Minutes

Langworth Group Parish Council  

Serving the grouped parishes of Barlings, Newball, Stainton by Langworth and Reasby

E:mail: langworthgroupparishcouncil@gmail.com

Minutes of the Langworth Group Annual Parish Meeting held at 7.30PM on Tuesday 6th July 2021 in Langworth Memorial Hall

Present: Cllr M Herbert (Chairman); Mrs M Vail (Parish Clerk) and 7 members of the public

Apologies: Cllr R Waite

Meeting started at 7.30pm

1. Notes from the Annual Parish Meeting held on 5 June 2018:

RESOLVED to sign these as a correct record.

Proposed by Cllr P Bowser, seconded by Cllr J Machin.All in favour.

2. Chairman’s Report:

The first and most important thing I wish to say is a thank you to our Parish Councillors. Every month you give up some of your own precious time on behalf of the community you live within. That is a precious thing and should never be taken for granted. It is a source of frustration to me that many people in our so-called modern communities want to leave things for other people to deal with. So, I applaud you for what you do. Your commitment is usually undervalued, and your work is always unpaid. Yet you continue to volunteer because it is the right thing to do. So, I say thank you on behalf of our community.

I also wish to thank our District and County Councillors who continue to work with us and provide valuable guidance and assistance.Also, our Clerks who have worked diligently on our behalf. Thank you.

The past year has been unprecedented. Amazingly, thanks to the wonders of Zoom we have been able to continue to operate as a Council. It's not been the best means of holding meetings and I think that most of us prefer to see each other face to face.

Over the last 12 months we have lost a few Councillors and found some new ones. A warm welcome to you. We have also lost our Clerk, Stan Hall but have managed to recruit an excellent replacement in Michelle.I hope that you have many happy years with us.

Sometimes it occurs to me that we seem to be treading water.I was hoping that with the introduction of the Localism Act and similar policies that we would be able to take on more responsibility and achieve more. However, the last few years has just confirmed my opinion that we have no greater abilities to improve things within our community.In fact, it is becoming more and more difficult to get some things done. Working with and sometimes just getting a response from the County Council, the District Council, the Utilities etc seems like a hopeless task. Somehow, we need to change this and I would like to see us improve those relationships over the next 12 months.

I would also like us to put effort into and improve our relationships and image within our community. Very few people understand what the Parish Council does, what we can do and what we can’t do.We know that this problem is not restricted to the Langworth area but we do have some outspoken people who make critical comments that other people listen to and believe. I have found that nearly always any criticisms are born of ignorance. They make assumptions and jump to an opinion. So, we have to educate, we need to talk to people. We need to communicate what we are doing and why we are doing it.As we move forward, I will be grateful to anyone who can make suggestion how we can do this.

3. Clerk/RFO’s report:

I joined the Langworth Group Parish Council as Parish Clerk/Responsible Financial Officer at the start of May 2021 so am very new in post.There is much to take on board; getting to know councillors, the parishes and how things are done here.

Thankfully, I do have several years of relevant experience to bring; having worked at nearby parish councils since 2012.Currently, I also work for Reepham and Fiskerton Parish Councils, so I have plenty to keep me busy.

Throughout May I was in a period of handover with the outgoing clerk, Stan Hall.Having a handover period has been a welcome luxury; and I would like to thank Stan for his help; and offer to ‘’be on the end of the phone’’ should I have any questions.I would also like to thank councillors for making me feel welcome, and in particular our Chairman, Cllr Mike Herbert for his support.

Being so new, Stan has provided me with the following report:

There were 3 people who ran a senior citizen’s Christmas lunch club; two of whom have sadly died; leaving just Cllr Sheila Burnett to run the group. Cllr Burnett has recently stepped down from the council and has moved out of Langworth. So, unless someone takes over senior citizen’s Christmas lunch club it will lapse. Funding for the Christmas lunch was raised from coffee mornings, jumble sales and a parish council grant. There is an Xmas constitution.

Budget 2020 – 21

Of a budget of £23,620.00, money was spent of £18,623.40, meaning an underspend of £4,634.98.

Accounts 2020/21:

Externally audited accounts for 2020/21 are not yet available, however, the Council has successfully passed through the internal audit process.If you are interested, the various associated documents can be found on our website.

4. Reports by local County and District Councillors:

C/Cllr I Fleetwood – no report was available.

D/Cllr C Hill and D/Cllr C Darcel – no report was available.

D/Cllr A Welburn provided the following written report:

I am one of the three District Councillors representing the ward and I am a member on the two decision making committees of West Lindsey District Council. Firstly, the Corporate Policy and Resource Committee, of which I am Chairman, dealing with Finance and secondly the Prosperous Communities Committee which deals with the people decisions.

I am sure no one will disagree that 2020/21 has been a challenging year but there are still some highlights to report, and West Lindsey is in a strong position going forward.

Trinity Arts run by WL Council was forced to close its doors in March 2020 due to Covid-19. But the venue has been awarded £196,690 from the Culture Recovery Fund, aimed at mitigating the devastating impact the virus has had on arts and culture nationally. The venue will also feature in a brand-new paranormal documentary series commissioned by the Discovery Channel. The £20 million series will be broadcast on the Discovery Channel and Freeview channel ‘Really’ this coming winter.The Arts Centre team were interviewed, and historians descended to bring to life a unique and compelling story, with all activity culminating in an all-night paranormal investigation.

Auditors have said they have a ‘high level of confidence’ in West Lindsey District Council in the following areas:

housing benefit procedures.

Key Controls Testing Debtors and Creditors in the following areas: 

Adequate authorisation processes in place for raising a purchase order.                  

Setting up of new creditors and debtors within the system.                             

High-value payments

Monthly control account reconciliations are completed.

Food safety, environmental protection, and enforcement practices 

Treasury management.

And finally, West Lindsey District Council’s financial accounts for 2019/20 have been given a clean bill of health by an independent watchdog.

COVID-19 Community Fund the Council has allocated more than £53,000 to groups across the district supporting local residents.The Council set up the fund in April in response to the issues created by the national lockdown and the impact this was having on local communities.

Heritage Grants work has begun this year to restore the ‘historic heart of Gainsborough’ with thanks to a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund of £1.25 million this will be invested as part of a major project to restore historic buildings and heritage assets in the town centre.

Green Waste an extra collection was added to the West Lindsey Garden Waste service in December and the price of yearly collections has not been increased for the coming year.

Waste Transfer Station A brand-new purpose-built central operational services depot, located near Caenby Corner, will secure the future of waste collection and street cleansing services in the West Lindsey District Council area and has been designed with everyday operations and visitors in mind. It is due to be completed later this year.

Lea Fields Crematorium The crematorium has now completed more than 350 services, supporting countless local businesses and bereaved families since its opening in January 2020 and has made a positive impact on the local community despite a challenging first year due to Covid-19. The £6 million state-of-the-art facility, which was funded by West Lindsey District Council, has provided local mourners and funeral directors with an ultra-modern centre to host services for loved ones closer to home. It was also crowned the ‘Best Service Team of the Year: Cemetery and Crematorium Service’ at the Association for Public Service Excellence annual service awards in December 2020. The Crematorium has also been awarded with a Civic Trust Award, for demonstrating ‘excellence in architecture or design, whilst being sustainable, accessible and providing a positive civic contribution

West Lindsey District Council remains committed to keeping and strengthening West Lindsey as a place where communities can thrive and reach their potential, following the approval of a strong and well-planned financial budget of £13,279,100 for the 2021/22 financial year, and acknowledged the good financial position the council is in despite the uncertainty in the current climate surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic and future Government funding.

Councillors also approved a Council Tax rise of £5 – or 10p a week – for the 2021/22 financial year, to maximise every opportunity to help with the current uncertainty and now expected longer term recovery of the Council’s income streams. This is a rise of 2.3%.

Climate Change A commitment to moving the Central Lincolnshire area towards carbon neutrality has been strengthened through a decision to review local planning policy in order to better address climate change.

The Central Lincolnshire Joint Strategic Planning Committee, which sets the overall planning framework under which planning applications are determined across North Kesteven, West Lindsey and the City of Lincoln, has begun a process to ‘demonstrably assist’ Central Lincolnshire in becoming a carbon net-zero sub-region as soon as is practicably possible.

Building on the climate action position of each of the partner councils, the committee has proposed a series of policies. These will be subject to at least four rounds of public consultation and input within an eight-stage process before potentially forming the core of an updated Local Plan, to act as a blueprint for Central Lincolnshire through to 2040.

The suggested principles – which also build on a large level of previous consultation feedback that the Local Plan needed to do more to reduce emissions – give a very clear steer of how the committee wants the Local Plan to tackle climate change. They broadly cover:

Regulate new building standards to improving the energy efficiency of homes and other buildings to reduce energy demand.

Facilitate appropriate levels of renewable energy generation consistent with achieving net zero compatibility.

Support wider infrastructure improvements, such as energy storage.

Facilitate wider transition to a net-zero carbon position.

Establishing and protecting areas that are, or could become, carbon sinks.

Encouraging and facilitating wider improvements such as in how we travel, use materials, and distribute growth

These six strands form a complete package of measures to meet the net-zero target.

Waste More than half a million tonnes of household recycling was rejected at point of sourcing because of non-recyclable material being placed in household bins, each tonne of waste collected from a household bin that cannot be recycled costs approx. £93 to dispose of which is £48 million per year of avoidable costs not to mention the impact on climate change of waste itself.

In addition, D/Cllr A Welburn advised that she was working on communications issues so would get answers to any examples of non-communications anybody wants to give to her.

Jobs for 16 – 24-year-olds are available and posted on her Facebook page.

5. Local Organisations reports:

Memorial Hall Report for 2020/21

Due to the Covid pandemic the Hall has been closed: Jackie has been caretaking; making sure all Covid policies and procedures were being followed.Only the Post Office has been operating out of the Hall which will now officially reopen on 27 July 2021 for the first coffee morning since the Hall closed. When reopened it will follow all Government guideline sand will have to see how it will manage.There has been a recruitment drive resulting in four new committee members, including a new H&S Officer and Bookings Secretary.All Committee members are voluntary.

We have a jumble sale booked for the end of July, if fine, it will be held outside.If not, we will have to manage it in a different way.We have a produce show, regular coffee, and craft mornings.Other than that, the hall will be available for hiring; with each one on its own merits which the Committee will discuss how we will do then bearing in mid the situation.

Jacki Myers; Chair – Langworth Memorial Hall

6. Parishioners Items

Cllr M Herbert noted:

Cllr K Tyrrell has joined the Memorial Hall Committee so can pass on any parish council matters.

a need to improve community understanding of what the Parish Council does and how it does it.

That the Xmas meal will fold if no volunteers come forward

The WI has folded

Cllr A Hyatt reported that LCC Highways are the contact for Barlings Lane Nature Reserve and that they have updated their website.

Meeting ended at 8.01pm

Mrs Michelle Vail

Parish Clerk/RFO

Langworth Group Parish Council