Minutes

Uffington Parish Council

Approved Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held at Uffington Village hall on Thursday 24th June 2021 at 7.30pm

Present: Cllr N Sheehan – Vice Chairman, Cllr Hutchins, Cllr Woolf, Cllr Hartley, Cllr Genever, Cllr Barratt, Cllr Rosemary Trollope-Bellew and one member of the public

Clerk – Mrs. K Turner

1. Apologies : Cllr Kelham Cooke, Cllr B Brown
2. Approval of Minutes from 6th May: Comments to note Cllr Trollope-Bellew not marked as an attendee. Cllr detailed in reports further in minutes. Confirmed these are the Annual parish council meeting notes and not the Annual Parish meeting minutes

Pro: Cllr Woolf Sec: Cllr Hutchins

3. Matters Arising

Greatford Road path request letter to be re-sent to LCC Highways and ask for an update. 30MPh road sign move request to be chased up and sent to Cllr Trollope-Bellew for review. Casewick Lane is still a matter of concern with the state of road. Cllr Genever had spoken to an officer and pot holes have been spray painted ready for repair. Continue to be reported on Fixmystreet.com to highlight the issue.

The skip hire for the allotments was a success and utilised well. Cllr Woolf and Cllr Hutchins helped to clear a lot of debris. All allotment agreements now signed and completed.

Cllr Woolf gave a brief update on Speedwatch and sessions are back in force and going well. Data is coming in and will be managed in time with a recruitment drive in plan going forward once restrictions are eased.

Streetlight 123 on Main road has still not been fixed 18 months later. To be reported

Cllr Sheehan noted that the leaving gift of the Uffington print was delivered to previous clerk Mrs Lorraine Thurston at her home address and later that month attended a small social gathering at the Bertie Arms.

PC in agreement that clerks virtual training to be at cost of the council. Invoice to be sent to the PC for approval

4. Parish Noticeboard

Defacing of the PC’s minutes on the parish noticeboard was discussed. Cllr Hutchins kindly volunteered to manage the board. Suggestions of one side of the board being used for PC documents to be able to be locked. Cllr Woolf mentioned that her husband was due to inspect the board and possibly sand down to improve it. A whole new noticeboard maybe needed in the future. Will await an update once the board has been inspected and looked at for any further improvements

5. Uffington Playpark

Three quotes have been received from suppliers with various pieces of equipment. All vary in terms of equipment and costs with safety matting etc. PC have not yet decided on a definitive figure to be donated to the project. Cllr Sheehan suggested that a group be formed of several Cllr’s and members of the VH committee to research and work through equipment that would be suitable for all children of the village and work to a whole budget of £20k-24k. This is a collective figure of all donations from parties involved. Noted that not all equipment needs to be purchased from the same supplier and could be split between contractors if needed. Picnic benches/seating were discussed and decided that these would be a good addition to the area and the PC would definitely consider purchasing. This will be a separate project to the playpark and discussed further at a later date.

Once the working party have met, a possible extraordinary meeting maybe called by the Chairman for PC to meet to make a decision to possibly have the work undertaken at the end of summer dependant on the company’s lead time

• Action : Clerk to arrange a meeting for working party

6. Potholes

Cllr Genever reported several large pot holes in the village and these will be reported through usual channel of fixmystreet.com. Clerk reported overgrown hedge ways on Copthill turning reducing road users visibility. This has now been cut back by LCC. Cllr Hartley reported loose chippings on pathways throughout the village. This was reported and LCC confirmed that maintenance of this would be actioned on Friday 18 June. This work doesn’t seem to have been actioned as at 25 June

• Action : Clerk to contact LCC offices for an update and to report potholes and road surface to Fixmystreet.com

7. Reports from outside bodies

Cllr Kelham Cooke report received and circulated to all Cllr’s

Cllr Rosemary Trollope-Bellew gave her report and started with affirming that all issues for pot holes and general maintenance that requires attention needs to be reported on Fixmystreet.com so that it is formally logged and updates can be seen and reported on. Fingerpost that has been missing in the village should be replaced shortly. Await an update. Cllr reported that Stamford Arts centre has opened up again and held an ‘Arts around town’ event in the half term which was a success and a good introduction back into the arts, music and crafts after the period of lockdown. Outdoor markets have been popular in the lockdown and continue to be a success. SKDC received a 90K grant from historic England for cultural programme all part of Grantham historic action zone.

District has seen a rise in new business and ventures start up throughout the pandemic which is positive. Full report can be found on website

8. Accounts

Expenditure Out

Litter Picking May & June£80

Clerk Wages May£204.24 (gross)

Zoom Invoices£28.78

Skip Hire£246.00

BHIB Insurance£321.40

C Harris£240.00

Payments In

SKDC Street Cleaning£231.66

Bank Balances as at 04.06.21

Treasurers Account : £474.06

Business Account : £6,619.42

Cllr Sheehan asked if all Cllrs to confirm they had seen and read the accounts information

Pro : Cllr Barratt Sec : Cllr Hartley

All Cllr’s agreed

9. Declaration of Interest

Cllr Hartley declared an interest in S21/0994 planning notice. Notice deadline was 12 June for this application and not discussed

10. Planning

No comments

11. Correspondence

The outcome of the code of conduct complaint to SKDC was briefly discussed and Cllr Sheehan noted that no judgement was made by the Monitoring Officer as the complaint did not fulfil the criteria and was not considered.The formal complaint to the PC is ongoing with a hearing scheduled for 1 July.

Letter received from a resident regarding a charitable donation to be made from the Parish council. This was discussed between Cllr’s and all agreed that the request did not fulfil the charity policy criteria and does not fall within the terms. The council fully support the Woodlands trust and it was briefly discussed of a possible tree being planted for the Queens Jubilee in 2022 and the council would look to possibly acquire the tree from the Woodlands trust. This would be discussed again nearer the time

• : Clerk to write to resident and respond accordingly

12. Any other business

Grass cutting in the village has been done but was noted that areas around the play equipment had not been strimmed and were left long. Cllr Hartley kindly volunteered to strim and tidy up the areas.

• Action – Clerk to contact contractor to ask regarding the strimming of areas

Cllr Hutchins brought up the subject of the Queens platinum jubilee next year and if the PC will have an agenda for the celebrations. Cllr Hutchins to send out information to the VH representative.

The Bertie Book club library is now up and operational in the village hall garden and residents are encouraged to come along and make full use of the scheme

Cllr Sheehan advised that a resident from Needham Allen Close posed a question regarding the parking situation that still poses a problem in the area. Several suggestions were made to try and overcome this problem, one to tarmac the area (if agreed by SKDC) Cllr Trollope-Bellew explained how costly this would be and also the loss of a green space in the village. Another suggestion of possibly expanding the lay-by was asked again, this would be costly. Cllr Trollope-Bellew requested more information and would take this matter up on behalf of the Parish Council to research the problem

• Action -  Clerk to send information to Cllr Trollope-Bellew

Cllr Sheehan noted that dog fouling was an issue in the village, notably having mess on his front lawn and on the grass verges.

• Action – Clerk to make note in the village newsletter

Meeting closed at 9.00pm

Next Full Council Meeting to be held at the Village Hall on Thursday 5th August at 7.30pm