Agenda and draft minutes

To confirm and sign as a correct record the Minutes of the Meeting of Full Council held on 22 January 2024.

Having been proposed and seconded, it was: -

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Meeting of Full Council held on 22 January 2024 be confirmed, approved 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 of interest were made at this point in the meeting. The Chairman reminded Members that they could make a declaration at any point in the meeting should they feel it necessary to do so.

Setting out current position of previously agreed actions as at 23 February 2024.

The Chairman introduced the report advising Members that it would taken “as read” unless Members had any questions that they wished to raise.

With no comments or questions, and with no requirement to vote, the matters arising were DULY NOTED.

i)               Chairman of Council

ii)              Leader of the Council

iii)            Chief Executive

Chairman

The Chairman addressed the Council, referencing briefly some of the events which he had been involved and attended since Council last met, noting there had only been a five week period between each meeting.

Starting with the sad occasion of attending at the funeral of the wife of the former Chairman of Council, held at the Lea Fields Crematorium. It had been a very moving ceremony, with several Council representatives their to support the former Chairman.  It was anticipated a celebration of life would be held in coming months.

The Chairman had attended a number of business visits, focusing on those local businesses within the Visitor Economy sector and one in particular  with environmental and climate credentials to be applauded. The first trip was to Wold Pines in Market Rasen, a high ropes experience which had been much fun and provided for a memorable video opportunity of the Chairman “having a go”.  He fully recommended the independent outdoor experience to be had at Wold Pines, especially for those with adventurous youngsters.   

Secondly the Chairman had visited Uncle Henry’s, receiving a tour of their tourist options and a fascinating talk on the company’s sustainability approach and their complete circular economy.   The Chairman indicated he would like all Members to have the opportunity, via way of Member presentation, to hear about the company’s approach which he considered typified the District’s aspirations in respect of managing the climate situation.   Again, he considered it a fascinating operation and well worth a visit.

The final visit had been to Wright’s ice-cream parlour, a recipient of funding from one of the District Council’s Community Grants Scheme, which had provided for a play facility on site, not only for visitors to the Parlour, but which was also accessible to the local community free of charge.  

Finally, the Chairman referred to his attendance at the two-day APSE Climate Summat, highlighting a significant change in the expression been used when talking about such matters.  There had been less talk of dealing with climate change, but rather of climate adaption and preventative work. It had been a fascinating event, with a lot to take away and consider.  This area of work continued to be a focus for the Council and would continue long into the future.

Leader

The Leader made the following address to Council: -

“Chairman, Members, welcome to tonight's meeting, I have three items to report to the Full Council and I will try and keep my announcements brief. So firstly, Lincoln University - myself and the Deputy Leader were delighted to attend an event held by Lincoln University.  Whilst we already have a good working relationship with the University, we are keen to build on this joint working, exploring opportunities to work with them on projects such as the step fusion project, with a long term aspiration to bring a University presence to the heart of West Lindsey.

Savoy Cinema - we attended the Ground-breaking event. Despite significant increases in the construction costs, we are delighted  ...  view the full minutes text for item 67.

Questions, if received, under this Scheme will be published by way of supplement following closure of the deadline.

Confirmation that no questions were received by 5pm on Tuesday 27 February 2024

The Chairman advised the meeting that no public questions had been received.

Questions submitted by Members under Procedure Rule No.9 will be published by way of supplement following closure of the deadline.

Confirmation that no questions were received by 5pm on Tuesday 27 February 2024

The Chairman advised the meeting that no questions had been submitted by Members under Council Procedure Rule No.9.

Motion 1

“The street cleansing team at West Lindsey have always done a fantastic job of keeping our streets clean and safe, however due to the increasing number of storms and occurrences of high winds, there is now far more debris in the roadside gutters than we used to get in the past.

In Nettleham, and other rural areas outside of Gainsborough, many roadside gutters are thick with mud, twigs, leaves, and other debris.  After moderate rainfall this ends up in the drains and ultimately, they end up blocked.  After storms or heavy rainfall, this exacerbates flooding issues and has created flooding in areas where we wouldn’t normally expect it.

West Lindsey currently has one HGV road sweeper operating on a 16-20 week schedule to cover all of the towns and villages in the district.  An additional HGV road sweeper is hired in November and December to deal with Autumn leaf fall, but footways are not touched.

Ad-hoc sweeping requests can be made to the street cleansing team, but the request-list extends the normal schedule, and where issues are caused by adverse weather events, the probability is that some wards could have to wait up to 5 months for road sweeping.

If the kerbside debris is not removed quickly then many drains could become blocked.

Given that we’re told to expect a higher frequency of adverse weather events over the coming years, and flooding effects so many of our wards, I feel that it’s important we do everything we can, within our remit, to try keep the drains clear.

I therefore call upon this Council to support me in requesting that the Prosperous Communities Committee explore options to increase our road sweeping capability, including the feasibility and financial implications.

I so move

Councillor Frazer Brown”

The Chairman advised the meeting that one Motion had been submitted pursuant to Council Procedure Rule No. 10 and this was set out in the agenda.

Councillor Brown was invited to put his Motion to the meeting as follows:-

“The street cleansing team at West Lindsey have always done a fantastic job of keeping our streets clean and safe, however due to the increasing number of storms and occurrences of high winds, there is now far more debris in the roadside gutters than we used to get in the past.

In Nettleham, and other rural areas outside of Gainsborough, many roadside gutters are thick with mud, twigs, leaves, and other debris.  After moderate rainfall this ends up in the drains and ultimately, they end up blocked.  After storms or heavy rainfall, this exacerbates flooding issues and has created flooding in areas where we wouldn’t normally expect it.

West Lindsey currently has one HGV road sweeper operating on a 16-20 week schedule to cover all of the towns and villages in the district.  An additional HGV road sweeper is hired in November and December to deal with Autumn leaf fall, but footways are not touched.

Ad-hoc sweeping requests can be made to the street cleansing team, but the request-list extends the normal schedule, and where issues are caused by adverse weather events, the probability is that some wards could have to wait up to 5 months for road sweeping.

If the kerbside debris is not removed quickly then many drains could become blocked.

Given that we’re told to expect a higher frequency of adverse weather events over the coming years, and flooding effects so many of our wards, I feel that it’s important we do everything we can, within our remit, to try keep the drains clear.

I therefore call upon this Council to support me in requesting that the Prosperous Communities Committee explore options to increase our road sweeping capability, including the feasibility and financial implications.

I so move

Councillor Frazer Brown”

The Chairman thanked Councillor Brown and the motion was duly seconded.

Members attention was drawn to Council Procedure Rule 10.4 “ if the subject of a motion comes within the remit of any committee(s), it shall, upon being moved and seconded, stand referred without discussion to such committee(s) for consideration and determination.

The Chairman indicated, whilst he had some discretion, he would on this occasion be applying Rule 10.4 to which the meeting signified their contentment.

As such the Chairman advised, the matter would stand referred for determination, the motion submitter would be invited to Prosperous Communities Committee, when the motion was considered and determined, and Council would be advised at their next meeting when this was anticipated to be.

Members gave consideration to a report which presented the Executive Business Plan and the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) for 2024/25 onwards. 

The Leader made the following budget speech to Council in presenting the report: -

“As Leader of the Council, I am pleased to present the Budget for

2024/25. 

I present this along with our Executive Business Plan and Medium Term Financial Plan, all of which contribute to achieving our vision of making West Lindsey a great place to live, where people, businesses and communities can thrive and reach their potential.

Our communities have told us that certain things are important to them and we have endeavoured to address these issues when setting our priorities.  As a new Administration we have been able to include priority areas we feel will meet our vision for the District.

We have approved the strategy to take legal action against the Home Office to protect investment, Economic Growth and Regeneration at RAF Scampton which will deliver £300m of investment and prosperity to the District.  We believe this project has the potential to transform our district, creating opportunities for employment in some of the most exciting 21st century industries.  We believe this project is worth fighting for.

We aim to ensure that the investment brought in from the UK shared prosperity fund is maximised, with all its projects due to be completed on time. We have been committed to ensuring that the cinema project is supported and we are delighted that this project is now underway and look forward to it being completed early next year.

Markets are a key priority for our towns.  When they flourish, we believe they add vibrancy to public spaces, provide opportunities for social interaction and support the retail sector in our town centres.  In Gainsborough we are keen that our market place with its market, is developed to become the centre of a thriving Independent quarter of the town.

We aim to continue to grow our monthly farmers market and we are excited to announce that we will be starting a new weekly antiques market on the 30 March. This will run through to October.  Our commitment to culture and heritage will continue. Enabling these priorities to flourish whilst our improvements to the market place are underway, will be a priority.  Going forward we will strive to develop successful partnerships around heritage, culture and the Arts and use these partnerships to increase opportunities for our communities and help revive our town centres. 

Increasing opportunities for participating in sport, leisure and cultural activities is a priority.   Over recent years we have seen a decline in opportunities available for residents of West Lindsey and we are keen to reverse this trend. We have included additional resources for sports and cultural development in this budget, with two new development officers to be recruited. We are working closely with our Leisure providers developing our programmes in Market Rasen and Gainsborough and we are beginning to explore options for our Leisure centre in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 71.