January 2022
Minutes of Aubourn & Haddington Parish Council Meeting held via Zoom on 13.01.2022 at 6pm.
In attendance: Cllr Mrs Woodman MBE (Chairman), Cllr Mosedale (Vice Chairman), Cllr Harston, Cllr Mrs Stubbs, Cllr Mrs Green (NKDC), Ms Vickers (Parish Clerk)
Cllr Mrs Woodman welcomed everyone to the Parish Council meeting.
Public Time – no members of the public in attendance
Police Time – n/a
Apologies for Absence – None
Formal meeting session commenced at 6.35pm
Minutes of Last Meeting – 8.11.21 minutes approved following a request from Cllr Mrs Stubbs regarding the planning applications at Grange Cottage. Cllr Mrs Stubbs requested it be reflected in the minutes that she felt that she had been instructed by the Chairman to declare an interest. Cllr Mrs Woodman explained she was advising Cllr Mrs Stubbs in her best interest.
Formal session suspended at 6.45pm as Cllr Mrs Green joined the meeting
Councillor Reports – Cllr Mrs Green briefly joined the meeting at 6.45pm. Cllr Mrs Green’s report is appended to the minutes.
Formal session recommenced at 6.50pm
Matters Arising – non
Declarations of Interest – None
2022-23 Precept – The precept is to be increased for the next 2 to 3 years to budget for the replacement of the street lights. The precept to be submitted is £18170.00. The current balances look healthy and include the donation from the Lost Village, however, with the forecast for the remainder of this financial year, and the funds ringfenced for election fees and planned expenses, the final accounts will be as predicted at the 2021-22 precept planning meeting 12 months ago.
Street lighting – Due to the lack of stock of sodium lanterns and the soaring costs of electricity, as agreed in the precept, the street lights will be replaced with LED lanterns over the next 2 to 3 years.
Finance Report – the current balances are: Community Account £16,208.53, Business Account 1 (Clock Tower) £3,252.79, Business Account 2 £1,380.33
Cheques issued as agreed at meeting; The Notice Board Company - £1008.35; Clerks' wages & expenses - £285.92; NPower Business – unmetered lighting 1 month - £325.52; tree work in churchyard £200.00
Planning – 21/1362/FUL and 21/1363LBC Grange Cottage, Bassingham Road, Aubourn. –The applications have been withdrawn. For information see NKDC Planning Online.
Support for Norton Disney planning application – more information required before support considered.
Clerk’s Incidental Expenses – the Clerk will be paid £20 per month to cover the use of her own computer, telephone, electricity and storage facilities and any postage stamps purchased.
Clerk’s Report – The notice boards have been ordered. Lincolnshire Coop have quoted £1250 to clean the war memorial which unfortunately is above the budget we have available.
Chairman’s Report - none
Individual Councillor’s Reports –
Cllr Harston - none
Cllr Mosedale - the new speed indicator is still in the pipeline stage, Cllr Mosedale to chase this up.
Cllr Mrs Stubbs resigned her position as Parish Councillor with immediate effect.
Items for next agenda – Royal Jubilee Celebration, village benches.
Items for Witham Herald/Staple - Councillor vacancy
Meeting concluded at 8.15pm
Date of next meeting – 7th February 2022
Appendix 1
Cllr Mary Green
Thu 06/01/2022 15:58
Dear Everyone
Well another year has appeared and the previous one has gone in the blink of an eye.
I would like to thank you all for the dedication and support you give to our residents.
The fact that all of you give of your time freely, often I feel, goes unacknowledged and unrecognised by the majority. Without your sterling work, enthusiasm, generosity and kindness of spirit we would all be worse off - if only by me, it is greatly appreciated, thank you.
What will a new year bring us? Oh for a crystal ball !
There will be the challenge of COVID-19 which I believe will be with us for quite some time to come, but as human beings we learn to adapt and move on.
It is a time for a total re think on our planet, indeed what is its future? If we carry on as we are the future doesn’t look good for our grandchildren and great grandchildren, so again we have to adapt and move on.
The ‘dustbin saga’ if I may call it that, is one of the adaptations we must make work. Like any good overhaul of a system in need, there will be frustrations, but in the overall scheme of things they are minutiae. This has been borne out by the quality of recycling that has been collected over the past 3-4 weeks and we must continue in this positive vein.
Potholes! They are the bane of all our lives, however, statistically on an average day in 2019 (data from 2020 - next update April 2022), 75 times more vehicles travelled along a typical stretch of motorway than a typical stretch of rural minor road (‘B’ roads, ‘C’ roads and unclassified roads). So in the scheme of things for funding from Government we are way down the pecking order. That doesn’t mean we should stop reporting potholes via Fix My Street it means we need to think about reporting them more - and not adopt an attitude of ‘someone else will have done it”. The more the reporting numbers increase the greater the chance is of a pothole/roadside degradation being dealt with positively. Numbers count!
There is a £12m gap in terms of highways funding, this is because of the governments decision last February to reduce Lincolnshire’s highways maintenance grant by 25% according to LCC. As a result the county council has launched a campaign against the government’s funding cut, which it is calling “Fix Our Funds To Fix Our Roads” , encouraging residents to write to their MPs for support
In order for me as your District Councillor to perform my role effectively, I need you as parish councillors, clerks and residents to tell me what your needs are.
I am for all intents and purposes your puppet, without your thoughts positive or negative my role as a District Councillor becomes meaningless.
Consequently please get in touch with me if you think I maybe able to help with your query - if I can’t, I will say so and I maybe be able to offer alternative suggestions and if I can it’s full steam ahead!
Don’t forget my email is:- cllr_mary_green@n-kesteven.gov.uk & my telephone number is 07971 171554.
Now for the local news:-
Boosters for COVID 19 are available to those aged 18 or over, and those aged 16 or over who, for example, have a health condition putting them a high risk of getting seriously ill from Covid. If you’ve not had your first or second dose of the Covid vaccine yet, it’s still important that you do. These can still be booked. Getting vaccinated reduces your risk of catching and becoming seriously ill from Covid.
The new weekly NK Lottery is a brilliant way to support good causes close to you - plus each week causes benefitting from it and you can pick which one will be helped by your ticket purchase. There’s more at www.NK lottery.co.uk.
The total cost of the rugby club junction and Holdingham roundabout projects is £8.25m. This project was funded by the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership, NKDC, LCC and developer funds.
Signing off now, stay safe and well.
Best wishes.
Mary Green
Appendix 2 – Cllr Mrs Overton did not attend the meeting. Her report as follows;
From: Marianne <marianne.overton@biosearch.org.uk>
Sent: 14 January 2022 11:26
To: Friends and Colleagues, <marianne.overton@biosearch.org.uk>
Subject: LCC Budget with answers to my questions
Subject: LCC Budget with answers to my questions
Lincolnshire County Council Budget
Lincolnshire County Council is consulting on a 3% council tax rise, the same rise that was not taken last year, just before the elections. This budget does not include the missing £12m for Highways.
The Government has adjusted their grants with the assumption we are taking the Council tax rises they have allowed, hence the shortfall. We could argue that it is short-sighted not to take the tax increases the Government is counting it as in the bank.
Nevertheless, I am very happy to support the campaign for Dept of Transport to recognise significant costs of rurality. This is not going to be resolved this year, but is important for the fairer funding decision promised (again) next year.
There is however, no excuse for short-changing our residents on service. Revenue reserves went up by £37m last year. In my view, the money for road repairs must be returned, taken from where is was stored away last year, if the extra giveaway is not forthcoming from the Government this year!
This proposed 22/23 budget is for £534.515m, an increase of 5.2%. This is based on a 3% council tax increase for social care and reflects the reduced Highway maintenance allocation from DfT of 25%. The government has raised the amount they give us by around £16m to £77m this year and there are more people paying tax.
The 3% council tax increase for social care is the same increase that was deferred from last April, moving the increase from just before the County elections to after the elections.
The 25% cut to highways maintenance and repair, returns to the Department of Transport’s expectations before the one-off grant previously received.
In this draft budget, the Executive proposes not to take all of the Council tax increases allowable by Government. There is a further 1% available for adult care from this year and 2% pa for general services. Each 1% increase generates £3.189m, so the 3% not taken equates to £9.567m income foregone next year.
In addition, we did not take the 3% increase allowed last year, which is around £9m we could have spent last year.
To my mind, not collecting the local tax that we can, suggests we do not need it and undermines our call from more funds from Government.
Nationally on the Local Government Association, we have lobbied hard for proper funding of Councils, based on clear evidence of need. The Government has allocated more funds, mainly around new services in social care and elsewhere. The County Council call is now directed to the Department of Transport’s choice of allocating more funds per head to urban, rather than rural areas, a common theme.
Not taking the tax now also has a knock-on effect in future years. We have a shortfalls of £9.3m next year 2023/4 and £6.4m and £6.9m in each of the following years. (page 25 para 1.33)
Extra costs of £41m are in the budget. These include more for care of adults and children and school transport up another £6.54m, even after efficiencies related to more effective route planning and contracting are introduced. Also a little more for flood and drainage £0.75m and £0.64m in each of next two years, but this may be on specific projects.
Less comfortable is more spent on borrowing, rising due to increase in costs of current capital projects. (After reprofiling, new capital spend is £113.7m this year, £87m with grants.)
Savings of £9.543m are planned this year, from more home-working, reduced business support and reduced use of buildings. Also planning to review of fees and charges.
The volatility reserves are £4.48m higher than the Executive Director of Resources recommended as a prudent minimum, so there is a little room there.
The formal papers of the draft budget now out for consultation are here.
Q. How much increase and total is set for road repairs?
There isn’t an increase in activity planned in this proposal. The only growth items that have gone into Highways revenue at this stage relate to inflationary increases (£760k) and to account for activity arising from a larger network (£30k).
There are various different highways budgets, both revenue and capital, doing various different initiatives as you’d appreciate but the main pothole repairs one is the focus of the motion agreed at last council, namely c.£39m planned spend, as opposed to the £51m we received for 2020/21.
Q Social care shows as having a £9.56m increase in tax, plus the “Social Care” grant of £9.34m. Where on page 24 is that £18.8m allocated? I can see the three figures of £3.666, 6.656 and 5.808 adding to £15.500m.
The proposed increase in tax is contained within the County Precept line, the increase in grant is contained within the Other Non Specific Grants line, both on the table in p24. The badge of “Social Care” grant is a misnomer in that it isn’t specific for that use, doesn’t come with conditions and more is called that because it is given to upper tier/unitaries who provide those services and distributed as such and should be seen more in the context that our overall cost pressures have increased by the £41m you refer to earlier.
Q Is there a summary of reserves and movements during the year, please? Total reserves excluding schools are £257m risen during the year by £37m, but just £16m or 2-3% in the general reserve. Around half, at £129m is earmarked, out of a budget of half a billion per year, needed for services for Lincolnshire.
We’ve referenced the September Council report as a background document as they are the most recently approved balances by Council p90/91 -
https://lincolnshire.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s41682/Review%20of%20Financial%20Performance%20202021.pdf
We are currently updating balances etc and they’ll be presented in the next budget report prior to Feb
Hope this helps!
Kind Regards,
Marianne
Marianne Overton MBE