2026 Parish Council Resolved Minutes

Minutes of Sibsey Parish Council Meeting held Tuesday 3rd March 2026 at
Northlands Village Hall, Northlands, Sibsey commencing at 7.00pm

PRESENT:    Cllr I Watts presiding as Chairman 
Cllr G Limb        Cllr J Ladds        Cllr A Heath
Cllr J Adiotomre     (arrived at 7.15pm)        
                 
LCC Cllr S Matthews (left at 7.37pm)
ELDC Cllr N Jones (left at 7.37pm)
Clerk – S Knowles

PUBLIC FORUM
There were no members of the public present to ask any questions or make short statements to the Parish Council during the time allocated

1.    APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND REASONS GIVEN
Prior to the start of the meeting Cllrs Adiotomre and Barker had sent apologies that they would be late to the meeting. Cllr Barker had forwarded his apologies for absence of which the Parish Councillors were aware of the reasons of which it was resolved to accept this reason.

2.    TO RECEIVE ANY DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LOCALISM ACT 2011, AND TO CONSIDER ANY APPLICATIONS FOR DISPENSATIONS IN RELATION TO DISCLOSABLE PECUNIARY INTERESTS
No declarations of interest were received.

3.    NOTES OF THE PARISH COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON TUESDAY 3rd FEBRUARY 2026 TO BE APPROVED AS THE MINUTES
It was proposed by Cllr Heath, seconded by Cllr Ladds and resolved to accept these notes as a true and accurate record and thereby signed by the Chairman.

4.    OUTSIDE BODIES REPORT
Cllr Jones relayed the following:
•    £1.4m has been deducted by the Central Government funding that is usually given to District Councils
•    ELDC  has set a budget increase of 2.99% of which 61% of their portion of Council Tax will go to the Drainage Boards
•    A new £10m grant fund is available
•    New policy procedures to the NPPF will be implemented soon of which includes that change to Green Field sites no longer being protected and a push towards solar farms.

Prior to this meeting no apologies or reports have been received from ELDC Cllrs Ashton 

LCC Cllr Matthews relayed the following:
•    At the recent LCC Budget meeting the set their portion at an increase of 2.99% of which 2% goes towards Adult Social Services
•    They will receive a £36m grant from Central Government however with the £15m paid out during this financial year extra just on Employer’s National Insurance Contributions which was not budgeted for  in early 2025 due to this not was not a known fact until March 2025 following the Central Government Budget, therefore this will still leave a deficit of funds.
•    Despite this £2m extra will be put in place for potholes to be done more effectively and £2m extra towards drainage which is hopefully be a preventative measure in regard to potholes etc.
•    January and February 2026 has been a bad year for potholes which work needs to be implemented immediately to rectify these as soon as possible.

Cllr Watts relayed that the Fibre Optic work that had been done near Manor Close has already started to open and needs filling before this becomes a trip hazard.

Other matters relayed to LCC Cllr Matthews was the footpath from Northlands that needs work and already Trader Bank is starting to deteriorate.

According to Police.UK new updated website:
During December 2025 six incidents were reported
2 x Violence and Sexual Offences on or near to Northlands Lane
1 x Other Theft on or near to Trader Bank
1 x Other Theft on or near to Main Road (A16)
1 x Violence and Sexual Offences on or near to Meyers Close
1 x Anti-social behaviour on or near to Evison Court

During January 2026 five incidents were reported
1 x Violence and Sexual Offences on or near to Northlands Lane
1 x Anti-social behaviour on or near to Evison Court
1 x Anti-social behaviour on or near to Lucan Close
2 x Violence and Sexual Offences on or near to Station Road

5.    CLERK’S REPORT
•    Notification has been received from LCC Highways of change of date relating to future works being conducted by Lincolnshire County Council between the 6th April and 9th April 2026 within Westhouses Sibsey Northlands Lane in association with Pothole repairs.
•    Andrew Hudson, the Arboricultural Officer for South & East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership will attend our next meeting on 7th April 2026.

6.    FINANCIAL MATTERS
a.    Financial Report

Since the last meeting £695 has been credited to the Community Account in association with Burial Ground Fees.

b.    To approve payments

It was proposed by Cllr Limb, seconded by Cllr Heath and resolved that these payments should be made.

7.    PARISH MATTERS 
a.    Pymoor Lane
Cllr Watts relayed that the committee had emailed and texted them notifying  that they were waiting on the recent Structural report that had been done. However, confused by a statement made that they did not know about building regulations even though at the site meeting with the Parish Councillors this was mentioned and the clerk texted there and then to Mr Ward the link to ELDC Building Regulations which he acknowledged receipt and again at the site meeting with the builder, Cllr Watts and committee members where the builder also mentioned it.

Also mentioned in the email was that as the committee were unable to get the original drain survey, they believed that this was now down to the Parish Council to get. The Councillors decided to go ahead with the accepted quote that they had previously received for the works to be done but understood that if anything further was discovered that they will evaluate this as and when required.

The Councillors feel that the Committee are not taking this matter seriously and not being dealt with in a responsible professional manner.

b.    Burial Ground
There were no items relayed regarding this agenda item.

c.    Village Maintenance
i)    Maintenance areas and ownership update for LCC assets
Waiting to discuss this further with LCC Cllr Matthews deferred until next meeting.

ii)    Quotes for removing old noticeboards and installing with new ones.
Only two quotes were received of which were reviewed and assessed by the Parish Council. After deliberation it was proposed by Cllr Limb, seconded by Cllr Ladds and resolved to go with Vere’s quote.
    
The clerk was asked to contact the current Ground Maintenance company and ask them to put in a tender for the new financial year.

d.    Play Areas
The councillors decided that a notice needed to be in place next to the vandalised equipment noted that because of this situation it has been removed from site and that any other further pieces will be removed too, therefore, to report any suspicious activity to the Parish Council.

e.    Adoption of land in Amos Way from ELDC to Parish Council
This was deferred to the next meeting.

f.    Land for Play Area at Northlands
The Parish Council’s solicitor had asked various questions which had previous been circulated of which were relayed to the clerk at the meeting to be responded to.

g.    Parish Council Projects and Commitment Review 
It was decided that to form a working party in relation to the Garden of Tranquillity so that this can be looked into further of which all information for decision then will be discussed and resolved more efficiently at a meeting.

h.    gov.uk domain and email address
As part of the Practitioner’s Guide 2025 in association with Assertion 10 of the Annual Governance and Accountability Return, every authority must have a generic email account hosted on an authority owned domain of which approval to apply for a .gov.uk domain name must be recorded in your minutes  during one of your official meetings. The clerk had circulated information relating to this and relayed costings of which it was agreed that Sibsey-PC.gov.uk would be their suggestion for the domain.

i.    Correspondence received
The following correspondence has been received:
•    Launch of Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) consultation by LCC 
•    LALC e-news 6th and 20th February 2026
•    LCC Town & Parish February 2026 newsletter 

8.    PLANNING
a.    Discuss all planning applications currently being reviewed for consultation
Since the last meeting one planning applications has been received and circulated to the Planning Forum for their observations.
i)    00092/26/FUL – Erection of a detached garden room – Kisdon, Northlands, Sibsey
There were no objections to this planning application

b.    Discuss other planning matters
There are no other planning matters to discuss

c.    Report on any information received associated with Planning 
Full Planning Permission has been granted to the following:
•    03677/25/RVC – Section 73 application to vary condition no. 2 (approved plans) and condition no. 5 (improvement of public highway) as imposed on planning permission ref. S/132/01297/22 for the installation of a ground mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) farm with battery storage; along with continued agricultural use, ancillary infrastructure and security fencing, CCTV, landscaping, bunding, ecological enhancements and construction of vehicular access – Mallows Solar Farm, Land off Mallows Lane, Sibsey

10.    HIGHWAYS 
a.    Village Gateways
It was decided to look at this agenda item later in the year.

b.    Speed reduction along A16 after receiving FOI information from police
Need to discuss this matter further with LCC Cllr Matthews.
    
10.    ANY OTHER MATTERS FOR DISCUSSION BY LEAVE OF CHAIRMAN
The following matters were discussed:
•    The Lincs Air Ambulance had recently landed in the Community Park but information relating to why was unknown.
•    Queries were raised regarding the parts associated with the Church Clock
•    The Christmas Tree will be trimmed after nesting season.
•    It was recommended that a tidy up will be required around the tree

11.    DATE OF THE NEXT PARISH COUNCIL MEETING
The next scheduled Parish Council meeting would have been Tuesday 7th April 2026 but as there were several apologies received from Parish Councillors it was resolved to reschedule the meeting to Tuesday 14th April 2026 at Northlands Village Hall, Northlands, Sibsey commencing at 7pm.

There being no further business the meeting finished at 9.05pm.