Parish Council Meeting Minutes 13th May 2025
Draft Annual Parish Council Meeting Minutes 13th May 2025
Present: Parish Councillors: Mrs P Cranfield (Chairman), Mr A Wilson, Mr D Hawes (Vice Chairman) Mrs A Treacy, and Mrs E Unwin.
In Attendance: Mrs Carole Sands (Parish Clerk).
Public Open Forum : As there were no members of the public present at the meeting, the Chairman closed the open forum.
National & District Council Updates: Not in attendance
Commencement of the Annual Parish Council Meeting
2526/2/16 Acceptance of Office:
2/16/1 Election of Officers: Chairman & Vice Chairman: It was RESOLVED that Councillor Mrs P Cranfield be appointed Chairman and Councillor Mr D Hawes be appointed Vice Chairman of the Parish Council. Declaration of Acceptance of Office forms were signed.
2/16/2 Declaration of Pecuniary Interest forms: All Councillors to complete the forms and return to the Parish Clerk as soon as possible.
2526/2/17 Apologies for Absence: Councillor Mrs M Marshall is not present at the meeting and has tendered her resignation with immediate effect (via a letter) to the Chairman of the Parish Council. Councillor Mrs M Avis not in attendance.
2526/2/18 Approval of the Minutes: It was RESOLVED to approve the minutes of the Parish Council meeting 8th April 2025 as a true and accurate record. Proposed by Councillor Mr D Hawes and seconded by Councillor Mrs A Treacy.
2526/2/19 Request for Dispensation: None requested
2526/2/20 Declaration of Interest: Councillor Mr A Wilson Agenda item 2526/2/24
2526/2/21 Parish Clerk & Councillors, updates from the Previous meeting:
2/21/1 Email Addresses: Work has started, however, due to end of year work the Parish Clerk has been unable to fully complete this task.
2/21/2 Coal Yard Parking: Despite the Parish Councils best efforts the actions implemented to prevent parking in this area continue to be ignored. As a result, the Parish Council have agreed that they cannot offer any further support to this problem.
2/21/3 Water/Flooding: Parish Clerk has not received any further correspondence from LCC Highways in relation to the constant water pooling on the A151 near School Lane.
2526/2/22 New Parish Council Matters:
2/22/1 Carol Singing Event: Review at the next meeting in July. Parish Clerk to invite Sarah Young to the next meeting.
2/22/2 Water/Flooding in Elsthorpe: LCC Highways are investigating a leak adjacent to Rose Cottage and asked the Parish Council if they were aware of any culverts in this area. Parish Council members confirmed that they have no knowledge of this.
2526/2/23 Play Area: Internal Inspection report was shared prior to the meeting with the Parish Council members. The swing seats need to be reattached now that the grass has grown in the central area. Parish Clerk to arrange for this to be completed as soon as possible. The grass around the posts has not recovered after being sprayed with weed killer by the grass cutting service provider. Village Hall Committee to contact the service provider to ask that they do not use weed killer again.
2526/2/24 Village Hall: The new lease document was received by the Parish Clerk earlier today (13/05/25 via email) from Grimsthorpe & Drummond Castle Trust, Agent Mr H Coups. The Village Hall Committee will review this document before providing feedback to Mr Coups.
2526/2/25 Planning Matters: There are no new applications to discuss.
2526/2/26 Financial Matters: Income received since the meeting 8th April 2025
2/26/1 SKDC Street Cleaning Grant £463.32
As reported during the Parish Council meeting 8th April 2025 the over payments made in the salaries to the Parish Clerk £31.00 and the Community Street Cleaner £46.40 for March 2025 have been recovered in full.
The Parish Council members acknowledged this refund as shown in the PC Bank account.
2526/2/27 Financial Matters: It was RESOLVED by the Parish Council Members to accept the expenditure as detailed below.
2/27/1 Lloyds Bank Account Fee £4.25 (10/02/25 to 09/03/25)
2/27/2 Postage for VAT Form 126 £1.70 (owed to Parish Clerk)
2/27/3 Lloyds Bank Account Fee £4.25 (10/03/25 to 09/04/25)
2/27/4 Internal Audit Fees V.M. Free (FY 2024/2025) £100.00
2/27/5 Zurich Annual Insurance Policy £358.78 (Due 1st June 2025)
2/27/6 PCC Edenham Maintenance Grant £350.00
2/27/7 Salaries & HMRC payments, the exact amount to be confirmed at the next meeting due to new calculations with changes to minimum wage. Due for payment 27th June 2025
2526/2/28 Financial Matters: Bank accounts as of 22nd April 2025
2/28/1 Community (formally Treasurers) Account £5418.63
2/28/2 Business Account £498.89
2526/2/29 Annual Accounts/Internal Audit: The Parish Clerk had circulated the internal audit report to the Council members prior to the meeting.
In relation to the annual account financial records the following points were noted by the Parish Council Members:
- Income: the £3000.00 transferred from the Parish Councils Business bank account to the Treasurers bank account (now know as the Community Account) should not have been detailed as an income. Therefore, this reduces the income to £4041.75 It was also noted that a refund of 1p due to the VAT rounding error has been repaid into the bank account by Play Dale Ltd.
- Expenditure: It was noted a payment to Play Dale on 10th July 2024 was £2035.19 as shown on the bank account statement and not £2035.18 as shown in the accounts. This was an error by the Parish Clerk due a rounding up of the VAT. As detailed, this has since been refunded in the bank account by Play Dale on 21st November 2024.
- It was also noted that the salaries paid 31st March 2025 were paid as Gross pay (pretax) this error has also been corrected, employees have repaid this over payment. The correct amount has been paid to HMRC.
- It was also noted that a payment was made to the Parish Clerk on 13th November 2024 for £95.74, invoices available for this claim amount to £63.78, therefore there is a difference of £31.96. This could potentially be a human error, or an invoice has been mislaid. The Council members asked the Parish Clerk to see if there any invoices that may have been unaccounted for, for this claim.
At the end of the financial year the Treasurers Bank account balance stands at £1951.35 and the Business Bank account balance at £498.14
It was RESOLVED to approve the accounts and findings within the internal audit report for Financial Year (FY) 2024-25. The accounts were signed by the Chairman and Parish Clerk/RFO. The full audit report is available on the Parish Council website along with the accounts and the AGAR forms .
The Parish Council RESOLVED to accept and approve this. Chairman and Parish Clerk/RFO signed and dated the forms.
2526/2/31 AGAR Section 1 Governance Statement for approval: The Parish Council RESOLVED to accept and approve this. Chairman and Parish Clerk/RFO signed and dated the forms.
2526/2/32 AGAR Section 2 Accounting Statements for approval: The Parish Clerk made the Parish Council members aware of a rounding up issue in the accounting statement, the bank statement and reconciled bank account balance £2449.49 on the statement this rounds up to £2450 The Parish Council members noted this difference and RESOLVED to accept and approve this.
Chairman and Parish Clerk/RFO signed and dated the forms.
The AGAR forms will be made available on the Parish Council website along with the Notice of Public Rights & Publication of Annual Governance & Accountability Return (EXEMPT AUTHORITY). Website: Edenham, Grimsthorpe, Elsthorpe and Scottlethorpe Parish Council (lincolnshire.gov.uk)
2526/2/33 Parish Clerk to review exactly which policies and procedures the Parish Council need to have in place to ensure that legal requirements are achieved. There are no documents for review at this meeting.
2526/2/34 Correspondence: Various have been received which have been forwarded to the Parish Councillors prior to this meeting. No further discussions were required on any of the items.
2526/2/35 Next Meeting Date: 8th July 2025
There being no other business the Chairman closed the meeting at 8:30 pm