Minutes 2025

CLAXBY PARISH COUNCIL

Draft Minutes of the Meeting of the Parish Council held in the Village Hall on 4th November 2025 at 7.30 p.m.

Present: Present: Cllrs D Lofthouse (chair), B Hunter (deputy chair), J Lofthouse, J Pilbrow, R de Smit.

Also Present: D Beer (Clerk), two members of the public

1.   Apologies for Absence: Cllr Tom Smith, Cllrs Stephen Bunney (arrived later)

2...To receive declarations of interest in accordance with the Localism Act 2011: none. 

3.   Co-option of Councillor. Ian Cumber was co-opted to the Council by unanimous vote.

4.   To approve minutes of the meeting held on 5th August 2025. The minutes were approved and duly signed.

5.   Chair & Council’s Comments and matters arising from the minutes. 

• The bench donated by Sue Griffin has arrived and is installed.
• J And D Lofthouse have been asked to join the PCC Restoration Working Group. D Lofthouse pointed out that their draft brief said it had the full support of the PC, so this needs to be clarified at their next meeting and then referred back to the PC.
• Octopus Energy has been estimating the readings for the last few months. We have now submitted our readings, and have claimed and received a refund. We can claim for another refund after 4 weeks.
• Clerk was asked to report the Claxby sign after Beckside Machinery and Park Rd which has been knocked down.

6.   Clerk’s Report on outstanding matters

• Northern Powergrid say they will do the upgrades to the power cables sometime in 2026.
• Some Claxby residents complained that they were not informed about the works at the A46 junction, but as the works are outside of the Claxby Parish boundary the PC would not be informed. The works are within Osgodby Parish, so the Clerk contacted the clerk at Osgodby PC to ask them to pass on any messages re works and road closures that might affect Claxby.
• The missing village sign has been reported.
• Full bins had been reported and have now been emptied.

7.   WLDC and LCC Councillor updates. 

• Stephen Bunney mentioned money for policing was a problem. The two floating officers are looking at high crime areas in Market Rasen. There has been quite a lot of theft in rural areas.
• Local Government Reform: Cllr Bunney pointed out the Government has imposed reform on Surrey already. Changes will impact on the number of District Councillors available, but Parish Councils may have more of a burden of responsibility, for example for verges etc.

8.   Finance: 

• Report of external audit: The clerk reported that the external auditor had approved the accounts and provided a conclusion of audit certificate on 16/9/25
• Review budget and set precept for 2026/7: The clerk presented the budget. The precept for 25/26 was £6636. It was suggested to claim £7000 this year to cover annual expenses. A brief meeting would be needed to confirm the claim in early January once the new figures are presented by WLDC.
• Accounts for Payment

Payments by prior authority:

PlaySafetyLtd: (Inspection) £129.60

A J Williams (grass cutting August) £300.00 

A J Williams (grass cutting September) £300.00

A J Williams (grass cutting October)

PKF Littlejohn (external auditor) £378.00

Transfer from savings to current account £1024.56

Transfer from savings to current account £1000 to cover November payments.

By Direct Debit: 

Octopus Energy August £108.84

Octopus Energy September £104.24

Octopus Energy October £108.03

Wave £65.68 

EE (September) 39.45

EE (October) 39.45

Unity Bank Service charge (August – October) £18.00

Lloyds bank service charges (August to October) £12.75

Payments to authorise (Unity)

Clerk’s Fees £390.25 

HMRC £88.80 

Payments to authorise (Lloyds)

David Lofthouse 20.99 (Village Hall Supplies) 

Interest received : 

Unity £31.54

Lloyds £7.20 (add October interest)

9.   Planning applications: WL/2025/00879. Proposal: Application for permission in principle to erect 2no. single-storey ground floor apartments.

            Location: LAND ADJACENT 3 NORMANBY RISE LN8 3YZ.

Rejected by WLDC planning department. Councillors have been subjected to unwelcome and intrusive personal visits before and after this decision. The applicant should be reminded that any communication should be by email to the Parish Clerk.

10. Correspondence 

• Email from LCC re offer of salt bags – considered by the council but not considered essential this year and also there was a problem of storage.
• Email from resident re memorial bench – to be discussed under item 16.
• Resignation letter from Colin Saywell. The vacancy notice had been posted.
• Cllr Pilbrow had received an email from Wicksteed offering more equipment and will reply to say we had no more funds at present.

11. Sign code of conduct agreement: the agreement was signed by all Councillors.

12. Report from Village Hall Committee can be viewed here. 

13. Report from Community Field Committee can be viewed here.

Cllr Pilbrow reported that fouling in the dog area is getting worse and should be monitored. This could be an agenda item in future. It was suggested that this be included in the next newsletter. The trees overhanging the road and the hedge need to be cut down. Clerk to contact arborist. Note: there are funds ringfenced for this.

 14. Report from Village Environment group can be viewed here. 

We now have 9 sets of litter picking equipment – they are currently in Cllr de Smit’s garage. 

15.  Books in the phone box. Hardback books had been taken en masse by an individual who is not a resident of Claxby. (It was questioned whether this constituted theft, as the books had been donated.) A resident had taken it upon themselves to label books to prevent this from happening. The Parish Council wanted to make it clear that it does not want to be associated with this action. It was agreed to place a notice in the box to explain the purpose of the library and hopefully discourage the taking of multiple items. Clerk to write to the individual thanking them for their concern and asking them to get PC approval before taking any further action.

16. Memorial bench: The Council’s view is that all the benches in the field are composite as they are longer lasting and do not require maintenance; other donors have been persuaded that composite benches are preferable and it was necessary to be consistent. 

Action: Clerk to suggest another site, (e.g. Bristow’s corner or the church yard) but the Council would not agree to maintain the bench if it is wooden. Wooden benches would need to be oiled every year.

17. gov.uk addresses. The clerk reported that it is now mandatory for the generic email address for the Parish Council to have a gov.uk suffix. (At the moment, Councillors may use free email accounts such as gmail if they are dedicated PC addresses, which all Councillors currently have. However, it is considered “best practice” to use gov.uk addresses.) The Council agreed the clerk should set this up for the clerk initially, and report back at the next meeting.

18. Date of next meeting: Friday 6th February 2026

The meeting closed at 9.30 p.m.