Minutes 16.5.24

MINUTES of a Brant Broughton & Stragglethorpe Parish Council meeting held at The Jubilee Hall, West Street, Brant Broughton on  16th May 2024 at 7.15 pm
 
Present: Cllr M George (MG) (in the Chair), Cllrs P. Dunning (PD), A. Early (AE); J. Salmon (JS); and K. Salmon (KS); S. Swain (SS) and P. Thornburn (PT) - Cty Cllr M Overton and one member of the public were also present.  
 
Public Forum: the member of the public is Chair of the Village Show Committee and said that it was too late to put on a show this year so that means that it will either drift or close down.  They have funds in the Show account and asked if the PC would hold those funds if they transferred them to us. The Clerk said we could do this and the sum would be held in our Reserves on their behalf.  The VSC will come back to us once they have had a meeting to revise their constitution so that the funds can be transferred to the PC.
Cty Cllr Overton said that they are still working on a total of 7000 acres of solar farms under the “cliff”.  There are also two battery sites and one of those is 30 acres (they are the equivalent of 324 containers).  There is also a new sub-station coming which again covers 30 acres and is 15 metres high. The scale of solar panels is disproportionate if one looks at the cumulative impact – the Minister has said this will be taken into account.  Soil testing will be done by an accredited body.  The Action Group are working on objecting to any application for the sub-station.   Cllrs George and J Salmon will attend a meeting of the Group at Thorpe on the Hill Village Hall at 7 pm on 19th June.  There will be a public meeting in the second week of July – date and venue not yet known.
There is no update on the BioMass plant at Stragglethorpe.  The crossroads on the A17 are to be looked at by Highways.
The meeting then commenced at 7.35 pm
24/18: Apologies –Dist Cllr L Hagues.
24/19: There were no declarations of interest. 
24/20: Minutes of the meeting held on 11th April 2024 had been amended slightly, were read, approved and signed.
24/21: Information Boards – photos are awaited.  The person who offered to take them has been waiting for better weather but is currently working abroad; he will hopefully take them in June.  The Three Villages and a Hamlet magazine has asked for the texts.  The Church in Stragglethorpe has agreed the positioning of the information board there.
24/22: D-Day celebrations – the local gentleman who makes the silhouettes is unable to do them for us so those provided by the British Legion were discussed.  It was resolved to purchase one of a male and one of a female (facing each other) at 4’10” high.  Cost is £175 each – agreed unanimously to purchase and clerk to order.  The wording at the foot of the male is to read “Lest We Forget” and the female “Time to Reflect”.
24/23: Highways – Hawthorn trees on verge at 114 High Street are in flower and look to be thriving – Clerk to cancel FMS request.  30 mph signs are to hand and SS will sort out hanging them in BB – MG will deal with Stragglethorpe.   MG reported that the firm that made our SIDs (two of them have data facilities) is Westcotec  but to download the data it needs somebody who is IT literate.   Enquiries will be made to find somebody who can help.
24/24: Emergency Plan – SS reported that 3 villages are participating and Mary Green is putting this matter on the Agenda for the Cluster Meeting in June.  SS and AE are attending.
24/25: Planning
23/0887 – New dwelling at Guildford Yard, West Street – pending consideration.
24/0058 – Brant House 4 bay garage with living space above – approved.
24/0304 – Replacement of roof at 23 High Street, BB – pending consideration.
24/0330 – Tree works at 6 Maltkiln Lane – approved.
24/0338 – Tree works at 1 Church Walk – approved.
24/0433 – Midvil House, Meeting House Lane, extensions and new gate – pending consideration.
24/0457 – Tree works at Broughton House – pending consideration.
24/0498 – Tree works at 2 Swans Lane – pending consideration.
24/26:   Finance:  
(a) It was resolved to accept the bank reconciliation as at 30.4.24 – balance £28,173.27.
(b) It was resolved to accept the quarterly charge for clerk’s expenses at £120.
(c) Clerk advised on the Internal Auditor report (primarily website matters).  We should keep a record of when assets are checked – MG and JS will do this.
(d) The clerk had circulated the two sections of the AGAR that needed signing.  It was resolved unanimously to sign the Annual Governance Statement.
(e) It was resolved unanimously to sign the AGAR Accounting Statement.
(f) Clerk read out a thank you letter from the Pre-School in respect of their grant.
24/27: Next meeting –  4th July 2024.   The Clerk had requested a change of date for the September meeting from 5th to 12th September and this was agreed.
 
Meeting closed at 8.02 pm