Councillor Roger Patterson (Chairman)

Councillor David Bond

Councillor Alexander Bridgwood

Councillor Hugo Marfleet

Councillor Richard Oaks

Councillor Malcolm Parish

Councillor Reg Shore

Councillor Tom Regis

Councillor Angela White

A Petition, signed by over 2,000 people, had been received by the Council, stating: “We the undersigned object to West Lindsey District Council’s proposal to charge for car parking in its 3 Market Rasen car parks.  We call upon the Council to withdraw the proposal, investigate further the likely effect on businesses and other ways to create more car park spaces.  We ask that the Council fully consults with local residents and businesses on any future proposals.”

Mr Adrian Campbell, the Lead Petitioner had been unable to be present at the meeting, therefore the Chairman used her Chair’s discretion to allow persons in the public gallery to speak on the petition.

Two members of the public addressed the Councillors stating that they felt that the introduction of parking charges would finish traders’ businesses.  Charges were being removed in other areas as this was felt more attractive to passing trade.  If tourists saw parking restrictions they did not stop.  Turnover for local traders had dropped over the last four years due to the recession and further losses could not be sustained.  Up to 25 shops had been lost in the town.  Marshall’s Yard in Gainsborough was attractive to shoppers but could not be compared to Market Rasen and it was feared that small shops would shut down.

Councillor Smith as Ward Member for Market Rasen read out a statement submitted by the Lead Petitioner, which he would have made had he been present.

“Thank you for the opportunity to present and introduce the petition about Market Rasen Car Park charges.

Over 2633 people have signed this petition and the population of Market Rasen is only 3,300 so it shows an immense depth of feeling about this issue.

The second and most important point is that it is NOT a petition asking that the whole issue be abandoned, it is asking to look again into the effect on Market Rasen businesses, come up with revised proposals and fully consult before going ahead.

There are 2 reasons why the issue deserves further thought. One is that the Prosperous Communities Committee has not been given the full facts and the second is that the consultation process was flawed.

There are 2 key facts that the PCC were not made aware of. One is that at the same time as WLDC were considering this, the Scrutiny Committee at ELDC were considering abandoning a charging policy brought in 3 years earlier at 13 car parks because of the damage it had done to businesses there.

The second fact is that despite a WLDC policy to "maintain and enhance the town centre to create a viable and attractive range of shops and services" Market Rasen has actually declined dramatically.

Authoritative statistics from Venuescore that WLDC officers use to show how much Gainsborough has been improved show at the same time how far Market Rasen has declined but this was not reported to the PCC. 

Regarding the consultation process there were numerous flaws:-

When it was first announced  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.

To confirm as a correct record the Minutes of the Annual Meeting of Council held on 9 May 2016.

To confirm as a correct record the Minutes of the Extraordinary Meeting of Council held on 25 May 2016.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Annual meeting of Council held on 9 May 2016 be confirmed and signed as a correct record.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Extraordinary meeting of Council held on 25 May 2016 be confirmed and signed as a correct record.

Members may make any declarations of interest at this point and may also make them at any point during the meeting.

No declarations were made.

The Chairman noted that all items were shown as having been completed.

RESOLVED that the Matters Arising be noted.

i)        Chairman of the Council

ii)       Leader of the Council

iii)      Head of Paid Service

i)          Chairman of the Council

In the absence of the Chairman the Vice Chairman informed Members of some events that she had attended in his stead, namely: Caistor in Bloom; a 100^th birthday at Cherry Willingham; and a ceremony marking the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, at which the soldiers’ stories were very moving.

ii)         Leader of the Council

The Leader informed Councillors of meetings he had attended regarding the future of John Coupland Hospital, where, whilst changes would be made but whose closure was not planned.

It was announced that the draft Central Lincolnshire Local Plan had now been submitted to the Planning Inspector.  A positive response was hoped for.

Thanks were issued to all involved in the display at the recent Lincolnshire Show, which was felt to have been one of the best ever.

A meeting had taken place with Gainsborough traders to discuss improvements to the town centre.

The Leader then invited Councillor McNeill to present a question which had been submitted following the result of the Referendum.

“Does the Leader agree with me that we are rightly proud to live in a diverse and tolerant society? That racism, xenophobia and hate crimes have no place in our country? Would he join me in condemning racism, xenophobia and hate crimes unequivocally? Making it clear we will not allow hate to become acceptable?

Will the Leader work on a cross-party basis with councillors and with our officers to ensure that local bodies and programmes have the support and resources they need to fight and prevent racism and xenophobia?

Would the Leader reassure all people living in the West Lindsey district that they are valued members of our community?”

The Leader gave his assurance of agreement and hoped that Councillors Shore and Devine, the other Group Leaders, would join with him to undertake all possible opportunities to promote tolerance.

iii)         Head of Paid Service

The Chief Executive noted that a Devolution workshop had been held prior to the Council meeting and reminded those Members who had not been able to attend that a further workshop was to be held on 13 July.

In noting the two minutes’ silence held prior to commencement of the meeting, the Chief Executive spoke of the shared deep respect of all for Irmgard Parrot, past Chairman of the Council who had recently passed away.

The Chief Executive mentioned a Community Action event recently at the Trinity Arts Centre with an exhibition of work by people with mental health problems or disabilities, which was inspirational.

A meeting had been held in partnership with the Director responsible for the Air Show at Scampton at which assurance was sought that the show would remain at Scampton.   The air show was commissioned for three years at RAF Scampton and the Chief Executive was working with the RAF Commander and Director regarding plans and the Council will have an active role as a partner.

Group Captain P J Rodgers submitted the following question to the meeting:

“At an Extraordinary Meeting of the Council the Leader compared a Greater Lincolnshire with a Greater Manchester and Cornwall.  Is the Council aware that Cornwall is a Unitary Authority with a Leader and Cabinet: and a move to Mayor and Cabinet would have little impact.  However, Greater Manchester is made up of 10 metropolitan boroughs, which formed a combined authority in 2011, and moving to a regional authority with a Mayor could be conceived as a rational step.  The economy of Greater Manchester is bigger than that of Wales.  So could Greater Lincolnshire compare on an extra £15m a year?"

The Leader of the Council responded that he was aware of the different governance systems and maintained that the changes made sense.  Whilst he had not previously made direct comparisons with Cornwall and Manchester, he noted that Devolution had made a difference of £11 per capita in Manchester, whereas in West Lindsey that difference would be £13.63.

Councillor Trevor Young submitted the following question to the meeting:

“Civil Parking Enforcement
In 2011, West Lindsey District Council approved a joint working arrangement with Lincolnshire County Council and other districts to adopt a countywide civil parking enforcement scheme.

The original proposal was supported by WLDC as the proposed scheme identified ways of improving the policing of both on and off street parking problems which had been identified within the town.

However over the past five years we seen the scheme develop from taking a reasonable approach to tackling parking problems to a ‘more robust approach’ which is driving customers and potential new businesses away within the town centre.

On a daily basis we now see a military style approach to dealing with traffic enforcement in the town. Gainsborough does not warrant three or four parking enforcement officers working aggressively to succeed on hitting their personal targets and performance measures.

We have seen a ‘creeping effect’ which is being extremely detrimental to viability of the town centre.

On reflection I think the council managed parking enforcement far better when it was ‘in-house’, and certainly in the future we need a far better working relationship with the management body of the current scheme and County Highways to ensure the town centre has a chance to succeed?
As Leader of The Council, I would ask if this issue could be discussed by the relevant committee.

The Leader of the Council responded

“When Civil Parking Enforcement was implemented it encompassed two elements, on street parking (operated by LCC) and the off street car parks operated by districts.  West Lindsey is only responsible for “Off Street” parking in its own car parks.   

I have asked officers about this matter and they inform me that WLDC have always maintained a middle ground approach to enforcement, seeking to ensure that the car parks are policed in a manner which will facilitates as afar as possible, availability of spaces for shoppers and visitors without being too heavy handed.

 With regard to the numbers of Civil Enforcement Officers deployed, WLDC only ever have one Civil Enforcement Officer on patrol unless our contractor is carrying out training or monitoring.

No targets are set for the issue of parking fines. The only performance indicators on the contract involve achieving the agreed number of hours deployment per month and timely provision of reports.

That said we do monitor performance and our records for off street parking shows that there has been a decline in enforcement action of around 10% during the year ending 2015/2016.

Contracts are regularly reviewed as always the officers will endeavour to get best value for money”

Councillor Young, given the opportunity of a supplementary question, quoted several instances of over aggressive enforcement which had upset residents and asked that the matter be re-considered by the relevant Committee.

The Chairman assured Councillor Young that the matter would be taken into consideration during the pending review.

During the debate on Market Rasen parking the Leader of the Council had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30.

None received

At the Prosperous Communities Committee on 29 October 2015 it was resolved that a Member Working Group for Rural Transport be established to assist officers in working up projects and six Members were appointed to the group.

Appointments to the Rural Transport Member Working Group must be legally and constitutionally confirmed at Full Council.  At Annual Council on 9 May 2016 Paper D set out appointments of Members to committees, boards and other bodies. The confirmation of appointments to the Rural Transport Member Working Group were not included at this meeting due to on-going work to develop rural transport projects.

Following the above meetings Officers have been working to develop further projects and liaise with other stakeholders including Lincolnshire County Council as the Transport Authority. It is now an appropriate time to hold the first Member Working Group meeting for Rural Transport, therefore membership required confirmation.

RESOLVED that the following Members be appointed to the Rural Transport Working Group.

                          Councillor Lesley Rollings

                          Councillor Di Rodgers

                          Councillor Jessie Milne

                          Councillor Steve England

                          Councillor Paul Howitt-Cowan

                          Councillor Lewis Strange

To receive the minutes of Committee meetings published since the Council meeting on 11 April 2016

33      TO RECEIVE THE MINUTES OF COMMITTEE MEETINGS PUBLISHED SINCE THE COUNCIL MEETING ON 11 APRIL 2016.

RESOLVED that the minutes of Committee meetings published since the Council meeting on 11 April 2016 be received.

Note The Leader took a further opportunity to remind Members of the second Devolution workshop to be held on 13 July and requested that questions be submitted in advance in order for answers to be researched.