2025 Parish Council Minutes

DRAFT Minutes of the Saltfleetby Parish Council meeting held on 7th January 2025 7pm at St Peters Church.

Present:

            Cllr Lusby

            Cllr Stone

            Cllr Harrison

            Cllr P Hall         

            Cllr Hatton

            Cllr B Hall

            Cllr C Saul

Pauline Murray – Clerk

Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting stating that the meeting was being recorded. He also spoke regarding the recent sad passing of Robin Smith who had done a lot of good work for the community during his lifetime.

There were 3 member of the public present plus Cllr McNally.

10 minutes Open Forum for Residents

A member of public queried the ‘discrepancies’ between the Parish Council and the EK bank accounts – the Clerk assured him that they were transfer between accounts only and not actual discrepancies but the 9 transfers he mentioned she will explain to him and in future try to narrate these better. Also the same member of public queried the religious element of a grant application further down the agenda – apparently the Christmas Sing Along wasn’t hymns and although some Cllrs hadn’t seen it advertised it was extremely well attended.

Statutory commenced at 7.10pm

02224 Apologies for Absence

Cllr Clarke was working and sent his apologies and Cllr Marshall was unwell.

02225 Declaration of interest & requests for dispensations

None

02226 Notes of the Parish Council Meeting on 11th November 2025

The minutes of 11th November 2024 were approved and signed by the Chair.

02227 County Councillor Reports

Councillor Rickett sent his apologies. Councillor McNally informed the meeting of a scrutiny report regarding young carers and how the community must be as supportive as possible although sometimes these carers are shy at coming forward. Chair to put information on where to get help for young carers on the website. Regarding the recent flooding – 159 houses in Lincolnshire were flooded – Saltfleet has new pumps. There is a proposal being put forward by the newly appointed Labour Government to abolish county councils and district councils to form large unitary councils.  The elections in May that had been planned may not now go ahead because of this but if they do they results will only stand for 2 years not the usual 4 years.

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02228 Survey of Trees in Churchyard

There was a willow bush that was touching the brickwork but this has now been trimmed down.  Cllr Hatton reported that the church had paid over £3k for different reports on the trees and he didn’t think any more inspections were necessary.  Cllr Lusby had also been to inspect the church trees and hadn’t seen an issue. Himself and Cllr Stone will be monitoring the trees quarterly.

02229 Financial Report
Three payments had been made since last meeting:-

12/11/24 Royal British Legion donation £50.00

30/12/24 Purchase of a router £109.04

30/12/24 Purchase of a sim card for the router £0.99

The current account has £9,880.03 in and the investment accounts £16,010.28 giving a total of £25,890.31 in the bank altogether.

02230 Christmas Trees

Councillor P Hall said there had been a change of staff at the company and whilst she had agreed £200 for the trees she has several invoices with different amounts on so she is waiting until they get back with a correct invoice.

02231 Litter Bin at Bus Stop

Councillor Stone had circulated a picture of a litter bin which he thought was a good fit for siting near the bus stop.  This bin costs £157 plus £11.99 delivery & plus vat circ £200 in total.  This was voted on and approved in principle unanimously although Councillor McNally mentioned a need to get a siting agreement from LCC.  The Councillors are to empty it.

02232 Training

The Clerk is wondering whether to embark on CILCA training and is going to the free introduction course on 20th January to see.  This cost (approx. £650) could be shared around the 4 parishes that she works for.  Clerk to bring back to March’s meeting.

02233 Speed Gun Site – North End Lane

Councillors Brian and Pam Hall did a speed check for 30 minutes and 2 out of the 10 cars passing were speeding. Councillor Brian Hall mentioned that they had 2 more volunteers for speed gun training in February or March.  There are several sites that have been approved for speed gun checking eg by the church, at the snooker club & North End Lane – would be good to get one near the Prussian Queen.        

02234 Planning Applications

None

02235 Review of Policies

The new Financial Regulations 2024 has been issued by LALC and it’s a model to be adapted to your size of council.  The Clerk had gone through this model and made suggestions of the amendments which would be fit for a parish council the size of Saltfleetby.  The Chair asked that she update the model with these amendments and then if a sub-committee was formed to oversee the policies it could be looked at there.  Councillors Saul, Harrison and Lusby put their names forward to sit on this sub-committee with the first meeting date to be decided.

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02236 Clerks Report

The Clerk had been looking at the amount of time she spends on Windfarm work and as the payment rate has increased she felt that £70 per month (which equates to 5 hours work) was not a true reflection of her time per month.  She proposed a figure of £115 would be more realistic (which is around 8 hours work).  The meeting resolved to adopt this new figure.   

02237 Items for the next agenda:-

Policies from Sub-Committee

Need more 40mph signs – Chair to provide more data

Litter bin siting

Meeting finished at 8.26pm

Next Parish Council Meeting will be on 4th March 2025

Signed-                                                       Date-

Cllr J M Lusby (Chair)

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