July DRAFT Minutes
Great Hale Parish Council
Notes taken at Parish Council Meeting held on
Monday, 7th July 2025 at 7pm at Hale Magna Village Hall
Present: Councillor N Turner (Chairman)
Councillor G Cooke MBE (Vice-Chairman)
Councillor M Barnatt
Councillor A Broom
Councillor J Cope
Councillor N Dady
Councillor L Mountain
District Councillor C Collard (North Kesteven District Council)
District Councillor S Tarry (North Kesteven District Council)
Apologies: County Councillor D East (Lincolnshire County Council)
In attendance: Mrs Tracy Cooke – (Parish Clerk & RFO)
Public Forum
The Public Forum Opened at 7.00pm
There were 1 member of the public present.
The Member of the Public spoke about flooding in Orchard Close and said that he has been in touch with Anglian Water who said that the 2 systems are not connected. The Gables has not yet been adopted and they don’t think it will be in the near future due to the construction of the road. The Member of the Public said that he had submitted a FOI request and this is due to be answered by 9th July. He requested the help of the Parish Council in finding out further information.
He thanked the PC for cutting the grass in Orchard Close outside of 3 properties.
The Chairman closed the Public open forum at 7.04pm
The Chairman opened the Parish Council meeting at 7.04pm
Official Business of the Council
1. Chairman’s Welcome (25/63)
The Chairman thanked everyone for attending and wanted to thank the Clerk for her work during a very busy month regarding flooding and road issues.
2. Apologies (25/64)
Apologies were noted from CC East.
3 Previous meeting held on Monday 2nd June 2024 (25/65)
It was unanimously agreed that the draft minutes from the meeting held on 2nd June 2025 were a true record. The Chairman duly signed the minutes.
4 Clerk’s Report (25/66)
Correspondence with our County Councillor re Leas Road & flooding
Correspondence with our District Councillors re flooding
Emailed Highways re Grass cutting maps
Emails with Jack at Finding Fitness re Trim Trail
Emails sent to MP, Anglian Water and Black Sluice regarding localised and general flooding
NKDC Poster on boards and website
Email to NKDC regarding tree on grass Hall Park / Leas Road
Correspondence received and responded to:
Member of the Public re grass cutting in the village 3rd June & 16th June
Member of the Public re Orchard Close flooding 17th June
Member of the Public re NKDC tree Hall Park / Leas Road grass 16th June
Member of the Public re Cadent gas works on Grove Street / Queens Road 9th June
Member of the Public re a Fix my Street issue QE Gardens / Hall Park 12th June
5. To receive declarations of interests (25/67)
Cllr Cooke made a declaration of interests on Item 8
6. To receive reports from County and District councillors (25/68)
DC Tarry wanted to address the Member of the Public regarding the Local Government re-organisation. Information is on the NKDC website and will be in the NKDC Newsletter - News NK.
NK Community Champions – if anyone knows someone, then they are encouraged to nominate them.
NK electoral service will be contacting residents so that their records can be updated.
DC Collard explained about food waste collections. Weekly food waste collections will be rolled out across the District in 2026. This is a Government mandate and as such, is a legal directive to NKDC. This should facilitate improved recycling of household waste and reduce the negative impact this currently has on the environment. The food waste will be collected in ‘Caddies’ – smaller robust containers, not bins as used for other waste. Information is now on the NKDC website and the team at Heckington Show will be happy to give more information regarding Caddies and collections. A year’s supply of liners for the Caddies will be supplied. It will reduce the odours in the home as they will be collected weekly.
7 Planning Applications (25/69)
(7.1) Planning Application Reference:
Approval for the application to vary conditions of 12 (domestic curtilage) and 13 approved plans) attached to planning permission 19/0359/FUL - Change of use of agricultural buildings to form 1no dwelling at Hall Farm Boston Road East Heckington was noted by Councillors.
8 Finance matters
(8.1) To approve the June 2025 bank reconciliation and spend to date. (25/70)
Council approved the June 2025 bank reconciliation and acknowledged the spend to date.
(8.2) To approve accounts for payment (25/71)
It was unanimously resolved to approve all accounts for payment.
9 Highway matters for discussion and resolution
(9.1) Highways – any other issues (25/72)
It has been quite a month regarding road closures. Planned works combined with emergency road works after a tractor fire in Little Hale led to Great Hale being nearly cut off. The Chairman spoke to Highways regarding signage. Road closure signs at Heckington and Swaton weren’t clear on which parts of the road were going to closed. The Chairman was not happy as we were becoming isolated.
Cllr Broom said that a major issue was communication from Highways. He suggested that the County Councillor should put some pressure on the organisations working on the roads.
Action: Clerk to write to Highways & CC East to ask for quarterly information on advance road closures.
(9.2) Update on Leas Road footpath (25/73)
C / Cllr East made contact with Highways regarding a pavement on Leas Road. The Local Highways Manager, in Rowan Smith’s absence, stated that,
“Any new footway provision would require a capital funding bid, which would need to be submitted by Rowan Smith through the Integrated Transport Funding. This process involves developing a full business case, and unfortunately, rural connections that are lightly used tend to perform poorly against the cost-benefit criteria when compared to schemes that serve larger populations or have a history of accidents.
As it stands, we are already struggling to maintain our existing footway network — there is currently around £40 million worth of footway repairs required across the county, and we have a maintenance budget of only £4 million per year.”
C/Cllr East continued,
“On Rowan's returns, we will have a follow up to see if we have any further options.”
10 Orchard Green for discussion and resolution
(10.1) To receive an update on Orchard Green Inspections (25/74)
Cllr Cope carried out this month’s inspections. He said that the park was very good, just a small amount of litter. He noted that the cover of one of the long swings has been smashed and will need to be replaced. A cone was at the top of the slide.
Action: Next month’s inspections: Cllr Broom
11 Other matters
(11.1) Orchard Close Flooding (25/75)
The Clerk has been in contact with our MP, Black Sluice, the Environment Agency, Highways and Anglian Water. The County Councillor has had a conversation with Black Sluice regarding the beck behind the park on Orchard Close, the culvert on Little Hale Road and the dilapidated pump house owned by Anglian Water. The Clerk has made contact with Anglian Water on a number of occasions over the recent months.
Anglian Water sent an engineer to Orchard Close / The Gables on the 19th May. His report states,
“We have looked into it and a foul only connection has been approved, the surface water should be separate which discharges to a ditch across the field, I can see on google Streetview all the surface water manholes are in their expected positions. The developer has also put the drainage through for adoption including the surface water sewer and its headwall into the ditch, if there are any cross connections, they will become apparent as we progress the adoption and review the CCTV surveys.”
The Clerk made further contact with Anglian Water regarding the timing of any CCTV investigations. Anglian Water called the Clerk and provided the following in an email:
“Anglian Water have approved a foul only connection from the Gables to the foul sewers in Orchard Close. The surface water should be discharging to the watercourse to the south of the Gables across the field. Currently, all the drainage is owned by the developer. It does seem strange that the issue in Orchard close did not exist before the new development, there may be a cross connection or surface water infiltration into the foul pipe somehow. The sewer adoption is at the agreement stage, this means the contact has not been signed yet. Once the agreement has been signed, the developer will invite Anglian Water for an inspection. However, in this instance, I have requested a Development Services representative from Anglian Water attend site early to try to see if any issues with the drainage system can be found. I will keep you updated on this once I hear back from the inspector.”
Cllr Broom said that he feels NKDC Planning and Enforcement should be enforcing the planning conditions on the Developer.
Action: Clerk to write to NKDC to push for the Developer to complete.
(11.2) General Flooding (25/76)
The Clerk has made contact with the MP, The County Councillor, District Councillors, Black Sluice, Highways and the Environment Agency regarding the threat of flooding in the village.
Reports have been done and the Forty Foot couldn’t cope with the amount of water during the heavy rains. Black Sluice said the pumps were not operational in Boston. The Environment Agency said the flooding wasn’t due to the Boston pumps. DC Collard said, by email, that she had made contact with our MP in January and he had raised this in Westminster with an Environmental Minister. The Parish Council will continue to push the relevant authorities for help.
(11.3) Trail bikes in the village (25/77)
Trail bikes were reported on the roads and across the fields causing noise and damage. A resident reported this to the police and Cllr Mountain said they had been reporting the trail bikes to the Police due to their presence over the fields. Following sitings and CCTV evidence, the Police caught the riders. No further incidents have been reported.
(11.4) LCC Grass cutting agreement (25/78)
LCC Highways have re-issued Map 1 regarding the cut through from Magna Crescent to Queens Road. The new maps only have 2 colours – Red (Parish) and Green (LCC). Some areas are cut by NKDC but are shown on the maps in Red (Parish). The Clerk contacted LCC who said that they were taking responsibility for their areas and everything else was placed under the umbrella of ‘Parish.’ The Clerk has contacted NKDC asking for clarification from them.
The Chairman called for a vote on adopting the new LCC maps and signing the contract.
In favour of signing: 6 Councillors
Against: 1 Councillor
It was agreed for the Clerk to sign the LCC grass cutting contract and to send to them.
Action: Clerk to sign the Contract, scan and send to LCC Highways grass cutting.
(11.5) Siting of the new bench (25/79)
We have a bench that has been stored by Cllr Broom for some time. Cllr Turner suggested placing it in the NKDC land between Hall Park and Leas Road. Cllr Dady opposed this as an anti social behaviour concern.
It was agreed to place the new bench in the Orchard Close Park.
Cllr Broom stated that the hedge overgrowing from a neighbouring property in the grass area between Hall Park and Leas Road has become huge.
Action: Clerk to contact Jenny Bailey at NKDC regarding the hedge.
12 Future agenda items (25/80)
(12.1) Updates on the Gables and drainage
(12.2) Trim trail
(12.3)
14 Date and place of next meeting (25/81)
Monday 1st September 2025 @ 7.00pm in Hale Magna Village Hall.
The Chairman thanked all for attending and closed the Parish Council meeting at 7.56pm