May 2023 Minutes Annual Parish Council Meeting
Minutes of the Annual Parish Council meeting of Cowbit Parish Council, held on Monday 15th of May 2023 at 7:30pm at the Cowbit Village Hall
Present:
Eric Fragale, Trevor Tyrell, Janet Barnes, Peter Simpson, Carol Clark and Daniel Sandhu
Clerk: Mrs Harrison
District Councillor: T Sneath
County Councillor: N Pepper
18 members of the public
In the Chair: Trevor Tyrell
1. Chairman’s welcome to the Annual Meeting of the Parish Council.
Mr Tyrrell welcomed everyone to the meeting and the newly elected member, Carol Clark.
2. Election of Chairman and signing of the Declaration of Acceptance of Office.
Mr Tyrrell was proposed and seconded and as there were no other proposals, Trevor Tyrrell was duly elected as Chairman of the Parish Council for the ensuing year.
Mr Tyrrell thanked members for their vote and duly signed the Declaration. He stated that he would be looking to step down from the position after this year.
3. Election of Vice Chairman and signing of the Declaration of Acceptance of Office.
Mr Fragale was proposed and seconded, and as there were no other proposals, it was resolved that Eric Fragale be elected as Vice Chairman for the ensuing year.
Mr Fragale thanked members for their vote and duly signed the Declaration.
4. To receive and approve apologies for absence.
It was resolved to approve apologies from District Cllrs A Casson and A Woolf.
Public Forum
Chris Elliott, the previous Vice Chair, congratulated the members and Angela, for being elected onto the District Council.
o Mr Tyrrell thanked Chris for all his work and commitment during his service on the Parish Council.
District Councillor Tom Sneath congratulated everyone and said that he was looking forward to working together with Cllrs Casson and Woolf.
Overgrown hedges.
Letters had been circulated to the members at the start of the meeting, to post through resident’s letter boxes.
o If they are not effective then Highways will send out a team to carry out the work and charge the homeowner.
Cover broken over the drain outside the old garage.
Reported 4 weeks ago and received an email to say it was fixed, but it is no different.
Cllr Pepper agreed to take this forward.
Overgrown hedge on the corner of Back Gate.
Cllr Sneath stated he had reported it this evening.
Question regarding funding.
There were 3 Conservative District Cllrs, now only 2; will the newly elected Cllr be able to help with funding?
Cllr Sneath confirmed that he too had a Ward Budget and would be working with the other 2 Cllrs.
Litter bin in front of the Church requires replacing.
Cllr Sneath said he would action this.
Update on the information boards for the Parish.
Members advised that they were awaiting artwork to come through for the panels that will outline:
Public footpaths
History of the Parish.
Information for residents and visitors.
Problems with E-scooters.
Residents were advised that this is a Police matter and should be reported to them.
Cars parking in front of dropped kerbs by the school and the Church.
Ms Clark said that she would raise this at the next school governor’s meeting which is scheduled for the 13th of June.
Mr Tyrrell thanked Marcus and his wife for all the work they did on cleaning up after the village fete.
Issue raised regarding the longevity of the Punt Gun Salute, which has taken place since 1897.
It was advised that the family have said it will continue.
Plaque erected on the school wall.
Require access to the guns.
Darren Harper congratulated all the members and for the increased number, (from 5 to 7).
He thanked the Parish Council for allowing the use of the Pavilion and field for the fete.
Would be handy to have a sign pointing to where the field is.
The new village sign looks really good.
Mr Tyrrell thanked Mark for the commemorative bench and stone.
All done via donations, with no cost to the Parish Council.
End of Public Forum
Before commencement of the annual parish council meeting, the Chairman proposed that James Stamp be co-opted on to the Parish Council.
The proposal was seconded and it was resolved that James Stamp be co-opted on to Cowbit Parish Council.
Mr Stamp joined the meeting and signed the Declaration of Acceptance of Office as a member.
5. To receive Declarations of Interest in accordance with the Localism Act 2011 and to consider any requests for dispensations.
There were none.
6. Notes on the last PC meeting held on the 13th of March 2023 to be approved as the minutes.
Janet Barnes was present at the meeting, but not named on the notes.
Eric Fragale was absent from the meeting, but noted as present.
It was resolved that the Chairman should make these amendments to the Minutes and sign them as a true record.
7. Matters arising from the minutes, (not covered on this agenda).
There were no matters raised.
8. To review and resolve PC representation on the following Committees and outside bodies:
a. Playing Field/Pavilion
It was resolved to appoint Daniel Sandhu.
b. SHPVCS
It was resolved to appoint Peter Simpson.
c. Village Hall
It was resolved to appoint Eric Fragale and Trevor Tyrrell
9. To review and resolve the following: -
a. Inventory of Council land and assets
It was resolved to make the following changes to the PC’s asset register:
Remove the goal posts -£600
Enter the location, ‘Back Gate’ to the bus shelter
Add the following items:
Commemorative Bench and Stone +£3,500
Benches x3 +£7,500
Church, Shop & Curlew Drive (£2,500 each)
Picnic Tables x3 @ £1,500 each +£4,500
(Playing Field)
The new village welcome gates and bus shelter should be added too, once installed.
b. Insurance Cover for 2023/24
It was resolved to renew the PC’s insurance cover with BHIB and to pay the premium of £879.45
c. Website
The Clerk advised members that although easy to use, the Cowbit Village website is not compliant with the new accessibility rules and costs £216 annually.
The website provided by LCC is free and fully compliant with the new accessibility rules; However, all past documents will need to be transferred over from the Village website to the LCC website.
LALC provide a website maintenance service, at an hourly cost of £17 per hour which could be used as a one-off, to transfer the documents over.
Mr Stamp offered to take a look to see whether it was something that he could do, to save money.
It was resolved that the Clerk and Mr Stamp meet to establish the work required to transfer the documents. Once the historic documents have been transferred, the PC would will use the official LCC website.
d. Policies, Procedures and Documents
The Parish Council’s Code of Conduct was reviewed and approved.
10. Police matters and to receive the Police report.
There was no report available from the Police, however Mr Tyrrell stated that he had seen a Police car in the village on Sunday afternoon.
11. Highways matters and to receive the CSW report.
The gateways on the Spalding side of the A16 have been blocked off for farm traffic; However at Mill Drove and Applegate, a tractor and trailer pulled out in front of a car causing it to brake suddenly. As this is deemed as illegal access to the A16, it was resolved that Mr Tyrrell and Cllr Pepper will meet to discuss it further.
CSW Report
It was agreed that the CSW was doing a great job.
Currently looking for 2 more members.
Mark agreed to monitor and move the interactive sign around the village.
o Mr Tyrrell will have a look at the battery to see if it can be replaced, as it is not holding its charge.
12. To receive an update on the bus shelters.
The bus shelter has been built and is waiting to be installed.
The cost of installation from the bus shelter company is £4,000
Two further quotes have been received, one verbal quote of Circa £5,000 and one written quote of £3,100.
After discussion and assurance that the contractor had all the required accreditations to work on the Highway, it was resolved that the PC accept the quote of £3,100 to provide the base and install the new bus shelter.
ACTION: Clerk to contact the contractor to accept his quote and to ask him to liaise directly with Littlethorpe, and to advise Littlethorpe of the situation.
13. Financial matters.
a. To receive the financial report and approve outstanding payments
The reports had been circulated to members prior to the meeting and were received.
Mr Simpson proposed that the payments be approved.
Mr Stamp seconded the proposal.
It was resolved to approve the payments and for the Clerk to make the payments.
b. To receive the bank reconciliation (4th quarter)
The bank reconciliation had been circulated prior to the meeting and was received by the members.
c. To receive the budget report (4th quarter).
There was no report available at the time of the meeting.
14. 2022/23 External Audit. To resolve that the authority meets the criteria for 2022/23 and wishes to claim exemption for that year.
The RFO advised members that;
the Parish Council’s gross income and total gross expenditure was below £25K; and
no public interest report/statutory recommendation/advisory notice/judicial review/application to court re unlawful item of account issued by its external auditor for the 2021/2022 year; and
the relevant financial year is not one of the first three years of the authority’s existence, therefore Cowbit Parish Council meets the criteria to claim exemption for 2022/23.
It was moved, seconded and resolved that the Parish Council claim exemption.
The Chairman and the Clerk signed the Certificate of Exemption – AGAR 2022/23 Form 2.
a. To approve and sign Section 1 – Annual Governance Statement
The RFO read out each statement.
Members resolved that the Chairman and the Clerk sign Section 1 of the Annual Governance Statement 2022/23.
b. To approve and sign Section 2 – Accounting Statements
The RFO had produced and signed the Accounting Statements 2022/23 prior to the meeting.
It was resolved to approve Section 2 and for the Chairman to sign the document.
15. Planning matters.
Reference Location Proposal Received Type Status
H01-0415-23 LAPWING 72 BACKGATE COWBIT PE12 6AP Proposed front boundary wall and gates 02-05-23 FULL Undecided
H01-0352-23 Land off Stonegate Cowbit Spalding Details of proposed soakaway system, surface water disposal and foul water disposal (Conditions 9, 10 and 11 of H01-0823-19) 13-04-23 CONDITION COMPLIANCE Undecided
H01-0301-23 115 WILLOW COURT COWBIT SPALDING PE12 6GF Proposed single storey side link extension and garage conversion 30-03-23 FULL Undecided
H01-0230-23 Land off Stonegate Cowbit Spalding Details of external materials, construction management, storage & disposal of refuse & recycling and proposed boundary treatment. (Conditions 6, 12, 14 and 16 of H01-0823-19) 09-03-23 CONDITION COMPLIANCE Undecided
H01-0234-23 Land North of 68 Stonegate Cowbit Spalding PE12 6AH Erection of three detached dwellings - previously approved under H01-0452-21. Amendments to house types, drainage details and boundary treatments. 09-03-23 FULL Undecided
There were 5 undecided planning applications for the Parish at the time of the meeting, (as detailed above), 2 of which were condition compliant.
It was resolved that there were no objections to any of the applications listed above.
16. To receive reports from representatives on outside bodies.
a. To receive an update on Village Hall matters.
Mr Tyrrell read out the following report, which had been received via email prior to the meeting.
Not a lot has happened since the last parish meeting. However we have had the repairs due to the subsidence completed at Easter while the hall was closed for 2 weeks.
We were also booked from the South Holland District Council to use the Village Hall as a Polling station on Thu 4th May.
We held our AGM at the end of March, and said goodbye to Chris, our treasurer for 10 years and are currently looking for a replacement. Our next committee meeting is next month.
I’ve also submitted the application for funding from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund for levelling up of approximately £25,000, worth of improvements to the Village and Village Hall. We have had an acknowledgement and also to say it has been very busy and don’t expect a reply very soon.
Last weekend was the Fun on the Field, one of the biggest and well attended community event.
Darren, Chair
Cowbit Village Hall Committee
b. To receive an update on the Playing Field/Pavilion.
Empty dog bag bin.
Daniel will obtain the key to the dog bag bin and refill it.
Fire Extinguishers
Need to be inspected.
After discussion, it was suggested that the football club organise the inspections as they are the only people to use the Pavilion.
17. General correspondence for inspection at the meeting not included in the agenda.
There was none.
18. Items to be included on the next meeting’s agenda.
Playing Field sign for the end of Parkin Road.
19. To confirm the date of the next meeting, provisionally set as 10th July 2023.
The above date was confirmed.
Meeting ended at 9:12pm