Minutes of Meetings 2025

Minutes of the meeting of Glentham Parish Council, held on 6th March 2025 in Glentham Village Hall, at 7.30pm.

Present: Cllrs A Shaw (Chair), S Shaw, V Smith & Cllr S Bunney (Co-opted) & Steve Leary (Policy and Strategy Officer – Environment and Sustainability – West Lindsey District Council)

In attendance: A. Lacey (Clerk and Proper Officer)

1.   Open Meeting

 The Chair opened the meeting and welcomed those in attendance. He thanked Steve Leary for his attendance to discuss the Energy Report drafted by both him and the Parish Clerk.

2.   Apologies for absence and reasons given

No apologies were received.

3.   Public Forum

The meeting was attended by Mr. Barry Morgan (as a Glentham Parishioner) who wished to raise an issue with flooding into his property.

It was agreed that a full hydrological (survey of the depth and bed profile of a river, which can be used to produce bathymetric charts and cross-sectional views of the river channel and a topographical (survey of the surrounding land, including vegetation, structures, and topographical features, which can be used to produce topographical maps and models of the river and its surroundings) surveys need to be carried out.

The Parish Clerk will look to identify any parishioners who have experienced Section 19 flooding into their property and ask them to provide evidence/documentation covering the extent of the ingress of water directly into the property. This will then be formalized into a portfolio for discussion.

A meeting will be organized to include Anglian Water to discuss Section 19 problems in the village.

The Chair thanked Mr. Morgan for bringing this issue to the Parish Council. 

4.   Minutes of the last meeting held on 9th January 2025

It was Resolved to adopt the minutes as a true record.

5.   Clerk’s Report on progress to date on various projects and any matters outstanding

See Appendix

6.   Financial Matters

• Financial Reconciliation
•  Agreed and signed by the Chair.

• Funding for new trampoline for Village Play Area

A grant application was submitted for a new piece of play equipment (Trampoline) in the Village Play Area, using money from UK SPF (Shared Prosperity Fund). The Council are awaiting confirmation of the monies being available. 

• Funding of flower tubs around Village Green

The Council considered and agreed a cost of £50.00 to re-plant all the tubs around the Village Green.

• To resolve and approve LALC to carry out Internal Audit

The Council considered and approved the use of LALC to carry out the Internal Audit for Glentham Parish Council.

• To discuss report on funding available for heating Village Hall

It was noted that there is more community funding due to come forward from WLDC that may be able to able with this. The Council agreed that the current energy costs are too high, and we need to consider more sustainable forms of heating the hall. 

A formal energy survey is due to be carried out on 25 March and the Council will consider this report at their next meeting, in order to see what quick payback jobs can be undertaken to start the process of making the hall more sustainable.

• To approve and sign-off payments for:

Councillors considered the payments submitted and Resolved to approve the following amounts for payment. An additional payment was considered and approved by the Council to cover the additional work that has been undertaken by the Clerk from November 2024 to March 2025.

7.   Planning – to discuss any applications received from WLDC Planning

No new applications received.

8.   Correspondence

A request was received from Lincolnshire Design Code to promote a Design Code for new buildings. It was agreed that this should be put up on the noticeboard and published on the PC Website.

9.   To agree a meeting to discuss and approve amendments to revised Policies & Procedures

The Clerk is to draw up a list of amendments for Policies adopted by the Council. Priority will be given to Standing Orders and Financial Regulations. These will be brought to the next meeting in May.

10.  To approve report of weekly inspection of Playground and agree any follow-up action required

The Council thanked Cllr. V Smith for carrying out an initial inspection of the playground. It was agreed to close the Playground until such time as a formal inspection has been carried out, to avoid any possible claims of negligence. The meeting agreed a quotation of £420.00 plus VAT from ROSPA for an urgent inspection.

11.  To resolve whether the Council will move into closed session to consider a confidential staff matter, in accordance with the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960.

The meeting did not move into closed session. 

It was agreed to temporarily increase the Clerk’s hours from 5 to 10 a week, to resolve outstanding issues. It was also agreed to pay the Clerk an additional £500 honorarium to cover the additional hours worked from November 2024 – March 2025.

The meeting agreed that due to the stepping down of the Village Hall Management Committee that the Parish Clerk would, for an interim period up to the end of June 2025, run the village hall.

Meeting closure

The Chair thanked all participants, and the meeting closed at 10pm. 

Appendix

Clerk's report 24/2/25

1.       Seggimoor Beck

I finally made contact with the Environmental Agency. We are going to have to have permits for every single bit of work we want to do to try and control the erosion. Permits are currently taking up to 19 weeks. I also broached the subject of whether the PC will be responsible for all of the costs (appreciating we are the landowners) but that we do have limited funds. I got no response to that question, so we will probably have to create a budget to cover this work, and do it a bit of a time.

 2.       Trees behind Village Hall

I have completed the application for removal of the trees and this is now with WLDC Planning Department. They will get back to me before 31st March 2025. They may come out to have a look and if they do we will be advised in advance.

 3.       Playpark

Inspection

The last inspection that was carried out was by Wicksteed in 2023. All playparks need to be inspected on an annual basis. I have quotations from ROSPA and Wicksteed for you to consider. ROSPA will come out June/July and Wicksteed August/September. I have also spoken to Wicksteed about the problems with the wetpour lifting – just waiting on them coming back to me.

Equipment

I had a phone call from Stephen Bunney this week to confirm that a decision regarding the trampoline will be made on 25th February. It would appear that there is rather more money in the pot for equipment, as there has been a bit of an underspend. He will get back to me as soon as a decision has been made. I have spoken to Wicksteed about an updated quotation for the trampoline, and just waiting this coming through.

Cleaning

I have struggled to find companies to clean the park. We have an offer from the Co-op to organise a volunteer team to come out later in the year and carry out a clean. They do come highly recommended (by SB) – this is something you may wish to consider. They are looking at scheduling the clean for the Autumn. We have one quotation for a company to clean the park and they appear to understand they can’t use high pressure water on the wetpour.

 4.       Flyer

Unfortunately there are just so many other things to get sorted this has had to go on the back-burner. I’ve not forgotten about the idea, and will come back to it as and when I have more free time. The one thing I am working on with David Beer (who maintains our website) is upgrading it a bit. You will see that we have started to put ‘Under Review’ Policies on the site and you will see more amendments as the week goes on. Given that there are so many policies I’m concentrating on the essential ones to start with. We can then start building on these. 

 I am attaching an idea to put on our website and in the noticeboard to cover what County, District and we do. Please do have a look and let me have your thoughts. This is a draft and I’m happy to take your views and make/add anything you would like. I’m also going to add another notice about vacancies for Councillors. 

 You will have noticed that Highfield Terrace, Church Close and Church Lane have all been resurfaced. 

 5.       Year-end accounts

I’m working on our accounts squared away and will be bringing some documentation to our March meeting.

 6.       Heating in the village hall

I’m currently working on a grant to carry out a professional feasibility study for the best form of heating for the hall. As you are aware we recently had an informal energy survey done by Matthew Lill (he works for various Lincs Councils) which demonstrated that there are gaps around the Fire Door, which the VH Treasurer has confirmed he will resolve. There were also some areas of the wall that don’t appear to be insulated. Areas like this do need addressing and I’m hoping the fire door has been sorted out. It is worth your consideration that should my grant be successful any funding for the installation of a sustainable form of heating will be more likely a loan rather than a grant. Generally speaking funders are looking at 70/30 (70% loan and 30% match funding). I am working closely with Steve Leary from WLDC to put together the initial application. Steve will be joining the PC meeting in March. I’m sorry this is not being entirely successful but it’s been a bit of an uphill struggle.

10/2/2024

Just wanted to give you a brief update on Seggimoor Beck.  I was going through some old paperwork this morning and found an email from the Environment Agency going back to 2020 but about exactly the same issue as we are having now. The email mentions potential permits. So for the time being until I’ve spoken to them and discovered whether we need a permit to do the work I’ve put everything on hold.

On other areas:

 Trees

Lincolnshire Tree Services are coming out next week to have a look at the trees. I’m still trying to get Hilltop to get back to me.

 Playpark

I am waiting Wicksteed coming back to me about the wet pour that is lifting. Will get back to you once I’ve got costings, etc.

 Clock

I’ve spoken to Time Assured this morning and they are now saying they will get to the clock within the next 4 weeks (that is worst case scenario). I can honestly say I got a bit cross with them as it’s now 3 months since the clock was working, which to my mind is not good enough.

 Policies & Procedures

I’ve started to look at updating all of the above. At the moment we have none of these on our website – which we should have. I’m going to put together some drafts. We can then discuss these at our next meeting in March.

Internal Audit

I’d like to recommend that this year we use LALC to do our internal audit. The benefit to us of this is that they also review our policies and procedures, which as a new clerk/ROF in post would be extremely helpful, and would ensure that as a Council we are abiding by all the rules and regulations.

01/02/2024

Flooding & Groundworks

Ian has removed the vegetation from under the bridge, so at least the flow of water has now returned to something more normal. He removed it very late last Sunday evening and will be coming along to remove it all permanently very shortly. If he hasn't turned up by Monday I will chase it up. He is also going to have a look at the bank a little further up, more towards Vanessa's house where it looks as though a large chunk of the bank has been completely eaten away. He'll get back to me in due course.

Glentham Village Hall

1.    More sustainable energy

I attended a conference at Grimsby on Wednesday and with Stephen Bunney and Steve Leary (WLDC) had some very interesting conversations with various companies about the best way of replacing the current heating in the hall. These discussions are ongoing and I will keep you informed. It would appear that WLDC are looking at using some additional funding they are hoping to get to create a 'network'. This will include the likes of sports halls, village halls, the festival hall in Market Rasen and other community centres. The possibility was 'mentioned' of using battery storage to provide heating on an individual basis to village halls. This is all very tentative at the moment and is going to be a long-term project. With that in mind I (with the GVH) are looking at alternatives for funding a feasibility study, then again funding for the actual project of installing an alternative energy source, as well as potentially some building management work. 

Matthew Lill (who is working for several Lincolnshire Councils) on Tuesday of next week with a thermal imaging equipment to look at heat losses and do an informal look at the hall. I'll feedback to what he says. He will be accompanied by Steve Leary (WLDC). 

This is very much ongoing.

2.    Electricity bill (24/25 bill was £4.6k)

The large bill covered one annual meter. There were issues with reading/estimated bills which was not resolved.

3.         Lincolnshire Association Local Councils (LALC)

I have this morning received the invoice for the current subscription (25/26) to LALC. The bill for 24/25 was unfortunately paid late and will be appearing in the current end-of-year audit. It should be paid either at the end of March (to appear in this year's figures) or 1st April to appear in next year's. Can I recommend that in order to balance when we pay this it is paid on 1st April, so there is only one payment a year going out. 

I am very keen to attend quite a lot of their training courses (as a new Clerk). Things such as VAT, Finance, Emergency Planning, GDPR. To attend all these and pay for them on an individual basis would be expensive. LALC run a scheme called ATS (Annual Training Scheme) which covers the cost of all training for an overall cost of £120.00. Virtually all of the training I'm looking to do is classed as Core and as an ATS Member these are included. 

If you are happy with paying for the ATS I'll raise a cheque for you to sign off next week, rather than waiting for our March meeting. Just so we keep things moving. The LALC bill can be signed off for 1st April payment at our March meeting.

Playpark

I have spoken to a lady from Market Rasen Co-op. The Co-op pay their staff to do so many hours of voluntary work and some of that work includes cleaning up playparks. She's going to come and have a look at the park this next week, take some photographs and get back to me with a plan for cleaning it up. Clearly I'm taking into consideration the groundworks that we are planning for this area.

Clock

I've chased up a date for the clock being repaired and just waiting on a response.

Trees

I've spoken to the two companies you recommended and waiting on them getting back to me with a time and date.