March 2025 Minutes
Present: Chairman of the Parish Council Mr. Trevor Tyrrell
District Cllrs: Anthony Casson, Andrew Woolf and Thomas Sneath
9 Parishioners (including 5 members of the Parish Council).
Clerk: Mrs A. Harrison
• Welcome by Trevor Tyrrell, Chairman of Cowbit Parish Council.
Mr. Tyrrell welcomed everyone to the Annual Parish Meeting.
• Introductions.
Cllr Thomas Sneath introduced himself and stated that he has been an Independent Cllr for almost 2 years, but will be representing Reform at the upcoming County Council elections.
Cllr Andrew Woolf introduced himself and stated that he has been District Cllr for 22years.
Cllr Anthony Casson introduced himself and stated that he has been District Cllr for the past 18years.
• Chairman’s opening remarks and report on the current year and aspirations for the coming year.
Welcome gates have been erected and are awaiting signs from the County Council. Hopefully these will help to reduce the speed of traffic.
The Parish Council are looking at turning the playing field into more of a park to be used by all ages and abilities.
It is also looking to replace the Pavilion and have instructed an architect to work on the plans.
Looking to plant more trees but leave enough space for the younger football teams.
The PC has purchased a new double-sided notice board specifically for official notices, meeting agendas, etc.
The opposite side will be used to show points of interest and maps of the village.
The notice board is opposite the Church on the green by the bus stop.
• Brief reports from County and District Councilors.
Cllr Woolf
Stated that it had been an honour to be the Chairman of SHDC for the past 2 years.
Fundraising events – 2 very successful quiz nights in the village hall – thanks given to Marcus.
The District Council’s budget has been set with the smallest increase possible, but have needed to take into account the Drainage Board levies which eat into the DC’s budget.
An action group has been setup to look for fairer funding for the IDBs, (Internal Drainage Boards)
.
Local Govt reorganization: County and Districts will all merge, with 2 Unitaries in either a North/South or East/West split as Unitary Councils will need to have a minimum of 500,000 population.
Ward Budgets have been used well with all Cllrs working together to fund larger projects.
Cllr Casson
Currently the Portfolio Holder for Public Protection, including Licensing, Food Safety, Pollution, (including power station regarding air quality), Dog Warden, Pest Control, Infectious Diseases, Envirocrime, Police, CCTV – all members have been invited to attend the facility in Boston, Anti-social Behaviour and Community Safety.
Kingdom, the company who deal with the enforcement of fly tipping, have introduced a PSPO (Public Spaces Protection Order), for dog fouling. Owners can be charged £100 for failing to pickup after their dog or not carrying a minimum of 3 bags with them.
The District has over 300 taxi drivers now.
Fly tipping has gone down 13 percent but there are still too many. Moulton Weston and Cowbit are up, but possibly due to him reporting more. 165 Fixed penalty notices were issued in January.
Also sit on the Planning Committee and 2 IDBs so being kept very busy.
Cllr Sneath
Praised Cllr Woolf on his Chairmanship.
SHIDB council tax gone up, but extremely well scrutinized.
Currently on Planning Committee and PDP, (Policy Development Panel).
Dealing with multiple applications for Solar and Pylons.
Ossian wind farm and Meridian Solar are 2 big proposals.
Lobbied MPs and working hard to fight them.
Net zero is a complete lie, this is diversification and industrialization of our area.
Food security is more important than energy security.
The Chair added that the Lattice Towers are very noisy and will devalue properties.
• Brief reports from other local bodies and organizations.
Marcus Pell – Village Hall Committee
Marcus advised that their AGM is coming up in 2 weeks’ time.
Darren may be stepping down as Chair and we thank him for his time.
New lighting, doors, chairs, etc due to the UK prosperity funding.
Let down by some of the hirers with vandalism, but got through that.
Lots of bookings in the diary for the remainder of the year.
The Chair added his thanks to Darren and considered that he has done a very good job and wished Marcus all the best.
Sunday 23rd March open day as part of village hall’s week.
The Chair also commended them on the clean up of the hall floor and chairs following the disgusting mess that one particular booking had left the hall in.
• Questions from the public.
Peter Simpson stated that he was disappointed with Thomas Sneath switching from an Independent to the Reform party, as that is not what he voted for.
Speeding in the village is horrendous.
The Chair stated that the PC invited Cllr Richard Davies from LCC to a recent meeting and apparently we don’t meet the criteria for any more cameras. The criteria is basically a death.
There are only 6 Police officers to cover over a quarter of Lincolnshire with the most serious crimes taking precedence.
The PC wrote to Highways regarding the lifting of the 7.5tonne weight limit.
However, Deeping St Nicholas PC has also written to complain about the diversion through their village and the condition of the A1175. Members believed that his may have been instrumental in the temporary lifting of the 7.5T limit through Cowbit.
There is mention on the Cowbit Village Facebook Page of an Alpaca Café being turned down by SHDC but the resident could find no evidence of an application on SHDC’s website.
District and Parish Cllrs all agreed that they hadn’t seen an application, so believe this to be speculation.
Cllr Casson mentioned a massive fly-tip on the edge of the A16 which was difficult to deal with. LCC have blocked off the road from Mill Drove end but Drain Bank was difficult to access as they had to go through LCC due to the land being owned by them. They are now going via the roundabout.
Kingdom need a name/address or witness before they can impose fines or prosecute.
Truckloads of house clearance waste is proving more difficult to prosecute. Need witnesses to come forward.
Chair said that when Kingdom were first brought in, the local press stated that covert cameras would be erected to catch fly-tippers in place.
Cllr Casson informed everyone that the cost was too high.
Kingdom are paid out of the fines they impose – they keep 90 percent and SHDC get the remaining 10 percent so the taxpayer does not pay anything for this service.
Cllr Woolf advised that a task group regarding the Kingdom service has just ended and that the company are shared between the partnership, Boston, East Lindsey and SHDC.
Kingdom would have to go to Court to be allowed to erect Covert cameras.
Cllr Casson stated that they currently only fine £400 for fly tipping whereas Boston fine £1,000 maximum. He believed that £1,000 for a big fly tip isn’t enough, but is too much for a bag left next to a bin.
Any evidence should be sent to AC and he will forward it to Kingdom. Need to be prepared to give a statement and possibly go to court.
• Close of meeting.
Meeting ended at 20:24