May 2022 Minutes Annual Parish Council Meeting
BENINGTON PARISH COUNCIL
MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD IN THE BEONNA ON MONDAY 9th MAY 2022 at 7.00 pm
PRESENT:
Parish Councillors K Pinner (Chairman), G Gostelow and B Holland
Boston Borough Councillors P Bedford and J Welbourn
Mrs J Barnes (Clerk)
1 APOLOGIES received from Councillors R Bell and J Grant.
2 ELECTION OF CHAIRMAN
Councillor Holland proposed, Councillor Gostelow seconded, and it was agreed that Councillor Pinner be re-elected.
3 DECLARATION OF ACCEPTANCE
Councillor Pinner duly signed the declaration of acceptance for the office of Chairman.
4 ELECTION OF VICE-CHAIRMAN
Councillor Pinner proposed, Councillor Holland seconded, and it was agreed that Councillor G Gostelow be re-elected.
5 MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING held on the 10th May 2021 having been previously approved on the 7th June 2021 were adopted and signed by the Chairman as a true record.
6 ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDING 31st MARCH 2022
The accounts for the financial year 2021/2022 had formally been approved at the April Parish Council meeting and were presented to the meeting. These were proposed and signed by Councillor Pinner, seconded, and signed by Councillor Gostelow and accepted. They showed a balance of £32.48 of payments over receipts with an end of year balance of £29,224.65. Money was set aside for the playing field, (£5,500) together with the £1000 received under the Councillor Grant Scheme..
7 APPOINTMENT OF A HIGHWAYS LIAISON OFFICER
Councillor Pinner proposed, Councillor Gostelow seconded, and it was agreed that Councillor J Grant be elected.
8 Chairman’s Report 2021/22 - presented by K Pinner
PUBLIC FORUM AT PARISH MEETINGS
All meetings are opened with a public forum where members of the public are invited to attend and bring to our attention any issues, they would like us to consider. Thank you to Mr Holland for previously being a regular attendee at the meetings and showing a real interest in Parish matters.
PARISH COUNCIL MEMBERS
During this last year we have had some changes to personnel within the parish members. Councillor Sharpe has stood down this year due to work commitments and I would like to thank him for his time and efforts whilst he has been with us and also for his role as highways liaison officer. The vacant seat has now been taken by Mr Holland and I would like to formally take this opportunity to welcome him on board and wish him well with this role and I hope he enjoys the experience and input.
HIGHWAY LIASION OFFICER
Councillor Sharpe has held this post previously and due his departure this role has been filled by Councillor Grant. Thank you for taking this up and the time it takes to fulfil the duties necessary.
PARISH WORKER
Once again thanks to Mr Roy Hammerton for his efforts in helping to keep our village litter free. If anyone has a particular area they want to concentrate on, let us know and we can pass the information on to him. He has been in this role for quite some time now and the fact that he is in his eightieth birthday year, it has not gone unnoticed that he still has the time and energy to get round the whole village with dedication.
PARISH COUNCIL WEBSITE
This is still proving to be quite difficult to navigate, so thanks to Mrs Barnes for maintaining the web site as good as is possible even though they have made some more changes to the format.
PLAYING FIELDS
T A Blackamore has been awarded the contract for the grass maintenance for this year again and continues to provide a good service. The Benington football club now no longer use this facility, due to being disbanded, but this doesn’t detract from the fact that we need to maintain this to a reasonable standard. Dog fouling still remains a problem from time to time despite reasonable efforts to control the issue. Thank you to councillor Bedford for his acceptance of our councillors grant award and the funding towards the planned dog walk through the bramble patch. I still have to press on and make this a reality very soon and apologies for my lack of progress here.
BEONNA AT ALL SAINTS
The Beonna is in a transition between centre managers at the moment, but our new visitor experience director – Katie Edwards is now in post and along with her team we are hoping to make a real bounce back post covid and get underway in earnest. A new business plan is now in final draft, with an expectation to get the café / coffee shop open in the near future. Brown tourism signs for this venue are due to be erected soon and a media video shoot to promote the venue is booked for 6th June. I hope now that the covid issues are beginning to be behind us, that this can progress to be the quality community hub that it has the potential to be.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all Parish / Borough / County councillors for their attendance and input during the last year, and last but not least to Mrs Barnes for her professional attitude to her duties, the extra workload experienced during the year, being the main contact for all emails and correspondence and for her support to me during 2021/2022
There being no further business the meeting closed at 7.15 pm.