 8:15pm.