February 21 Minutes
HELPRINGHAM PARISH COUNCIL
Approved Minutes of the Meeting held by Zoom at 7.30pm on Wednesday 10 February 2021
PRESENT
Councillors Geoff Hotchkin, Julie Frizzell, Mark Robinson, George Frizzell, Malcolm Ternouth, Robert Spencer and William Watts. Parish Clerk Julie Dixon and District Councillors’ Sally Tarry and Stewart Ogden.
PUBLIC SPEAKING TIME
The Parish Council were joined by Mr Jon Parsons, a resident from Swaton who is campaigning to have FTTP Broadband connected to properties within Swaton and Helpringham. Along with Councillor George Frizzell, they have had a meeting with Open Reach who requested Maps of the areas to be serviced. It was thought that if a campaign could be launched to persuade enough households to join the scheme, then this may be a possibility at no physical cost to the homeowner as this would be met via a voucher scheme; however, the household would be obliged to take up a 12 month contract with BT. The campaign is ongoing, although it may face a set back as new rulings have been brought in. It is hoped that as this began a while ago it will fall within the deadline and still have a chance of acceptance. The Parish Council would like to thank Jon for his efforts and his inclusion of Helpringham within this project and Councillor George Frizzell for his ongoing commitment.
It was brought to the Councils attention by a parishioner that there are concerns regarding a property that has been built on George Street not adhering to Planning Permissions. The Parishioner was thanked for their input and advised that this would be discussed by the Council in the Matters of Urgency.
1.0 WELCOME REMARKS BY CHAIRMAN
The Chairman welcomed everybody and thanked them for their attendance.
Chairman’s Statement
The Chairman announced that the Parish Council had received, in full, the monies taken fraudulently by a former employee. The money had been paid into the Council’s bank account through the Court system in the recent few days. Whilst delighted with the reimbursement, the Chairman echoed the Council’s concern about the very poor service given by Lloyds Bank and confirmed that matters will still be pursued through the bank itself, and, if necessary, the Financial Ombudsman; it was of grave concern that cheques were presented [and paid] with clearly fraudulent signatures, one signature (itself a forgery), or in one instance, no signature at all.
The Chairman reaffirmed his and the Council’s thanks to the individual Councillors who spent most of May and June 2020 investigating and then following up with police and auditors. The swift charging and conviction of the former employee and support from Grantham CID was most appreciated.
2.0 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
There were no apologies.
3.0 SIGNING OF THE MINUTES
It was resolved to adopt the minutes of the meeting of 13th January 2021 as a true and correct record.
4.0 MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
There were no matters arising from the minutes that were not to be further discussed on the Agenda.
5.0 DECLARATIONS OF PECUNIARY INTEREST & DISPENSATIONS
5.1 Councillor Mark Robinson and Councillor Robert Spencer declared an interest in the item to be discussed in Matters of Urgency.
5.2 All Councillors were reminded that they are required to update their Register of pecuniary Interest forms with NKDC. These need to be lodged with the District Council for publication on their website as well as the Parish Council website. It was decided that the best way forward for this is for a link to be added to Helpringham Parish Council website to the relevant link of NKDC.
6.0 REPORT FROM DISTRICT COUNCILLORS
Our District Councillors, Sally Tarry and Stewart Ogden had nothing to report apart from reiterating that due to a large proportion of key workers self -isolating due to Covid 19 the Garden waste Collection has been disrupted in prioritising the emptying of Black bins. Hopefully normality with collections should resume in the near future.
7.0 PLANNING APPLICATION
7.1 It was reported that planning application reference 20/165/HOUS, the erection of a front porch at 7 Church Lane has been approved by NKDC.
7.2 Received after the Agenda was printed, is an application for the development of a new single storey dwelling and garage on land to the rear of 17 High Street. The matter was discussed at length as it appears that the project does require the felling of around 5 established trees. Although the Councillors are sympathetic to the need of removal, it was suggested that maybe one of the trees which does not appear to be an obstruction to the development could be saved. .
8.0 FINANCE
8.1 The verbal financial report presented by the Vice Chairman was accepted.
8.2 The bank reconciliation was unable to be accepted at this time due to a delay in the arrival of the bank statement.
8.3 It is with great relief and pleasure that the Parish Council can report the reimbursement of the sum of £2130.90 received from the CPS in relation to the fraudulent affairs of the former Clerk. Sincere Thanks must go to Councillor Julie Frizzell for her hard work and perseverance of this matter. It is still felt that there is a need to pursue Lloyds Bank for compensation relating to the lack of due diligence in cashing unsigned and inappropriately signed cheques. It was resolved that the Chairman will follow up on a letter received from Lloyds Bank in January requesting a response prior to approaching the Financial Ombudsman. If successful, any compensation would be donated to a charity.
8.4 The 2021 grant applications that have been received are for Heckington Area Voluntary Car Service (HAVCS) and Helpringham Playing Field.
8.4.1 HAVCS – it was discussed that this is a vital service for Helpringham and the surrounding area which is worthy of support and it was resolved that the requested grant of £300.00 should be granted.
8.4.2 Playing Field – this was discussed with the absence of Councillor Robert Spencer and Councillor Mark Robinson as they have an active interest in the Playing Field. It was established that the Playing Field is a vital part of the community and due to the restrictions of Covid 19, this has had a major impact on their own ability to fundraise. It was therefore resolved that subject to the production of audited accounts, the amount of £1000.00 will be granted.
8.5 It was reported by Councillor Julie Frizzell that following efforts to give the photocopier to a community group, there has not been any uptake on this offer. The machine has been offered for sale with one interested party. It was resolved to revert to the interested party with an acceptance of £100.00 + VAT.
8.6 It has been brought to the attention of the Parish Council that they may be required to enrol in a pension scheme. However it is not known if there is a threshold of when this is required. The Chairman has kindly offered to seek the advice of Lincolnshire Association of Local Councils (LALC).
8.7 Councillor Malcolm Ternouth has been actively trying to keep our community litter free single handedly during the pandemic for which the rest of the Parish Council extends its thanks. It was brought to the attention of the Council by Councillor Julie Frizzell, that the Council ought to purchase some litter picking equipment in readiness for the future , post lockdown. It was discussed and resolved that hand held litter pickers and disposable gloves should be purchased up to the value of £150.00. Councillor Malcolm Ternouth has kindly offered to action this.
8.8 Approval was sought and agreed for the following cheques:
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Julie Dixon |
Clerks Salary |
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9.0 CEMETERY MATTERS
9.1 It was reported by Cllr George Frizell, the Cemetery Officer that there have not been any internments or memorials erected this month.
10.0 HIGHWAYS
10.1 It was reported that the roads in the area are in terrible disrepair, especially on The Burton Road and out of Helpringham towards Scredington. Many people have reported the disrepair on ‘Fix My Street’ and controversially there have been reports of fixtures which in effect do not seem to have taken place. These roads have unfortunately been the cause of several punctures and raise grave concerns regarding the safety of motorists and cyclists. It has been noted that there are around 78 pot holes in the area, and only 7 have had any attention. This has now been ongoing for 4 years and it was resolved that a letter should be sent to the local MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham, Dr Caroline Johnson.
11.0 MATTERS AFFECTING THE VILLAGE/CORRESPONDENCE.
11.1 The talk given by Mr Jon Parsons during public speaking time was discussed and it was agreed by all, that better communication systems are going to be required for the future generation. Councillor George Frizzell has agreed to continue to work closely with Mr Parsons to take this further..
11.2 The road closure at Blotoft Level Crossing on 27/02/2021 is posted on the Helpringham Parish Council website.
11.3 The road closure at Vicarage lane for the period of 22/02/2021 to 05/05/2021 for intermittent work is posted on the website.
11.4 Cllr George Frizzell reported that the Church Clock appears to be running three minutes fast and he will be in touch with the Church Warden to go in and rectify this.
11.5 It has been brought to the attention of the Council, that several objects have been placed on householders grass at the front of their properties for the obvious reasons of preventing vehicles from driving on the area and cutting up the frontage that they take pride in. However, we would like to draw attention to the fact that in some circumstances, this is causing traffic to run on other household properties in excess of what is necessary. The Council are therefore politely asking householders to be aware of the consequences to others when trying to protect your carefully maintained grass.
11.6 The possibility of an e-newsletter was discussed. It was suggested that there may be a way of collecting a database of email addresses to be stored in a GDPR compliant way of parishioners who would like to receive news from the Parish Council or indeed other Village news in this way. Councillor Julie Frizzell and The Clerk are to look at the platform Mail Chimp and report back to the Council at the next meeting.
11.7 It was discussed that the letter received last month from a concerned resident, has been responded too and indeed a further response has been received thanking the Parish Council for our response.
11.8 A discussion was had over the cutting of the grass on the green and outside of the cemetery, which was taken over last season by Councillor Robert Spencer and Councillor Mark Robinson. It was agreed that a reimbursement of some costs of servicing the lawn mowers should be given. Councillors Spencer and Robinson have been asked to provide costs to the Clerk prior to the next meeting when this will be discussed and agreed.
12.0 MATTERS OF URGENCY
12.1 After being brought to the Parish Councils attention that planning permission has allegedly not been adhered to on a development on George Street, it was resolved to write to the planning authority to obtain their views.
13.0 DATE OF THE NEXT MEETING
The next meeting will take place on Wednesday 10 March 2021 via Zoom. It was noted that following Government guidance, it was likely that all meetings for the foreseeable future would be via Zoom.
Topic: Helpringham Parish Council Meeting - 1930 start
Time: March 10, 2020
ROOM OPENS AT 1900 Hrs GMT
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Meeting ID: 980 055 2536