2022 Rauceby PC Minutes of Meetings

Minutes
Rauceby Parish Council

Minutes from the Annual Parish Council Meeting held on Wednesday, 18 May 2022 at 8.00 pm at The Village Hall, South Rauceby. 

Present: Cllr M Ireland (in the Chair), Cllr J Malloch (Vice-Chairman), Cllr G Enstone, Cllr R Enstone, Cllr S Enstone, Cllr, M Froggatt, Cllr S Waite, Cllr B Balderston, the Clerk, Mr I Grady and Mr J Hoare (awaiting co-option as councillor). 

Public speaking time:  No members of the public were present. 

1. Election of Chairman: Nominations for the position were invited from the councillors. Mr M. Ireland was nominated and voted in unanimously. He accepted the position and signed the Chairman’s Declaration of Acceptance of Office.

2. Election of Vice-Chairman: Nominations for the position were invited from the councillors. Mr J. Malloch was nominated and voted in unanimously. He accepted the position and signed the Vice-Chairman’s Declaration of Acceptance of Office. 

3. Co-option of new Councillor: Mr J Hoare signed his Declaration of Acceptance of Office.

4. Apologies for absence: Apologies were received from Cllr R Wright of LCC and Cllr S Waring of NKDC. Although they were able to attend the Open Meeting, they had other engagements that coincided with the Parish meeting. 

5. To Appoint the Responsible Finance Officer: Mr I Grady was appointed to this position.

6. To Appoint the Planning Sub-Committee: Cllrs J. Malloch, M. Froggatt and S. Enstone were nominated and duly appointed to this sub-committee.

7. To receive any Declarations of Interest: None received.

8. To decide on any items to be carried out in Closed Session: None required. 

9. To Review and Adopt the Standing Orders (on website). These were reviewed and adopted.

10. To Review and Adopt the Financial Regulations (revision circulated). These were reviewed and adopted.

11. To Review the Asset Register (revision circulated). This was reviewed and adopted. Three new items have been added since last year: 

• Speed limit awareness gates for South Rauceby, 
• A scarce history book describing the Village in the nineteenth century and 
• The Buttercross Monument. It was decided to include the monument after it was realised how insurance-vulnerable the Parish Council was after the motor vehicle collision earlier this year and confirmation by NKDC that the monument was the responsibility of the Parish Council for care and maintenance.

12. To Review the Insurance Policy and quotation: The Insurance policy renewal quote has been received but not yet finalised. We are still waiting for the valuation of the Buttercross Monument. As this is a Grade II* listed structure, it is being valued by an appropriately qualified assessor.

13. Review of the Council’s other Policies, Procedures and Practices: All of the following procedures, policies and practices were reviewed and adopted unchanged. It was noted that the view of the documents on the website has been made more visually friendly to make them easier to read and understand. 

• Code of Conduct
• Freedom of Information
• Accessibility
• GDPR: Data Protection Policies (revision circulated)
• GDPR: Data breach policy and procedure for handling a breach (revision circulated)
• GDPR: Subject access request (SAR) procedure (revision circulated)
• Equal Opportunities Policy
• Risk Assessment and Management Procedure (revision circulated)
• Communications/Media and Social Media Policy
• Complaints Procedure
• Whistleblowing Policy 
• Records Retention Policy

Action 1: Clerk to update review status of each document on website and to ensure all documents are present.

14. Adoption of New Procedures:  The following procedures were reviewed and adopted. It is not intended to put these documents on the website because they are for internal administrative use only.

• Planning Procedure
• Co-Option for Councillor Vacancy Procedure

15. Review of the Council’s Expenditure (donations) incurred under Section 137 of the Local Government Act 1972 or the General Power of Competence: Only one expense was incurred in this category during the last year: £21.98 to the Royal British Legion to purchase a Remembrance Day Wreath.

16. Financial Matters:
       i) To approve the internal auditor for 2022-23 and approve the Statement of Assurance: It was unanimously agreed to reappoint Mrs D Gascoyne as internal auditor for the coming year. The Clerk notified her verbally after the meeting. 

       ii) To formally adopt the Annual Governance Statement 2021-22 and to set the dates for public inspection: The Annual Governance Statement 2021-22 was adopted in the meeting and signed by the Chairman and Clerk (RFO). The dates for public inspection of the AGAR documents will be set when the external auditor notifies us of the available window. 

       iii) To formally adopt the Accounting Statement 2021-22: The Accounting Statement 2021-22 was adopted and signed by the Chairman and Clerk (RFO).

       iv) To agree and sign the AGAR 2 Exemption Certificate: the AGAR 2 Exemption Certificate was agreed and signed by the Chairman and Clerk (RFO).

Action 2: Clerk to collate the requisite AGAR documents and send them to the external auditor.
Action 3: Clerk to publicise in the prescribed manner the dates available for the public to inspect the AGAR documents.

17. To approve as a correct record the notes of the meetings held on 16 March 2022: Unanimously approved; the Chairman signed the minutes.

18. Rauceby Gigabit Project: An update from Cllr. S Enstone was presented at the meeting.

19. Reports from Visiting Representatives and Police Matters if any: Nothing to report.

20. Planning Applications: All applications received to date have now been considered by Rauceby Parish Council and Approved by NKDC:

Received from NKDC (This may include plans received since the agenda was circulated):
       i) 22/0267/FUL | Retention and extension of agricultural biomass heating system building with ancillary hardstanding (part retrospective) | Boiling Wells Farm Grantham Road Greylees Sleaford Lincolnshire NG34 8QX. No Objections by Planning Sub-Committee of Rauceby Parish Council. Approved by NKDC.

       ii) 21/1927/FUL | Proposed erection of 3 detached houses and garage block. | Land To The Rear Of 38-44 Main Street North Rauceby Sleaford Lincolnshire NG34 8QP. No Objections by Rauceby Parish Council. Approved by NKDC.

21. New Business: Notified to Clerk prior to meeting
       i) Use of GOV.UK email address style. There has been some discussion in the Lincs Parish Clerks’ discussion group (LALC) about the use of government style email addresses by Councillors (i.e. emails ending GOV.UK). A presentation was circulated by the Clerk giving pros and cons of the system. It was pointed out that it is part of our Communications Protocol that all official emails should be via the Clerk whose email address does fit the GOV.UK style. After discussion it was decided that as the style is not mandatory and that there is very little Council business email traffic via personal emails Rauceby Parish Council would maintain the status quo. 

       ii) Well on Main Street, South Rauceby. A suggestion by a parishioner is to beautify the well on Main Street ready for the Queen’s Jubilee celebration. There has been a problem in identifying the owner of the well and we are waiting for feedback from NKDC on this matter. There is therefore no time left to carry out any changes to the well before the Jubilee date. Depending on the findings of NKDC, this issue shall be brought forward to the next meeting.
Action 4.1: Clerk to include topic on next meeting agenda.
Action 4.2: Clerk to write to parishioner explaining situation.

       iii) Donation by Cllr R Enstone of a book about North and South Rauceby in the nineteenth century: The Chairman thanked Cllr R Enstone for this kind donation. This booklet is quite scarce and it may be helpful if it could be digitised for the future benefit of the Council.
Action 5: Clerk to investigate digitising the booklet, mindful of copyright issues.

       iv) Routine inclusion of (a) Safety matters and (b) a Routine check of location and condition of Parish Assets in agenda. Part of our risk management procedure is to review safety within the parish and the location and condition of our specific assets, on a regular basis. After discussion it was agreed to include this topic at each Annual Meeting unless anything critical arises that requires a more frequent view.
Action 6: Clerk to include this item in future annual meetings.

22. Update on Outstanding Matters
       i) Actions from the last meeting: all complete except two (see items below table):

Item: Donations for Ukraine: this was discussed and concluded that this was a personal issue that individuals may wish to take up privately. The council will not be making a donation. (Matter complete)

Item: Discuss with NKDC Planning the definition of the term “permitted development”. It was suggested that NKDC (via Cllr Waring) be approached to talk to the Council at a future meeting to explain the legalities of this aspect of planning regulations.
Action 7: Chairman to discuss with Cllr Waring

       ii) Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Beacon. Cllr M Ireland reiterated what was shown on the flyer posted to every household in the village recently.

       iii) Traffic calming measures/gates: Cllr J Malloch explained the gates had been purchased and had received the first coat of paint. It is hoped to have the gates installed shortly.
In another development Cllr Ireland reported that after his discussions with LCC regarding the red tarmacking of the road to make speed signs more noticeable, LCC have put that job on their list of highway improvements to be carried out by the end of the current financial year (April 2023). 

       iv) Damaged bus shelter. Cllr Ireland reported this damage has been repaired and is complete.

       v) Damage to Buttercross monument. The Clerk reported progress as being slow. The driver’s insurance company has been identified and they have accepted responsibility for repairing the monument. We are now waiting for the Loss Adjuster to plan the repair.

       vi) Sleaford Renewable Energy Plant visit/funding presentation. This plant had been visited by Cllr S Enstone and Mr I Grady and a report has been circulated. The visit was organised to announce to the local authorities funding made available to the area by the Power Plant. After discussion it was decided that we should notify the school of this funding stream and if they were not able to utilise the facility, the availability can be publicised more widely via the village newsletter.
Action 8: Chairman to notify school of fund availability. 

       vii) Consultation on Lincs Local Plan: submission required before 9 May. Chairman responded stating that on examining the Plan, there was no requirement to take this further. Matter finalised.

23. Financial Matters: 
       i) Financial report – for approval and signing; May 2022
           The financial report was approved and signed off by the Chairman.
           The Current account stands at £20,689.61 at 27 April 2022.

       ii) This month’s payments were approved and cheques signed:

• HMRC: PAYE for Clerk’s salary £91.80
• TJ Bookkeeping and Accounts £40.00
• LALC Web maintenance fee £180.00
• Village Hall hire March 2022 £16.00 
• D Elmes repair to bus shelter £100.00
• J Earl grass cutting £160.00
• I Grady fees £217.81 and expenses £41.98
• Hire Solutions toilets for Jubilee picnic £360.00

24. Matters of Urgency:  Any matters which have occurred after the agenda was published – for discussion only.

• Cllr G Enstone asked whether the tree overhang in a North Rauceby walk-through could be cut back to avoid pedestrians. Cllr Hoare said he would investigate.

25. Date of Next Meeting: The next regular meeting will be held on Wednesday, 6 July 2022 at the Rauceby Village Hall starting at 19h30.