Minutes of Meeting 2025

Draft Minutes of Meeting 09.01.2025

Draft Minutes of East Keal Parish Council 9th January 2025

Held at Keals Village Hall at 7pm

Present
Cllr Mahoney (Chair), Cllr Cooper, Cllr Pearson, Cllr Wrisdale & 2 members of the public plus Pauline Murray (Parish Clerk) and County Cllr Gray.

Public Forum – a member of public was concerned with how much ice and water there was on the roads of the village currently. Cllr Gray mentioned that Storm Babet caused a huge amount of damage.  He mentioned that he was going to organise a walkabout the village with the Highway Manager in the near future to take in the many problems.  However he was aware that the Highway Programme for 2025/26 contained work to be carried out on Church Lane.  The newly approved property on Blacksmith’s Lane would however add to the village’s problems.  A gentleman in the audience offered to make a bench to fit in the space created by the repositioning of the electricity transformation unit at the top of Fen Lane – this was well received.

Meeting commenced at 7.15pm

  1. Apologies for Absence
    Cllrs Thornley & Stickland gave their apologies. These were agreed as valid reasons. 

  2. Declaration of Interest (if any) - none

  3. Approving and signing minutes of a meeting held on 20th November 2024
    The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted by all councillors and a copy signed by the Chair Cllr Mahoney.    

  4. Co-option of a new councillor applications

           As yet no applications have been received but we will keep application open on the website.

  1. Reports from representatives on outside bodies:

 

a. County Councillor – Cllr Gray mentioned lots of flooding problems but he has links to forward for people to access help.  There has been a lot more sand & grit used for the time of year. He also has links for ‘Good Homes’ where people can adapt their homes to stay in them longer as they get old.  The drains on Fen Lane are to be jetted on 17th January 25. The Keal Hill speed reduction application is currently being assessed.  The Village Hall road has been checked for density regarding speed reduction but it won’t be reduced.  The grit boxes are rock solid the Chair mentioned.  Possible to request for bus stop shelters from LCC – need to see if still able to apply for funding – one near the shop and one near the memorial would be ideal.  The district councils and the county councils are likely to be joined together to form a Unitary Authority – the LCC May elections may be cancelled because of this – we won’t know until February.  If this happens then the Parish Councils will be joined into clusters & there will be a ‘superclerk’ over lots of Parishes.  The Parishes will probably get allocated more powers over planning etc. and higher budgets. Cllr Gray stated that he would like to say that the Parish Councillors are all doing a great job.

b.   District Councillor – Cllr Taylor was not available but has sent information through which has been circulated to the Parish Council. 

 

  1. Update from Delegated Groups

 

  1. HR Committee - The Clerk needs to complete a workspace assessment – Chair will email this on for her to complete.

  2. Update by the Highways Working Group – this has already been addressed above

                      

  1. Update on Village Questionnaire

Chair stated that there are 160 questionnaires ready to go with a list of households to distribute.

To be emailed out and agree the distribution of them.

                                                           

  1. Approval of amended Code of Conduct 

The Code of Conduct had been revised by the Chair and emailed round for comments.  It was voted to accept it unanimously.

 

  1. Review of the Standing Orders

The Standing Orders were reviewed and councillors accepted the first draft, distributed by the Chair. The chair to complete the final version and bring it to the next meeting for approval. Chair would like Clerk to look into purchasing ‘Governance and Accountability for Local Councils – a practical guide’ and report back to the next meeting. Possibility of sharing cost with the other Parishes that the Clerk looks after.

 

  1. Planning:- 

Update on planning at Blacksmiths Lane – application has been approved. Awaiting the outcome of the Construction Plan, Archaeological report and the Transport Plan.

Glebe Farm – Construction plan for storage of waste – Chair has read the environmental report

 

  1. Work by the PRIDE Team

They had carried out the work very well. A further request has been made to clean up the Fen Lane to Church Lane footpath known as Barrow Holt is very slippery with the wet leaves and needs cleaning. To pick up on the walkabout with Highways.  Cllr Gray is going to contact the Clerk to arrange a date for the walkabout when most of the Councillors are available to join.  The date will then be advertised on the website.

                                

  1. ‘Gov.uk’ domain & emails-update from Clerk

Most of the Councillors are up and running with the new emails.  Although there have been 2 scam emails come through to Cllr Pearson and to the Clerk but these aren’t from the new .Gov.uk emails.

 

  1. Financial Update:-

  1. An update on payments made since the previous meeting – no payments through since the last meeting – although £20 hire of hall is outstanding. 

  2. Bank Reconciliation Statement and Financial Report as at 31st Dec 24-see above

  3. HMRC penalty-Clerk to find correspondence and contact

  4. Auditor-Clerk has contacted Jen Cooper and she has agreed to carry out the next Audit

 

  1. Update on audit List of tasks

The Chair went through the list of tasks and was able to tick several off and several others needed her to check what was intended.

 

  1. Welcome Booklet

Cllr Thornley is bringing this to the next meeting – possibility of asking businesses if they want including in the booklet.

 

  1. Matters arising for next meeting.

  • Welcome Booklet

 The meeting closed at 9pm - next meeting Thursday, 6th March 2025 at 7pm at Keals Village Hall.