October 2023 DRAFT Minutes
BLANKNEY PARISH COUNCIL
Date Wednesday 25th October 2023
Parish Council Meeting held at 7:00pm on Monday 30th October 2023in the Old School Blankney LN4 3AZ.
Cllr M Scoley Chairman of Blankney Parish Council
The Draft Minutes of full council held at the Old School Lincoln Road Blankney LN4 3AZ at 7.00pm on Monday the 30th October 2023
Cllr John F Money
Parish Clerk
Aisling House
69 Main Street
Scopwick LN4 3NW
Home: 01526 320323
Mobile: 07775692013
email: johnfmoney@gmail.com
Attendance: Blankney Parish Councillors Cllr’s M Scoley (Chairman); T Banks; I Mair; J Robb; C Casey and J Money (Clerk)
Ms L Fulton (LF) and Mr M Fletcher (MF) (Fighting MAD). Mr D Swan. Representatives from the following Parish Councils: - Martin; Nocton; Branston; Dunston; Woodhall Spa; Scopwick and Timberland.
County Councillors: - Cllr Carrington and Cllr R Kendrick.
District Councillors: - Cllr Mrs S Lawrence and Cllr D Parry
1.Chairmans welcome: The Chairman welcomed everyone and said how pleased he was with the turnout. And went onto say: the predominant agenda item was the proposed formation of a Task and Finish working group to scrutinise any forthcoming planning application for a large Anaerobic Digester situated in this parish on the old RAF Metheringham site. Blankney Parish Council being a Statutory Consultee on any planning application
2 OPEN FORUM: - the Chairman went on to invite the visitors, being: - members of the public; representatives from Fighting MAD (FM) Action group; visiting parish councillors; county and district councillors to address the meeting. And went on to say any material planning considerations for or against the development will be for discussion at another time, what I personally and my fellow Councillors wish to achieve in this meeting this evening is whether there is a consensus of opinion within the surrounding parishes for us to: a) set up a T & F group under the auspices of Blankney PC; b) form an unofficial action group; or c) all paddle under our own steam.
The Chairman reminded speakers that this evening they are allowed to speak for only 3 minutes each.
The Chairmen asked the two representatives from FM to give an overview of the draft proposal and the action groups involvement so far. Led by LF and followed up by MF, together they gave an insight into what is proposed, it was first notified in November 2023 - a meeting had been held in Martin village hall where over a 100 people attended all against the AD plant. Mr David Swan a nearby resident had been on a fact finding trip to a like AD plant in Holland and presented his findings which were no complimentary regarding the visited facility. NKDC Environmental Services had commented in detail on the scoping document the applicant had submitted as part of the pre-application process.
They went on to give further details: - including the massing, height, visual impact , potential odour pollution of surrounding settlements, traffic movements of both importing the chicken manure feedstock in and return journeys estimated at 150/300 HGV lorry movements a day. Together with having to import the supplemental feedstock of maize grown on a wide range of farms. The waste product called digestate is produced and used as a crop fertiliser on arable land which will also exacerbate traffic movements. These combined traffic movements will affect all of the surrounding villages as far away as the A1 trunk road and be more concentrated the nearer the proposed site the lorries get. The proposed plant will produce methane gas which will be injected into the large gas main close to the site. LF & MF briefly clarified a couple of points.
The Chairman then invited parish councillors to speak: most of the questions hinged around the planning process. To clarify these points (with the permission of the Chairman) the Clerk asked Cllr Carrington if he would explain the process in detail. Councillor Carrington went on to explain that this proposed application will be decided by the county council as it involves the processing of a waste product: i.e. chicken manure, the district council will be a statutory consultees who will give detailed evidence to the application as it already has done in the scoping study, the other local statutory consultee is of course Blankney PC.
A visiting PC representative asked if the flyers could be sent electronically to all the interested parties.
ACTION: CLERK TO SEND TO ALL INTERESTED PARTIES
There was a question if other PC’s could register as Statitury Consultees. The Clerk explained this was not possible (reinforced by Cllr Carrington shaking his head). Unlike a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) where anyone may register as an ‘Interested Party’, Statutory Consultees are laid down in statute. Other PC’s may support or object to the proposed application as anyone may. If the T & F Group is formed its submission to full council would contain all bodies who had contributed to the exercise. The Chairman asked the delegates if they had any more question from the FM members. Timescale was mentioned
The Chairman asked both county and district councillors to contribute:
Cllr Carrington said that he is both a county and district councillor as we as being a senior planner with another authority and went on to say - further to his initial comments that members of any potential T & F group, or any objectors/supporters of a planning scheme should remember that you need to use only material planning considerations in your submissions. As passionate as you may feel about a proposed project you must stick to observations you can substantiate with either local or national plan policy. He went on to say that with this being a proposed major application it would be determined in 13 to16 weeks from validation. Whilst not being able to commit his self either way for obvious reasons, but he would communicate any relevant information with the Clerk.
Cllr Kendrick said, when he went to the Martin group meeting and saw Mr Swans presentation about the A.D. plant in Holland, he realised that the one on the continent was sited on an industrial estate away from any houses and adjacent to a dual carriageway trunk road. Unlike the one proposed on Martin Moore in a row location with houses adjacent and only country lanes leading to it. He also said he thought the chicken manure food store would be coming in from possibly out of the county and would have a new fact on many villages in Lincolnshire. He also reminded members though there was another proposed a day planned at woke up which was in his murdering him rule area and thought we ought to consider the cumulative effect of the two.
The Chairman summed up - saying: it is apparent that the advantages of forming a T & F group is that it is a sub-committee of this Parish Council and its findings will be submitted to and will be heard in an official capacity by full council, that will not apply to any Ad Hoc group. He then moved the meeting to continue under Standing Orders\
3. To recieve Apologies for Absence or dispensations (Local Government Act 1972 Schedule 12 paragraph 40): the Clerk stated he had apologies from the following: Cllr Mrs P Bradwell OBE LCC; Cllr A Key LCC: Cllr Mrs F Pembury NKDC; Walcott; Potterhanworth and Billinghay Parish Councils; who all asked to be kept informed.
4. Minutes of the previous meeting, to be amended and/or approved for accuracy purposes only. Proposed by Cllr T Banks and seconded by Cllr Robb. The Chairman duly signed them as a true and accurate record of the meeting
5. Declarations of Interest or Dispensations as per The Councils Code of Conduct (any interest that becomes apparent during the meeting may be made at any time) None received.
6 The Chairman proposed a Task and Finish Group be formed to fully explore and scrutinise any planning application associated with the AD plant proposed on the Old RAF Metheringham site; provided it is situated within the parish of Blankney. Seconded by Cllr J Money and carried unanimously.
The Council Chairman said he will oversee the T & F Group and will invite delegates from all the affected parish councils and other organisations to input information, when the groups deliberations have concluded it will report back to full council with a recommendation for consideration. (Local Government Act 1972)
The Chairman advised parish council delegates of the recommended.pre-joining conditions necessary to become a delegate of another councils T & F group, where they undertake a consultation with their parish as per the advice the Clerk has received from Ms Katrina Evans the CEO of the Lincolnshire Association of Local Councils who said the parishes should undertake a consultation to ascertain if they wish to join this group, when that is complete please contact our Clerk and he will set up the first meeting, all the other invitees here this evening please do likewise if you wish to be involved.
In concluding this part of the meeting the Chairman said: may I thank you all for coming this evening, unless you wish to stay for the rest of our meeting - may I wish you a safe journey home. Thank you once again for your participation and I will pause the meeting for 5mins to allow you all to leave.
The Chairman moved the meeting out of formal session the allow the visitors and members of the public to leave the meeting
The meeting to resumed under Standing Orders
7. The two Members who attended the NKDC event at Whisby to report verbally report back to council: Cllr C Casey said he was was glad to have the opportunity to discuss the NKDC event earlier in the month. His personal view was that it is crucial the country moves forward in developing a self-sufficient and diverse renewable energy programme but it has to be done in such a way as to not impose unfair financial penalties on the average person (i.e. through increased taxes, or rules/penalties on use of certain fuels etc.) but also in a way which is sympathetic to the infrastructure surrounding the areas they are being proposed for. Cllr M Scoley said he would concur with what Cllr Casey had said and he believed some of the aims NKCD policy was dictating were impractical and unachievable in the time scale they had set themselves.
Through the Chair Cllr J Money asked Cllr Kendrick if he would like to give an overview on the county councils position on Net Zero: he said the authority was adopting a far more pragmatic view to the perceived carbon crisis and are following the government guideline of becoming Net Zero by 2050 rather than the 2030 timescale proposed by NKDC. He went on to say they were concerned by the additions to the National Grid with pylons coming through the county and the loss of agricultural land being take up by the amount of solar farm proposals within the county too. These items were debated by Member’s and Cllr R Kendrick in general terms with no resolution made on any of the reports given.
8. Cemetery update: Cllr J Robb reported the tree works and ground levelling works were completed and the steel fencing works will commence on Monday the 6th November 2023,
Action: the Clerk to put a peg in the ground to indicate the position of the south east corner of the fence line.
9. Planning Applications pending (None received)
10. Correspondence received: all correspondence has been forwarded to Members and auctioned by the Clerk where necessary.
11. Finance: the Clerk said he would advise Members of the current financial position, there had been three payments made since the last meeting: NKDC £45.30; £30.00 LALC and Bank charges of £18.00, the bank a/c stands at £6007.00 in credit.
12 LCC Grant aid to restore the Church driveway access update: The work is now scheduled to be done, with the LCC Highway’s contractor supplying the plant and labour FOC; with Longwood Quarries LTD supplying the materials. Cllr T Banks proposed a vote of thanks to Cllr R Kendrick for facilitating the works (especially as our application was a week after the closing date). He also said we should thank Mr L Carmichael the Longwood Quarry Manager for donating the materials, the two Votes of Thanks were seconded by the Chairman with all members agreeing unanimously.
13 Village Gateways (the new 30mph limit) After some debate it was decided that bearing in mind the village now has the benefit of a well signed 30mph speed limit the village gateway arrangements were possibly surplus to requirements.Proposed by Cllr J Money that we remove this as a reoccurring agenda item, seconded by Cllr T Banks all members agreed unanimously
14. Policy reviews and Planning Guidelines.the Clerk said the policy review was ongoing and a Planning Guideline had bee produced for adoption at a future meeting. And requested the following be added to the Standing Order, he read out the following:
The Council may appoint a Working Group as may be necessary, and:
i. Working Groups or ‘task-and-finish’ groups may occasionally be set up for a short-term purpose. They are not subject to the strict rules that apply to formal council meetings and do not need to be held in public.
ii. A Working Group cannot make a decision on behalf of the council, but it can research, explore options and present these to the council for consideration. The Working Group can be made up of all/any members and may include or be entirely non-Councillors.
iii. A Working Group Leader is not restricted to retain the same individuals during the short-term function however a nominated Leader should be appointed by the council.
Proposed by Cllr J Money and seconded by the Chairman, members agreed unanimously.
15 Date of the next meeting: in approx 5 weeks time to discuss the proposed precept for 2024/25 and other matters.
Local flooding was discussed as a none agenda item
The Chairman thanked everyone for their attendance and wished all a safe journey home and closed the meeting at 8.09pm.