DEEPINGS LOCAL FORUM MINUTES

11 JANUARY 2010 - 7PM DEEPINGS LEISURE CENTRE

PRESENT Councillor John District Council - Chairman Smith

LCC Councillors: Councillor T M Trollope-Bellew

SKDC Councillors: Councillor R Auger Councillor R Howard

Town/Parish Councillor A Baxter – Parish Councillors: Council Councillor P Dilks – Deeping St James Parish Council Councillor K Otter – Parish Council Councillor P Redshaw – Town Council Councillor J Stevens – Deeping St James Parish Council Councillor J Winstone – Langtoft Parish Council Councillor G Sutcliffe – Tallington Parish Council Councillor G Thompson – Deeping St James Parish Council

LCC Officers: None

SKDC Officers: Paul Stokes – Corporate Head Resources & Organisational Development Richard Wyles – Corporate Head Finance & Customer Services Paul Morrison – Principal Democracy Officer Susie McCahon – Assets & Facilities David Price – Service Manager Healthy Communities

Others in V Fear (Stamford Mercury) attendance: Chris Beckett – School Martin Atkins – Deeping Management Partnership 8 members of the public

1 1 INTRODUCTION AND WELCOME

Councillor John Smith welcomed everybody to the meeting.

2 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for absence were received from County Councillor Robinson and District Councillors Exton (also LCC) and Joynson.

3 PUBLIC OPEN FORUM

(i) Housing in Langtoft

A member of the public asked why two bungalows in Langtoft remained empty, this would be passed to SKDC Tenancy services.

(ii) Interactive traffic signs

A member of the public from asked about the provision of interactive road traffic signs.

County Councillor Trollope-Bellow replied that there was a bidding process for these each year and any parish councils that wished to apply should contact their local county councillor. !2 signs were provided each year, unfortunately the bidding round for this year had just closed. Each county councillor was allowed to bid for one sign in their division.

Councillor Trollope-Bellew agreed to provide further information for circulation to forum members.

A number of other issues were raised during this item, which would be dealt with elsewhere during the meeting. These were:-

Tallington Crossing Deepings Management Partnership Leisure Centre Market Deeping council tax precept.

4 MINUTES OF THE LAST FORUM MEETING - 6TH JULY 2009

The minutes of the meeting held on 6th July 2009 were approved as a correct record.

5 UPDATES FROM THE LAST MEETING.

(i) Tallington Rail Crossing

2 Paul Morrison reported that he had contacted Brian Thompson of County Council and Karen Sinclair, Planning Policy Manager, at South Kesteven District Council on this issue.

Brian Thompson had stated that

“We are working closely with the Department of Transport and the Government office on this. DFT asked us and Network Rail to provide them with data so that they fully understand the scale of the problem. I think a meeting with all stakeholders will be arranged some time in the New Year”.

Karen Sinclair had added

“The only thing is that representations made on behalf of Mr Thurlby that the Core Strategy should be amended to enable development where this would deliver recognized community benefits and also make specific reference for the provision of a A16 Tallington Bypass are due to be heard at the Core Strategy examination hearing sessions which start on the 19th January before an independent planning inspector.

As part of this process, the inspector advised that if she were to consider making the changes sought to the Core Strategy it would be necessary for public consultation on these changes to be undertaken. This is currently being undertaken by Mr Thurlby’s agent, Mike Sibthorpe. All comments need to be submitted to him by the 15th January after which time they will be made available to the inspector.

The inspector has indicated that she anticipates issuing her report to the Council in April”.

County Councillor Trollope-Bellow said that he thought Network Rail were procrastinating on this issue.

Councillor Otter (Tallington) refuted what had been reported by Mr Morrison and repeated his grave concerns on this issue as expressed at previous meetings of the Forum.

Other parish councils expressed concern at the implications for their areas if a large number of houses were eventually built in Tallington.

(ii) PCSO Funding

3 Further to the discussion at the last meeting, the letter to the Chief Constable and his reply were circulated and considered. Councillor Baxter observed that the reply did not clarify whether or not funding would cease. Councillor Trollope-Bellew stated that this was a matter for the Police Authority and the Chief Constable probably did not know at that point ie August.

Conclusion: That the Forum is disappointed with the response.

(iii) Summer Playschemes

The Chairman introduced David Price who was the Service Manager Healthy Communities for South Kesteven District Council. Mr Price circulated a paper which outlined Summer activities as well as a Fairplay Football project that would take place in the Deepings over the coming months. Fairplay football was a community based football project aimed at reducing anti social behaviour and engaging teenagers (predominantly boys) in a positive activity.

In respect of Summer activities these had run in Market Deeping, Deeping St James and Baston until Summer 2008 but council budget restraints meant that SKDC could no longer support them. Partnership working with other agencies had enabled the pooling of resources and it was proposed to provide activities in the Deepings area for Summer 2010. this project would run for four weeks over the summer and was aimed at the 4-19 age range. It was proposed that a small charge would be made for these activities as experience had shown that people were more likely to turn up if there was a charge for it.

Councillor Judy Stevens asked about people who were in financial hardship, Mr Price stated that the charging policy would be reviewed to try and take this into account. Councillor Stevens also welcomed that proposed activities and stated that she would be disappointed if it did not work out successfully.

Councillor Ashley Baxter stated that there was a girl’s football club (Deeping Diamonds) who might wish to become involved in the Fairplay football.

(iv) Leisure Centre Management

The Corporate Head Resources and Organisational Development, Paul Stokes and Susie McCahon, Team Leader Assets & facilities, updated the forum on the latest position regarding the management of the Leisure Centres. Ms McCahon also advised

4 the forum of improvement works that had been carried out to the Leisure Centre. This included repair work to the astroturf (but not resurfacing work) and works to the shower area including the hoist.

(v) Gyspy and Travellers Sites

Mr Morrison reported that a decision on the allocation of sites had yet to be taken as SKDC were awaiting the outcome of a planning appeal against the council’s refusal to allow a gypsy and traveller site near Fulbeck. The public enquiry had been held over two days in November, but there would be a further session in early January 2010. The inspector would normally indicate when they expect to issue a decision at the close of the inquiry.

(vi) Deepings Management Partnership

It was AGREED that this would be placed on the agenda for the next meeting.

6 SKDC BUDGET 2010/11 AND COUNCIL TAX

Mr Wyles, Corporate Head of Finance and Customer Services gave a presentation on the SKDC’s budget for 2010/11. SKDC collected council tax not just for themselves but for Lincolnshire County Council(LCC), and town and parish councils. The cash flow amounted to about £90m of which SKDC retained just £6m to help fund the services that they provided. SKDC did get grants from central Government for some services but were expected to raise the remainder through council tax and fees and charges.

Two thirds of the services that the Council provided were statutory and each year consultation was undertaken so that the public could have their say on the proposed increases for council tax. Central Government operated a capping regime which prohibited increases of above 5% and Mr Wyles referred to Lincolnshire Police which last year fell foul of the capping regime. This year the Government were expecting low council tax increases but had not given a figure although 3% had been mentioned.

For 2009/10 a typical council tax bill for a band D property looked like this:

 Lincolnshire County Council £1039.68 75%  Lincolnshire Police Authority £174.06 13%  South Kesteven DC £119.79 9%  Special Expense Area (if applicable)£ 16.20 1%

5  Town/Parish Council precept £28.01 2%   Total Bill £1377.74

Compared to the other local areas SKDC is the lowest and is considered to be good value for money. The majority of funding comes from central government although the settlement is getting smaller and SKDC expected to receive only 1.2% (total grant is £10.1m). The future was uncertain with a parliamentary election and with services such as health, education and police receiving priority doubt surrounded local government. There was a significant challenge ahead for the Council, the global economic downturn had had a negative impact on interest rates and investment income with had expected reduction on £250k and fees and charges also down. The Council’s response was:

 No budget growth in any services  All staff vacancies held until business case demonstrated  Sharing staffing posts and utilising in-house skills  Services that have seen reductions in income have seen staffing reductions (e.g.Building Control)  Some services that could support fees and charges (either increases ot new charges) would need to be considered  Review of management and staffing in order to ensure resources were aligned to priorities  Full service reviews to be undertaken during 2010/11 to ensure they were – Providing value - supporting delivery of the Council’s priorities

The Council provided over 100 services including:

 CCTV  Council tax benefits & housing benefits  Environmental Health & Licensing  Housing advice and homelessness  Leisure & Arts Centres  Markets & Fairs  Bus pass travel  Planning and building control services  Public Conveniences  Street Cleaning  Tackling anti-social behaviour  Town centre regeneration & economic development  Waste collection & recycling

When these services were compared with our audit family, councils

6 that had a similar make-up to ourselves could be seen as performing averagely or above such as waste collection.

Mr Wyles then spoke about the councils priority themes: customer first, quality living, quality organisation and good for business and how a number of actions under these areas underpinned the work that the Council did such as promoting SKDC for inward investment and the Council’s payment pledge to pay invoices within seven days to maintain good cash flow.

Mr Wyles then outlined the Councils approach to budget setting and the proposed increases. The options for the proposals were:

1. No increase – this would mean service levels need to be reduced. 2. An increase of 2.5%.This would mean an increase from £119.79 to £122.78 per year for a band D property. This equates to 6p per week increase (£2.99 increase for the year). This would generate £198k and enable the Council to maintain services at current level but mean that other proposals such as fees and chares would need to be considered. 3. An increase of 3.5%. This would mean an increase from £119.79 to £123.98 per year for a band D property. This equates to 8p per week increase (£4.19 increase for the year). This would generate £254k and enable Council to maintain services at their current level.

Results received so far from the proposals from the article in SK Today and the on-line survey showed that option 1 was currently the most popular option.

 Article in SKToday - 46% Option 1 - 25% Option 2 - 29% Option 3

 On-line survey - 63% Option 1 - 22% Option 2 - 15% Option 3  (as at beginning of January 2010)

Mr Wyles felt it was important that people had an informed discussion and dialogue before deciding on the options available which was why the issue was brought to the forums every year. He then circulated cards upon which people made the choice as to which

7 option they preferred the Council to follow.

Questions were asked as follows:_

1. Why does Market Deeping have the highest precept in South Kesteven? Answer: It doesn’t. is higher, for example.

2. What is SKDC expenditure on salaries and wages? Answer: About £12 million, or 70-80% of total SKDC expenditure.

3. Can Special Expense Areas be abolished? Answer: If that was done, costs would fall on everybody.

The comment was made that it was not how much council tax was raised, it was what the council did with it that mattered.

Councillor Stevens observed that in the current economic climate, if there was to be a reduction in services it was even more important that the Deepings area received its fair share.

Following the collection of the cards the results for the Deepings Forum were:-

Option 1 – no increase 5 Option 2 – 2.5% 4 Option 3 – 3.5% 8

Total 17

The Chairman thanked Mr Wyles for his presentation.

7 REVIEW OF LOCAL FORUMS

The SKDC Corporate Head of Resources and Organisational Development, Paul Stokes, advised that the Council was reviewing the role and operation of the local forums in the light of changed circumstances and experience. He asked for comments and observations from the Forum members.

Mr Stokes also advised that a workshop would be organised with the University of Lincoln and Lincolnshire County Council on local forums in February/March. Workshops would also be held with the other Lincolnshire districts on their own forms of Community engagement. Mr Stokes asked if anyone was interested in participating.

8 The parish council representatives presented indicated that they valued forum meetings as (in their view) it was the only time they got proper feedback from SKDC and it was thought that this type of democratic forum was important.

On consultation generally, the forum expressed its disappointment that county council officers did not attend Forum meetings on a regular basis.

8 MATTERS NOTIFIED TO THE CHAIRMAN BY FORUM MEMBERS

Deeping St James Parish Council:-

(ii) Re-opening of Deeping St James Railway Station

South Holland District Council and Network Rail were examining the possibility of re-opening Littleworth station in on the – Spalding railway line. They asked for SKDC support in a campaign to re-open the former Deeping St James station. The chairman was supportive of the idea, but pointed out the station site was some distance from Deeping St James itself, whereas the Littleworth station site was adjacent to the main A16 trunk road.

(ii) Council Spending in the Deepings

Mr Wyles advised that this was difficult to assess since most SKDC expenditure was district wide. The Council was in the business of providing district wide not localised services, this was a town or parish council responsibility. Approximately 10% of council tax revenue was generated from the Deepings

Langtoft Parish Council:-

Councillor Winstone of Langtoft Parish Council made the following statement:-

“ In the last year Langtoft has experienced 2 planning applications for affordable housing invoking the Rural Sites Exception Policy on separate sites. Proving demand for such housing is an essential element in convincing the Development Control Committee to set aside the normal material planning consideration in favour of such applications.

In both instances the case officer’s report recommended approval but in neither case was a proper strategic consideration set out with regard to the issue of demand. Approved developments with 2 miles

9 of the sites in Langtoft yielding over 130 affordable units were ignored. It was left to objectors to highlight the true situation and the Committee took account of this and refused 1 application and have deferred the other pending the outcome of an appeal.

What can be done to ensure that a proper and accurate picture of affordable housing is available to inform this kind of planning applications?”

AGREED: That the issue of affordable housing be considered at the next meeting as would choice based lettings and the proposed arrangement with Peterborough City Council.

9 DATE, TIME AND VENUE FOR NEXT MEETING

The next meeting would be held at 7.00pm pm Monday 5th July 2010 at the Barn, Baston.

The meeting concluded at 9.20pm

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