Annual Parish Meeting
GREAT LIMBER PARISH
Minutes of the annual parish meeting held on Wednesday, 10th May 2023 at 7pm in the Village Hall.
Present: S. Hudson (Chairman); B Moor; T. Robinson; S. Christmas; J. Hoyle; C. Read & S. Bedford.
In attendance: District Cllr O. Bierley ; County Cllr T. Smith; the Clerk.
Apologies: None.
To approve the Minutes of the last meeting held on 4th May 2022: The minutes were signed as a true record.
Chairman's report: The Parish Council began the year in a strong financial position, having built up our base over several years, thus enabling council to deliver good value to the local community.
One of the council’s main expenditure on an annual basis is grass cutting around the pond area, village hall and churchyard. This has been delivered by AJ Williams to a very high and reliable standard. The council will continue with this. An additional expenditure was incurred during the year by the clearing of two overgrown footways, one in Grasby Road and the long path between Swallow and school cross roads.
The council also maintained its contract with Creative Nature to manage the pond and look for a long term solution to the blanket weed that infests the pond.
During this period both the Conservation Area and the Neighbourhood Plan were up for review, most of the actions in the original plan having been delivered. Following a meeting with the Conservation Officer it was agreed that the Conservation Area would remain the same but with the addition of the new build social housing in Brickyard.
To address the Neighbourhood Plan action that would encourage limited development in the village to encourage the infusion of new young families owning their own homes, a meeting was held between council and Brocklesby Estate, as the principal landowner. Unfortunately, no progress was made, the estate only putting forward the same story as had been presented during the original Neighbourhood Plan meetings. The estate seems to have no interest in the long term viability of the village.
Areas that have not progressed during this period are: a lack of any type of bus service; a reciprocal arrangement between local councils for waste disposal, the residents of Great Limber having to travel to Market Rasen for an official site; council’s application for signage to prevent vehicles exiting Church Lane onto the A18.
Two councillors have resigned over the year: Neil Hunton who has relocated from the village and Syd Howdin. Both individuals having served several years and made a great contribution.
All of the council’s activities were well supported by our WLDC councillors Angela Lawrence and Owen Bierley and LCC councillor Tom Smith. All held together by our excellent clerk Helen Pitman.
Responsible Financial Officer's Report: Income for the year totalled £13,650 which included the precept figure of £10,000. Expenditure was £18,477.88: £5,142 of which was for maintenance of the pond (£1,476 being a late invoice from the contractor for work carried out in 21/22).
This was offset by two grants from the West Lindsey Councillor Initiative Fund totalling £1,000 which has helped to reduce the burden on parish council funds.
However this, together with additional village maintenance costs for the bus shelter repair and verge clearance totalling £2,636 has meant the reserves carried forward to this financial year are significantly reduced. Consequetly, the parish council will need to be extra fiscally prudent this year.
There is VAT to be reclaimed of £2,389.80.
Open meeting: Mr Hoyle said that he had also met with the Conservation Officer with a view to extension of the Conservation Area. He agreed that since the last review the only new build within the existing was the social housing. However, in his view the Conservation Officer (CO) is looking at the village as a whole and has yet to report whether boundaries are to be extended.
The chairman said that to date there have been no further proposals from the Conservation Officer.
Mr Hoyle said that the CO is looking to complete the boundary review before coming back to council.
Cllr Bierley stated that Great Limber is leading the way in Conservation Area reviews within WLDC.
Mr Hoyle said he had also attended the meeting between the estate and council and that the minutes taken showed the estate is reviewing sites for rural workshops, proposals for which are likely to come forward later this year.
The chairman replied that nothing has been done yet and that the same response had been heard some years ago. He felt it an issue that the estate needs to realise the village needs to be a functioning village as supported in responses in the Neighbourhood Plan consultation.
Mr Bedford read out part of the minutes from the meeting ie “Generally the meeting was regarded as a positive start to what councillors hoped would bring opportunities for new housing forward and that this would be an agenda item….” He stated that there was a contradiction between that and the chair’s report.
The clerk suggested that going forward any future meetings should also be attended by the clerk for her to minute.
There being no further business the meeting closed at 7.23pm.