2021 Parish Council Minutes of Meetings

OWMBY-BY-SPITAL PARISH COUNCIL MEETING

13 July 2021 7pm

OWMBY PARISH CHURCH

MINUTES

PRESENT -  Cllrs Crompton Howe, Leah, Brooke, Swift and the Clerk.

90/21.   Apologies for absence – Danny Mellor

91/21.   Public Participation – 3 members of the public were present.

The public wished to understand what the current state of play is with the Community Park from an OPC point of view.  The public present needed to leave to attend another meeting so the agenda item was brought forward to answer their questions. See item

92/21.   Reports from County & District Councillors & Police, if present

Cllr Bunney was not in attendance.

Cllr Summers was in attendance as a member of the public. No report was given.

Police report – no incidents were reporting in the period to date

93/21.   Welcome new Councillor

Mr Darren Swift was coopted as a new member of the council. Relevant paperwork was completed by the clerk and will be forwarded to the correct authorities.

94/21.   To receive declarations of interest in accordance with the 2011 Localism Act

Non declared

95/21.   To approve notes of the previous meeting held previously:

a) 29th June 2021 - Resolved that the notes of the meeting be approved & signed as correct Minutes of the meeting.

96/21.   Matters arising from the June meeting

There were no matters arising that are not covered by agenda items following.

97/21. Correspondence

Cllr Bunney had sent a presentation of the Central Lincolnshire Local Plan. He had been invited to attend the meeting but declined to respond

98/21. To resolve the Finance Policies

Resolved that the Financial Regulations and Reserve Fund Policy be adopted.

99/21. To resolve the Terms of Employment for the Clerk

Resolved that the Terms of Employment for the Clerk be accepted

100/21. Community field and CPC update

The situation around the CPC remains unresolved. OPC re-affirmed the CPC committee at the previous meeting. NPC have declined to do so. Correspondence has been sent to NPC with suggestions from OPC of a way forward. No response has been received and there has been no dialogue from NPC to date to indicate a willingness to engage in further discussions. OPC remain insistent that the events can go ahead run by the events committee. The events committee is a sub committee of the CPC which has been deemed unlawful by NPC so committee members do not feel they can continue with this threat of acting unlawfully over them.

The 2018 Terms of Reference (Committee Membership para 1.) states that: “The [Committee] members will be re-appointed each year at the Annual Parish Meeting of the Councils”. The paragraph also states that re-appointment is made, not at a joint meeting, but by the two Parish Councils at their Annual Meeting. Therefore NPC may be deemed to be in breach of the Terms of Reference NOT to have re-appointed committee members. Without showing valid cause not to re-appoint all individual members.

Under what law is the CPC deemed “unlawful” (as quoted by NPC) ?

What action would there likely be against the CPC \ OPC if events were to go ahead without the agreement of NPC. Providing it can be shown that the CPC are acting in the best interest of the villagers and safeguarding the funding (and funding opportunities) of the CPC what could the potential repercussions be?

Action Points for Clerk

• compile an audit of correspondence between OPC and NPC and draft a letter to NPC indicating that we wish to engage with a view to re-affirming the committee and moving toward an agreed Terms of Reference.
• Request information from Monitoring Officer at WLDC regarding implications.

101/21. 5 year plan update

1. Plan to hold a “Meet your Councillors” event.

Action Points for Clerk

• Check availability of church on 26th September

102/21. Cemetery update

No further update regarding remedial work and future contract for grass cutting etc.

OPC plan to form a working party in the autumn to make good the current issues. GCH has spoken to the land owner next to the cemetery who has indicated that the rabbits have decimated his land and he is looking to fence the area off. This could have a negative knock on effect to the cemetery as it will effectively fence the rabbits out of his land and into the cemetery.

103/21. Highways Matters

Still awaiting response from them regarding the Ash Tree on Normanby Road

104/21. Insurance

The Parish insurance is due for renewal on 5th August. Historically OPC has insured the assets for the CPC. Aftere seeking guidance around the increased value of the assets it has transpired that we can no longer include the park in the OPC insurance unless we can clarifyif we have the legal ability to insure the assets as we need to ascertain whether Insurable Interest in legal terms will attach to the park – Do NPC have an insurable interest in the park as they are joint owners?

Action Points for Clerk

• Can we exclude the park from the insurance and look to obtain a joint policy specifically for that for the park?

105/21. Finance & accounts for payment-           

       Payments to be made -

Awaiting response from NPC with regard to bank details for payment to be made.

106/21. Planning

Application 143252 – this council is concerned of the size of the proposed development as this appears to be larger than the existing footprint of the house.

107/21. Defibrillator

After lengthy discussion it was resolved to subscribe to the annual scheme provided by WLDC. It was deemed that the council could budget more appropriately for a fixed cost per annum rather than potential unknown costs if the defibrillator was deployed throughout the year and required new pads etc.

108/21. Date and time of next meeting –     14th September

Meeting closed 21.00