July 2023 Minutes
Minutes of Parish Council Meeting on 6 July 2023 held at Westborough Village Hall at 7.30 pm
Present Cllrs V Birnage (Chair), A Durham, J Forman, B Lett, S Woodward, County Cllr A Maughan, the clerk W McCallin and 9 members of the public.
43/23 Election of Chair and Vice Chair
Cllr V Birnage was unanimously elected Chair and Cllr B Lett was elected Vice-Chair.
44/23 Public Forum Comments included: future Parish Council support for the Dry Doddington church floor repairs; the condition of Green Lane road surface; the lack of CCTV signage at The Wheatsheaf.
45/23 Apologies were received from Cllrs T Arnold and District Cllr P Wood.
46/23 Minutes of the meeting on 11 May were confirmed by council and signed by the Chair.
47/23 Declaration of Pecuniary Interests received from Cllr Woodward regarding The Wheatsheaf Inn.
48/23 Westborough Green Maintenance
A volunteer from Newark has agreed to re-instate the Green after the annual bonfire. The Parish Council will review mowing of Westborough public areas at the January meeting.
49/23 Correspondence re Wheatsheaf Inn (ACV & Planning Status) from Mr B Woodward
Cllr Woodward left the meeting for this item only. Mr B Woodward offered to answer questions.
Cllrs received an update that Dry Doddington Village Hall are not in favour of the proposal from Mr Woodward to have a bar in the village hall and will respond to him directly. The Save our Sheaf group advised that because an independent valuation will not be permitted by Mr Woodward, and the sale price of the reduced floor space of The Wheatsheaf is non-negotiable at the rate of £450,000 + VAT, this prevents a meaningful meeting being held with him.
Other feedback is that residents want a pub atmosphere with the option of food service and will travel to other villages for this. The village hall is set up for week day activities and ad hoc weekend functions that would be incompatible with having a bar in the hall at the same time. Mr Woodward confirmed that he has a valuation for The Wheatsheaf as a building, not with the current planning conditions. Council resolved to respond in writing to Mr B Woodward. Council resolved that they support the views of the residents that The Wheatsheaf should remain a public house and the Council will continue to oppose any planning application for change of use.
50/23 Community Benefit Fund
The toilet refurbishment at Westborough Village Hall is nearly complete. The Westborough hard standing project is waiting to be done at an appropriate time.
51/23 Finance
Council received a financial update.
£463.32 has been received from SKDC for the Community cleaner grant
52/23 County Councillors report - Cllr Maughan discussed road problems, the asphalt repairs rolling programme. He asks that problems continue to reported on Fix-my-street.
53/23 Clerks report Volunteers were thanked for their work on Dry Doddington bus shelter; the Witham and Humber Drainage board will be thanked for their clearing of Westborough dykes; relatives of the Lancaster bomber crash have visited the site and thanked Cllrs for their help; 8 litter picking kits are available for collection from LCC at North Hykeham.
54/23 Public Forum
a) The Community Heart Foundation will help with defibrillator training and details are with Westborough Village Hall Chair. Residents of both villages to be invited when arranged.
b) The bus shelter has a book exchange on shelves and the offer of a book swap with Claypole was accepted.
55/23 Matters for urgent discussion
a) licensing conditions for the music festival on 5 August will be requested from SKDC
b) six dog fouling signs will be purchased
c) there have been no expressions of interest to join the Parish Council.
56/23 Date of next meeting confirmed as – Thursday 12 October, 7.30pm, Dry Doddington Village Hall.
The meeting closed at 8.25 pm
SIGNED DATE