April 9th Minutes
Minutes are in DRAFT FORM until approved at the following meeting.
SCOTHERN PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the April Meeting of Scothern Parish Council
Held in the Methodist Church, Wednesday 9th April 2025 at 7.30pm
Present: Cllr D Canton, R Creaser, J Johnson (Chair), B Patchett, M Unwin
In attendance: L Brooks-Sleight (clerk)
77/2025 Apologies for Absence
Apologies were received from Cllr Atkins with reason accepted. Cllr Nicoll emailed her resignation prior to the meeting which was accepted. Clerk to inform WLDC monitoring officer.
78/2025 Representatives Report
No reports received
79/2025 Public Participation
No public present
80/2025 Declarations of Interest
None received
81/2025 Minutes of last Meeting
The notes of the Parish Council Meeting held on 12th March 2025 were approved as a true
& correct record. Proposed & seconded. Resolved
82/2025 Clerks Report
-Email received from the new Scothern resident after Cllr Johnson delivered a Welcome leaflet and
Scothern News, - Thank for your dropping off our welcome to Scothern news pack, we appreciate
the warm welcome and are settling into the village nicely. Also, requested to be added to the monthly
email list.
-GDPR/DATA Protection -The direct debit fee will be taken on the 9th May 2025, the new fee has been
confirmed as £47 following the tier assessment with a £5 reduction from £52 to pay by DD
-Bus shelter cleaning contracted ended, end of March, Emma Matthews was thanked for her work, and
she replied to say – she enjoyed cleaning them and is happy to do one-offs in the future if required.
-WLDC has been thanked for arranging the supply of litter picking equipment and the collection of the rubbish bags
83/2024 Flooding issues
a. Grange Park drainage works – only 2 quotes received due to the specialist work required, from Ian
Moore Contracting and AJET drainage. After a discussion it was proposed & seconded and approved
to accept the quote from AJET for: Item 1 works with jetvac/tanker jetter as directed on site, price per
day/max 7.5hrs £800.00 and item 2 to carry out a CCTV survey of accessible pipework with written
report & footage price per day/max 7.5hrs £585/00, Total £1385.00 +vat, for the 2 days work but the
clerk given approval to consult with the Chair to approve an extra day work if required to complete
the works while Ajet on site. Resolved
b. No updates or reports received from the Church St highways works.
Reply from Highways re: ditches alongside public footpaths – we don’t own or maintain these,
either householders will own them under the "own the fence, own the ditch beyond" common law,
or, and possibly more likely, the owner of the field will own and have responsibilities.
84/2025 Springbok IT
a. Updated information was received from Springbok on the current IT services, the gov.uk domain with a yearly fee of £60 and the current monthly costs. These were proposed & seconded and approved. Resolved
b. Springbok owner explained in an email prior -the company had to complete the Cyder Security Essentials course costing £400 along with forms/questionnaires to be able to continue to offer the gov.uk domain and services to Scothern PC and that Scothern was the only government organisation they provided this service for and would the PC consider the request from Springbok to contribute £200 to enable them to continue to provide the IT services to Scothern PC. This was proposed & seconded and approved. Resolved
85/2025 War Memorial
WLDC have reset the Grant Funding application, the funding of £5800 has been paid into the PC account and the completion date has been extended to 31st December 2025 but if the war memorial isn’t refurbished, the grant of £5800 will be returned to WLDC. St Germains PCC had a meeting but would like a site meeting with the DAC before applying for a faculty.
86/2025 Highways
Nothing to update or discuss
87/2025 Community Speed Watch
Speed data report was sent prior and received
88/2025 Police
Cllr Canton reported on the last months crime and that PC Sam Key is no longer working in the area.
89/2025 Finance
The monthly accounts for payment with the corresponding bank statements and bank reconciliation up to 31/03/25 were approved as a true & correct record. Cllr Canton & Creaser were nominated to authorise the online bank payments. Proposed & seconded. Resolved
Clerk - Cllr Nicoll to be removed as a signatory from Lloyds bank.
90/2025 Scothern Emergency Plan
Dates of the table top exercise haven’t been confirmed – the LRF are currently recruiting a fulltime member who will be coming to provide this service, they will be in touch.
91/2025 Village maintenance
a. Only one quote received to replace the broken fence on Grange Park/Cade Close from Ian Moore Contractors for £850 +vat, 3 companies were asked to provide. The quote was proposed & seconded and approved. Resolved
b. A quote to remove a dead tree on Grange Park was discussed. Cllr Unwin offered to volunteer using his chainsaw along with the Cllr Patchett, the clerk advised that this would require proof of training to use a chainsaw, safety wear, risk assessment for insurance purposes. Cllr Unwin had no training and said he’d enquiry on the training and costs for the PC. Clerk to check further requirements.
92/2024 Play Area
a. The clerk produced a Procurement of Play Equipment: Consideration of Quotations and Contract Terms with a table comparison from the following companies- Play dale, EKM Ltd, Outdoor Play Devon Ltd, Streetscape and Sovereign. These were received and discussed. Having reviewed all quotations and associated contract terms for the supply and installation of the new play equipment, the PC agrees to proceed with supplier Outdoor Play Devon Ltd, for stage 1 area, with the terms of 20% deposit of £1800+vat and the remaining £6200+vat on completion and instructs the Clerk to progress the procurement accordingly. Proposed & seconded, and approved Resolved
b. Monthly play report received
93/2025 APM
No issues/comments from the APM
94/2025 LALC Training Scheme
The clerk requested to attend Health & Safety course, non-core through LALC at £78+vat. Proposed & seconded Resolved
95/2025 Parish Council Car park
An email sent prior from a resident re: the PC car park regarding vehicles parking all day and no space a school times, it was thought that workmen use this carpark that is provided for cemetery visitors and school users. After a discussion, Cllr Johnson volunteered to talk with the adjacent business owner.
96/2025 Nettleham Rd Development working group
It was discussed to create a working group of councillors and residents to discuss the issues and points raised from the new development and then present this information to full council for approval. Clerk to confirm with Lindum Homes, Wed 11th June at 6.30pm and produce questions for an agenda.
97/2025 Bus Service
No update at present but hoping for a meeting in the future with Stagecoach
98/2025 Planning
No current planning received to discuss
99/2025 Correspondence for information (sent prior)
- LALC – E-news 24/3/25 & 4/4/25
- LCC Town & Parish March Newsletter 25/3/25
- NALC Bulletin 24/3/25
- WLDC News Newsletter 31/4/25
- LALC Training bulletin 31/4/25
100/2025 Agenda items for next meeting and any updates/points from members
- White fence near pub needs painting
- Village spring clean/tidy up
101/2025 To consider the exclusion of the public and press in accordance with the Public Bodies
(Admission to meetings) Act 1960 s1 (2) due to the confidential nature of the items to be Discussed
The date & time of the Annual Meeting of the Council was confirmed as – 14th May 2025 at 7.30pm followed by the May Council Meeting.
The Chair closed the meeting at 9.25pm