2024 Parish Council Minutes of Meetings

MINUTES POINTON & SEMPRINGHAM PARISH COUNCIL MEETING

Tuesday 18th June 2024 at 7.30pm in St Gilbert Primary School

Councillors Present: Cllrs Clarke, Green, Greenwood, Keeley, Wells and Wesley (Chair).

In attendance: D. Cllr Dixon-Warren, Parish Clerk Boden, Guest Speaker Mrs Herbert - Community Grants & Funding Officer at SKDC and 19 members of public.

To be noted that the meeting may be recorded for the purpose of transparency.

AGENDA 

Chairman’s Welcome and Housekeeping Arrangements.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION SESSION

To receive reports from outside bodies.

Report from C. Cllr Hill. No report received

Report from D. Cllr Dixon-Warren. The monthly report has already been sent out but the main points are SKDC are continuing working through the problems of the waste bin collections and there has been recently a number of celebrations covering the 80th Anniversary of D-Day. The General Elections are being held on the 4th July and there is not much time to register if needed.

Public questions regarding the Pavilion were held back to the relevant item.

COUNCIL SESSION

24075. To receive and accept apologies for absence. It was resolved to accept to accept the apologies of Cllr Christie.

24076. Declarations of interest. No declarations of interest were received.

24077. To approve the minutes of the meeting held on the 21st May 2024 and for the chair to sign. It was resolved to approve the minutes of the meeting held on the 21st May 2024 and for the chair to sign.

24078. Pavilion – To receive guidance from Mrs Herbert - Community Grants & Funding Officer SKDC. Mrs Herbert was welcomed and she explained that there were potentially grants for both new build and refurbishment routes and it is ultimately the Council’s decision but hopefully the community would have some input.

As she understood a building was needed that could be used for the sports teams to change and also had a communal area for the playing field users.

Sports England has two main grants. The main one that she advises the Council to apply for is a grant of up to £15,000 which the PC would be eligible for. There is also a slightly larger grant though this may be harder to apply for as the PC isn’t known to Sports England and no previous projects have been managed under their grant scheme. Cllr Greenwood stated that the PC is already registered with Sports England.

If the council choose the refurb route rather than taking on the whole project as one item it could be helpful to break it into smaller projects to build the trust and prove that projects can be completed before moving on to the next project.

General questions were asked by both the PC and members of public and Mrs Herbert answered them.             Any funder will discuss the application and decide if the project can be covered and the amount of detail that needs to be added eg. quotes and costings before the forms are even filled in. Funding is not dependant on the numbers of electors in a village.

Some grants are match funded at around 20-30% and this is for both refurbs and new builds. Volunteers can be used against costs at around £13 per hr for funding purposes. Letters of support, fundraising, volunteers grass cutting around the village can all help the application. As much detail as is possible should be placed into the application eg, sports & social club had to close due to covid, the pavilion having to close for H&S reasons and the FC having to change in their unit/ move away to Helpringham.

Cllr Wells gave a breakdown of the approximate costs on the refurb of the building but again these would depend on the exact plans that are chosen. He asked the clerk if quotes for demolition had been received. One quote had been received of around £19,000 but this was part of the insurance companies request before insurance would be granted. If it is decided that the building needs to come down then the S/O and Fin Regs would be followed.

Cllr Green suggested two buildings. A portacabin that can be used on match days and then the pavilion could be completely stripped out and this would make a very good club house. Having them separate would help with safeguarding on match days. She had received two quotes but was waiting for a third quote to arrive.

A member of public asked about the history of the building. Cllr Wesley gave an overview of the building and field.

Mrs Herbert was thanked for her help and left the meeting.

24079. Clerk’s Report – To receive an update of developments between meetings. The clerk reported that the certificate that was given to the Council at the last meeting didn’t have any NICEIC certification and would be out of date within the next month.

The Chair of the football club will not put anything in writing regarding the move to Helpringham stating that the clerk was at the meeting when it was announced and the minutes should suffice. The previous contractor was also still receiving requests for work for the football team.

24080. To approve and adopt the new Financial Regulations (2024). It was resolved for to approve and adopt the new Financial Regulations (2024).

24081. Finances:

a) To receive the clerk’s report on payments between meetings

 It was resolved to approve the clerk’s report on the payments made between the meetings.

b) To approve payments as list below.

It was resolved to approve the payments listed above

c) To accept the list of payments received.

It was noted that the payments had been received. Since the agenda had been produced VAT of  £1,222.21 had been received from HMRC for the financial year 2023-24.

d) To approve the bank reconciliation. It was resolved to approve the bank reconciliation.

e) To ratify the purchase of Zurich insurance. It was ratified that insurance had been purchased from Zurich insurance once the underwriters had accepted the demolition costs of around £19,000. The demolition quote had been a request of the insurers, along with signs that had been purchased.

24082. Grass cutting- To receive an update on the grass cutting of the playing field. It had been spoken about on a number of occasions that both the Council and members of public were not satisfied with the grass cutting on the field. The contractor had been spoken to regarding the frequency of cuts etc and as things had not improved and the field had not been cut for a period of time the contract was terminated. 

As the school had booked the field for their sports day the VC and clerk arranged for another company to cut the field so that it would be prepared in time. Before the contractor arrived, a volunteer cut the grass with grass topper to take the length down. The new contractor has cut the grass 3 times within the month to bring the field to an acceptable level.

It was resolved to stay with the new contractor as it could be difficult to find others willing to take the cutting on during the season and then go out to tender at the end of the year.

24083. Grant Applications - To consider the grant application from the Emergency Planning Group. As the constitution had been received from the Emergency Planning Group the grant application had been placed on the agenda. On discussion the items on the grant application have already been purchased and new items/ costs were suggested. The PC resolved to give a grant to the Emergency Planning Group for the sum of £427.39. The clerk clarified that the bank account was the same as on the application form.

The clerk reminded the chair that there was still the bag of sand and sandbags that the PC had received from SKDC being stored in Millthorpe and the bag from LCC was in Pointon. With the Emergency group now having all the equipment gifted for Pointon it was resolved to keep the bag in Millthorpe for the residents and to see if there was anywhere in Sempringham to store the second bag.

24084. Freedom Of Information – To receive an update on the number of FOI received and costs to the PC/ Parish.  The clerk had received 6 FOI since the last meeting taking up 4.5 hrs of her time that had taken her away from other work that was needed within the PC. Three of these requests had come from the same member of public. It was resolved that the clerk keeps a register of FOI and report at each meeting.

24085. Playing Field – To consider improvement works to the playing field. Cllr Clarke suggested that maintenance and improvement works could be brought back inhouse and be carried out by a group of volunteers. It was discussed if this group should be a committee or a working group. The clerk explained the differences and it was resolved that a working group could be potentially formed.

Cllr Clarke would like to have a seasonal working party of volunteers that could help to keep on top of the field.

The insurance policy does cover volunteers but it must be proven that the volunteers are competent in using any tools and that the tools are fit for purpose.

24086. Date and time of Parish Council Meeting Tuesday 20th August 2024 at 7.30pm. The Council decided that they still needed to meet every month and went against the advice of the clerk of that a PC this size does not need to be meeting monthly and that precious hours were being spent preparing for and attending the meetings. It was resolved to hold the next meeting on the 23rd July 2024.

The meeting closed at 9.00pm.