March 2026 DRAFT Minutes
Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on Monday the 9th of March 2026 at 7.30pm in Cowbit Village Hall, Barrier Bank, Cowbit.
In Attendance:
District Councilors
Anthony Casson
Andrew Woolf
County Councilor
Raymond Condell
7 members of the public
In the Chair : Trevor Tyrrell
Clerk : Angela Harrison
Trevor Tyrrell, welcomed everyone to the Annual Parish Meeting and introduced the District and County Councilors.
Update from the Chairman
New village sign has been purchased and will replace the old one once it has been painted.
Looking to place 2 cows either side of the A16 roundabout on the splays of Stonegate.
We will put the erection of the cows forward via Cllr Condell, as an option for LCC’s volunteer scheme.
We will be spending a lot of money on updating the Park facilities through funding.
Report from Cllr Condell
Budget has been set with an increase of 2.9% which will give £119M road budget for the whole road network in Lincolnshire
Increased the work gangs to get more potholes repaired
Changed the process of repairing potholes – cut and fill with edges sealed properly. This takes more time and costs more but should last longer.
Barrier Bank closure – survey back and meeting with the team on the 16th for an update. No money in budget for this year so the road will remain closed for the foreseeable future.
Any updates will be forwarded to the PC.
Local Government Reform: The Government have received 4 options for Lincolnshire and the LCC website has links to comment on the options.
Q: What’s being done about the potholes on the A16 on the Crowland stretch?
A: Larger holes are being filled, but smaller holes are being left for now.
Q: Cllr Woolf asked about a really large pothole just before the Crowland roundabout
A: Report on Fix My Street.
Q: Applegreen to Boston no potholes, but to Peterborough full of potholes. Did we get a dodgy bit of tarmac?
A: Surface layer doesn’t seem to be bonded – will find out and get back to the PC via the Clerk.
Chairman stated that the surface was made to reduce noise, so there would be no claims for compensation.
Q: Mill Drove North shut to put a tarmac patch outside Elm Tree Farm but a steep edge either side of it. Why was this deemed more important than the other potholes which can throw a vehicle into the ditch?
A: Will find out.
Q: If Mill Drove North is deemed to be a dangerous road, why are the school busses being directed down there?
A: Will find out.
Report from Cllr Casson
Cabinet Portfolio holder for Public Protection which includes Licensing, Environmental Health, CCTV Cameras and Kingdom who are the enforcement for fly-tipping, littering, etc.
Member of the Licensing and Planning Committees
Appointed member for the South Holland and the Welland & Deepings Drainage Boards
Difficulty in getting details for fly-tipping.
Spalding, Holbeach and Crowland CCTV camera are all monitored in Boston Police station.
Phone the Police and they can track people.
Kingdom are an outside company who we have a contract with – extended for another 2 years. Fines have been increased to; Graffiti £500, Fly positing £500, Littering £500, Fly tipping £1,000
Food inspections; 942 premises inspected with a frequency depending on their rating.
We currently have a high percentage of 3 and above (all last years’ figures up to the end of December)
167 service inspections carried out – these are if and when reported.
Noise complaints – majority are dogs, closely followed by music.
An App can be put on a resident’s phone to monitor the noise levels.
We have issued a total of 332 licenses, including Taxis and Private Hire cars, Dog breeding, Catteries, Horse riding and Gambling.
Dog Warden has dealt with 117 stray dogs.
510 planning applications have been consulted on.
Go out with Kingdom a couple of hours a month – covering the whole of South Holland.
If you have a bad area, let us know and we’ll come out.
Abandoned vehicles also come under their remit and vehicles need to be kept in a compound if ownership cannot be identified.
Q: How successful is this contract?
A: Doesn’t cost the Council a penny, the Council receives 10% of their fines which has to be spent on equipment to help with their work. E.g. solar panel with camera in a fly tipping hot spot.
Q: How do you know that they are being honest about the amount of fines?
A: All tickets are logged instantly and SHDC collects the fines.
Q: Why are SHDC and Kingdom scoring so low on percentage of prosecutions? What are other councils doing that we’re not?
Chairman stated that he’d witnessed a van throw a black bag outside of the window into a field. He contacted SHDC and was told that someone would get back to him, but no-one did. It took at least 10 minutes for someone to answer the telephone, and when questioned about it was told to report it online.
Q: Wheelie bins will be restrictive as to how much can fit into it, which could lead to more fly-tipping.
A: Easier for Kingdom to issue fines for things like early representation, as the bins have the house numbers on them. No side bags, only what is inside the wheeled bin.
Q: Vehicles parked on the pavement.
A: Should be reported to the Police.
Report from Cllr Woolf
Member of the Planning Committee, Chairman of Policy Development Panel (one of the two scrutiny panels)
Regarding the introduction of wheeled bins: the result of the referendum was 49-51 in favour of bags, but the Govt have dictated due to food waste needing to be collected.
Policies for the wheeled bin process arrived from Boston on just 9 pages.
Spent over 3 hours pulling it to pieces and asking questions. This is how it will be implemented: -
o Food caddy = weekly
o Black bag waste = fortnightly
o Paper and card = monthly
Lots of questions were asked about various scenarios.
The new bin collection service should be implemented around September/October of this year.
SHDC Council Tax has been set with a 3% increase.
55% of the SHDC part of the Council Tax is for the Drainage Boards.
Local Government Reform is coming but we need to wait for the Government’s decision.
Ward Budgets are there if you have anything you’d like us to contribute to.
You can park on double yellow lines if you are dropping off or loading. 40 mins or 20 mins.
Martin Pyefinch – Local Community Speed Watch Co-Ordinator
Recruited 2 more volunteers; 1 trained but the other requires training.
Started 8-9 years ago and were reporting quite a number of speeders, now very few.
Questions from the public.
Q: Why wasn’t Mill Drove North closed off when the A16 was built?
A: Because there are places down there that needed to be accessed from the village. If Mill Drove North was closed off the traffic would need to go through Moulton Chapel and past the Weston Hills primary school.
It was suggested that it be Left turn out one end and right turn in the other, but this wasn’t implemented.
Problem with Mill Drove is not the junction with the A16, it’s at the crossroads.
The PC have been pressing for speed limit reduction and/or traffic calming measures since the A16 was built, but the representative from LCC at that time stated that the only way you would get that is if there was a fatality.
Q. Resident of Croft Close had emailed the Clerk to ask who owns the hedges adjacent to their fences.
A. Management company who look after the communal space.
Drainage Board trim their side of the hedge, but wouldn’t cut the top.
Action: Clerk to respond to the resident.
Q. Footpath broken away at number 7 Backgate,
A. Report to Cllr Condell
Meeting ended at 20:50