Parish Council Minutes 2025

St Michaels Lane, Wainfleet St Mary,

Lincs. PE24 4HB

Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting of Wainfleet St Mary which took place on Monday 8th September 2025 at 18.00 in the Community Hall, St Michaels Lane, Wainfleet St Mary, PE24 4HB.

These are draft minutes and are subject to amendment until approved at the next Council Meeting Monday October 6th 2025, at 18.10.

Public: LCC Councillor M Hume. ELDC Councillor W Bowkett and one member of the public.

1. Members Present: Cllr C Alexander (CA) Chair; Cllr M Rust (MR); Cllr P Garrard (PG); Cllr A Proctor (AP), Cllr T Ward (TW); Cllr Jan Ward (JW). Also present – Clerk M Clarke

2. Apologies for Absence – Apologies were received from Cllr M Rendall: Council resolved to accept.

3. Declarations of Interest – Cllr CA declared an interest in item 7 –co-option of new Councillor and would not be taking part in the discussion or voting.

4. Approval of the Minutes of the Council Meeting on Monday July 14th at 6pm

The minutes of the held Monday July 14th 2025 were presented as a true record. Proposed Cllr TW; Seconded Cllr MR – unanimous resolution to approve and resolve.

5. LCC and ELDC Invitation to report on items relevant to WSM

Chair CA invited LCC Cllr M Hume to make her report which is reproduced below:

Thank you so much for inviting me to the VJ Day commemoration – looking after our serving military, our veterans and honouring all those who gave so much for our freedoms really does mean the world to me. Thank you also for inviting me to the WSM Village Show – what a joy that was and thank goodness we had some fantastic weather to go along with it. I had a chance to stop and chat with many people, and it was a great day. I would like to thank all who made it such a good day. As ever, please feel free to email me at cllrmhume@lincolnshire.gov.uk at any time if you have concerns or complaints or just want o draw attention to any local issues and I will do my best to respond as quickly as I can. I do try to respond quickly but there are times when that is not possible, but I will always respond as soon as I can.

Chair CA thanked Cllr M Hume for her report and invited Cllr W Bowkett to make her report – reproduced below:

District Councillor report for Wainfleet St Mary – September - Firstly I hope you have all had a good summer recess and rested up.

Postal vote re applications – the election act 2022 mean that all existing postal voters must reapply under the new scheme, this commences Oct 2025 and closes 31st Jan 2026. If you do not reapply your postal vote will be cancelled. In East Lindsey this will affect 15,000 residents, out of a total of 18,000. Residents will be contacted by email or if no email address they will receive a letter. This is going to be huge task to complete and only one reminder will go out. Residents will need their NI number to prove their identity.

Project Gigabit – Quickline’s fibre rollout: the project is the governments rollout of fast and reliable broadband to homes and businesses that are not on the large broadband company’s commercial plan. Roll out to Wainfleet Ward, Croft Ward, Scarborough and Seacroft wards and Friskney ward and will commence from October. I will forward more details as they become available.

Emma Chippendale in conjunction with ELDC art aspiration project is painting the final version for the wall in Wainfleet as we speak. She has been blown away by all the involvement from the community and has some fantastic paintings and drawings to help her with the end result. I’m sure we are all very excited to see this brightening up the centre of Wainfleet.

Some very good news has been just announced, the toilets in Wainfleet All Saints are to be part of a 1.8 million pounds refurbishment which will take place by October 2026. There are 7 toilets being refurbished in total, the others are Woodhall spa, Wragby, Anderby Creek, Spilsby and Horncastle. I know residents and visitors that use the toilets will be extremely pleased by this news and especially pleased that ELDC are investing in them and not closing them as was being discussed.

Finally, we have had a further fly tipping on Wainfleet bank this morning, it has been reported to fix my street and hopefully will be collected asap as this is edging onto the road. It is so important for residents to see the registered waste number form anyone that they are paying to take waste away. It is the owner’s responsibility even if they haven’t dumped it themselves and will be prosecuted.

Really pleased the work on the riverbank on Wainfleet Bank is underway, as we know this has caused real issues when the water is high.

Many thanks and any issues please as always give me a call 07930254723 / wendy.bowkett@e-lindsey.gov.uk

Chair CA thanked Cllr Bowkett for her report and moved onto Agenda item 6.

6. Community Hall report

Chair of the Committee Cllr JW gave a full report of the Committee actions to date which are contained in the Hall Minutes and available on the web and in the Notice Boards.

Chair CA thanked the Hall Chair JW for all the information and updates.

7. Councillor Vacancy

A letter of interest from an applicant wishing to join the Council has been circulated to all for consideration – following a short discussion all Councillors proposed to invite Mr Tetley to join the Council – Proposed Cllr PG, Seconded Cllr JW – Council approved and resolved to invite Mr Tetley to the Council. The appropriate paperwork was signed and Chair CA welcomed Cllr Tetley to the table.

7. Clerk’s Report:

Clerk’s Report Monday September 8th

Welcome back after an August break....

Hall Field fencing has been renewed.

Allotment Contracts – these are with Willsons and in the process of being drawn up.

Grazing Agreement is set up and in action.

Friendship group Mark 2 is being managed as a voluntary group – grant application submitted to support.

Tree in St Michael’s Lane approved by Mr C to take action as required – Big Tree People drafting a quote.

Letter of interest received for position on WSM Council

Grant Application in process of being written with funds to benefit the Hall and Village Show.

Social Isolation Fund has been approved and funds are received to purchase additional equipment for the Lunch Club.

£300 received – and spent.... from Cllr WB to support Village Show

Clerk is on leave Friday 12th September to Monday 22nd September – phone and laptop will be made available for access – to be handed to the Chair Friday 12th September.

8. Working Group Reports.

a) Allotments – Payment has been received from the outstanding plot that was due. Willsons confirm contracts should be available in draft form by the end of next week. Crops are on the plots that come to the end of their tenure September 30th – Cllr MR will monitor. Drone report to be requested to further monitor dykes and crops.

b) Grass Cutting, Trees and Hedges – Confirmation from Landowner and ELDC the tree in St Michael’s Lane can be trimmed without further permissions needed. Verbal quote has been received – formal written advice to be submitted

c) Play Area – Swings have been replaced – invoice is in Finance. ROSPA report reviewed and actions agreed where appropriate. Clerk to source costs of 2 new picnic benches for the Area. Survey completed with a summary to be shared round for discussion on improvements/additions at a later meeting once Councillors have had an opportunity to review.

d) Community Hall – Monthly report indicates all in good order. Engineer has been contacted for repair of piping.

e) Planning – No applications received – Chair CA gave an overview of the visit by herself and the Clerk to the proposed kennels- no concerns noted – a professional clean set up which has the Council support.

f) Open Spaces – fencing has been renewed, and grass is well kept. Damaged sign in Jubilee Orchard – new vinyl overlay to be costed with a Perspex cover to protect for the future – clerk to source.

9. Finance and Bank Accounts

The July Finance Report was presented with the Bank statements and reconciliations along with payments for authorising for approval as under.

All Councillors approved and agreed to resolve.

The August Finance Report was presented with Bank statements and reconciliations along with payments for authorising for approval as under.

All Councillors approved and agreed to resolve.

A request was made by the clerk to work with Cllr Tetley (ST) to draw up a Budget template in preparation for the November meeting to agree in December – date to be arranged.

BT wi-fi renewal is due next month – an early renewal is offered at £43.95 – currently £45.51 – council discussed and agreed to accept – Proposed Cllr TW, Seconded Cllr Ap – all agreed to accept and resolve. Clerk to arrange.

10. Proposal to work with LCC Councillor to strengthen local engagement at Parish level

To support engagement within the local community by working together.

Cllr MH requested ideas to enhance community connectivity, acknowledging that matching her predecessor Cllr WB’s communication and commitment would be challenging and not something she can improve on. Suggestions included attending the Friendship Club, providing a visible telephone contact number, maintaining a local presence, and planning a future open forum with ELDC Cllr WB, LCC MH, and possibly Age UK and Platform for greater community engagement. All suggestions received support. Cllr MH thanked everyone for their input and suggestions.

11. Correspondence

Letter from Cllr M Hume as above.

Enquiry regarding the Bell at St Mary’s Hall – passed to WSM PCC for response

Information on devolution and dates of meetings.

Introduction from AGE UK following the demise of Age UK Lindsey.

12. Date of Next Meetings: 

The scheduled date would be Monday October 13th – however due to the Clerk being on leave it was agreed to amend the date to Monday 6th October – All Councillors in agreement.

13. Items for Inclusion in the October Agenda

To be advised to clerk please Monday 1st October.

Chair CA thanked everyone for a productive evening and closed the meeting at 19.10

I certify these are a true record of the meeting held Monday 8th September 2025

 Signed                                                                                            Date

Christine Alexander: Chair WSM Parish Council.