2023 Annual Parish Meeting

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL PARISH MEETING OF GREETWELL HELD ON  MONDAY 3 APRIL 2023 IN THE VILLAGE HALL, SUDBROOKE

PRESENT:  Councillor John Taylor, (Chairman), 5 residents, County Councillor Ian Fleetwood, District Councillor Mrs Anne Welburn, Clerk Mrs Christine Myers

APOLOGIES:  Councillor Ms Sue Pullen

1  APPROVAL OF THE NOTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 4 APRIL 2022 TO BE SIGNED AS MINUTES

That the notes be signed as minutes proposed by Mike Taylor, seconded by Mrs Sarah Bates.

2  CHAIRMANS REPORT

The Chairman reported as follows:-

That he was very satisfied that the Puffin Crossing had been approved and would shortly be constructed – after a period of 13 years of campaigning and pressing the County Council for its provision.

That the Speed Indicator on the A158 had produced incredible figures/data and that there would shortly be a second machine fitted at the other end of the parish.

That trees had been planted in a copse near to the bypass roundabout to commemorate the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

He thanked members for attending meetings and working as a good team and the Clerk for keeping the administration side of the Council in order.

3  CLERKS REPORT

The Parish Council has been at full membership of 7 members for the full year and everyone works together well as a good team.

The Parish Council has entered into an agreement with Lincolnshire County Council to oversee the grass cutting of the verge through the parish from Ramper Farm to the village gateways.  The verge will be cut 6 times a year and the County Council will make a substantial contribution to the cutting.

The Parish website continues to be updated regularly by our Website Manager – it is full of useful information for residents.

An addition to North Greetwell will be the planting of a Christmas tree on Westfield Avenue roundabout.  It is hoped that a set of battery operated lights can be put on this during December with a celebratory switch on event (hopefully to include some mince pies and mulled wine).

The Chase play area continues to be well maintained by our Playground Inspector and is professionally inspected on a fortnightly basis.  Some new fencing will shortly replace the current Lincolnshire fencing.

Even though there has had to be an increase on the parish Precept for 2023/24 in line with inflation in view of the additional number of properties in the parish the result on the Council tax is -0.8%.

The Council spent within its budget during the year having a balance at 31.3.2023 of £12,524.01.

This amount includes:-

Events Fund = £925.97

Parish Enhancement = £3475.42

Funds from DC A Welburn - £341.09 brought forward from 2021/22 plus £168.50 grant this year = £509.59.  Monies spent on trees/stakes/guards = £249.27, surplus £260.32 (towards a seat when a suitable location can be identified)

Cils (Community Infrastructure Levy monies)  income £1906.07.  £1250.00 spent on speed Indicator Equipment, £128.00 spent on Christmas tree = £1378.00.  Surplus £528.07

The remaining balance is the Contingency Fund = £7334.23    

The Chase Account – expenditure for year taken from account - £1890.62 =  £8,702.38.  This is depleting from the starting figure of £25,000 but the Parish Council has agreed that an input into The Chase Account will have to be made from the forthcoming Precepts in order to maintain a working capital. 

4  REPORTS BY COUNTY AND DISTRICT COUNCILLORS

County Councillor Ian Fleetwood reported that he was satisfied that the Puffin Crossing was coming to fruition after such a long time of requesting this.

District Councillor Anne Welburn covering Greetwell, Cherry Willingham, Fiskerton, Langworth and Reepham  for the period May 2022 – March 2023
 
Performance

West Lindsey District Council has been shortlisted for the LGC Awards as Council of the Year. It has also picked up a double award at a national industry awards ceremony for its work collecting waste and keeping our streets clean.

The Council was named ‘best performer’ for its refuse collection service in the highly regarded Association for Public Service Excellence( APSE) Performance Networks Annual Awards. Over 250 authorities benchmark their performance data each year. The Council was also named ‘most improved performer’ for its street cleansing service.

Destination Lincolnshire has announced the finalists in their 2022 Tourism Awards and WL are thrilled that the Trinity Arts Centre is among those named. The Unique picture-house which is set in a stunning grade II listed church is a cultural hub in West Lindsey, creating a space for people to enjoy theatre, live music and watch popular movies. It is hired by a number of community groups and creative companies to hone their talents.

West Lindsey District Council has received a high rated assurance in its annual audit report for 2021-22. Inspectors from Assurance Lincolnshire carried out reviews into the governance, risk, internal controls, and financial controls of the council. The Council was found to be performing well in three areas with no significant concerns that would impact the council delivering its priorities. 

Audit reviews across the financial control areas continues to provide positive assurance for the Council. The most recent audits for all of these have provided High and Substantial assurances particularly in Housing Benefit Subsidy, Grants Awarded and Value for Money. For the twelve months ended 31 March 2022 the Council's arrangements for governance, risk management and control framework have continued to be strong. 

Climate Change, Environment and Sustainability

The Council is making progress towards reaching ambitious net-zero target by 2050.

Energy improvement grants totalling more than £1.3 million have been awarded to West Lindsey District Council in the last 18 months. Successful applicants have used funds to deliver a range of energy improvements where they are most needed – such as off gas grid properties, and low energy efficiency homes owned by low-income families. 

Some of the work that has taken place:  

•   Solar PV and battery storage and electric vehicle charging points installed and operating at a new energy efficient waste depot -utilising Public Sector Decarbonisation Fund monies. 
•   Separate Paper & Card Collections for residents and businesses introduced to improve environmental impact of West Lindsey District Council’s waste management operations.
•   Working with the Central Lincolnshire Local Plan to develop Energy, Climate and Flood Policies. New Internal Flood Management Strategy Board Established to help protect residents from the worst impacts of future events.
•   A new waste depot with solar panels generating 20,000 KWH of green electricity. An annual saving of 14.2 tonnes of CO2 – equivalent to burning 1400 gallons of diesel.

West Lindsey District Council will be switching its electricity tariff with its current provider as soon as contracts allow in October, to one that is 100 per cent traceable and zero carbon.

This will ensure any payments to its energy supplier is funding renewable energy sources only. The move supports the Council’s target of becoming net zero carbon before 2050.

The green energy market can be complex, with many companies now offering competitive green electricity tariffs for both residential properties and businesses. The Council is pleased to have secured a deal that will mean that nearly 500,000 kwh used annually in its own buildings and assets now comes from 100% renewable sources such as solar or wind – saving the equivalent of more than 100 tonnes of C02 emissions annually. 

The new electricity product ensures that 100 per cent of the REGO certificates are purchased from primary sources of renewable electricity generated solely via wind, solar and hydro. 

Information on how to save money on your utility bills and switch to a green tariff can be found here: Gas, Electric & Water Guides - MoneySavingExpert

Residents in West Lindsey have embraced the new twin recycling scheme, which separates paper and card from other recyclable material. Since the inception of twin stream to the end of July 2022, WLDC have collected 913.82 tonnes of paper and card and the end destination are still reporting less than 2% contamination in material received from Lincolnshire residents. In respect of the Mixed Dry Recycling (blue bin) quality and the volume of contamination, this has reduced from 32% pre-implementation to 22% post-implementation. The highest volumes of contaminants remain soft plastics, rigid plastics and unsuitable paper and card, which we believe residents do not think is good enough for the purple bin, so they put into the blue bin instead of the black bin. Waste that is placed in black bins is sent to the Energy from Waste plant at North Hykeham where it is turned into clean electricity and fed back to the grid. Future plans being considered are free green bins and food waste recycling.

Flagship Community Grants - The Flagship Community Grants programme includes varied requests to help communities in their project choices. The projects we funded across the district included new and enhanced play facilities, new community-led cultural activities, new heating systems in village halls to support climate change initiatives, support to bring people together (Jubilee Celebrations) distributing the shared prosperity funds or planting trees and bulbs to enhance green spaces. A £50,000 scheme supported installation of community accessible defibrillators The two most popular funding stream have been the  Councillor Initiative Fund & Match Funding (between £500 & £8000)

Community Grants Impact: From 2019-2022, our Match Funding Grant and Councillor Initiative Fund awarded over £290,000 and leveraged over £1.9 million. This means for every £1 that we awarded, over £6 was leveraged from external funds or matched by the partner. The grant schemes contributed to our Corporate Plan priorities by improving or developing community facilities and community-led service and activates which enabled increase physical activity, improved health and wellbeing across the district’s residents and greater quality of life and levels of independence among vulnerable residents   As well as bringing benefits to our residents and leveraging greater funds into our communities, our grant schemes also strengthened our relationships and partnership working with the voluntary and community sector such as Dial a Ride, Call Connect and CAB. This has enabled us to develop a better understanding of the needs and possibilities within our communities.

Crematorium recycling scheme - As part of a National Scheme the new crematorium supports local charities - last year LIVES, Lincolnshire, and St Andrew’s Hospice received £27,000 in charitable donation between them from Lea Fields Crematorium, which is run by West Lindsey District Council. The crematorium opened in January 2020 and signed up to a national metal recycling scheme to help give something back to the community. The ICCM (Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management) Metal Recycling Scheme, was set up so that with the consent of families, orthopaedic implants recovered after cremation are recycled and any money raised is used to give back to bereavement related charities such as St Barnabas Hospice.

Nationally the ICCM recycling Metal Scheme has raised over £7 million for charities since it was created.

You can visit the Lea Fields Crematorium website to find out more about the facilities, services, and memorials available to remember loved ones: www.leafieldscrematorium.co.uk/ 

New Police Inspector - Inspector 1144 Mike Head has just taken over as the West Lindsey Neighbourhood Policing Inspector and is based at Gainsborough Police Station. He is keen to work with the various Parish Councils and District Councillors so he can best tackle any issues in the local area, and he is committed to utilise any available resource and partners so he can best serve our community. I made a tour of the Cherry Willingham Ward and the Sudbrooke Ward as part of an introduction to the area and after meeting some of the Parish Councillors he has set up a contact stream and is arranging a quarterly meeting for the area. The first meeting was held in Feb at Scothern Methodist Church and was well attended with representatives from all the parishes with the addition of Bardney. The priorities for the coming three months were discussed, and agreement reached on communication streams to ensure he has sight of all crimes in the area, many of which go unreported at the moment.

Levelling Up (UK Shared Prosperity Fund) - Investment in communities and businesses has been confirmed for West Lindsey. The Government have supported plans by West Lindsey District Council to invest £2.7m of UKSPF into businesses and communities across the area. Much of this funding will be available to communities and businesses through two flagship grant schemes and the Council are working with the Government to launch the schemes by April 2023. 

This announcement comes hot on the heels of the submission of plans to support rural community infrastructure and connectivity and rural businesses through the investment of just under £800,000 as part of the Rural England Prosperity Fund. 

West Lindsey District Council was delighted to welcome officials from the UK’s - The National Lottery Heritage Fund to see first-hand the work taking place following the successful bid of £1.25m to repair, restore and regenerate the buildings in Gainsborough as part of the Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI)

These funds are on top of the £10 million from Central Government, as part of the “Levelling up” programme, to support town centre and high street regeneration, local transport projects, and cultural and heritage assets. Work has a begun-on delivery of schemes supported by this grant.

Voter ID at 2023 Local Elections – From 4 May 2023 onwards, voters will be required to show an approved form of photographic identification at polling stations before they are given a ballot paper. The Government introduced this law in the Elections Act 2022, and it takes effect for the first time in England on 4 May 2023. This will affect all voters who vote in person or by proxy at the next local elections on Thursday 4 May 2023. 

 Accepted forms of photo ID include. 

•   Passport issued by the UK, any of the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, A British Overseas Territory, an EEA state, or a Commonwealth country 
•   Photocard driving licence (includes a provisional licence) issued by the UK, any of the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or EEA state
•   Blue Badge scheme photocard parking permit
•   Older Person's Bus Pass / Concessionary Travel pass/card (in Lincolnshire, this is the older person or Disability bus pass issued by Lincolnshire County Council) 

The full list is available at: https://www.west-lindsey.gov.uk/elections-voting/voter-id-elections

For those without an accepted photographic ID, they can apply for a Voter Authority Certificate either via gov.uk or WLDC. 

Applications can be submitted through the UK government’s online portal or by submitting a paper form to our esteemed colleagues in the Electoral Services team (ereg@west-lindsey.gov.uk). West Lindsey is also offering a walk-in service during normal office hours.

The closing date to apply for a Voter Authority Certificate is 6 days prior to a polling date.

Solar Projects Update - There are now four solar NSIPs (Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects) in the area associated with the closure of the power stations on the river Trent. These will NOT be determined by WL but by the Government.

Cottam Solar Project (Island Green Power) - 600MW solar park across three sites in WL, totalling 1,270Ha. 

Gate Burton Energy Park (Low Carbon) - 500MW solar and energy park on approximately 684Ha of land, 4km to the south of Gainsborough.

West Burton Solar Project (Island Green Power) - 480MW Solar project across three sites within WL, totalling 788Ha in area.

Tillbridge Solar (Tillbridge Solar Ltd) - Approximately 1,400Ha of land to the west of Hemswell and Glentworth. 

Vision for West Lindsey 2023/27 - I have been working on new strategies to support walking and cycling, Culture & Heritage, we will continue to support the Churches Festival as well as bringing new outreach opportunities to our villages working with Trinity Arts Centre and Sports Partners working to bring events to our communities, there will also be continued accesses to grants for the project ambitions of residents.  

Continue to work on securing our financial independence as an authority being mindful of the need to support a climate strategy with an emphasis on controlling waste and recycling.

The Council has  formally submitted an expression of interest in acquiring RAF Scampton when it is decommissioned and is awaiting the outcome.

Should the Council be successful a partner will be required to work with the council and take a lead in managing, master planning and regenerating the site, not intended for housing but historic, leisure and business.

We have already purchased new cameras and installed IT systems which are helping reduce fly-tipping, but more are needed. We also have an aspiration to create a post of community warden which will help with issues that affect our communities (litter, parking, and fouling)

Fulfilment of the above will depend on the incoming administration.

5  TO CONSIDER ANY POINTS THAT PARISHIONERS WISH TO MAKE

There were none.

The meeting concluded at 7.45pm.