2025-26 Minutes

Open Forum 

 

As there were 58 residents present to listen to the presentation by Allison Homes and who wanted to ask questions the Chair explained that this was not an organised Public Meeting but a normal monthly Parish Council Meeting. As such the Parish Council were governed by certain rules and regulations as set out in our Standing Orders. These state that the public can only speak to the council for 15 minutes and then everyone is restricted to 2 minutes each. Allison Homes had asked to attend to address the council with a presentation but as so many residents were in attendance the Open Forum will be extended to 30 minutes, but the Councillors must then leave to carry on with the council business. If Allison Homes were willing to stay after the councillors left, then everyone was welcome to stay and continue the discussion. 

 

George Wilkinson, and Isabelle Impey, who were from Allison Homes wanted to give a presentation of their plans for a housing development off Obthorpe Lane. Please see the attached presentation slides. 

 

The meeting was formally opened at 20.26

 

62. Apologies for absence, acceptance of Apologies & noting of resignations received

 

62.1 Apologies were received from I Pace(personal) Resolved that the apologies be accepted.  

 

 

63. Declaration of Interest – To receive Declarations of Disclosable Pecuniary and Other Interests, as set out in Chapter 7 of the Localism Act 2011 and the nature of those interests relating to any Agenda item

 

63.1 No one declared any Disclosable Pecuniary and Other Interests on any matter on the agenda.  

 

64. Minutes of the Meeting of the Parish Council held on the 2 July 2025 (Min25-03)

 

64.1 Resolved: That the minutes of the meeting held on the 2 July 2025 be signed by the Chair as a correct record. 

 

65. To receive a report from the County and District Councillors on matters relating to Thurlby

 

65.1 County Cllr K Redfern was present and said that he was pleased to be able to attend and he only had a couple of matters to mention. A resident had approached him regarding paying for Lifeline and he was pleased to say he was able to help with the problem, and it was resolved. The other matter related to speeding in Chapel Lane. He had made enquiries and was able to give the resident the relevant information and that too was resolved. He would line to hold a surgery in the village and wanted to know if there was a hall which he could use, hopefully for free. Cllr Dobson said that he too would like to do the same and they should work together to get a meeting place arranged.  

 

65.2 District Cllr Dobson had sent a report as follows 

1. I am meeting with the chief executive and the director of planning on Wednesday afternoon. I will report to you all after we have all heard the presentation. I shall be highlighting our own Neighbourhood Plan and why this isn’t taken into consideration.

2. I have contacted our County Councillor, Cllr Ken Redfern, who has expressed his wishes to attend our meetings. He is keen to give support. 

3. There is no further information on devolution, other than LCC has chosen a version where all the existing district councils, that’s seven of us, will be amalgamated into one huge council. This is going to be a massive electorate although I suppose no more than LCC is at the moment. The difference being the amount it will be dealing with. Perhaps Cllr Redfern will be able to give us information. It doesn’t mean because LCC has put this forward, it will be agreed by Westminster.

4. I have contacted Anglian Water about the continued water leaks. They are now waiting for Highways approval to install traffic management system during closure for repairs.

5. Don’t forget the new bin collection dates. This is to make things more efficient and, finally, Thurlby Green Bin collection will be on the same day (Tuesday) for all of the village. I’ve just got to clarify the description of ‘Green Bin – Week 1). Hopefully, I can clarify this by Wednesday as well.

 

66. Clerk’s Report and correspondence received 

 

66.1 The Clerks Report had been circulated and explained that he had received various emails from NALC, ICCM and various playground equipment providers but if anyone wished to see copies, they can be forwarded on. He had received the additional correspondence as follows:

1. Town and Parish Council Workshop slides with advice that the consultation on the Regulation 18 Proposed Housing and Mixed-Use Site Allocation runs from Thursday 3rd July to 28th August 2025. Please submit your comments by 11:59pm Thursday 28th August 2025. The Clerk was asked to get an extension of time to respond so we could deal with it at the next meeting and allow residents to respond. 

2. New Community Resilience Newsletter Attached: Please Read & Share

3. SNN/2025/0067 - New street name – consultation we did not need to respond as we had already written to the Applicant advising we were happy with the suggested street name. 

4. An email from the Webmaster stating that this one will cover the subject of Agendas and Minutes. Since the information below applies equally to both, I will only refer to “Minutes”. 

 

67. Planning applications:  

 

67.1 To consider any Planning Applications received – S25/1179 – Installation of solar farm comprising ground mounted solar photovoltaic panels, including mounting systems, inverters and transformers, electrical substation, underground cabling, stock proof fencing, CCTV, internal access tracks and associated infrastructure for a temporary period of 40 years at Land at Northorpe Fen Farm, North of Fen Road Bourne. Response: extended to 21 August 2025. After considering the application it was resolved: that we would object to this application for the following reasons: 

1. Access to the site will be along Northorpe Fen Road. This is a very narrow single lane road and is quite unsuitable for large lorries and heavy machinery. The road for the first part has a dyke each side thus making it almost impossible for vehicles to pass each other in the opposite direction. There is nowhere for one of the vehicles to move off road and not enough land for a safety refuge to move into. The remainder of the road has either a dyke on one side or private farmland on the other side. 

2. Northorpe Fen Road is used by dog walkers, residents who live along the road, land works as well as pedestrians and cyclists. All will need somewhere safe to move to, to avoid the vehicles traveling to and from the site. 

3. The vehicles will have to cross over an even narrower small bridge across Car Dyke. 

4. Car Dyke is an important national and local Ancient Monument heritage asset. It is proposed that work will be undertaken for the electricity to be sent, underground, to the substation in Bourne and part of that work will go under Car Dyke. Can you assure us that if planning consent is given then a survey will be carried out to consider any impact this work will have on this heritage asset? 

5. The traffic to and from the site will have to enter or exit from or onto the A15. The junction is very narrow and is in close proximity to a pedestrian crossing and a bus stop. The A15 is a very busy road, and large vehicles will have difficulty turning into and out of Northorpe Fen Road without causing an adverse impact on the flow of traffic.

6. We would ask for a site visit by those on the planning committee so they can see these problems for themselves.  

 

67.2 To note Planning Applications approved: none to note 

 

67.3 To note any Planning Applications refused or withdrawn: none to note 

 

67.4 To note any Application appealed or any decision made regarding an appeal:  none to note

 

68. To confirm Expenditure

£40.00 – B M Champness (use of home as office July)

£556.73– B M Champness (salary July)

£51.20 – Elaine Reynolds (salary July) 

£45.78 – BT (broadband charges) (DD July) 

£39.09 – BlueCom Services (monthly support subscription) (DD)

£244.80 – Bourne Skip Hire (weekly bin collection charges x 4)

£45.00 – D Collins (remove and replace old legs on noticeboard)

£935.00 – T Sleight (fee for grass cutting around village) 

£108.00 – WEL Medical (New floor & Electrical assembly for defibrillator) 

£13.14 – WEL Medical (postage) 

£53.00 – Information Commissioner’s Office (Annual fee) 

£150.00 – SLCC (annual fee)

[  ] denotes those payments paid between meetings, which have been approved by the Chairperson and Vice Chairperson of the Parish Council or at a previous meeting but not listed

 

68.1 Resolved: that the payments be approved. 

 

68.2 Since the agenda was posted three more invoices had been received which were

£17.99 - B M Champness (5 teams of paper)

£115.00 – C S Harris (cemetery maintenance) 

££114.50 – Thurlby PCC (Insert in Village Link) 

Resolved: that these invoices be paid as well 

 

69. To discuss the bank accounts for July and for the bank reconciliation to be signed as a correct record

 

69.1 The Clerk has prepared a bank reconciliation for July 2025 which had been circulated in advance. He also sent reports from Scribe showing what money had been spent or received as well as a budget report. Resolved: that the bank reconciliation be signed by the Chair as a correct record.

 

70. To consider a request for double yellow lines in Church Street and in Beck Way

 

70.1 A request for double yellow lines in Church Street had been received from a resident/farmer. These would be along the side the public house down towards the fen for a short way. Apparently, it is becoming more difficult with farm machinery to exit and enter Church Street from or onto the A15. It had been noticed that cars seem to be being parked alongside the pub more recently.

 

In addition, it has been requested that yellow line be consideration on Northorpe near the cut through to Beck Way. There have been 2 extremely near misses in the past couple of weeks at the same spot, due to cars consistently parking on the corner. It seems that residents are also complaining how dangerous it is too. 

 

It was agreed that the Clerk would write to Cllr Redfern to see if he could help us with these matters. He asked that we sent photographs of the sites which would help him a great feal. Cllr Daines would send the photos to the Clerk. 

 

71. To agree the salary increase for the clerk and for this to be back dated to 1 April 2025

 

71.1 The National Joint Council (NJC) for local government services have announced that the 2025-26 pay award has now been agreed. The rates have been increased by 3.20% and are applicable from 1st April 2025. Back-pay to 1st April will therefore need to be paid. Employers are encouraged to implement this pay award as swiftly as possible. The Clerk is at present paid £14.60 per hour and with the increase this will be £15.06 per hour which will increase his salary by £21.60 per month gross. Resolved: That the increase be agreed and backdated to 1 April 2025

 

72. To approve the purchase of a new battery and pads for the defibrillator positioned at The Horseshoe Public House

 

72.1 It was explained that at the July meeting Cllr Thomas explained that we would need a new battery and new pads for the defibrillator. It was felt that this was the time to approve the purchase as they would reach the end of their use by date before the next meeting. Resolved: that the Clerk would place an order for both 

 

73. To discuss the storage of the documents the Clerk has in his house relating to the council

 

73.1 The Clerk explained why he had added this item on the agenda as he was concerned that if anything should happen to him his wife would not know what to do with the documents he held for the Council. Now some documents were in a filing cabinet in Lawrance Park but had not been look at for many, many years. He also had years of documents relating to the council and the cemetery which were stored but not in any order or packaging. They took up quite a large space in his study and wondered if we should have some racks which could be set up in the office and paperwork placed in boxes clearly marked of what they were.  He explained that perhaps the best was forward was to see what documents were in the filing cabinet in Lawrance Park and if necessary, empty that as the paperwork had not been looked since they were stored there. The cabinet could then be filled with the paperwork the Clerk had and if necessary, we might have to purchase another filing cabinet. It was agreed that this was the way forward at this stage. 

 

74. To discuss the suggestion, we allow The Webmaster to apply a workaround, which involves disabling the homepage banner on the website and replacing it with a static image (of the same picture) with separate text underneath.

 

74.1 The Webmaster from LAC had written stating that the issue with the home page banner on our website, whereby the text “Welcome to … Parish Council” is in a purple box and covers a significant part of the picture.

This bug was introduced several weeks ago after LCC applied an update to the JADU software. He reported the fault and was disappointed with the response, which said JADU will supply a fix when they next update the software.

 In the meantime, you have two options:

1) Live with it

2) He can apply a workaround, which involves disabling the homepage banner and replacing it with a static image (of the same picture) with separate text underneath.

The only drawback with the workaround is that those councils who have several banner pictures (which display randomly), would revert to a single picture. This is only until such time as the bug is fixed

Resolved:   that we live with the problem as it was not an issue that was of concern to us. 

 

75. To consider the data received from the reactive sign 

 

75.1 Cllr Bill had submitted before the meeting the data he had obtained from the Reactive Sign

 

During July the Radar unit was positioned on the A15 at Northorpe recording traffic in a northbound direction. The daily vehicle counts show an increase of 9% and 6.5% on the 5- & 7-day data compared to last year and is at its highest since 2018. Some 248.710 vehicle movements were recorded in the 28-day period. The increase is reflected in both the peak times which remain 8.0 - 9.00 & 17.00 -18.00. 

The average speed is similar at 34.7mph. with the average speed for those above the limit down marginally at 45.68 & 45.73 mph. Those travelling above the speed limit is very similar to last year at 10.28 and 11.47%.  A maximum speed of 84 mph recorded at 01.50 hrs is down on last year.

 

Further details can be found on the Thurlby Parish website.

 

 

Thanks to be recorded to Cllr Bill for undertaking this task every month. 

 

76. To receive an update on the Cemetery to include grass cutting, maintenance and burial fees 

 

76.1 Cllr Thomas was able to explain that the grass had been cut. He had asked Mr Harris for a quote to level the slabs in the cremated remains area which has subsided. 

 

77. For any Councillor to produce a written report of any meeting that he/she has attended as a representative of the Parish Council

 

77.1 Cllr Thomas and Pace attended “A Greater Lincolnshire for All” meeting and the slides for that meeting had been circulated 

 

78. To consider what information should be placed in the Village Link 

 

78.1 It was agreed that the Clerk would draft a report for the Village Link. This would be sent to all for approval before going to print.

 

79. Members Questions - reminder only questions given to the clerk a week in advance will be answered.

 

79.1 Stephen Holland, although not a Councillor, wanted to explain that the Neighbourhood Plan on the new website had several links that did not work. He understood the Clerk was to send him a memory stick so he could download a Word copy of the document and the links repaired. Cllr Gunner said that he had one spare that he would give to Mr Holland 

 

79.2 There being no other business the meeting was duly closed at 21.28

 

80. The date of the next meeting – to be held on Wednesday 1 October 2025 at 7.30 p.m. in the Lawrance Park Social Room, Thurlby