Annual Meeting of Council 26 June 2014

1

CONINGSBY TOWN COUNCIL

Annual Meeting of Council 26 June 2014

Attendance – Councillors Glyn Olive, Martin Foster, Richard Johnson, Matthew Mason, Kevin Moorehouse, Paddy Donnellan, Philip Brown, Councillors Mrs Ruth Sharples, Mrs Marlene Wilson & Mrs Mary Walker

Clerk Kathy Roberts

LCC Colin Mair, ELDC Julia Pears

12 members of public attended and spoke regarding the Dogdyke Road/School Lane public right of way, a resident has suggested that the right will be closed off, this has caused much unrest. The clerk has been in touch with the resident and he is doing some maintenance on his house and closure for safety of public is required, Lincolnshire Highways have been contacted and they have moved the right of way up the list for works and mapping it is now no. 18 with the top 15 being worked on at the moment. There are two structures further down the right of way which once investigations are complete will be required to be moved.

Suggestion that a group is formed to walk the village footways was put forward, Mr & Mrs Hankin of Dogdyke Rd are willing to coordinate this and will liaise with the Clerk for maps etc. signage is required in certain places to show where the footways lead this could be part of the groups work.

Agenda

33.Chairman Cllr Glyn Olive opened the meeting. Thanks were given to the members of public for attending.

34. Apologies and reasons for absence were heard from Cllr John Ranshaw, Proposal to accept these, seconded, all voted in favour RESOLVED.

35.Declarations of Interest – none at this point

36.Notes of meeting held May 29th 2014 previously circulated, proposed Cllr Mary Walker, and seconded Cllr Brown to accept as true and correct record of meeting, vote taken all in favour, RESOLVED , Minutes signed and dated.

37.Police Report – main issues are the arson reports, these are on the increase, any suspicious behaviour should be reported by ring 101.

38.Coningsby & Tattershall Library – Public meeting , a comprehensive report was given by Cllr Johnson who along with Cllrs Walker , Olive & Mason attended the meeting held at the library; Council discussed at length the issues surrounding the running of Library, applauding the enthusiasm of the volunteers who have come forward but sadly the general public have not shown great interest in keeping the facility open, there would be a shortfall of funds for the first 4 years of £5,000 after that the group would have to find the full £11,000 per year to continue to run in the current building; the future of which is unknownafter the 4 year term of lease. PROPOSAL from Cllr Kevin Moorehouse, not to move forward with the funding support for the Library, lots of time and effort has been put into this and very little support from the general public has been seen, funds cannot be raised without this support; seconded Cllr Donnellan; Chairman asked for counter proposal, none where heard, Vote taken on the proposal put by Cllr Moorehouse as above, 8 votes in favour of not supporting the funding of the Library, 1 abstention RESOLVED

39.Neighbourhood Plan – inaugural meeting date arranged with Ann Shoreland to gauge the public support, 3rd September 2014 7pm in the Alan Barker Pavilion room, other councils who have been working on plans will be invited, Tattershall with Thorpe PC have been informed; Cllr Phil Brown to deal with publicising and will chair the initial meeting. Cllr Mrs Marlene Wilson wished the group well with the plan, something that is needed! Cllr Martin Foster commented that ELDC statement says there will be more houses built in the area that is a fact, what we need to do is point out the infrastructure issues.

40.Multi Use Games Area – some vandalism has been done to the fencing on the tarmac side of the area, Proposal to give executive powers to Chairman & Vice Chair to get this work done taking advice from local metal worker to the value no more than £1,000; seconded, vote taken all in favour RESOLVED

41.Light Up Coningsby – Christmas 2014 onwards, Proposal Cllr Johnson to apply for grant funding towards the initial set up costs, seconded Cllr Mrs Sharples. Vote taken RESOLVED in favour – Councillor Mrs Mary Walker wished to record her objection to the proposal. The suggestion wasmade thatthe service could alternate between the churches of the village; this is being looked into and will be on agenda for July or September.

42.School Lane Play Area – Contractors have been informed – final costing £54,993 + VAT, Sutcliffe Play will supply and fit the new play area equipment, date to be confirmed with WREN, the main funders.

43.Outside groups reports- Friends of Pingle – problems with ELDC and grass cutting these have been resolved for the moment with the land still under maintenance contract with ELDC. MUGA – Cllr Moorehouse as chairman of the sports development group wishes to promote the use of the 3G pitch and would like to try and encourage a 5 aside tournaments group to use the area, Cllr Brown was also keen to help with this, they will put some feelers out to the local clubs to see what interest is out there.

44.Planning – S/035/0056/14 20 High Street, Coningsby Full planning Permission extension to existing dwelling.

45.Finances – Proposal to pay all accounts as listed, seconded all voted in favour RESOLVED.

46.District Councillor Mrs Julia Pears reported on progress with the Gattington park issue a letter had been sent out to owners with an ultimatum to get the site cleared or face legal action. With regard to the Neighbourhood Plan Cllr Pears would like to be involved and has been studying the five options put forward by ELDC, comments on the consultation should be directed to Ann Shoreland.

County Councillor Colin Mair continued on the Planning issues stating there is a lot of unrest within the County and unless communities have a local plan the developers will continue to run the show. Infrastructure is a serious consideration. LCC has under spent by 5million, hopefully this will be spent on a hot box machine to repair pot holes.

47.Clerks report & Correspondence – Appraisals still need to be completed for Royce Sellars and Peter Bass, Cllr Brown & Cllr Sharples agreed to attend when a date can be set up for these. Health Watch Lincolnshire held its first AGM on 22 May and voted in a new board.

Resolution to move into closed session to discuss tenders and other legal matters RESOLVED

Cllr Mair & Cllr Pears and all public attendees were asked to leave the meeting.

Solicitors appointed to deal with council business – Sills & Betteridge Boston Branch.

Heads of terms with Matrix Medical RESOLVED

Clerk left the room due knowledge of contractors with tenders in for discussion;

3 quotes for the clearance of the play area were presented and discussed – awarded to CJR services total cost £1,200; waste carriers to be used are Paul Riddel’s Horncastle.

3 quotes for fencing at Alan Barker had been received, council resolved that the Armco Barrier was the chosen type of fence but did not allocate the works at this time, it was decided to have a professional specification drawn up and advertise in the press for contractors to quote due to the cost of the works, all three of the original companies who have put in prices will be given opportunity to re quote should they wish to. Time Scale for this is unknown.

Council RESOLVED to come out of closed session

Meeting Closed