2023 Parish Council Minutes of Meetings

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Minutes of the Scothern Annual Parish meeting held on 8 March 2023 in the Methodist Church, Main Street, Scothern at 19:30.

Present: Cathryn Nicoll (CJN), Chair Scothern Parish Council

23 members of the public (including Parish Councillors)

Simon Crampton, Sudbrooke Parish Council

Councillor Sue Rawlins (SR), Lincolnshire County Council (LCC)

Councillor Roger Patterson (RP), Vice Chair, West Lindsey District Council

Apologies:    Councillor Bob Waller (RW), West Lindsey District Council Jane Burgess, Scothern resident

1. Chair welcomed attendees and presented housekeeping arrangements.
2. Reports

1. Lincolnshire  County Council (LCC) - Councillor Sue Rawlins (SR):

• Information on bus services to be detailed later in the meeting.
• Budget discussed the impact the current economic situation on LCC’s budget. All areas have been under scrutiny. Funding has been identified from reserves to support some specific highway projects.
• There are implications for Social Care and funding for elderly adults and children services.
• Local Scothern issues - drainage scheme carried out in 2022 has been completed, however there continues to be some drainage issues in Craypool Lane/Back Lane which are being addressed with Anglian Water.
• Speeding issues continue and SR has requested a review of speed limits.
• LCC held a meeting on highways and discussed repair of potholes which has improved but the quantity of potholes remains an issue.

Raised by members of the public;

• Why all potholes in one area are not repaired in one go?

SR advised she would raise this with Highways.

• What is the progress on devolution and giving more power and funding to local people?

SR reported this was ongoing, LCC is involved in discussions but needed to be mindful that Lincolnshire would not miss out nationally.

2. District Council Report Councillor Waller was unable to attend but has advised that WLDC has been successful in a bid to buy Royal Air Force Scampton. However an outcome of central government utilising Scampton to house asylum seekers is awaited.

Roger Paterson, WLDC attending to discuss bus services, was asked if he had anything he wanted to say on Council business. WLDC had been successful in its bid to acquire RAF Scampton, the issue of using part of it to house asylum seekers had not yet been determined, however it was felt it would be unlikely due to infrastructure required.

3. Chairman’s Report on Scothern Parish Council’s activities 2022/23

Report is attached.

4. Receive reports for any local organisations present

1. Update on village hall improvements -Report is attached.

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5. To discuss the provision of public transport in Scothern.

• Councillor Rawlins advised of a recent meeting of the LCC Highways and Scrutiny Committee and presented extracts from the Lincolnshire Enhanced Partnership Plan for Buses – documents are available on LCC website.
• The County Council does receive funding from the central government for bus services. LCC applied for funding for the Enhanced Partnership Plan but was not successful. A meeting will be held between LCC and Stagecoach on Friday 10 March 2023 and Councillor Rawlins will be in attendance. Councillor Mrs Nicoll has provided information from Scothern Parish Council regarding public transport in the village and this includes the current timings of buses, implications for schools, journeys to and from Lincoln, and access to health centres. The information provided from the discussion from this meeting will be fed into next Fridays meeting.

Councillor Patterson explained his reasons for attending.

• RP works for PC Coaches and is the CallConnect Manager.
• Historically insufficient demand for a full service and the decision taken to move capacity from Scothern to use for a park and ride service to Lincoln.
• There have been changes to staffing within PC Coaches; a new Managing Director (MD) has commenced, and a review of current services is being undertaken.
• PC Coaches supported financially by Lincolnshire County Council.
• Actively looking at putting a service into Scothern however there are issues of timings of vehicles.
• RP will feedback the points of this meeting and ask the MD to attend a Parish Council meeting.

Issues raised and noted by SR for feedback to LCC

• The service in Welton was every 15 minutes, this has been changed recently to 30 minutes. Can we reinstate the bus to Scothern?
• Told buses were originally stopped due to passenger numbers, also told that Welton/Dunholme wanted a direct route to Lincoln and not an issue of passenger numbers. Can we ask PC Coaches and Stagecoach to extend the service.
• The Call Connect service only stops in Scothern at certain points this is not accessible for all residents.
• Sudbrooke Parish Council Councillor pointed out the bus from Wragby Road turned into Sudbrooke and went round the village. Could this be diverted to Scothern before onward to Lincoln?
• Time taken to resolve is unacceptable, the reasons provided by LCC not helpful.  Why should we need to put in a detailed proposal for a new service when other existing services are not being scrutinised for value for money, why not look at a redistribution of services. SR confirmed there is a review of services being undertaken.
• Can funding for the CallConnect service be moved to another service for Scothern.
• CallConnect service not well attended currently. This service does not enable attendance at Welton or Nettleham Surgeries.
• Before Covid we had a more regular CallConnect service, why was this not reinstated.
• Was informed that it was not reinstated as it was being used for the Covid vaccination programme, but it still has not been reinstated. Need a choice of times for going to Lincoln.
• No one is using the 9:00am service as too early we need one at 10:00am.
• What about people who want to go to work and use a bus?
• Not just a senior citizens issue, we need to consider what teenagers will need.
• Scothern needs a proper hourly service.
• What justification did Welton use to get their buses?

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6. Other points raised by the public

• Parking in the vicinity of St Luke’s Nursing Home and the grass verge(s) at the end of Elmdene raised.  The grass verges at the end of Elmdene are becoming “chewed” up and poor.

Action:         To be followed up by Parish Council however some doubt as to who is responsible for the grass verge – LCC or WLDC.

The Chair thanked everyone for attending and closed the meeting at 20:40.

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Chairman’s Report

Scothern Parish Council - Annual Parish Meeting

8 March 2023

Highways Matters

Cllr John Fotheringham has continued with the portfolio for highways matters around the village.

The big scheme to improve the drainage on Sudbrooke Road was completed in September 2022 and the work seems to have improved the situation greatly. I have not heard of any problems. The scheme “hit” the County Council budgets by some £850,000! The work was undertaken over approximately five months and apart from some early issues which were manifested these, I believe were kept to a minimum and the contractors and Lincolnshire County Council were anxious to keep disruption to a minimum.

A major problem at the present time is flooding on Craypool Lane at its junction with Back Lane and Council is pursuing this with both Lincolnshire County Council and Anglian Water to reach a resolution.

Dunholme Road/Main Street (from Heath Road to Sudbrooke Road) has been resurfaced and although several gullies on both Dunholme Road and Main Street seem to be blocked, the overall result is very much improved.

John has worked tirelessly with LCC to improve road surfaces, footpaths, cycle path to Sudbrooke, hedges, etc throughout the patch. I am sure the residents would wish me to thank John for his work.

Currently the Parish Council is campaigning for:

• Improvements to drainage Craypool Lane/Back Lane
• Blocked drains and gullies throughout the village to be cleared.
• Improvements to the cycle path between Scothern and Sudbrooke.
• An extension of the speed limit on Heath Road.
• Improvements to the footpath on the western side of Sudbrooke Road.

Any issues in relation to highways matters; streetlights out, potholes, poor parking, overhanging trees, etc can be reported to Fix my Street (https://fixmystreet.lincolnshire.gov.uk). Doing this brings LCCs attention to the problems quickly (and when done by residents seems to get a better response) - the more times an issue is reported the better!

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Public Transport

Public Transport continues to be a source of frustration to the Parish Council and residents. Council has continued to campaign for a much-improved service to that currently available. However, should we succeed in achieving this then it is most important that the service is used as the “use it or lose it” phrase will apply.

As an opportunity for residents to indicate what kind of a service would be beneficial, we have representatives of WLDC and LCC present, these representatives are here on a “fact finding” mission. It is important that we look forward and not backward during this session.

Central Lincolnshire Local Plan (CLLP)

The outcome of the Central Lincolnshire Local Plan will shortly be known. The proposal for Scothern includes an additional 94 properties to be built over two developments on Dunholme Road (53) and Nettleham Road (41).

The Parish Council and many residents have made representations against this development and Scothern Parish Council was represented at the Planning Inspectorate’s Hearing held in Lincoln at the end of last year.

Scothern Neighbourhood Development Plan (SNDP)

The SNDP is nearing its final stages and will shortly be submitted to West Lindsey District Council for examination. There will then be a referendum sometime in the summer when residents will have the opportunity to vote to accept the Plan. There will be those amongst you who will remember this from the SNDP which is currently in place.

The plan has been written assuming the two developments detailed above will go ahead, this will mean that SPC can have an input into the development(s).  If one or both developments are removed from the CLLP then parts of the SNDP will need to be re-written!

War Memorial

The plan to move and renovate the War Memorial is continuing and there are several “hoops” to jump through but there is hope that the work will be completed in time for this year’s Act of Remembrance.

Grange Park

The Grange Park management group (John Good [chair], Melanie and Steve Tointon and Cathie Nicoll) continue to oversee the park and carry out minor works.

Planting during the year has included 500 English bluebells.

A tree is to be planted to mark Queen Elizabeth IIs reign – this has been delayed due to the dry weather conditions last year.

Recreation Centre

Cllr Fotheringham sits as a liaison member on the Scothern Recreation Centre committee and regularly updates the PC on activities of both.

The Chairman of Scothern Recreation Centre will be presenting a brief report.

Finance

SPC has subscribed to internal audits by the Lincolnshire Association of Local Councils (LALC) which gives an interim audit of processes and methods and a final audit at the end of the financial year.

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The interim audit was carried out in December 2022 which raised no specific issues but there were recommendations which SPC has implemented.

SPC aims to keep increases in the Precept request as low as possible and for the financial year 2023/24 is less than 3%.

The Parish Council will continue to meet the cost of grass cutting at St Germain’s Church and the Recreation Centre field and surrounding areas.

Cemetery, Sudbrooke Road

Mark Harris Commercials continue to maintain the cemetery on Sudbrooke Road resulting in a considerable saving to the parish and creating a respectful and peaceful haven. On behalf of the Parish Council and residents of Scothern thanks are offered to Mark.

Speed Awareness Initiative

The Speed Awareness Group in the village must be thanked (you know who you are!) for the contribution to road safety in the village.

There are now three Speed Indicator Devices (SIDs) in the village located permanently on Dunholme Road, Sudbrooke Road and Main Street however the Main Street SID initially had some “data download” problems. The SIDs record speed both coming into and leaving the village. Some phenomenal speeds have been recorded; information is downloaded and forwarded to the Police.

Cllrs Derek Canton and Robert Creaser both work very hard on the initiative supported by other volunteers. More volunteers are needed to help with the speed guns, if you are interested, please do get in touch with Derek or Robert (or any of the other councillors/volunteers), equipment and training (via Lincolnshire Police) is provided. Three members of the group are needed at any one time and this “mini” group goes out for about an hour each time.

Best Garden Competition

The Best Garden Competition was held during 2022, well done to all those who received awards. The new judges in 2022 had a difficult task in choosing the award winners as there are many beautiful gardens in Scothern.

Thank you judges – hope you will run the competition again this year.

Live Christmas Advent Calendar

Jane Johnson aided by the Clerk (and Richard) ran the Live Christmas Advent Calendar this year and there were some wonderful Christmas windows.  Thank you to those who took part and making the “trail” a success.

Photographs were taken of all the windows and published in the Parish Magazine during February/March! It is amazing the ideas that participants come up with.

Jane has indicated she will lead on this again this year with some new ideas – I wonder what she will come up with!

Christmas Tree Event

The annual “switch on” event of the village Christmas tree lights at the school happened in 2022 and the tree was supplied and decorated by the Straw family, thanks on behalf of village residents are offered. The tree is located on the grass outside the school; thank you for allowing this and providing the electricity for the lights.

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Clancy Docwra (Anglian Water partner) provided the flood lighting which helps to make the event a great success. The school children participate and sing beautifully.

Clerk

Laura Richardson who had been Clerk to the Council for approximately seven years decided to relinquish this post in July 2022 and a new Clerk was appointed and started in September. Unfortunately, due to personal issues this new person had to offer her resignation and terminated in January of this year.  Thank you both.

A new Clerk has been appointed and will commence on 13 March 2023. Contact details will appear on the village notice boards, website, FaceBook page and Parish Magazine.

Thanks

In closing this report, I should like to offer my thanks to County Councillor Sue Rawlins, District Councillor Bob Waller who will be standing down this year and especially all Parish Councillors for their support and efforts throughout the year to make Scothern a good place to live.

Cathryn J Nicoll (Mrs)

Chair - Scothern Parish Council

8 March 2023

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Scothern Recreation Centre

Update for Annual Parish Meeting 8 March 2023

The Recreation Centre continues its recovery after Covid and bookings remain steady. 

Most regular users are now back with the exception of one of the children’s scouting groups as they can’t recruit leaders which is disappointing for all concerned.  The carpet bowlers have decided to call it a day but we have all the equipment if anyone would like to have a go themselves.

Ad hoc bookings for parties / meetings / events continue.  The Spirit of Scothern sub-committee continue to run events – Flix in the Stix, Fashion Shows and one-off events to good effect which raises money for the hall refurbishment.  The Players are staging a new production in May.  The Cricket Club is organising a Beer Festival in June.  The annual Produce Show will be held in early September.

The SRC and PC will be collaborating on the forthcoming coronation event (6th May) and further details will be available shortly.

The refurbishment plan for the hall has been revised and in the short term we will concentrate on updating the inside of the hall and pursuing an outdoor corridor for access to the toilets.  Quotes are now coming in for work to be done and we expect to make a start on these in the next few months.

Chris Shepherd

SRC Chairman

27/2/2023