Minutes

Minutes of Edlington with Wispington Parish Meeting

Inaugural meeting 16th May 2018

(No-one from Wispington was present)

Welcome and introduction by the Chairman

As this was the inaugural meeting, the Chairman briefly outlined some of the rules and functions of Parish meetings and their limited powers:-

• A meeting has to be held twice per year – the first one between 1st March and 1st June. The second one at the Chairman’s discretion.

Future meetings will be notified by email (where an address has been notified to the Chairman) and a notice placed on the Parish Notice Board at St Helen’s Church, Edlington.

• Anyone can attend a meeting, including the Press but only registered electors of the Parish are allowed to speak (unless at the discretion of the Chairman) and only registered electors are allowed to vote.
• Powers are far more limiting than that of a Parish Council
• It is possible to become a member of the Lincolnshire Association of Local Councils, the subscription to which depends upon the number of electors and the time of joining. The Chairman to investigate this cost.
• The Meeting has to be notified of any changes to Public Rights of Way affecting the Parish.
• With regard to a precept – this has to be paid for in addition to the Council Tax and can be applied for at a cost of approximately £60 per household. If the Meeting were to agree to apply for a precept, every householder would be liable to pay the additional amount towards it.  In the case of the Edlington with Wispington Parish Meeting, this would raise only £3000 per year. It was felt that at this time this would not be something to pursue.

Roads

The current poor state of the roads was discussed. ‘Patch work’ had recently been carried out, but this was considered not to be sufficient, especially in view of the fact that no resident can remember the road through Edlington village ever being resurfaced. Attention was drawn to Lincolnshire County Council website where faults can be reported should anyone wish to do so on an individual basis.

The Chairman to request the road be totally resurfaced.

HGVs

Discussion on heavy good vehicles using the road through Edlington as a short-cut was discussed and those that use it to access Woodbeck Farm which lies outside the restriction zone. The Chairman reported that the Property Manager of Beeswax(Dyson)Farming Ltd was in total agreement that these vehicles should be stopped and the farm manager has been made aware.

SS reported that he had been told by the police that if the number of the vehicle was obtained, then they would prosecute. Although access is allowed, there are a large number of vehicles using the route merely as a short cut.

LR was behind 2 HGVs cutting through the village recently to go to Horncastle and said she believed that the recommendation was to report the vehicle registration number to the police who will speak to the haulier and the driver is the one who will be prosecuted.

The Chairman reported an incident to the police two weeks ago when he was forced off the road on his motorcycle. The police informed him it was a Highways issue and the Highways Dept are now investigating the matter, but have said that any enforcement is a police matter. The Police and Crime Commissioner has been contacted to try to sort out where the responsibility lies.

If anyone wanted to pass on any information regarding HGVs to the Chairman, he said he would be prepared to do the reporting if required.

Signage

The Chairman raised the possibility of ‘Please drive carefully through our village’ signs at both ends of the village and will contact Highways Department about it. Also speed restrictions to be considered.

Sleeping policemen were suggested as a calming measure by DB and BB suggested this could be a way of cutting down on the number of people using the route as a short cut.

Internet

Superfast Broad Band!

The Chairman said he had run a check on his computer today and found it was 2.5mg to upload and .5 to download.

He introduced the Online Lincolnshire website which has a mast 2.5km away from the village. Although the deal offered sounded reasonable, it was felt by the meeting that this should not need to be done. Despite nearby villages benefitting, there were no plans to introduce superfast broadband to Edlington. SS stated he had been trying to get this sorted for a long time and had been in correspondence with Victoria Atkins MP who had been of no help.

RR stated that having recently arrived here he had been amazed at how slow broadband is, having been used to 8m download in rural Cumbria. He was aware of a Lancashire Organisation which he offered to look into to see if it would benefit us.

DB reported having had a conversation with men working on the green boxes at Wispington Road and on asking when Edlington would benefit he was told “not at all at the moment”.

Chairman to write again to the MP.

KB spoke of a scheme for putting masts on church roofs, but even though the village would receive a fee for doing this, as the Church was a listed building the mast would have to go in the bell tower and this would need a faculty. It was agreed that this would not appropriate.

The Chairman to send a link to everyone present so they could complain re lack of superfast broad band – the more complaints the better.

This is now included in these minutes:- On Line Lincolnshire – www.onlincolnshire.org. Use the form under ‘contact us’.

Neighbourhood watch

SS in his capacity as Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator said there was nothing to update the Meeting, but requested a list of contacts from this meeting to co-ordinate an up to date list of electorate.

DB spoke of a scheme he had heard of where local residents placed a green disc on their windscreens – this made a strange vehicles easier to spot and their number could be taken.

There was discussion about CCTV cameras as apparently it is an offence to film anyone on the public road.

National Rural Crime survey

The Chairman drew attention to the survey, which though run by Yorkshire Police, was a National survey and was open until Sunday 10th June.

DB raised awareness of the Police Alert System – which gives updates and alerts of crime in the local area through the internet, including scams, cold calling etc.

Wildlife Crime

The Chairman made the meeting aware of wildlife crime in the area including the recent killing of a badger and a deer in the village. Any incidences of wildlife crime should be reported to the Lincolnshire Wildlife Crime Officer through the 101 number.

Shooting

The Chairman updated the meeting on the game shooting which had affected residents at the lower end of the village and reported on the incidents of lead shot hitting properties, trespassing and at least 6 police incident numbers being raised and various discussions with Beeswax Property Manager and the Council. The police have confirmed that the ‘shoot captain’ is no longer employed by Beeswax and the shooting rights are not going to be renewed.  IW made the Meeting aware that there may, however still be incidents of legal lamping.

Rabbits

Many people reported being troubled by the rabbit explosion in the village (reference the lamping mentioned above). The Chairman has spoken to Beeswax Property Manager on the issue and he was to discuss possible solutions with the farm manager. It was felt by the meeting that any sort of pest control would need a whole village approach in order for it to work. The Chairman cited the recent decline in local fox population as being one possible reason for the rabbit explosion as the balance of nature had been disturbed.

Tied into this was the incident of the Southwold Hunt killing a fox in February in Wispington which is currently under police investigation.

AOB

• Discussion on best mobile phone signal for the area – Vodafone.
• Cyclists – Increase in the number of cyclists and cyclists riding several abreast. DB had complained to the police whose response was that they are cyclists coming in from the cities who do not understand rural roads! They are a concern as they can be dangerous to other road users and are sometimes rude.
• Noise from gas guns – The problem seems to be improving. The Chairman made the meeting aware of the Council Environmental Health Dept as the ‘go to’ place for complaints should the need arise and mentioned the noise from guns over a weekend all day for two days and assumed it was a clay pigeon shoot. There was no information about this.

Next Meeting: - Date to be arranged for six months time; end of October or early November