2024 Annual Parish Meeting

DRAFT MINUTES OF POINTON & SEMPRINGHAM ANNUAL PARISH MEETING

Held on Tuesday 16th April 2024 at 6.45pm in St. Gilberts Primary School.

In attendance: Cllr Wesley, Parish clerk Boden and 23 members of the public.

AGENDA

1.Welcome by Cllr Wesley. Cllr Wesley welcomed the electors of the Parish to the Annual Parish Meeting and introduced reports by Cllr Clarke on the progress of new play equipment and Cllr Green on the possibilities of a new Pavilion.

Cllr Clarke explained that a grant application had been submitted to the National Lottery for just short of £20,000 and the PC should have news within the next 12 weeks. Another application was due to be submitted to SKDC through the Prosperity Fund shortly.

Cllr Green gave a report that at present there were around 14 grants that the PC could apply for but a conclusion needs to be reached before grants start to be completed.

There is a possibility that the new unit could contain a first aid room and office along with changing rooms. Costings a coming in at around £150,000 for a new build.

Sports England has a wide range of grants that can be applied and the MBA have grants for parks and this can tie into the Pavilion.

A question was asked if architectural drawings would be produced. The answer was yes along with business plans and costings. The time scale would be around 8-9 months.

2. To approve and accept as a true record the notes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on the 7th March 2023 and for the Chair to sign. The notes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on the 7th March 2023 were proposed and seconded and it was resolved to accept them as a true record and Cllr Wesley signed them.

3. To approve and accept as a true record the notes of the Public Meeting held on the 9th November 2023. Members of public were not happy with the notes made from the public meeting held on the 9th November with them questioning that they had not seen them. The clerk reassured them that they were put up at the same time as the draft minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting. No members of public would propose the notes for them to be signed.

The notes from the public meeting and were taken as a tool to help with future work on the Pavilion.

4. Matters raised by the Parish Residents. An opportunity to discuss matters of interest to the community.

The Chair of the FC asked if they could give a report. Pointon FC will be moving some games to Helpringham. Due to the lack of facilities the memorial game will be played at Sleaford Town and the last game for this season would be played on the 11th May. The constitution has now been accepted at the recent meeting and a reminder that a grant application was still outstanding.

The club welfare officer asked if the car park would be made bigger? The Pavilion would be moved slightly so that the carpark could be extended.

A member of public commented that they thought that demolition of the Pavilion had already been decided at the March meeting. They were assured that this was not the case.

Discussions were had on how the build will be funded as there seems to be some disagreement as to whether there are grants available on new builds vs grants for refurbishment. A new build is the goal but the FC need something in place for them to use now.

It was pointed out that the field cannot fit 2 football pitches and a cricket pitch and the PC should be more sympathetic towards the FC as they are already in situ rather than start looking for new clubs.  A reply was made that the Pavilion is a community building and it should be expanded to other groups.

Cllr Wells, even though attending as a member of public, used his knowledge to go through the SE report and explained that it was written biased towards demolition and that the building was not as bad as the report made out.

An elector read out a report that they had prepared explaining that they had no faith in the PC and that it was time to remove the Cllrs and expressed a vote of no confidence towards the present members. They asked for a show of hands and around three quarters of the attendees raised their hands.

Post note: Some of the attendees that raised their hands were not electors but members of the FC and their supporters and therefore the vote was not carried out correctly.

Cllr Wesley had to bring the meeting to a close due to the upcoming PC meeting. A member of the public wanted the meeting to continue as it was their meeting and the only time that they could hold the PC to account. 

The clerk explained that it is best practice to hold the Annual Parish Meeting on a separate night than the PC meeting. Having the two meetings back-to-back has always been the way that Pointon & Sempringham have operated and moving forward this is something that can be looked into, however the Parish Council meeting is scheduled to start at 7.30pm and this must happen. She also explained that the electors can call their own Parish meeting.

The meeting closed at 7.27pm