November 2021 Notes
Belton And Manthorpe Parish Council
Chairman - Councilor Simon Syddall, 5-6 Washdyke Lane, Belton Ng32 2lt
Clerk - Chris. Morgan, 10 Manchester Way, Grantham Ng31 8rr
Tel. 07758762811
Minutes of the Belton and Manthorpe Parish Council Meeting held on 24th November 2021 at 7.30pm in the Community Hall, St John’s Church Manthorpe
Present Cllrs S. Syddall, (Chair)Cllrs S Thompson, R. Hallam, E. Farley, J Ashford, R. Hallam
In attendance Chris. Morgan (Clerk and Proper Officer). – Ian Cooper
Chairman’s Remarks. The Chair, Cllr Syddall, welcomed everyone to the meeting. As it had only been a month since the last meeting there was little to comment on, it had been quiet.
1) Apologies for Absence – County Cllr R. Wootton, Cllr Ian Stokes
2) Declarations of Interest – Nothing declared by anyone, and there were no matters on the agenda where any councilors present had any pecuniary interest to declare.
3) Minutes of the last meeting held 20th October 2021 – It was RESOLVED to adopt the minutes as a true record, proposed by EF seconded by RH and the minutes, were, duly signed by the Chairman and Clerk. – Matters arising – Nothing which was not on the agenda and would be discussed.
4) Update from National Trust – Mr. Ian Cooper the Belton House General Manager had been delayed so this item would be taken on his arrival
5) Finance. –CM had circulated a Financial report prior to the meeting, along with the spread sheet outlining Income and Expenditure there were no queries from councilor’s, and it was RESOLVED, to accept the report and agree to the payments that had been made. A general discussion then took place re the budget and precept for 22/23. CM advised those present that it was good practice for the precept to cover all the anticipated expenditure, but that last year the expenditure had been in excess of £4k the Precept last year was £2185. The Councilors concluded that it was not appropriate to increase the Precept to anticipated spend, but that the most appropriate increase would be the latest CPI figure of 4% -Proposed by S.S. seconded by S.T. and all in agreement.
6) Planning Applications: There had been only a few Planning Applications since the last meeting, all of which had been circulated by CM and there was a separate paper outlining these. There was nothing contentious in any of the applications
4) Ian Cooper had now arrived so Item 4 was taken. IC updated the meeting on current matters of interest at Belton House – The Christmas Light Spectacular was due to open tomorrow (25th November) It was similar to last years but there had been some improvements. 600 tickets had been sold for the opening night and it was anticipated that the week ends would be the busiest with up to 2,500 people attending Entry times were staggered between 4.40pm and 8.30pm. There was a Traffic Management system in operation Entrance and Exit would be by the main gate. New signage was in place to encourage motorists not to come in through Belton village. Hopefully the issues re the Post Code that had occurred last year, have now been resolved. IC stated that if any of the Belton residents had any concerns over any issues with the Light Show he was happy for them to contact him direct so that he could try and resolve. IC the spoke about the Liongates They are now open and there are no immediate plans to close. IC stated he was happy for dog walkers to use this entrance but that the NT were looking at ways to manage that entrance. It was a fact that some people use this entrance to gain access to the House and grounds without payment, which was unfair to the NT visitors who have paid for their entry, some week end this could be over 100 people. IC spoke about 5 Gates Lane – There are road works and car park resurfacing going on at the moment, and there are plans for the Belmont tower Car Park to be re surfaced next year and also plans for a cycle path. IC was in favour of traffic calming measures and discussions on this are taking place .
7) Village Hall -ST asked if the hedge near the footpath could be trimmed, she had spoken to someone on a mobility scooter, who was not able to use the footpath because of the overgrown hedge – IC stated he would ask the new head gardener to assess this.ST also asked if the Village Hall committee could have a meeting as due to COVID there had not been one for some time IC agreed to discuss this with Nick Sainsbury-Bowe –
8) Any Urgent Business- CM had received a verbal report from Cllr Wootten and he updated the meeting – RW had had a meeting with the local Highways manager it the Hedge along A607 between Belton Woods and Manthorpe was discussed, the trimming of the hedge is on the LCC Highways list of jobs to do.
Grantham Hospital- proposal to make this a U.T.C.+ which in practice will mean that it is a similar status to the Level 3 it had been previously the UTC+ would be 24/7 The Consultation for this is still open and closes on 23rd December – There is an open meeting on 12th December at Grantham Earlsfield which RW will be attending. If anyone has any matters re this they would like RW to address, they should contact RW direct.ST reported that the street light near the Church was not working, she had reported this to SKDC, but to date this had still not been repaired. She would contact SKDC again.
There being no other business the meeting closed at 8.44pm
9) Date and Time of Next Meeting- Wednesday 9th February 2022 at Belton – The Old School