April 2025 DRAFT Minutes
DRAFT MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL PARISH MEETING OF SUDBROOKE HELD AT 7.30PM ON TUESDAY 6 MAY 2025 IN THE VILLAGE HALL, SUDBROOKE
Present: Councillor Mrs Tracey Bowman (Chair), Mrs Christine Myers (Clerk),
Mrs Bridget Solly (Treasurer), 15 residents, 2 members of Witham Valley Access Project
Apologies: Councillor Peter Heath
1 APPROVAL OF THE NOTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 18 APRIL 2024 TO BE SIGNED AS MINUTES
These were approved and signed by the Chair as correct.
2 CHAIRMAN’S REPEORT ON PARISH COUNCIL ACITIVITES DURING THE LAST YEAR
This had been prepared by Councillor Peter Heath and was read out by the Chair.
‘The year seems to have sped by.
The downturn in the housing market has caused the cessation of building work on the Parklands estate with many houses unsold. Your Parish Council has continued to liaise with the builders to seek information about some of the support elements of the estate. The provision of a bollard in the unadopted Main Drive and resurfacing of West Drive through the woods being two such cases.
Normal maintenance work within the village continues with your PC looking for value and competence from our contractors. We also continue to pursue the two Section 106 agreements made by developers still outstanding for footpaths around the village.
The Christmas tree event was a great success. This year we decided to give away the Mulled wine and soft drinks as well as small treats for the children. The weather held and we had a great turnout. The Scouts provided a marquee for the choir and also burners and pans to heat the wine. People were asked to make a small donation to defray costs but the generosity of Sudbrooke residents was wonderful. The raffle went down very well with many giving more than the ticket price so that overall we took £338.00.
Our most recent event was the litter-pick in March. Our residents were able to comb the village and picked up 25 bags of litter.
For the future we have made an application for grant funding to provide a climbing wall and basketball hoop for the Village Hall play area and to get greater use of the multi surface court there. This is a considerable project for £19,280 we hope that we will be successful.’
3 CLERKS REPORT
Although it feels a while ago, the Christmas Tree Switch on event went very well and was enjoyed by a large number of residents. It was a free event for residents funded by the previous years donations and raffle. The Parish Council has now bought a marquee for future use so that there will be more protection from the elements when heating up the mulled wine!
Play Equipment - Following a request from some young residents the Parish Council has submitted a bid to Awards All for funding for a basketball hoop with football goal, a monkey challenge climbing wall and target trainer. The determination of the grant will take about twelve weeks from when it was submitted in April but I am hopeful that at next years Parish Meeting it can be reported that the application was successful and it is all in situ!
We are fortunate to have a group of residents in the village who have taken it upon themselves to form a Gardening Group and have worked wonders on a piece of Parish Council owned land in Northfield Park. Grants have been obtained to fund skips, plants etc. and a green wheelie bin from WLDC.
Councillor Paul Fido is continuing to plant flowers and plants around the village, making it more attractive.
The Neighbourhood Plan Review has been worked on during the year and this has now been forwarded to West Lindsey District Council for scrutiny by the Planning Department Officers. Providing there are no points raised by them a Parish Referendum will be held during the year enabling the local electorate to vote for or against the adoption of the Reviewed Neighbourhood Plan.
Taking up on the comments from last years Parish Meeting residents raised concerns about safety crossing the A158 at the Scothern Lane junction. The Parish Council pursued this and it has been confirmed by the County Council that the site warrants the installation of a Puffin Crossing. This will be installed when the funds are available but the Parish Council will continue to push for this to be implemented sooner rather than later.
Also raised was the poor surface of the footpath between Elm Drive and Northfield Park (behind the shop to the woods) and that it had gradually become narrower. This has now been cleared by the Witham Drainage Board and our new grounds maintenance contractor and is looking so much better. It is hoped to further landscape the area.
The condition of the road surface on Church Lane continues to be an issue but there has been some repairs to it recently around Two Corners.
This will be Bridget and my self’s last parish meeting with Sudbrooke as we both prepare to leave at the end of June after serving 26 and 34 years respectively. It has been a privilege to work alongside the community of Sudbrooke and we are grateful for the many memories and relationships built over the years.
As we step down we are pleased to hand over our responsibilities to Louise Clinkscales, who we are confident will bring fresh energy and commitment to the role of Clerk/RFO to Sudbrooke Parish Council.
4 TREASURERS REPORT
The Parish Council received a Precept (Budget) of £34,000 this financial year. The Council have worked hard to ensure that invoices have been paid in a timely manner during the year using BACS payments for all invoices this year, with 2 being placed on Direct Debit. All payments have been agreed by members of the Council as per our Standing orders and Financial Regulations.
This year the Council spent £5,466 on grass cutting and received a contribution of £3,679 from the County Council – our net spend on grass cutting was £1,787.
The Council spent £2,618 on printing and preparing Sudbrooke News – a decrease of approximately £1,000 compared with last year. Sudbrooke News generated an income of £394 this year from advertising revenue which is considerably down on last years amount. As in previous years, the Council recognises the importance of the Sudbrooke News and continues to support it financially.
The Council had a very successful Christmas Tree event this year, raising £338 on the day.
The Council also received a grant of £3,330 from Groundwork UK which has covered the cost of works done on the Neighbourhood Plan. The Council also received 2 grants for £500 each for the Gardening Project – one from District Councillor Velan and the other from Lincolnshire County Council.
A full copy of the accounts will be available to members of the public in due course as per instructions from the External Auditors.
The Council have lived within their budget this year.
5 REPORTS BY LOCAL COUNTY AND DISTRICT COUNCILLORS
None received.
6 LOCAL ORGANISATIONS REPORTS
A Sudbrooke Village Hall – Mrs Gill Rignall, Secretary
The AGM was held in March. The Committee and officers were-elected as follows:
Officers:-
Chair - Mrs L Hill,
Vice Chair - Mrs E Chapman,
Bar Manager - Mr P Rignall.
Secretary - Mrs G Rignall,
Treasurer - Mr S Hewson,
Booking Secretary - Mrs S King.
Committee members - Mrs T Bowman, Mrs I Everitt and Mrs L Hutchinson.
Mr D Rowley did not stand for re-election. His service as a committee member and Booking Secretary was much appreciated. He revised the booking system and did allot of work on Covid and GDPR Regulations.
A new boiler was installed last August and hall users are benefiting from this.
The hall is used for Preschool, Coffee Club, Fitness groups and other private lettings.
The quiz nights continue to be more successful during the winter months. A summer break is being taken this year.
The bar continues to be a valuable source of revenue.
We have a page on the Parish website and a Facebook page.
B Coffee Club - Mrs Gill Rignall
Coffee Club meets on the second Friday every month at 10.30am in the Bramham Lounge.
Attendance remains stable at around 14 to 20. We have refreshments, chat, a raffle and occasionally, a speaker.
We had greetings cards and gifts for sale in November.
The coffee mornings are enjoyed by those attending and are attracting new people. It is a chance to meet old friends and make new ones.
C Sudbrooke Walking Group - Mr Mike Halliday
The group was set up in 2007 and has met regularly since then.
Membership has increased over the past year with welcome additions from residents of the Parklands development and elsewhere.
Our numbers fluctuate between 8 and 22 walkers with a good age mix. Apart from the benefit of good exercise, members enjoy some splendid views and visit areas of historical interest in Lincolnshire.
We use the parish website, Sudbrooke News and e mail to communicate with members and potential new walkers.
We meet on the first Saturday of every month at the village hall at 9-30am. We aim to walk between 6 and 7 miles and return to Sudbrooke around 1-30pm unless members decide to eat out afterwards at a walk venue or go elsewhere.
The group is run on informal lines with no membership subscriptions and members can volunteer to lead walks if they wish. Everyone is welcome to join in our walks.
D Northfield Garden Project
In March 2024 the residents of Northfield Avenue approached Sudbrooke Parish Council to investigate the possibility of tidying up the area of land that borders Northfield Avenue and Broad Dale Close, originally planted 25 years ago by the housing developers, as it had become overgrown with shrubs, weeds, Ivy and brambles and generally looked neglected and unloved.
On discovering that there were no plans to tackle any improvements to the area and no funding to support the task, the residents sought permission to take on the area themselves and the Northfield Garden Project began.
We started by clearing the centre bed and because of the sheer volume of waste that needed disposing of, clubbed together to pay for a skip. The group began having regular meetings to review progress, plan the phases and discuss the desired outcome for the area. We attended regular Parish Council meetings to report on our progress and discuss any issues and in June 2024 were supported by the Parish Council to apply for grant funding from the WLDC community fund. This was successful and has enabled us to continue with the project by paying for the professional services of Arborez to remove the overgrown shrubbery and tidy up some of the trees.
Over the last year we have managed to clear the site completely with the help of 2 skips, 15 builders bags and approximately 300 man hours of free enthusiastic labour, to replant it with herbaceous perennials and new shrubs in order to create a more aesthetic, pleasant well-kept corner of the village that improves the biodiversity for the area.
We are continuing to work hard on the garden and have plans to replant the border under the trees with spring bulbs and reseed the grass. We also plan to reseed and tidy the area adjacent to 12 Northfield Avenue and improve the border hedging along the side of the plot. We intend to continue to seek out appropriate grant funding to enable us to continue.
We would like to thank Paul Fido, Bhikhu Mistry and Chris Myers from the Parish Council for their support and advice, but especially all the residents of Sudbrooke that have stopped for a chat, sent messages of encouragement and support, given water butts and nurtured and donated plants. It’s lovely to know that what we’ve managed to achieve is appreciated and our efforts to improve and care for our lovely village might inspire others to do the same.
E 25th Lincoln Scout Group - Group Scout Leaders Update and Report –
Skip aka Nick Cornwell-Smith
Since our last AGM in October 2024, all three sections have continued to meet normally without any COVID interruptions. However we have had a few changes in our Leadership Team which at times has caused some issues to ensure that we have enough leaders to run the Tuesday evening meetings.
Our membership numbers are nearly back to pre-COVID levels though Scouts are a bit lower. We do operate a waiting list system for those wishing to join, and this is mainly with younger children wishing to join Beavers. However with the closure of Welton Scout Group in 2023, we are now getting requests to join from a far wider area than before. This means that we are not able to accept all requests when they reach the age of 6 due to lack of spaces.
Currently Beavers have two leaders, Ed (Kingfisher) and Cara (Raven) and are assisted by parent volunteers when needed. As both Ed and Cara are Student Paramedics, they have to carry out work placements which does mean that they are not always available for Tuesday meetings. Usually this can be overcome if both are not on the same shift, or help from our newest volunteer Megan and parents. Megan has joined us as a Cub Team Member but was a Beaver Leader in another Lincoln Group.
The Cub Section is being successfully run with a great programme by Tim (Akela) and Megan with support from Caz and Brian. However we are now in the position that our Cub Leader is due to leave at the end of the summer term. We are therefore desperate to build a new team to run Cubs. If we cannot get a new team, then we may have to take the drastic decision to close Cubs after the summer.
We are now running Scouts with a team of three, myself, Adam and Cara. Our other leader, Tom, is now on his PGCE Course on a Tuesday evening. This is ultimately not sustainable in the long term as all three of us have other roles and I’m not getting any younger. We will need a new Scout Leadership team to help lighten the load.
Without our dedicated volunteers, we cannot operate the group. We now have a younger team (well most of them are younger!) and hope to keep them for a while but we do need to consider succession planning. We will need some help in the next couple of years to keep the group going. Ed and Cara will be finishing their university courses in a year’s time, and I have indicated that I will be stepping down as Scout Leader/Group Lead Volunteer in 2026.
If you are not comfortable working with children (or just want a break from them!) how about joining our Trustee Board. We already have the key roles of Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer in place so we just need a few more members. We meet around 3-4 times a year to support the running of the sections from a finance and governance perspective. Please feel free to speak to myself or any of the other Trustee Board members, now or later.
You will hear from our treasurer that we are in a reasonable financial position and have been able to meet all costs and our reserves have recovered somewhat from the COVID crisis. The Trustee Board always consider fund raising, the level of termly fees, and other financial issues to ensure that the Group remains financially viable.
As we moved into 2025 there were some national changes that may affect how scouting is run, but hopefully not too drastic. We have already taken on board the need to become and Trustee Board. In reality this change does not make much difference to local scouting. Other changes include streamlining the adult appointment process and associated training, sorry - learning, increased use of digital tools and systems. But hopefully as parents and young members you won’t notice much difference.
On behalf of the Group, I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Trustee Board and my fellow Leaders for their support and help in these difficult times. Also, a thank you to all parents for your support and understanding.
7 PRESENTATION BY THE WITHAM VALLEY ACCESS PROJECT
Two members of the Project gave an interesting presentation of their aim to promote safe walking and cycling in the area and extend and improve the network of paths, footways and cycleways around villages to the East of Lincoln (north of the River Witham). They stated that they comment on local planning applications which may impact routes and have produced local walk leaflets.
8 TO CONSIDER ANY POINTS THAT PARISHIONERS MAY WISH TO MAKE
A resident asked if the newt barriers sited on the Parklands development could either be removed or lifted as they were currently laying on the ground. A request for them to be lifted would be made to the developers.
A resident suggested that grass cutting on verges could be reduced in order to attract wildlife and also the planting of wildflowers on verges. The Chair stated that she would refer this to a Parish Council meeting for discussion.
The meeting concluded with light refreshments being served by the Clerk and Treasurer.
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