2026 Minutes

Minutes of Meeting of Bishop Norton with Atterby Parish Council
 

Meeting held on 13/07/2026 at 7.30pm at Bishop Norton Village Hall
 

1. Present: Cllr P Thody (Chair), Cllr S Freeman (Vice Chair), Cllr J Suggit, Cllr A Panton, Cllr T Guy, Cllr M Leak, Ros Townsend (Clerk).  County Councillor S Bunney was also in attendance.

                There was 1   member of the public in attendance.

2. Apologies: None received 

 

3. New Councillor: The Chair welcomed the newest councillor – Michael Leak- to the team

 

4. Declarations of Interest: Prior to the meeting, Councillors had been asked to decide which category their declarations fell into (should they need to declare any)i.e.: Disclosable Pecuniary, Prejudicial or Personal as this may affect their discussion and voting rights. The Chair checked that all councillors had read and understood this.

 

5. Minutes of last meeting and matters arising: Cllrs read and agreed the minutes from the May meeting (previously circulated). The Minutes were signed as accurate by the Chair. Proposed by Cllr Freeman and seconded by Cllr Suggit and agreed by remaining councillors.

Matters arising: Parish Online - Cllr Panton had looked into this and we’ve had it since 2019 (Cllr Suggit thought that it was something purchased for the Neighbourhood plan). Cllr Bunney said that councillors can access the OS system therefore it was decided not to renew Parish Online.

Clerk to cancel Parish Online

 

6. Reports by Ward/County Councillors: Cllr Bunney reported that improvement to roads is being taken over by the mayoral authority especially A15; hopefully, duelling of our section of the A15 it is back on the agenda however the section from Lincoln to Caenby Corner will be more important. 

Waste food collections have gone down well and some people are composting. There have been some complaints re excessive air pollution from the digester at Hemswell Cliff. Next April there will be changes to collections: blue bins will take soft plastics and purple bins will take some different papers. Also, batteries will be collected from the kerb. THERE WILL BE NO MORE BINS!

There will be possible changes to systems at recycling where users will need to book. There are  new PCSOs which hopefully will give more confidence. PCSO Dawn Cowling has volunteered to give talks to any interested groups in the area. Clerk to mention this in the Triangle 

Glentham Aerobic digester 2 - planners still collecting information regarding infrastructure and this is unlikely to come to the planning committee before the end of this year. It is one of nine live planning applications and not at the top of the list- some applications have been turned down.

In September there will be more planning changes, another round of community grants etc with a meeting to be attended by parish councils – no dates yet.

Cllr Suggit asked that if the A2 digester goes ahead, would we be able to get anything out of a s106? Cllr Bunney was not sure community benefit funds can be offered as these would normally go to parish it’s in. The Chair thanked Cllr Bunney for his report and time.

 

7. Public Question Time: No questions

 

8. Correspondence: 

Letter received from Ben Green of The Woodland Trust offering a minimum of 5 orchard trees free of charge- Councillors felt this would be too difficult to maintain and get in the way of other items on the field. Clerk to reply

 

FOI request by Cllr Freeman: this was made during the APM and the report received on 20/6. The report did not offer the explicit information requested. Cllr Bunney offered to take this up with Steve Bachelor at RSP if we to send the information to him; he also suggested asking for road closure details too. Clerk to send a copy of the report to Cllr Bunney with additional request. Clerk to send information

 

Ian Moore Contracting Quotes: 

IMC quoted for a three-year grass cutting deal as requested of £138 per cut for up to 12 cuts per year from March to November. Currently on our annual deal we pay £143 per cut. This was proposed by Cllr Freeman and seconded by Cllr Panton with remaining councillors agreeing to go ahead with this. 

IMC also quoted for cutting the inside hedge of the play park but councillors decided it was not necessary.

Clerk to confirm with IMC

 

Bishop Norton Amenities Park: A further letter was received from Darryl Bettany on behalf of the BNAG – see point 17

 

9. Report by RFO: The RFO presented the financial report from 1st May to 30th June with accompanying bank statement (already circulated). These were agreed by the council and signed by the Chair. 

The external audit has now been completed and is on the website.

Re: The new budget (already circulated) was presented to and agreed by the council at the last meeting, but Cllr Suggit queried the amount to be kept aside for elections. Upon investigation, if a full voting election of the PC was called for next year, it would cost between £1500 to £2000; therefore, after discussion with the Chair, it is proposed that £1000 of the current budget be moved for this purpose with any remainder coming out of next year’s budget if required. This was agreed by the council.

The Financial Risk Assessment (already circulated) was agreed by the council at the last meeting but with a recommendation of  addition from Cllr Freeman to specify how large payments are made safely; this has now been added to the FRA and agreed by the council.       

The Assets register update was agreed at the last meeting for insurance purposes. The VHC has agreed to accept the projector screen as a donation from the PC and will therefore now insure it and look after it. This was minuted at their meeting of 01/06/26. Removal of the projector from the assets register was agreed by the parish council. Additionally, the allotments are not on the assets register however as the PC maintain them perhaps they should be. The clerk has asked the secretary of Dickinson’s farm to see if they consider that they still own them. Cllr Bunney suggested that the information would be with the Land Registry. Clerk to investigate this

Band mandate amendment: banking is maintained online and now needs updating online. Cllr Suggit wishes to come off the mandate and Cllr Freeman has volunteered to be added to the mandate. Cllrs to complete the details form so that the clerk can update this; they will probably need to add their signatures online. Amendment to the bank mandate was proposed by Cllr Leak and seconded by   Cllr Panton with agreement from remaining councillors. Clerk to get details and amend    

 

10. Whats App and Face book Pages: the clerk requested the possibility of having a PC Whats App page so that if she needs councillors to see something urgently in their pc email before the next meeting she can just send out one message. This was agreed by all councillors except Cllr Suggit who is not on Whats App; the clerk will continue to send this to his private email. Clerk to set this up

Also, with recent issues down near the allotment and with the millennium sign the clerk used her personal FB page to circulate messages to the public. How would the PC feel about their being a PC FB page that all councillors could access to put messages on for the public ie : cleaning of the play park? Councillors agreed in principle. Clerk to look into how this would work re privacy/access etc   

The Chair also mentioned that she had asked the clerk to create a ‘cheat sheet’ (circulated prior to the meeting) so that councillors could report problems themselves rather than asking the clerk to do it.             

 

11. Standing Orders: the SO have not been updated since 2019 and a great deal has been added to the NALC example. The updated version was circulated to the PC prior to the meeting. The Chair requested that the Clerk go through it again and change any outdated terminology etc and that by the next meeting councillors should have read them thoroughly and made any suggestions for changes. The council agreed. Clerk to change terminology

12. Millennium Sign and post: the base of the post had rotted so with permission from the Chair and Vice Chair the post/sign was taken down by Ian Moore Contracting as a safety concern. A quote was received for reinstallation of the Millennium sign and post £270 inc VAT. There would be 8’ of post above ground with 2’ underground sealed with blackjack paint for protection. Cllr Freeman specified to ensure the new placement was safe yet accessible to other users (hedge cutting etc) . It was proposed by Cllr Suggit and seconded by Cllr Leak that this should go ahead with remaining councillors also agreeing as IMC had taken it down so promptly for us as a safety request. Clerk to confirm and liaise placement

 

13. Planning Applications; there are no planning applications for submission and nothing further from the Main St site. Cllr Panton noted that the owner of the site was looking into having it put on mains drainage. Cllr Suggit noted that there was building at Margrave farm Atterby but there had been no recent planning application. The Chair suggested that it might be from the previous application a few years ago. Clerk will try and establish the planning permission for this.

 

14. Councillor Training: the clerk asked for some NOT available dates from councillors for councillor training. The clerk will organise this. 

 

15. Allotments and ditch drainage: a quote has been sought for sleeper replacement on the allotments from IMC. Councillors were undecided on how urgent this was as the quote was more than expected and councillors also asked for a second quote. Clerk to seek second quote 

 

The clerk has asked the Dickinson’s if the horse field and allotment site is theirs and the possibility of getting the ditch done. Still awaiting a reply. The Chair asked Cllrs Freeman and Suggit to liaise with Mr N Flear regarding clearing out the ditch as a ‘community project’ to get this sorted out. The clerk will attempt to find out about ownership of the allotments and the need for them to be on the assets register.

 

16. Public footpaths: the clerk reported that the walkway from the village hall to Archer Street has been cleared. Councillor Guy reported that the Atterby path had also been cleared. There is still an issue with the path from Stone Pit Lane to Glentham – councillors not sure who owns these. The clerk will attempt to find out.

 

17. Play Park: Cllr Freeman declared a DPI and councillors were in agreement that he should remain in the meeting for the discussion. A quote has been sought from IMC for reseeding the goal post area – they agreed to do it for free but the PC would need to ensure it was watered – the PC suggested this be done around September time when there was more rain and less heat. Clerk to confirm with IMC

Correspondence was received from Darryl Bettany of the BNAG re the ongoing request for the PC to take over the running of the small play park. After some discussion, the Chair asked that the BNAG come up with a dowry figure that they might offer to offset the running costs to the PC. The added annual insurance cost to the PC for taking on the small play park would be £122 for equipment valued at £32,000. Cllr Bunney suggested that a sum could be ‘ring-fenced’ for use of the small play park,                    Re Section 106 the clerk to contact LALC for some legal guidance on the responsibility for the PC if they should take over the running of the small play park

 

18. Community resilience: The Clerk explained that the box has now been restocked and a list of contents sent to all councillors it’s on the PC filing cabinet in the village hall.

 

19. AOB – Cllr Freeman mentioned that the wall on Pat Cook’s old house on corner of Eastfield/Well St was in disrepair and becoming a danger to the public. Clerk to look into this re current tenants/ agents/ landlords etc. Cllr Bunney suggested that we put details on FIX MY STREET. Also, the flower boxes are looking amazing – the clerk was asked to put a note of thanks in The Triangle. Councillor Suggit asked if we might ask Cllr Dean to write a small article on using the defibrillator as she had had recent experience. Clerk to action these points.

 

20. Items for the next meeting: Whats App/Facebook, Standing Orders, Cllr Training, Allotments/Ditch drainage, Public footpaths, Play park, wall on Eastfield

Date of next meeting: NB this has changed to Monday 21st September  7.30pm -hall booked

 

The meeting closed at 9.20pm

Chairperson signed……………………………………………………………Dated……………………………………………….