April 2025 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 Meeting of Langworth Group Parish Council held at
Langworth Memorial Hall at 7.30pm on Tuesday 1st April 2025
Present: Cllrs M Herbert (Chairman), A Curtis, R Waite, H Stilgoe-McCombe, A Hyatt, P.Bowser, J.Jarvis, Mr A.Everard (Locum Clerk).
Not present: Cllrs K. Tyrell, S.Taylor.
There were nine members of the public present.
Meeting began at 7.30pm
Also in attendance: County Cllr I. Fleetwood, District Cllrs T.Bridgewood, M.Palmer.
1. Public Forum:
o Residents attending the meeting wanted to present their views on item 7 Planning only. There being no other matters the Chair delayed this period until that item.
2. Apologies:
o Apologies were received from Cllr Tyrell and Cllr S.Taylor.
3. Declarations of Interest:
o None declared.
4. Approval of Minutes: 4th March 2025
o The draft minutes were only distributed this weekend so amendments were suggested and the draft minutes will be approved at the next meeting.
5. Comments from County Councillor, District Council and Chairman:
o C/Cllr Fleetwood reported that elections for the Lincolnshire County Council take place 1st May 2025 and thanked the parish council for their support during his four-year term of office.
District Councillors
o D/Cllrs Bridgewood and M.Palmer noted that this was now in a period of political sensitivity leading up to the 1st May elections so little new to report.
o The councillors reported that eight different devolution proposals had been submitted to the Government by the current 10 Greater Lincolnshire councils and the Government would consider them with further consultations expected during 2025.
Chairman
o The Chair reported that a representative of the Witham Valley Access Plan would give a presentation at the June meeting.
o Cllr Bowser and the Chairman had met with the Vicar and PCC Chair to discuss the lychgate. The budget of £1000 for the repairs was confirmed and the Church will do the rest of the work. The work to be undertaken includes paint stripping, repainting, fixing the woodwork and repairing the roof. It was proposed by Cllr Herbert, seconded by Cllr Bowser and unanimously RESOLVED to proceed with the agreed work within the approved budget.
6. Clerk’s Report:
o Financial Report for March 2025 was circulated during the meeting and checked, proposed by Cllr Bowser, seconded by Cllr Stilgoe-McCombe and RESOLVED when it was unanimously approved.
7. Planning – residents’ concerns regarding Prior Approval Application Class Q permitted development for Agricultural Buildings at Low Barlings WL/2025/00190 & WL/2024/00358
o With approval of the council the Chair considered this item before item 5 and suspended Standing Orders so members of the public could make verbal representations to the parish council starting at 7.45pm. The Chair noted that residents had made excellent representations available to read on the online West Lindsey District Council planning portal for both these applications.
o Residents expressed the following concerns that the five proposed dwellings would double the size of Low Barlings, the owners had not consulted with current residents, there was an existing lack of amenities, the proposals offered no benefits to local residents in Low Barlings or Langworth generally, particularly adding to the congestion on Barlings Lane, that no ecology reports had been submitted by the applicants and no consideration was being given to the closeness to ancient woodlands about 400m away.
o Residents indicated that they thought that agricultural vehicle movements would increase substantially during August and November as the barns would no longer be available for any storage so forcing more vehicular traffic to and from the agricultural site yet Lincolnshire County Council highways and Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership stated the development would decrease vehicular traffic. Another 18 dwellings have already been approved and will use Barlings Lane to join the A158 only adding to congestion at that junction. Residents suggested extra vehicular traffic will increase by up to 1400%. Access to the site is through a single unadopted dirt track and who is going to maintain this?
o Flood risk from surface water will increase. Residents stated that only last year people could not get in or out of Barlings due to the flooding. As the hamlet is not connected to mains sewerage there was more risks from contaminated water leaking into homes and the surrounding land.
o Residents expressed concern that light surveys and surveys of the existing structures had not been undertaken as part of the application to even consider their fitness to be dwellings. There was also real risk of congestion developing in a small space because no consideration of parking or refuse bin storage was included in the plans and current residents have to bring their bins to the roadside so with potentially every home having five bins each where would it be safe to leave them to be emptied. A resident considered that the application’s Ordance Survey plans did not reflect the current ownership of the land and the applicant’s plans assumed that there was more space for vehicles than was really the case.
o Residents were asked by members if they would permit any development at the site and residents indicated they would but the number of dwellings being sought in these applications was a shock and some issues they felt had not been consulted with them directly as residents who know the area well to address their concerns.
o At 8.25pm the Chair thanked the residents for bringing their views to the parish council meeting and reinstated Standing Orders for the Parish Council to debate the issue. Most residents left the meeting apart from two.
o Debate included the number of vehicular trips, added congestion, limited consultation undertaken by West Lindsey DC, concerns if the footprint of the dwellings and design will be the same as the current buildings, concerns about the quality of analysis by LCC Highways in their comments and impact on flood risk. The Chair proposed a vote and the majority of 5 voted against the application and two councillors abstained from voting so it was RESOLVED to oppose the application with comments that an alternative access road be considered, the Planning Authority imposes conditions to address residents’ concerns and encouragement that a meeting between the applicant / developer and the residents could take place to agree on the best way forward to mitigate local issues. At the end of this item the meeting returned to item 5 onwards as listed in the agenda at 8.45pm.
8. Correspondence:
o Police Alert report issued today. Report for Nettleham available online.
o Lincolnshire County Council have displayed notices a few months ago informing that Bransby Horses have lodged a landowner statement under section 15A (1) of the Commons Act 2006 to bring to an end any use of the land by local inhabitants for lawful sports and pastimes, which may protect their land against it being recorded as a village green. The landowner statement was accompanied by a highways statement made under section 31 (6) of the Highways Act 1980 which was followed up by a highways declaration to protect their land against additional public rights of way being established over routes that might be subject to public use.
9. Woodland Creation, Forestry England: Consultation on Newball grange
o The Chair circulated a document about the project and had attended a consultation meeting. He had expressed the council’s concerns about the loss of more agricultural land, accessibility issues and parking arrangements with more people expected to be crossing a major road to get to the new woods.
10. Emergency Response Plan:
o Verbal update given by the Chair about his meeting with the Emergency Planning & Business Continuity Officer about the poor response when a community is imminently facing an emergency but had not declared it an emergency at that point of contact.
o Cllr Stilgoe-McCombe gave a verbal update about the Emergency Response Plan being updated to a new format and it highlighted a lot of areas that were not applicable to Langworth GPC so was in the process of giving that feedback to the Emergency Planning Team.
11. Play Area:
o Signs had been approved at the previous meeting to be provided by Cllr Stilgoe-McCombe and it was proposed that this was now implemented.
12. Date of Next Meeting:
o Council was advised that the Annual Parish Meeting (meeting of electors of the parish – all welcome) will take place on Tuesday 6th May 2025 starting at 7.00pm.
o Following the conclusion of the Annual Parish Meeting the Annual Meeting of the Parish Council will take place expected to commence at 7.30pm on 6th May.
o Both meetings will take place at Langworth Memorial Hall.
Meeting closed at 9.15pm.
Signed: .............................................................. Date: ............................. Chairman
LANGWORTH GPC - BANK RECONCILIATION 1st March - 31st March 2025
CURRENT ACCOUNT, ACCOUNTS PAID
01/03/2025, OPENING BALANCE, £3456.97
06/03/2025, Cllr M Herbert, reimburse ink cartridge purchase, £53.99
06/03/2025, Mrs M Vail, expenses, £22.50
07/03/2025, Hazel Stilgoe-McCombe, mole signage, play area, £2.00
18/03/2025, Sage payroll. £12.00, VAT £2.00
19/03/2025, HMRC, PAYE, £80.06
19/03/2025,LCC pension, £284.00
19/03/2025, Mrs M Vail, salary, £817.20
28/03/2025, Service charge on bank account, £4.25
CLOSING BALANCE, £2180.97, VAT £2.00
DEPOSIT ACCOUNT
01/03/2025,OPENING BALANCE, £49,652.47
10/03/2025,Interest, £38.09, £49,652.47
CLOSING BALANCE, £49,690.56
Non-regular Accounts for Payment in April
LALC: Locum Clerk,£152.28, VAT £25.38
TOTAL, £152.28
Ear Marked Reserves,
Elections reserve, £4,000.00
CIL monies,£2,655.40
New play equipment,£4,888.59
Total, £11,543.99