July 18 - Parish Council Meeting
DRAFT: Minutes of the Carlby Parish Council Meeting held on 18 July 2023 at 19:30 in the Village Hall
Present: Cllrs. Pete Holland (Chairman) John Bavister (Vice Chair), Lesley Sweeting and Chris Barnes.
In Attendance: County Councillor Charlotte Vernon, District Councillor Penny Robins 29 members of the public and Sarah Gresty Parish Clerk
Public Forum:
The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and made introductions.
As the majority of the public attending were present solely for the planning issues, this agenda item was brought forward by the chairman, to be discussed in the public forum. The chairman did reiterate that all individuals can submit comments directly to the SKDC Planning portal. The chairman disclosed that his own dog attended the centre of application s23/0922.
a) S23/0922 Field on the North side of High Street, change of use of agricultural land to use as extended provision of the doggy day care centre. The Parish Council had embarked to engage residents whilst reviewing this application prior to the meeting. Although residents have voiced concern about noise, the Parish Council are not aware of any formal complaints having been made. The decision to reduce services at Maggies Mates was linked to the numbers of dogs stipulated in the original planning application that had been breached. Once this became clear in July 2023, Maggies Mates took the appropriate action to remedy this.
Rachel the owner of ‘Maggies Mates’ gave an overview of her business of dog day care which was established 3 years ago (Planning Reference s20/1759). Since her recent application S23/0922 for extended provision, there had been concerns from residents and it had come to light that dogs barking had become a problem. Since these reports, Rachel had taken action to reduce dogs coming from Bourne and the Deepings areas, had reconfigured and separated the dog day care from the dogs attending short term for walks. She confirmed she is working with the Planning Enforcement Officer and the Planning Officer to come to a positive outcome for everyone. The new application would allow a larger area for the dogs visiting for walks. It also enabled the vans delivering and collecting dogs to keep away from the day care dogs which tend to get excited when they see the vehicles, resulting in more noise.
A member of the public asked for clarification on dog numbers. 20 dogs were in day care and 3 vans bringing a maximum of 7 dogs each (21 dogs in total) over the day for walking. These dogs were now walked in the extension field further from the village. There were no further plans to expand numbers at present.
Residents were support of “Maggies Mates” as a local business
Mitigations of a new hedge being planted on the western boundary were suggested.
Maggies Mates staff are very approachable and the villagers found them to be considerate and friendly.
Several members of the public voiced that the measures taken over the past 2 weeks have definitely reduced the noise of barking and appreciated the efforts taken. They commended Rachel on being a young entrepreneur.
A member of the public asked about water and waste management. Rachel confirmed that she had a contract with South Kesteven District Council for removal of waste and also had an animal welfare licence.
The parish Council asked the applicant what their intension was with regards to application S23/0922. Would it be withdrawn or amended? The PC will await further update on this before they submit their comments.
b) S23/1140 Chestnut Barn, 62 High Street, vary conditions to s21/0281.
The applicant was present and able to confirm that clays tiles stated on the original application would not match those that were originally on the old barn which were concrete. The vary in conditions is to make sure that concrete tiles are used to match those that were originally in place. He confirmed that the colour match with the new tiles is very similar to those originally on the barn. This would then allow the whole property roof when viewed to be the same.
Proposal: To support this applications. Cllr. Holland, Seconded Cllr. Sweeting and unanimous in favour RESOLVED
The public form was closed and only 4 members of the public remained for the rest of the meeting.
Agenda
23/24-37 Apologies: There were none.
23/24-38 Disclosure of Pecuniary Interests: There were none.
23/24-39 Minutes of :
a) 17 May 2023 Annual Parish Council meeting were presented as a true and accurate record of events. Proposed acceptance Cllr. Bavister, Seconded Cllr. Holland and unanimous in favour RESOLVED.
b) 23 May 2023 Annual Parish Meeting were presented as a true and accurate record of events. Proposed acceptance Cllr. Bavister, Seconded Cllr. Holland and unanimous in favour RESOLVED.
23/24-40 Reports from:
a) Cllr. Vernon: There are a few initiatives:
LCC Ready Set Reading Challenge for children over the summer. Bourne and Stamford library are participating, you can also take part online.
Antisocial behaviour. Safer Lincolnshire Partnership can help with Antisocial behaviour, which can be anything when the quality of life is affected, such as speeding cars, noise from neighbours amongst other things. SLP can listen and advise anyone requiring help.
LCC not directly responsible for bin collections. The waste team will visit local community groups. Discussions have been taken regarding additional purple bins for cardboard recycling. This can improve rates up to 90%. The more we can do to raise awareness of recycling is worthwhile.
Boundary review. On 14 Sept boundaries will change, new MP’s will not change until the general election.
Issue with water. LCC didn’t get as much information as hoped with regards to the recent water quality warning from Anglian Water in some village areas. LCC are researching how people were notified. Social media being the main informant. Local communities had a role to play, Carlby village had an amazing response network. Vulnerable people were given bottled water where required. Anglian Water did a good job and supporting residents but some improvements would be welcomed. Delivery water supplies to shops, schools and other venues where people could access was beneficial.
Anglian Water is looking at communication channels and improvements in their systems. Approximately 3000 householders were impacted including 300 of which were vulnerable.
Cllr. Robins.
A full cabinet meeting is scheduled this week where budgets will be formalised.
• Purple bins have been discussed but this is a huge financial commitment, the issue will go before the Environmental committee.
• Boundary changes. There has been confusion in boundaries changing into Rutland and Stamford. However, this will not mean a change in council tax for SKDC residents. They will still pay rates to SKDC and not Rutland. Boundary changes are to even up the number on constituents for MP’s to represent.
• Spinney at Little Bytham. Has received some funding to help replace the equipment. Work will start in September resulting in the spinney being shut for 4-6 week. If anyone is interested in helping volunteer come along. Work parties are there every other Saturday. Full report here
b)Police Reports are received and circulated and made available on website/noticeboard upon receipt.
23/24-41 Councillor Code of Conduct Proposal: To Resolve and Adopt the SKDC Code of Conduct dated 25 November 2021 Cllr. Holland, Seconded Cllr. Barnes, Cllr. Bavister abstained and Cllr. Sweeting in favour RESOLVED.
23/24-42 Casual Vacancies. No applications had been received.
23/24-43 Finance & General Purposes : Financial matters presented by the Clerk as follows:
a) Financial Report for the period 01 April 2023 to 30 June 2023 with bank statements.
b) Payments as follows:
23/24-45 clerk salary Qtr 1 652.04
23/24-46 HMRC Tax and NIC Qtr 1 £162.80
23/24-47 Community Heartbeat replacement defib pads £80.34
23/24-48 Clerk Qtr 1 council expenses £144.36
Proposal: To Resolve and Adopt all the financial payments and statements. Cllr. Holland, Seconded Cllr. Bavister and unanimous in favour.A full discussion regarding grants took place.
23/24-49 Grant applications under Section 137(4)(a) of the local Government Act 1972-397 electorate x £9.93 = £3942 maximum allowance..A full discussion regarding grants took place. To enable the playing fields to continue to cover expenditure and to make necessary repairs including the repair of the gates into the parking area for safety. It was agreed to allocate as follows:
i) Bowls Club request £250. Proposal: To Resolve to pay a grant of £250. Cllr. Holland, Seconded Cllr. Barnes and unanimous in favour.
ii) PCC for footpath grass maintenance request £1,000 £500 toward toilet facilities funding campaign-Total £1,500. Proposal to Resolve to pay a grant of £1000. Cllr. Holland, Seconded Cllr. Barnes and unanimous in favour.
iii) Carlby Playing Fields Committee request £2615. Proposal to Resolve to pay a grant of £2615. Cllr. Holland, Seconded Cllr. Barnes and unanimous in favour.
Income
23/24-50 HMRC VAT reclaim £227.80 - Noted
23/24-51 Planning applications since the last meeting
S23/1140 Chestnut Barn, 62 High Street, vary conditions to s21/0281
S23/0922 Field on the North side of High Street, change of use of agricultural land to use as extended provision of the doggy day care centre
Items discussed in open forum above.
23/24-52 Emergency Plan. The chairman has been in correspondence with the Village Hall Committee who have now replaced all the items disposed of. The storage of the emergency plan kit is still in question.
Action: Cllr. Bavister to collect the Parish Council paperwork stored at the village hall to be relocated to another storage facility.
23/24-53 Coronation Bench. It was agreed that no further application would be sought.
23/24-54 Correspondence was noted from the agenda
23/24-55 To receive Items for Future Meetings
Sustainable Carlby update
Bus shelters
Risk Assessment and Management
Battery for speed sign resolve for costs.
Meeting closed at 21:12
Date of future meetings: 2023: Wed 13 Sept, 21 Nov
2024: 16 Jan, 19 Mar, 21 May, 17 Jul, 17 Sept, 19 Nov