2023 Parish Council Minutes of Meetings

Doddington and Whisby Parish Council

Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held at The Cabin, Blackmoor Farm, Doddington at 7pm on Monday 3rd April 2023

Present: Cllr. G Patrick (Chair), Cllr. G Beale (Vice Chair), Cllrs. E Mathers, S Whiles and M Cunniffe

Clerk: S Aikman

Public Forum

Cllr Overton had sent his apologies and had sent in the following report:

Annual Report from Peter Overton, North Kesteven District Councillor for Doddington/Whisby

I have attended most of the Parish Council meetings at Doddington/Whisby over the past year and contributed in a constructive way wherever possible. I congratulate the Chairman and all Parish Councillors for your commitment to your parish over the past year. Your village needs you. I also serve on the Trent Valley Internal Drainage Board and as Vice Chair on Whisby Nature Park Steering Committee.

As a District Council we have continued to put climate change and emissions at the centre of all our policy making. There are two main areas where the District Council has direct control over this; planning and housing. 

Planning Control is a major part of NKDC responsibility. Inevitably, as a District Councillor it is the field that occupies much of my attention and details of applications for Eagle are given below. 

The new Local Plan that becomes effective in 2023 has some bearing on construction standards and locations of development. How interpretation will remain largely under the control of officers, with oversight by those Councillors on the Planning Committee. I have campaigned on location and scale of both wind farm and solar farm proposals. I have been pushing for proper adherence to landscape and habitat protection and renewal associated with housing developments. I will be raising this matter on the scrutiny committee shortly. The public believe there should be much more emphasis on keeping what may be necessary constructions into an industrial setting and not industrialising the open countryside. This has been one area where I have made strong representation. 

Our second major responsibility is in social housing. The Council has a rented housing stock of some 3800 homes, some of which are new builds and are already up to good standards of energy efficiency. In keeping with our target of achieving net zero by 2030, we have been pressing for upgrading of this stock for energy efficiency as rapidly as possible. The Council had a slow start but is now making progress and has at least a clear plan for the next few years. In the past year, 70 houses, which needed most urgent attention, have been retrofitted and there is funding in place for a further 200 over the next two years. Thereafter a total of 100 per year should achieve a total of some 900 retrofitted houses by the deadline of 2030. 

My work in the Council

I have attended all six Full Council meetings at NKDC during the year. Much of the content is of little interest to the public since it often involves technical issues concerning the running of the council and statutory requirements. It can be viewed on live stream by any member of the public. However, I was active in promoting the following motions, not all of which were passed but did have an influence on the running and policy of the Council.

28th April 2022   

Addressing fuel poverty within the District.

12th May 2022   

Annual Council meeting at which structure of committees and appointments are made.

14th July 2022

Retrofitting homes to improve their energy efficiency will help tackle the cost of living, fuel poverty and mitigate against climate change. What is the Council doing to address the 609 lowest performing homes in energy efficiency, as described in the last year’s report? I have answered this in this report.
 
Presented the ‘Debate not Hate’ campaign which was initiated by the Local Government Association. We got full support on this motion, which addressed the thorny issue of inappropriate behaviour by Councillors, which is deterring good candidates from standing and existing councillors from remaining, thus undermining our democracy.

6th October 2022      

The “Mini Budget” announced by the Chancellor on Friday 23rd September. We noted that some 38 areas have special “Investment Zones”, and these did not include North Kesteven or Lincolnshire. We seem to have changed ministers and aspirations since then! 
 
15th December 2022

We proposed that nationally set housing targets should be abolished.

We have campaigned on this locally and nationally. The Government decided to withdraw the housing targets, but it is difficult to see how the replacement policy is much different. It continues to put pressure on local authorities to build houses, at a rate which we consider unsustainable in our rural areas.

26th January 2023    

Motion in support of the Ambulance Service in North Kesteven. 

2nd March 2023

Call to action to keep our current level of PCSO’s in Lincolnshire.
 
North Kesteven District Council has long recognised the vital role Police Community Support Officers play in combatting crime and providing improved police visibility and public reassurance. However, official data continues to show Lincolnshire has the lowest funding support from central government per head of population of any police force area in the Country. And that despite ongoing and wide-ranging year-on-year acknowledgement that the national police funding formula remains unfit for purpose, change has yet to be delivered. The proposed cut to just 50 PCSOs seemed drastic enough but just recently announced is a further complete abandonment of neighbourhood policing in rural areas. We will be campaigning to get this policy reversed.

Summary of Planning Applications for Doddington/Whisby during the 2022/3

13/4   Michael and Gail Brown. Blackmoor Farm Cottage. Conversion of single storey barn to residential annexe.

Ammended plans Withdrawn

3/5   Dr Mrs L Wright.
The Old Bull Pens, Kennel Lane.
Replacement of panels with barn doors. Approved

11/5   Mrs L Wright
The Old Bull Pens, Kennel Lane
Erection of pitched roof gazebo. 
Approved

13/5   Mr S Dunn
Doddington Hall
Demolition of existing storage building and erection of two storey café.
Approved

1/7 Mr and Mrs Cox
The Old Kennels, Kennel Lane
Erection of single storey building. 
Withdrawn

25/7   Whisby Garden Centre
Whisby Moor. Extension of existing café, touring caravan site, visitors lodges etc.
Refused and then amended and approved

1.   To receive any apologies for absence

Cllr M Cox had sent his apologies.  Apologies accepted.

2.   To receive any declarations of interest

None

3.   To receive the minutes of the Parish Council Meeting 6th March 2023 previously circulated to members.

Following a vote it was resolved unanimously that the minutes from 6th March 2023 were an accurate record of the meeting.

4.   Finance

a.   To formally note Items of Income

b.   To formally approve items of Expenditure:

Following a vote it was unanimously resolved to approve the following payments 

c.   Bank reconciliation for the year to date was approved unanimously

d.   To review spend against budget

Reviewed.

5.   Planning

a.   Applications Received

b.    Applications Decided

6.   To receive any updates on the unilateral undertaking to secure the £40K against traffic calming measures in the parish of Doddington.

Cllr Patrick had sent the proposed agreement to James Birch.  Following a vote it was unanimously resolved to sign the agreement and send to NKDC.  ACTION: Cllr Patrick

7.   To consider plans for the Coronation.

Following a vote it was unanimously resolved to donate £200 towards food and drink to Doddington Hall if they were providing a freely accessed community event for the Coronation.

8.   To consider options for the renewal of the laptop antivirus programme.

Following a vote it was unanimously resolved to renew the antivirus programme for 3 years at a cost of £44.56 + vat.

9.   Clerk and Councillors Reports (for information only), including a review of actions from minutes and matters that Councillors wish to be brought to the next or subsequent meetings.

No decisions may be made under this section, but councillors may wish to use this to flag up issues.

A discussion was held about the elections.

10.   Correspondence

11.   Date of next meeting 

Annual Parish Meeting 7pm Monday 22nd May 2023 at Doddington Hall
Annual Parish Council meeting 7.30pm Monday 22nd May 2023 at Doddington Hall

Meeting closed at 8.05pm