2021 minutes

Minutes of the Annual Parish Council Meeting held by Zoom on Tues 4th May 2021 at 6.30pm

Present 21-069 Cllr D Smith (Chair), Cllr C Ashton (Vice Chair), Cllr F Parish, Cllr M Kinning,

Cllr S Lansdowne, Cllr J Oldfield, Cllr P Golding, Cllr C van Straubenzee, Cllr G Steele,  Mrs H Sandon (parish clerk) , no residents in attendance

Apologies for Absence 21-070 Cllr A White, Cllr C Hodgkin

Chairman’s Report of the past year, Cllr Smith 21-071

Cllr Smith read out the report, PC agreed that the clerk should publish this on the SWPC website.

Year end Accounts 2020/21 summary position, clerk 21-072

Clerk gave a brief summary of the 2020/21 accounts to Councillors, (info also sent to them prior by email). The accounting records are now with Gordon to perform the internal audit. PC to sign off the accounts at the June PC meeting, clerk to submit return to external auditors PKF Littlejohn by 30/6/21. Clerk to display unaudited accounts and display rights of inspection notices as required.

Questions from the floor 21-073 none

Meeting closed at 6.42 pm

Chairman’s report 2020 / 21

Well, what a year we have had, with Covid-19 and Zoom meetings, it certainly has been a strange one.

As you all know, we have been in Zoom meetings for the past year and hopefully unless we hear to the contrary extending the rules allowing for Zoom council meetings to continue, face to face meetings in the VH will resume from June for SWPC. This will need to be done in a Covid safe way and hence the decision was made to hold the Annual Parish meeting this month via Zoom, as advised by LALC.

Because of Covid, we have had to postpone the play park project. I hope this can be got up and running again soon as much progress has been made.

Over the last yr. SWPC applied for a one-off business support grant from SKDC (£10k) and some of this money has been given to the VHMC to the tune of £2.5k by two grants to help them cover its ongoing costs and to buy and install the necessary cleaning products and hand sanitisers to make the VH covid safe for when the hall reopens. We have also not charged rent for last year nor for Apr of this year. We will review the situation in the next few months re. the second instalment of rent due later this year, depending on whether VH bookings increase to normal levels.

We have also been given a one-off grant of £500 to the Church to help meet the costs of a one off clean.

We were also successful in securing a fitness grant of £4775, and although some activities have taken place, others have been delayed due to Covid.

A group was set up, The SW volunteers with the support of SWPC. This was to help those that needed help through the pandemic and is still running today.

Over the Covid period we have helped the village hall in a few areas. We have not charged them rent; we have also given them 2 grants to help financially with outgoings as they are not able to bring in an income.

We have installed new litre bins on the playing field to help control the litter.

The tree thinning around the allotment had the go-ahead and has been completed.

The soak-away and new gate also in the Cemetery car park was approved and has been completed. With the gate looking a lot better and of course more secure.

The area around the community centre car park has been looked at and then we have moved forward with the clearing of some trees and bushes in the first step to improve the surroundings.

The ongoing problem with some young adults at the community centre has been addressed also with the instillation of a new gate and barrier. I hope this helps the problems and the area will continue to have more improvements, moving forward.

The new PC website hosted by LCC was set up during the year with external assistance and many hours done by the clerk, who will continue to maintain this for SWPC.

The village hall has had some ongoing heating issues which I believe has now been sorted. Currently there are some small roof problems that we are continuing to try and rectify.

We have had many issues with lorries breaking weight restrictions through the village this year and have tirelessly worked to stamp this out, talking direct to the relevant business owners concerned.

Thanks to Janine for her efforts litter picking and for the many others that do their bit in the background.

Thanks to Gordon who always does the Internal Audit for the PC for a small donation to the PC memorial fund, he has once agreed to this and is working on it currently.

A massive thank you to Helen who has worked extra hard as always, Helen you have been a fantastic help to me with my position of chair.

I would like to thank you for all your help and all the free time you have given up helping continue to make South Witham the village we can all be proud off. Plus, for all the support you have given me a chair.  I would like to wish you all good luck in the future.