May 2022 Open Meeting Minutes
MINUTES of
RAUCEBY PARISH OPEN MEETING
Held at Rauceby Village Hall, Main Street, South Rauceby
18 May 2022
The meeting opened at 7.00pm.
Present: Chairman Mr M Ireland, Cllr Wright for LCC, Cllr Waring for NKDC, 8 Parish Councillors, 7 Members of the public, Clerk.
1. Apologies were received from AVM and Mrs Robson.
2. Minutes of the last (2019) Parish Open Meeting had been distributed, approved by the meeting and signed by the Chairman.
3. Reports from visiting representatives were given:
- From Cllr R Wright (LCC) who outlined the funding problems the County was experiencing, having £20m removed from the budget for road maintenance and funding for children’s services being stressed. He summarised the push for devolution of the County enabling decentralisation from main Government that would create the need for an executive Mayoral position.
- From Cllr Waring (NKDC) who also commented on funding problems: as the government has cut down on grants to Local Authorities, they are now dependent on finding funding streams from business investment and business rates. NK was subject to a Local Government Association Peer review earlier this year, who found a strong, stable, and financially secure council. During the pandemic NKDC has administrated £37 million of government grants to support local businesses, and the government has provided one off funding to cover some of the extra costs encounter by the Council during this period.
4. The Chairman’s Report of Parish Council activities since the last Open Meeting is attached to these minutes.
5. The Financial Report for 2021/22 was distributed and questions invited regarding the contents.
6. Matters of local interest. None were raised.
7. The meeting was concluded with an interesting talk by Ms Julia Waites: Headteacher of the Rauceby Primary School. She explained the composition of the school and classroom make-up; the catchment area; the academic and pastoral achievements and recent activities of the School.
8. The meeting closed at 7.45pm
Chairman’s Report for Year 2021/22
Ladies and Gentlemen
It gives me great pleasure to present my third report as Chairman of Rauceby Parish Council, albeit 3 years after I presented my second.
As we all know the intervening years have been dominated by the world-wide Covid pandemic. As we return to a more normal way of life, tonight being an example of that, it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the exceptional work undertaken by key workers throughout the Covid period. Lockdowns, government briefings and furlough were all new aspects to our way of life and I would like to put on record Rauceby’s grateful thanks to all those who helped in any way to get us through an immensely difficult time.
It goes without saying that Parish Council business was as affected as other aspects of life. We endeavoured to continue to provide a service to parishioners although having meetings through an online format proved relatively challenging especially with regards our local broadband signal. More on that later. However I can assure you all that we did get on better and with less media coverage than Handforth Parish Council!
We have also had a change of Clerk with Ian Grady joining us just over a year ago. Ian lives in the village and although new to parish clerk business is managing extremely well.
In my last report I commented on the frustration we had in trying to alleviate speeding within both North and South Rauceby. I know this is a common concern for a number of parishioners and you will recall we had an agreement with LCC Highways to install a number of red tarmac speed reducing strips. We were informed in 2021 that these would no longer be considered by Highways but I’m pleased to say that following a meeting with Rowan Smith in March this year I have an undertaking that they will be installed and we look forward to this happening in the current financial year.
In an effort to reduce speed we continue to periodically deploy the SID machine which although getting reasonably old with shorter battery life continues to provide a good deterrent. We have also invested in a pair of gates which are currently being painted and will be installed down Rauceby Drove in the coming months. This type of speed reduction mechanism is common in many Lincolnshire villages and will add to our whole strategy of trying to reduce vehicle speed in our parish.
I’ll now move onto the Rauceby Gigabit Project. Although this has the full support of your parish council it has been initiated, organized and managed by Simon Enstone. He has put in an extraordinary level of his time and expertise with the aim of providing the whole village with a fibre connection. My view is that he has been badly served by both Openreach and our Government whose scheme this is being funded through. I know he is still very hopeful of a positive conclusion to the project albeit on a very delayed timeframe than initially envisaged. When we get to the stage of a final public commitment I hope parishioners will give it their full support and we can look forward to a fibre connection and the associated benefits within our village in the near future.
There can be no doubt that during the last two years parishioners and others visiting our parish have appreciated the use of our network of footpaths and stepping out walks. To this end we have tried to ensure that all footpaths are accessible and have invested parish precept into the renovation of two benches to ensure their safe use into the future. We continue to monitor all our parish assets and potentially the next expense will be to replace the deteriorating roof on the bus shelter in Main Street, South Rauceby.
Litter continues to bring an unsightly element to the parish and we are most appreciative of those parishioners who voluntarily take time to clear our verges. It is always dangerous to name names for fear of missing others but I would like to highlight the regular picking done by Rauceby WI and also Kate Enstone who picked for 6 months and presented the Parish Council with a detailed report as part of her Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award. Thanks to them and everyone else who helps to keep our parish tidy.
Three years ago we contracted out a regular plan for cutting grass in key areas in both North and South Rauceby. Jeff Earl undertakes this work and I hope you agree with me that it has certainly improved the village appearance around the bus shelter, our many benches and the Buttercross. I thank him for his excellent service and hope we are able to consider funding this in years to come.
Many of you will have seen the damage that has been sustained by the Buttercross in North Rauceby. This is a listed monument and progress has been painfully slow in trying to get it repaired. Ian has it all in hand and I am hopeful that we can soon move towards getting the repair work done.
I must thank and are very grateful to the 8 other councillors who give of their time freely, contribute to discussions and help as required.
As a Parish we are supported by our District and County Councillors, Susan Waring and new to us last year Richard Wright, who I also thank for their contributions.
Although attendance at meetings is now not possible we have a line of communication with our local PCSO, Colin Ironmonger so thanks also for his advice and support when sought.
Finally, I must thank our Parish Clerk, Ian, for all his endeavours. He has taken over the job with no previous parish clerk experience but grown into it as the year has gone by. He has spent much time in upgrading our parish procedures and revitalizing the website so thank you Ian for all your time and effort.
Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes my report for the year.