Minutes

Uffington Parish Council

Approved Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held at Uffington Village Hall on Wednesday 10th January 2024 at 7.45pm

Present: Barrie Brown – Chairman, Cllr Genever, Cllr Barratt, Cllr Carr, Cllr Waterfall and Cllr Vanessa Smith

Clerk – Mrs. K Turner

Public Forum: No members of the public in attendance

Cllr Brown Moved item 7 - outside reports - to the first item for discussion

Cllr Vanessa Smith sent in her monthly report as follows

Flooding: The recent flooding, caused by Storm Henk, has caused significant problems for Greatford and Tallington. SKDC have supported the village and money has been made available to pay for Portaloo’s, skips and street cleaning. National government funding has also been made available for affected households. Communities have been exceedingly grateful for the support they have received from neighbouring villages. Further investigation into the cause of the flooding is required and this will need input from a number of organisations including the Environment Agency, Anglia Water and LCC. 

Recycling: Purple lidded bins have now been delivered.  They should be used for paper and card with immediate effect.  If paper and card is put into the grey bin the bin these will initially be just tagged as 'contaminated' for information purposes. However, from 5th February, any bin that is found to be contaminated will not be collected.  Side waste will also be rejected.

Local Devolution: The plans for Greater Lincolnshire Devolution with Mayoral control will be discussed by SKDC full council this week.

Deeping Leisure Centre: A decision by SKDC full council on whether they will give the financial support to the community group is expected this week at a meeting dated 11/01/2024

Uffington residents have raised concerns with me recently regarding planning applications and the state of repair of Essendine Road.  I have no further updates regarding the non-working street lights at Newstead and have referred this matter to Cllr Baxter to chase up with LCC. The matter of specific parking bays and disabled parking bays for the village were given to Cllr Baxter to be raised with Dan Adam at the next Highways meeting

Cllr Smith Left the meeting

1-60/24 - Apologies: None received

2 – 61/24 – Election of Vice Chair

Councillor Waterfall was nominated and elected as Vice Chair

Pro: Cllr Carr                       Sec: Cllr Genever

3-62/24 – Approval of minutes from 8th November 2023

The minutes were approved as a true and accurate record

Pro: Cllr Waterfall              Sec: Cllr Barratt

RESOLVED

4-63/24 – Matters Arising

Cllr Smith Stat map area maps are a useful resource with tree preservation orders and conservation orders. Cllr Smith kindly offered to help with any further information should the Council require

Newstead streetlights were discussed in Cllr Smiths report and has been raised with Cllr Baxter to pursue with LCC. The nature recovery plan report will be available in several week’s time once finalised

5-64/24 – Annual Precept

Budget and Precept Request for 2024/25 Financial Year.                                                         

To adopt and resolve a precept request based on the 2024/25 financial year budget of £4,800.  This increase equates to a 21.40% equivalent to a precept of £15.41 per annum for a band D tax rate household. This followed a discussion on the level of reserves held by the council in relation to government guidelines. In the past the council has met these criteria by designating the green spaces maintenance account as council reserves should the need arise. It was felt that as this account was created specifically for maintenance of the play area and other spaces it should not in future be also designated as council reserves, there were significant expenditure amounts for tree and hedge maintenance plus play area issues arising from a recent inspection for the current financial year.

The Parish precept had not been kept a level that could be sustained in line with increasing costs and at one point was reduced from £4000 to £3000, only returning to £4000 in 2023.

Pro: Cllr Waterfall              Sec: Cllr Genever

RESOLVED

6-65/24– Accounts - Monthly accounts and bank balances were presented for agreement

Uffington Parish Council Accounts January 2024

Expenditure Out

Clerk’s wages Dec                                                          £191.36

Clerk’s wages Nov                                                         £191.56

Village Hall Hire                                              £15

C Harris Grass Mowing                                   £70

Anglian Water                                                £69.16

Litter Pick Invoices                                          £120

Total                                                                             

Payments in

Interest                                                           £19.06

SKDC                                                                £231.66

Bank balance as at 02/01/2024

Treasurers account:                                        £129.87

Business account:                                            £2,261,89

Lloyds Business Savings:                                 £6,131.47 (reserves) see above

Proposal to accept the monthly accounts

Pro: Cllr Waterfall                            Sec: Cllr Genever

8-66/24 – Declarations of Interest – None received

9-67/24 – Planning

No planning notices received

10-68/24 – Correspondence

Correspondence as listed. None received for discussion

11-69/24- Any Other business

D-Day celebrations to be brought forward onto the next monthly agenda along with Playground maintenance

A possible disaster recovery plan to be put together for the village. List of emergency numbers to also be collated and displayed on the notice board and in T&S

Next Council meeting to be held in the Village Hall provisionally on Wednesday 21st February 2024 at 7.45pm

Meeting closed at 8.55pm