Category Archives: South Lincs councils

SKDC is now more accessible, transparent and accountable than it was under the Tories.

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In May 2023, a ‘revolution’ took place at South Kesteven District Council when Independent Councillors, with the support of Greens and Lib-Dems, formed an Administration which forced Conservatives into opposition for only the second time in 50 years.

There were a number of reasons why residents removed so many local Conservative councillors, including the then incumbent Leader and Deputy-Leader. One of the factors was the lack of transparency at SKDC caused by many secret meetings and a reluctance to face scrutiny from other councillors and also from members of the public.

This is something the new Administration, which I now lead, has been keen to put right. Here are some of the ways we have made it easier for people to find out what’s happening at SKDC:

  1. Supplementary Questions from the Public
    Members of the public who register to ask questions at public meetings are now allowed to ask a supplementary question. For many years, people who drive to Grantham to attend meetings had a right to ask a supplementary question but the Tories removed it and refused to re-introduce it.
    One of the first constitutional changes of the new administration was to re-introduce the opportunity to ask a supplementary question.
  2. Questions to Cabinet
    The Conservatives viewed Cabinet meetings as a showcase and decisions were fait accompli with no real debate allowed, let alone encouraged. The attendance of backbench and opposition councillors was tolerated but difficult questions or statements were met with hostility. Questions were only permitted in relation to items on the Cabinet agenda which was set by the Leader.
    In recent months, I have allowed ‘open questions’ at the end of Cabinet Meetings to allow councillors to raise residents concerns in a public forum without having to wait for a meeting of the Full Council.
    The Full Council on 26th September changed the formal rules of procedure to allow members of the public, and councillors, to ask open questions to the council’s leadership during Cabinet meetings.
    Effectively, this means far more opportunities for people to question the Cabinet in a public forum because the Cabinet meets far more often than Full Council.
  3. Website information
    Far more information, statistics and performance infomation is now available on the council’s website, and much of it is far more open to interrogation. Some of the information is displayed via ‘Power-Bi’ which makes it much easier for people to interrogate.
  4. Informal meetings of Cabinet
    The new Independent-led has been keen to understand the needs of residents across the District and to ensure the council is not just naval-gazing at St Peter’s Hill in the District’s largest town, Grantham.
    In order to illustrate and underline this attitude, the Cabinet holds regular informal meetings around the District. In the last 18 months, the Cabinet has held meetings in Corby Glen, Billingborough, Market Deeping, Stamford, as well as Wyndham Park and the Earlsfield community centre. The numbers of public attending these events varies greatly but each one has been educational to the Cabinet members in attendance.
  5. Overview and Scrutiny Committees
    The main role of the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committees (OSCs) is to monitor the council’s performance and to offer constructive criticism and ideas for improvement. Prior to May 2023, the scrutiny of the Council’s struggling Housing Department was supposed to take place at the Rural and Communities OSC – It was an after-thought or an also-ran.
    The introduction of a dedicated Housing OSC has enabled councillors to shine a light on long-neglected issues around void properties, repairs, housing acquisitions and homelessness. The fresh focus on SKDC housing, led first by Cllr Phil Dilks and more recently by Cllr Virginia Moran as the responsible Cabinet Members, is one of the success stories of our administration of which I am most proud.
  6. A new Customer Service Centre
    The Conservatives shut down the Council’s main customer service centre and sold the building it was in. Since then, the outward-facing customer service team in Grantham has been operating from two small rooms at the back of the Guildhall cafe. This has been uncomfortable for staff and customers alike, and the Independent-led administration has been determined to find somewhere more appropriate for in-person visitors to the council.
    Today, we have opened a brand new Customer Service Centre where any residents can ask questions by appointment (weekday mornings) or by turning up (weekday afternoons til 3pm). The centre is available for queries about housing, planning, licensing and most other council services.
  7. Access to Information Working Group
    In response to a question from a member of the public at a Full Council meeting, councillors decided to set up an “Access to Information Working Group”. The purpose is to examine how easy it is for people to get information about the Council. The scope includes the information available on the council’s website as well as the standard of responses to FoIs (Freedom of Information Requests) SARs (Subject Access Requests) and other enquiries.

    As an opposition councillor prior to May 2023, I was often frustrated with the number of decisions which were made behind closed doors and the opacity of information about the council. Now, as Leader of the Council, I am determined to welcome the sunlight of proper scrutiny.
SKDC Customer Service Centre

Report to Parish Councils – October 2024

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Here is a non-exhaustive summary of the meetings and events I have attended as Leader of SKDC, and as SK Councillor for Market and West Deeping, between September 9th and October 9th.

   
Sept 9Cabinet and CMT
“Away Day”		The Cabinet joined the SKDC Corporate Management Team at the Eventus Centre in the Deepings to discuss plans for services in the next financial year
Sept 9Meeting of the “30”Members of the various political groups which support the Independent-led administration met informally at the White Horse in Market Deeping.
Sept 10SKDC CabinetCabinet discussed:
Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs); Corporate property maintenance strategy;
Future plans for LeisureSK Ltd
Sept 10-13APSE Conference, BristolI attended the annual conference of the Association of Public Service Excellence
Sept 16UK Shared Prosperity FundUKSPF continues to award grants for projects to build and strengthen our local economy and communities.
Sept 16Mtg with Persimmon HomesThis was a preliminary meeting, at the request of Persimmon, to hear about plans for a development in Ancaster.
I used the opportunity to ask them about the outstanding issues on the Charter Avenue development near Tesco in Market Deeping
Sept 17Finance and Economic OSCThe Finance meeting had a packed agenda including updates on the new Waste Depot near the A1 as well as the new Economic Development Strategy and St Martin’s Park. It was Chaired by Cllr Bridget Ley (Ind – DSJ)
Sept 17Informal Cabinet and ‘Meet and Greet’September’s ‘Meet and Greet’ with the SK Cabinet took place at the Wyndham Park visitor centre in Grantham.
Sept 18Mtg with Management of the Deepings SchoolAfter expressing my concerns, back in May, about the “fragile reputation of the school in the community”, I was able to meet with the Headteacher and Anthem Trust representatives along with the Deepings other five Independent District Councillors
Sept 19Meeting with Alicia Kearns MPMy first formal meeting with Alicia Kearns MP who, since the General Election, has been the MP for a significant part of SK including Stamford, Tallington, Uffington and Corby Glen.
Sept 19Housing OSCOverview and scrutiny of SK’s housing and homelessness prevention activities.
Sept 19Grantham Town TeamI was pleased to Chair a relaunch of the Grantham Town Team which has been formed to promote footfall in Grantham town centre.
Sept 21Opening of the Gladwell Patterson GalleryThe new gallery on Red Lion Square in Stamford displays (for sale) some truly beautiful works of art.
Sept 21Deepings Business AwardsI was pleased to attend and speak at the 9th Business Awards which were hosted at the Black Horse at Baston. This is the first year that SKDC has made a financial contribution to the event.
Sept 24SKDC CabinetThis was an additional meeting of Cabinet to discuss three issues:
1) Changes to Car Parking (including some free parking in Grantham and Stamford in the run-up to Christmas)
2) The Local Plan
(Regulation 19 Pre-Submission) 3) Data Protection Policy
Sept 24Governance and Audit MeetingDiscussed progress with audits as well as potential changes to the process of voting at Council meetings.
Sept 25Portfolio Meeting:
Communications		As Leader, I receive regular updates concerning the council’s proactive and reactive communications strategies.
Sept 26Full CouncilApart from the usual business of the council including questions to Cabinet Members and others, the Council discussed two motions: The first concerned the withdrawal of the universal Winter Fuel Allowance; the second concerned Suicide Awareness.
Sept 27Leader’s ColumnPublication of the 4-weekly column that I write for the Grantham Journal and Stamford Mercury
Sept 30Portfolio Meeting: FinanceAs SK portfolio holder for Finance, I received updates on revenue collections in SK compared to other Lincolnshire Authorities, as well as a broader overview of the financial position of the council.
October  
Oct 1Deepings School StrikeI joined teachers and support staff on the picket line at Deepings School where I heard stories from the ‘chalk face’ about management and behaviour at the school
Oct 1Lincolnshire DayA series of events in Grantham including a flag-raising at St Peter’s Hill, an illustrated tour of St Wulfram’s Church and a visit to a ‘pop-up’ market in the newly refurbished market square.
Oct 2Deepings School StrikeSecond day of the strike during which I handed out leaflets to parents who were mostly in support of the teachers’ action.
Oct 3Welland and Deepings Internal Drainage BoardRegular meeting of the IDB
Oct 3West Deeping Quarry Liaison MeetingMeeting with Breedon, CEMEX and community representatives to compare notes on issues with the existing West Deeping quarry.
Oct 3Heritage Lincolnshire at Harlaxton ManorRepresented SKDC at this annual event to raise the profile of Heritage Lincolnshire.
Oct 4Meeting with Alicia Kearns MP and Corby Glen Parish CouncillorsThere have been ongoing problems with foul odours in Corby Glen. Alicia Kearns MP had asked me and relevant councillors and officers to support the community in finding ways to identify and take action to abate the causes.
Oct 6SK Chairman’s Civic ServiceAt St Peter and St Paul’s Church in Bourne followed by tea at the Bourne Corn Exchange.
Oct 7Portfolio Meeting: HRAs portfolio holder for HR, I was briefed on key staffing issues at SKDC.
Oct 7Deepings Neighbourhood Plan MtgI was invited to attend the meeting, along with Cllr Moran and Cllr Dilks to exchange views about progress with the Local Plan and the Sustrans work on an LCWIP (Local Cycling Walking Improvement Plan) for the Deepings.
Oct 8Meeting with Senior Staff of the Anthem TrustA ‘face-to-face’ meeting with the CEO of the Anthem Academy Trust about the strategy for improving leadership, management and staff relations at the school.
Oct 8Tour of the new SKDC Customer Service CentreRoughly £300,000 has been invested into creating a new walk-in centre for SK residents with queries about housing, planning, revenues, benefits, licensing etc.
Oct 8SKDC CabinetAs Leader, I am Chair of Cabinet. This meeting approved the publication of a long-awaited SK Economic Development Strategy.
Oct 8Housing Compliance MtgUpdate on progress with Housing Compliance figures including gas, electric and legionella safety checks. Most are 100% or in the high 90%s
Oct 8Property Review GroupAs Leader, I was briefed (alongside the Cabinet Member for Property) on issues concerning the council’s property portfolio.
Oct 8SKDC Parish Liaison MeetingThis event took place at the Open Door Church in Deeping St James and was open to clerks and councillors from Town and Parish councils across the South of the District. 
Oct 10Market Deeping TCI intend to attend the beginning of the meeting to present a short report and answer questions from councillors
Oct 10Baston Parish Council I intend to attend the beginning of the meeting to present a short report and answer questions from councillors

Deepings Leisure Centre – An Independent Update (March 2021)

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(by Ashley Baxter, SKDC Councillor for Market and West Deeping Ward)

I have tried to publish updates regarding the proposed new Deepings Leisure Centre which was originally announced by the Conservatives almost four years ago. The most recent were in November and September. Since then, very little has been published by South Kesteven District Council (SKDC) regarding the development, but I am moderately pleased to report that there has been some activity behind the scenes which gives cause for hope.

Firstly, formal communication has been restored! After an interval of many months, the monthly catch-up meetings are now taking between the project manager and the Deepings Independent Councillors (Cllr Phil Dilks, Cllr Virginia Moran and me). The meetings involve sharing of information and robust but good-natured exchanges of opinion; a refreshing return to a sensible conversation.

LeisureSK

Regular readers will know that I am one of many people frustrated by the lack of tangible progress towards the planning and construction of the new leisure centre facilities. In fairness to SKDC, it has been a particularly difficult year with Covid which has resulted in the council effectively taking leisure services back in-house. This has been acheived by the creation of a council-owned company called ‘Leisure SK’. The Board of Leisure SK is composed mostly of Conservative councillors but some industry expertise and experience is offered by a non-executive Director. He is well-remunerated (circa £15,000pa) but probably worth the expense. The Board meetings are also attended by the SKDC Head of Leisure representing the views of the ‘client’ i.e. the Council. The creation of a structure and business plan for LeisureSK in just a few short months is an admirable achievement and it should mean leisure centres are more responsive and accountable to the public who use them. The drawback is that the same small team responsible for planning LeisureSK is also responsible for progressing the new Leisure Centre which has consequently been delayed again.

Application to the Football Foundation

The first step on the road to a new leisure centre will probably be a new All-Weather Pitch (AWP). This is commonly but incorrectly referred to as the ‘astroturf’. Many months of positive dialogue with Football Foundation (FF, the charitable arm of the FA) have given reason to believe a bid to the FF would be successful. It was hoped that this bid would be submitted before Christmas and the pitch might be ready for the kick-off of the football season this autumn. That’s not gonna happen; but perhaps it will be ready by the following year. Furthermore, the FF have suggested it would be best to delay making the formal bid until planning permission has been granted for the pitch.

This means that SKDC hopes/needs/intends/expects to submit an application for planning permission for an all-weather pitch within the next few weeks. This will involve publishing the first clues about the intended layout of the site, ie. if it is clear where the all-weather pitch will be sited within the Spalding Road site then one can make educated guesses about where the leisure centre is likely to be built.

Layout of the site

The location of the leisure centre is one of the points on which the Independent Councillors (including me) have had ‘exchanges of opinion’ with the Head of Leisure. To her credit, she has promised to share our views with the project architect who will hopefully take them into consideration. Ideally, there would be a choice of potential site layouts which could be shared with local residents, sports clubs and other stakeholders. It is not clear whether or not timescales and budgets will allow this ‘luxury’.

The other knock-on effect of preparing a planning application is that surveys have to be completed to the satisfaction of the planners (and the FF). I can therefore inform you that topographical surveys (mapping) have been taken of the whole of the Spalding Road site and geotechnical surveys (digging holes) have been undertaken at the parts of the site relating to the potential location(s) of the all-weather pitch.

The Big Announcement

Some of us were expecting a great unveiling of some of the detail of the Deepings Leisure Centre project in the weeks leading up to the County Council election. Sadly, that moment has probably now passed and the rules of ‘purdah’ mean that SKDC is unlikely to be issuing press releases and photos of councillors with hard hats and hi-vis jackets. The next big date on the horizon is the SKDC Cabinet meeting in June which is due to “discuss the proposals for Deepings Leisure Centre Development, to receive a presentation of feasibility work including options explored and operational business plans” and “to agree the facility mix and associated capital envelope of the development to be taken forward to the next stage”. As mentioned above, this might be preceded by a planning application for the all-weather pitch.

The Unpublished Leisure Report

In other news, on 4 Feb I submitted a Freedom of Information request in order to try to get a publicly accessible copy of the consultancy report produced by MACE over a year ago at a cost of roughly a quarter of a million pounds. The Council has 20 working days to respond to FoI requests and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it took 18 days fo reply that “This information is exempt under Section 22 of the FoIA 2000, which states that a public authority is not obliged to provide information which is intended for publication at a future date.”

However, the response went on to say “This exemption applies because the MACE report will be provided as a background paper to a cabinet report which is due to go before Scrutiny Committee and Cabinet not later than September 2021” so watch this space (but don’t get excited because I’ve seen a redacted copy of the report and it isn’t so exciting).

Back to ‘normal’

In case you are wondering, I can confirm that SKDC intend to re-open all the existing Leisure Centres in line with the Covid roadmap guidance, ie. it should be possible to book lane-swimming and gym sessions via the LeisureSK website from 12th April. Sports clubs including Deepings Swim Club should also start proper training again.

[I do realise that for many of our young athletes the training has continued throughout lockdown, thanks to the dedication of their club officials and coaches. However, swim club training in the living room is inevitably a poor substitute for swim club training in the pool]

Finally, some shameless electioneering

Since being elected to SKDC in 2015, I have tried to keep people up-to-date with council issues affecting the Deepings and the wider SK District. I have done this through

  • attending Town and Parish meetings
  • publishing regular activity updates
  • occasional ward newsletters (though not during Covid)
    • posting on Facebook and Twitter
    • publishing information on this blog.

I have also been actively involved in lobbying on behalf of Deepings residents on many issues including: protecting Millfield as a publicly accessible open space; arguing against some planning applications and in favour of others; participating in the Neighbourhood Plan process; and representing residents’ concerns to SKDC and LCC.

On Thursday 6th May, Deepings will be electing new County Councillors and I will be the Independent candidate for Deepings West and Rural Division which includes most of Market Deeping as well as Baston and the villages of the Uffington benefice.

Please vote for me if you are able. If you live elsewhere in Lincolnshire, please support other Independent candidates.

Thank you in anticipation of your support!

Night of the long knives at Deepings Youth Club secret AGM.

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Disputed elections are not just a recent American phenomena. Last night, the management of Deepings Youth Group (DYG) attracted criticism when two long-standing members of the youth club’s governing body were virtually defenestrated as power over the funds and activities of the organisation was further consolidated into the hands of a small cadre following a coup two years ago.

Members of the public were neither invited nor welcome at the Annual General Meeting which followed recent public controversy over the group’s funding.. This year, DYG will receive around £15,000 from the Parish and Town which represents about 80% of the group’s total income.

[Author’s note: I wouldn’t usually write about the internal machinations of a community group but the recent decision by Market Deeping Town Council to temporarily withhold grant funding from DYG demonstrated that people are particularly interested in how the youth club is managed].

The meeting was preceded by a kind of postal election in which each of the Trustees were given the opportunity to vote for (or against) each other. Anyone who achieved 50% of the votes was declared elected but those who failed to win the approval of their colleagues were unceremoniously removed from the Board. No votes were cast other than by the existing Trustees and there were no new nominees (other than those people co-opted by the Board since the previous meeting).

A few days prior to the meeting, Cllr Phil Dilks requested an up-to-date copy of the DYG constitution in order to ascertain whether the procedures for the AGM, including the election of Trustees, were being followed correctly. No copy was supplied to him. Nevertheless, it seems highly unlikely that the Youth Club was paying attention to its own rules because according to the Minutes of Market Deeping Town and Deeping St James Parish Councils, several were originally appointed directly by those Councils.

The meeting took place via Zoom yesterday evening and was Chaired by Jayne Reed who, at the beginning of the meeting immediately requested permission to vary the agenda which she had sent out the previous week. Miss Reed said she thought it was appropriate to bring forward the declaration of the results of the vote to the top of the agenda. She did not explain her reasons but the Committee agreed and the results were announced. The two Trustees who failed to gain 50% support were Parish Councillor Andrew Bowell (Ind) and Parish and District Councillor Phil Dilks (Ind). The Chair then asked them to leave the meeting and a few moments later they were disconnected by the meeting administrator.

Cllr Dilks had perhaps made himself unpopular with the rest of the board by stating publicly that he disassociated himself from the comments, social media posts and petitions which had been published when the October meeting of Market DeepingTown Council decided to postpone payment of a grant which had been earmarked for DYG.

At the time, the Council had a number of concerns about the financial stability of DYG and asked for clarification of some of figures which had been mentioned in the accounting statements provided by the group. Market Deeping Town Council’s representative on the DYG Trustees, Cllr Xan Collins (Con), chose not to answer any questions about the Youth Club at that meeting insisting that the Council had earmarked £7,000 for DYG and the group was therefore entitled to a grants for that amount. The decision to delay the second of two grant payments was voted on with the result 3 in favour, 3 against and 4 abstentions. The Deputy Mayor, Cllr Virginia Moran (Ind) used her casting vote to delay the payment.

After that decision, representatives of the DYG Board were invited to speak to the Mayor and Deputy Mayor at a meeting which held answer the questions but not before the Town Council, and Cllr Moran in particular, had been villified on social media.

Later that month, the DYG Trustees met, virtually, for the first time since Lockdown and Paul Hanson resigned as Chair. Mr Hanson had been elected as a Town Councillor in May 2019 but resigned unexpectedly in May 2020. He is the partner of a Conservative SKDC Councillor who is also a Trustee of DYG.

Jayne Reed stepped into the breach and took on the role of Chair. Miss Reed is also familiar with the role of a Town Councillor having been served on the Council on more than one occasion and having resigned in 2017 causing a by-election which was successfully contested by Cllr Moran.

At the November meeting of Market Deeping Town Council, the councillors voted on the DYG funding once again. This time there were 5votes in favour of awarding the grant, 1 against and 4 abstentions. One of the Councillors expressed the view that he had previously been in favour of awarding the grant but after seeing the vociferous social media attacks after the previous meeting he was now concerned about the suitability of the Trustees. This view resonated with the personal comments made by Cllr Dilks during the public open forum before the meeting,

At the time of the October meeting, at least one trustee accused Cllr Moran of holding a personal vendetta. It now seems that there is indeed a personal vendetta, but it is not the one we were warned about!

The reasons why Cllr Bowell was not re-elected are less obvious. Certainly, he is not hesitant to ask questions or express his opinions but surely those are good qualities for a Trustee? Until March this year, Cllr Bowell, a former bank manager, was the Treasurer of DYG but he resigned as Treasurer I think because of differences of opinion with the Chair at the time. Whatever the reasons for their removal from the Board, their early removal from the meeting meant that neither Cllr Dilks nor Cllr Bowell could ask questions about the Chair’s report to the AGM, nor the Treasurers report to the AGM, the first of which would likely be “Who is currently the Treasurer of DYG?”.

Miss Reed believes that the Trustees are not obliged to hold an AGM, let alone allow members of the public to attend. Consequently, when I asked if I could attend the virtual AGM I was told I could not and that only Trustees had been invited. Procedurally, there might not be an obligation to allow members of the public, funding bodies, local councillors like me, members of the press, parents of youth club users or even the many young people who allegedly use the service. The organisations that my teenage children are involved in are usually very keen to encourage parents and potential sponsors to get involved. Given all the recent public hoo-hah over the funding of the Youth Club you might have thought the Trustees would be only too keen to open the doors. You have to wonder why DYG are so reluctant to allow people to see what’s happening!

Footnote 1: As explained above, I wasn’t allowed to attend the DYG but I am confident that the information above is all factually correct. If anyone points out any mistakes; inaccuracies or even typos, I will be happy to edit accordingly.

Footnote 2: For avoidance of doubt: I am not criticising the Youth Club; not its staff members or the people who use the Youth Club; I have no problem with the aims and objectives of the DYG. If I have a criticism of DYG it is limited to the lack of transparency of its operations and the manner in which the AGM was conducted.

Report to Market Deeping Town Council – June 2020

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Report to MDTC Full Council 10th June, 2020
from ASHLEY BAXTER, SKDC Councillor for Market & West Deeping.

Leisure Centre / All Weather Pitch

Despite various SKDC committee meetings in February deciding to set up Members Working Group(s) to keep abreast of progress towards the Leisure Transformation strategy, no meetings have taken place. Cabinet Member, Cllr Barry Dobson (Con) reported in April (to DSJ PC) the plan for the new Leisure Centre in the Deepings is progressing well and that two options are currently being drawn up and priced. Unfortunately, the plans haven’t progressed far enough for any detailed plans, proposals or costs to be shared with anyone outside the Conservative cabinet.

What I have discovered is that leisure consultants Mace have been paid £284,000 for a report which has yet to be published. Evidently it did not deliver the detailed business plans which were promised because the Council has now engaged a new, thankfully much cheaper consultant, to make sense of the findings of the first consultant.

Next week’s Cabinet meeting includes draft workplan with an aspiration to consider Leisure Centre investment at the September Cabinet meeting. It is one of no fewer than twelve proposed agenda items for that particular Cabinet meeting so don’t hold your breath!

14/05/2020  Full Council

The first meeting of the Full Council was little more than a PR stunt and a rubber-stamping exercise. Motions from Councillors were not allowed and neither were open questions from Councillors and members of the public. Large chunks of the meeting were taken up with voting because every decision, even including approval of the previous minutes, required a roll-call of all 55 councillors in attendance.

During one of the votes, despite a quite labourious explanation by the Chief Executive, the Chair of the Council inadvertently voted against her own party and consequently the voting had to start all over again.

26/05/2020  Finance, Economic Development and Corporate Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee

The Finance meeting spent most of its time speculating the likely impact of Covid19 on the Council’s finances. Unsurprisingly the general consensus was a pessimistic outlook. Income from arts centres; car parks, businesses rates and other areas have reduced virtually to zero while waste collection costs have risen. There are some unknowns including: the extent to which the Government will bail out Local Authorities; and whether or not the leisure provider, 1Life, will succeed with a legal claim it has submitted to the council for financial losses (the council is obviously disputing the claim).

04/06/2020  Governance and Audit Committee

The Governance and Audit Committee almost took place on 24th May but just after it started I pointed out that no access details had been provided to members of the public and officers confirmed that the meeting could not proceed if it was inaccessible.

The reconvened meeting discussed external audit reports which were critical of the Council’s medium term financial strategy and lack of a meaningful corporate strategy. The meeting discussed internal audit reports which were highly critical of the council’s failure to consistently follow its own procurement rules as well as various shortcomings of the council’s homelessness function. Thankfully some of the issues have been addressed between the Internal Audit visit and their presentation to the G&A Committee.

04/06/2020  Planning

This morning’s Planning Committee meeting was supposed to discuss plans for a waterski and touring caravan facility in Tallington. Unfortunately, at the very last moment, it was decided to defer the item until after a site visit could take place.

Other News

Many, many thanks are due to all the volunteers and organisations who are supporting local residents and businesses through Covid lockdown. The Deepings Round Table deserve a special mention and I am happy to be one of three Deepings Councillors who have allocated a total a thousand pounds from SKDC Community Funds towards their ongoing costs.

Finally, it is sadness that I report the passing of my friend, and former Town Councillor Roy Bell. Roy was Deputy Mayor in 2010-11 and did loads of work with the Council’s Summer Playscheme. He passed on yesterday after a long struggle with cancer. My thoughts and prayers are with his family.

Cllr Ashley Baxter
Market and West Deeping Ward



South Kesteven accept any proposal you like, as long as it’s blue!

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Local Action not Party Politics; the slogan on a 2019 Party Political leaflet from the Conservatives.

The agenda for the South Kesteven Cabinet meeting of 16th June has not yet been published. I don’t have a crystal ball but I am going to make a prediction: the Conservative cabinet will present proposals for a review and report of the impact of the Coronavirus on SKDC’s operations aimed at identifying lessons to be learned which can improve the council’s ‘normal’ day-to-day activity as well as for any future crisis emergency.

If the Cabinet does propose such an investigation then I, for one, will fully support the idea. In fact, I already have! I proposed pretty much the same idea as a motion to the last Full Council (See below). My proposal was made 30th April, well ahead of the normal deadline and was acknowledged by the democratic services team. I mentioned it in a phone call to the Council Leader, Cllr Kelham Cooke (Con), who hadn’t seen it so I sent him a copy. The following day he informed me that he was “happy to support the majority” of the content of my motion but he had spoken to the Chief Executive who had decided, under her delegated powers, that the first virtual meeting of Full Council would have no motions nor any open questions from Councillors of the public; in other words, just a rubber-stamping exercise for publicity purposes. I was formally informed of this decision later the same day just minutes before the publication of the agenda. The Chief Executive did not have the courtesy to phone or e-mail me to explain the reason for her decision, let alone discuss the content and aspirations of the proposals.

So, rather than try to establish a cross-party consensus for a pragmatic and straightforward action, the council’s high command decided to delay the decision for a month so that it can be trumpeted as an innovative, original and (most importantly) Conservative idea.

Obviously, I am disappointed with the way the issue has been dealt with, especially regarding the continued lack of communication and colloboration with Independent and other opposition councillors, but I am not at all surprised. The SKDC Conservative’s Modus Operandi is to oppose almost any idea from Independent councillors and then present it as their own idea a few months later. If you think I am exaggerating, here are some examples:

Cllr Peter Moseley (Con) holding aloft the Charter which he had just voted not to sign.

There was a Tory U-Turn on Members’ Ward Budgets when most of the people who voted against the Independent proposal in March 2014 voted in favour of it in April 2018.

When I proposed the Council adopt the Woodland Trust’s Charter for Trees in June 2019, the Conservatives voted firmly against the idea. Happily, within a few days the relevant Cabinet Member was posing for press photos holding a copy of the Charter in his hands. It was adopted a few weeks later.

A proposal to ensure major planning applications are decided by Councillors and not just officers was turned down in November 2018 when presented by Cllr Phil Dilks (then Lab, now Ind) but was adopted by the council in March 2019.

Never mind though; the important thing is to get the Council to accept good ideas. I suppose it doesn’t matter if it takes a bit longer and the people with the original ideas don’t get the credit.

Here, for future reference, is the text of my motion which I hope and expect will have been implemented before it is presented to the Full Council meeting in July.

Motion to Full Council – 14th May 2020

Creating a new ‘normal’.

Background

The recent and ongoing Coronavirus pandemic has presented historic challenges to government at all levels and across the world. At South Kesteven District Council, the episode has required the implementation of emergency procedures and the establishment of new and innovative ways of working. The work of our staff, senior management and fellow councillors through this time has been invaluable and we owe a debt of gratitude.

The effect of Coronavirus on our economy and society has been huge and, in many cases, heartbreaking. However, some of the new ways of working have had positive impacts which could potentially provide long-term benefits.

Recommendations

The council resolves that:

  1. Cabinet commissions a report into how the Coronavirus episode has impacted our operations, focusing specifically on opportunities to make long term environmental and financial savings (The report should be produced and published before the end of the December 2020).
  2. Environment Committee and Cabinet to prioritise within their workplans:
    a) consideration of how to use remote working opportunities for staff and members to the mutual benefit of the council and individuals.
    b) further consideration of opportunities to improve grounds maintenance practices to improve ecology and reduce costs
    c) in partnership with the waste disposal authority, consideration of how waste collection and disposal systems could be enhanced to improve efficiency and recycling rates.

Proposed by
Cllr Ashley Baxter
Market & West Deeping
30th April 2020

Governance and Audit turned out to be a very short meeting!

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I might have complained before about how some Council meetings have a reputation for being boring and that ‘Governance and Audit Committee is one of them’.

I was actually quite looking forward to this afternoon’s meeting because of the revelations of the council’s Auditors concerning ‘Financial Sustainability’, ‘Procurement and Contracts’, ‘Homelessness’ and ‘Void Management’ which I have outlined below.

Unfortunately, when I tried to join the virtual meeting, I could not find the joining details on the public website, Thankfully, with the help of council staff members, I was able to find the skype address in my ‘in-box’ and arrived at the meeting just in time.

The meeting began with housekeeping and a roll-call of the committee members, the other councillors, the council officers and the various auditors who were presenting reports. We then moved onto the minutes of the previous meeting but I interrupted proceedings to ask the Chair, Cllr Ian Stokes (Con), for clarification of whether members of the public were actually able to view the meeting. I pointed out that if the public were not able to view the proceedings then we could be acting ‘illegally’. With hindsight, I think a better word would have been ‘improperly’.

The Committee Clerks suggested the meeting be adjourned briefly while they checked the situation. When they returned, 10 minutes later, they confirmed that there were no instructions on the website by which the public could find out how to join the meeting and, therefore, the meeting did not satisfy the regulatory requirements of a public meeting. The meeting was then adjourned until another date (yet to be confirmed) could be arranged with proper access to the public.

Governance and Audit Committee meetings are not famous for their packed public galleries, in fact, I can’t remember the last time I saw a member of the public in attendance. However, we have no way of telling how many people wanted to attend the meeting now that is supposed to be accessible by remote access and, this far into lockdown, we should have systems in place to ensure our meetings and decisions are properly visible, transparent and run in accordance with all appropriate rules and regulations.

If the meeting had gone ahead, we would have discussed a range of issues presented by our Internal Auditor including:

Procurement and Contracts

Regular readers will know that I have had questions in the past concerning the Council’s gung-ho attitude to public procurement legislation. The Internal Audit report doesn’t do much to reassure me as the following quotes illustrate:

“Conclusion: Partial Assurance; Impact on Annual Opinion: Negative
As a result of testing undertaken, 11 ‘medium’ and one ‘low’ priority findings were identified.
Management actions were agreed in respect of all the findings.
The medium priority findings relate to:
• Through review of the Service Plan in place between the Council and Welland Procurement, instances were noted where contracts had not been procured by the agreed target completion dates.
• From discussions with the Procurement Lead it was confirmed that the current Contracts Register is not fully complete and there are still gaps in regards to certain departments.
• A sample of 20 contracts from the Council’s current Contract Register were selected and tested.
Four instances were noted where no documentation was provided in relation to the documented contracts (all in excess of £50,000) and therefore the following could not be confirmed:
o That a procurement process had been followed in line with the Council’s Contract and
Procurement Procedure Rules for each of the contracts;
o That the contracts had been advertised on the ProContract e-tendering system;
o That a scoring matrix was utilised as part of an evaluation process;
o That successful or unsuccessful letters were sent out to all applicants;
o That due-diligence checks such as credit worthiness were carried out by the Council on the successful contractors;
o That a contract was in place that was signed by both the Council and the contracted party;
o That the Council had included clauses within the contracts governing the circumstances
whereby early termination or exit of the contract is permitted;
o That appropriate monitoring had been undertaken of the Contracts by the dedicated Contract Managers; and
o That the Council completed initial and on-going risk assessments for the contracts in relation to Health and Safety.”

Homelessness

Again, I have previously expressed concern that the number of households in South Kesteven has trebled in recent years suggesting we have an increasing problem with homelessness. The Internal Auditor suggests some potential reasons why the problems continue.

“Conclusion: Partial Assurance; Impact on Annual Opinion: Negative
As a result of testing undertaken, seven ‘medium’ and seven ‘low’ priority findings were identified. Management actions were agreed in respect of all the findings.
The medium priority findings relate to:
• A training log spreadsheet is in place for staff members within the Homelessness Prevention Team. It was however noted that certain staff members did not have any delivered training documented. Additionally, instances were noted where dates were not recorded for when the relevant training was completed and there is also no information currently documented for refresher training if applicable.
• From testing a sample of 20 homelessness applications from the current financial year, instances were identified whereby the initial assessment had not been carried out or the initial contact was not made promptly with the applicant and instances where decision letters were not sent to the applicant promptly.
• Testing identified one instance where the Prevention or Relief Duty was note ended within 56 days and an extension had not been applied. It was also noted that a supporting decision letter was not produced and sent to the applicant once duty had ended.
• The Council has a Temporary Accommodation Procedure in place although it was noted that the Procedure had not been updated since 2015. It was also noted that the Procedure does not cover the booking of emergency accommodation. Additionally, the Procedure does not specify a need to consider value for money, or a list of approved hotels and bed and breakfasts which the Council has negotiated favourable rates with.
• From testing a sample of 20 homelessness applications which had resulted in the allocation of temporary or emergency accommodation during the current financial year instances were noted whereby a Temporary Accommodation Request Form had either not been completed or authorised, no evidence of any action being taken to recover monies owed to the Council by tenants with outstanding utility charges or where emergency accommodation costs had been covered by the Council.
• From a review of the Temporary Accommodation Rent Procedure it was noted that it does not provide adequate detail to allow rent officers to recoup rent and utility charges. Additionally, the Procedure does not specify the point at which a Notice to Vacate should be served and does not provide any guidance on the recovery procedure for outstanding utility charges.
• At the time of audit, it was noted that there is currently no monitoring undertaken by the Homelessness Prevention Team to identify repeat users of temporary or emergency accommodation.“

Voids Management

The Internal Audit of the way SKDC manages empty properties (aka ‘Voids’) was slightly less disparaging although it was noted:

“At the time of audit, the Council did not have a Voids Policy in place. Through discussion with the Head of Improvements and Repairs it was confirmed that a Voids Policy is due to be drafted”.

I am now trying to find out whether the voids policy has been drafted and/or adopted. This is partly in preparation for the meeting when it comes back from its adjournment and partly to try to make sense of why at least one council property in Market Deeping has been empty for more than six months. I am sure there must be a simple and reasonable explanation.

Financial Sustainability

The External Audit Plan was also due to be presented to this afternoon’s meeting. The audit report (which costs over £40,000) has rightly drawn attention to the potentially massive impact of Covid19. However it also identified following significant VFM risks (Value for Money):

“For 2020/21 the Council is proposing a balanced budget with no use of General Fund reserves.
The Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) to 2022/23 shows funding gaps of £1,009k in 2021/22 and £1,302k in 2022/23 and officers are working on addressing these gaps in early 2020/21. The Council have recently appointed a new Chief Executive and their first priority is to update the Corporate Plan.
An updated MTFS will be developed to supported this updated corporate plan.
We will review the work the Council is undertaking to address the gaps identified in the MTFS. We will also review the updated Corporate Plan and its effect on the MTFS.”

When Karen Bradford arrived as Chief Exec of SKDC earlier this year, she mentioned the need for a refresh or rewrite of the Corporate Plan. I agreed and drew her attention to the previous colourful plan we had approved which was full of pictures of exotic animals but rather light on practical planning.

The review of the Medium Term Financial Strategy will, it is hoped, be completed before too long and the Cabinet Member for Finance, Cllr Adam Stokes (Con), will have to present it to the relevant committees for scrutiny and approval.

I am sure the Chair of the Governance and Audit Committee will have no misgivings about asking challenging and difficult questions of the Cabinet Member for Finance; He is, after all, his father!

Charity begins at home – How South Kesteven Councillors have spent your money…

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In 2018, after years of to-ing and fro-ing, South Kesteven Councillors agreed to establish an annual budget of £1,000 for each Member to allocate to projects of direct benefit people in their ward. Yes, at the time, I argued that this might be perceived as a bribe and a photo-opportunity in the year before the SKDC election but with hindsight it was a welcome u-turn by the Tories.

The second year of ward budgets has just concluded and I am pleased to be able to publish the details of how councillors have spent and, in some cases, not spent their allocation.

From the £56,000 budget, a total of £49,882.02 was awarded by 53 councillors and paid to 97 seperate organisations. These included sports clubs, food banks and village festivals.

The organisation that received the highest amount of grant funding was the Butterfield Centre in Bourne which received a combined total of £2,633 from four different councillors. Eighteen different organisations received grants of £1,000 or more.

There were seven grants of £100 or less. The smallest grant was the £50 paid to the Rotary Club of Bourne which was one of the four organisations sponsored by Cllr Anna Kelly (Ind).

Although the scheme was set up to give councillors a funding stream to support grassroots projects run by community groups, organisations, charities etc across the district, over £8,000 was paid to town and parish councils across the district. This is a reasonable acknowledgement that in many villages parish councils are the best available constituted organisation for handling the finances of small projects.

Each grant was supposed to be awarded for a specific project or initiative and not to be used for either ongoing revenue costs or regular events (unless the funding relates to a new aspect).

Some Councillors decided not to allocate their budgets. Three councillors, all Conservative, did not allocate any grants at all. Some others did not use all the available grant. This, of course, is their prorogative and they don’t have to explain their decision to anyone. It is possible that they received no sensible applications; alternatively they might think it is in their residents’ best interests to leave the money in the central coffers at SKDC. Personally, I am exceedingly keen to repatriate as much money from Grantham back to Deeping as possible.

This year I shared our £1,000 among four grant recipients. These were:

  • £250 to Deepings United FC for stretcher equipment. The team also received funding via the other two councillors for Market and West Deeping. (This doesn’t come close to reimbursing them for the unfair and extortionate fees they are charged by SKDC’s Leisure Centre for rent of pitches but that’s another story)
  • £334 to Bourne Deeping Hockey Club towards new equipment. The team also received funding from the other two Independent councillors in the Deepings. (Sadly, the small grant does not compensate for the disaster of having nowhere in South Kesteven to train after the Deepings all-weather pitch was condemned, but that’s another story)
  • £200 to the Rotary Club of the Deepings towards the costs of the Deepings 10k and Fun Run (whenever they might be).
  • £216 to Churches Together in the Deepings for their ‘Open the Book’ schools project.

I have published information about the other grants awarded during 2019/20 year elsewhere on the DeepingDo blog.

In March this year, less than 12 months after the election, councillors voted to slash the budget down to just £500 but maybe this was down to concerns about pressures on council budgets which no-one knew about the previous year? In any case, it doesn’t matter because the world has changed since March and the Council Leader has unilaterally (and rightly imho) decided to put it back up to £1,000 to allow us to support the hyper-local organisations which are supporting our communities through Coronavirus. Furthermore, the County Council has also urgently reinstated its ward budgets of £3,000 for allocation by each of its 70 individual councillors and, yes, it is the year before the county council elections but this is definitely no time to be cynical!

Due to the Covid situation, many of last year’s grants were not accompanied by photo-shoots so here is a picture of me running the Deepings Rotary Fun Run a couple of years ago (courtesy of David Pearson Photography).

South Kesteven dragged ‘kicking and screaming’ to virtual meetings

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Screenshot from a recent UK Cabinet Zoom meeting (via @TiernanDouieb).

It should go without saying that the worldwide CoronaVirus epidemic is awful, tragic and we all wish it could have been avoided and we all pray it is over soon.

However, like many crises we have faced, there are some useful learnings and positive outcomes that we should be grateful for when, God-willing, we get through the current turmoil and back to a new normal. These will hopefully include closer families, stronger communities and a greater sense of gratitude for our safety net of NHS, social infrastructure and all the people who work at the hitherto thankless tasks of emptying bins, stacking shelves and keeping us alive.

Another positive is the reduction in carbon emissions which proves that despite the previous protestations of politicians, Greta Thunberg has been making a valid point i.e. we could get by without a lot of the carbon-filthy activities that we used to think were essential.

Today, Friday 3rd April, South Kesteven Council held its first ever official ‘virtual’ meeting of a committee.

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Report to Market Deeping Town Council – February 2020

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Report to MDTC Full Council 12th February, 2020
from ASHLEY BAXTER, SKDC Councillor for Market & West Deeping.

Deeping Shorts – Film Festival

‘Deeping Shorts’ – a short festival of short films – has held two Saturday evening cinema screenings with two more to go (15th and 22nd February). The screenings have been well attended and well received. Tickets are £5 from Stamford Arts Centre or at Open Door Baptist Church on the night.

Leisure Centre / All Weather Pitch

News about the proposed Deepings Leisure Centre and the future of the condemned All Weather Pitch has failed to yield any concrete proposals (nor proposals for concrete). At Full Council, the new Portfolio Holder, Cllr Barry Dobson stated that a Working Party would be formed with representation from the 3 Deepings Independent Councillors. By the time of the Finance Committee a week later, this Working Party had been extended to include two Deeping Conservatives. A few minutes later, it was explained that the Working Party would be an overarching group for all Leisure Facilities in South Kesteven. When I asked for clarification, the Finance Committee was told there will be more than one Working Party. I later asked Cllr Dobson for written clarification of the roles, purpose and composition of the working party (or parties). A week later and I am still waiting.

Cllr Dobson also mentioned that nothing would be decided about Leisure Centres until he had visited the sites personally to see what was needed. This is slightly confusing given that the council has commissioned leisure professionals an architects to conduct feasibility studies at a cost of more than £250,000.

14/01/2020         Budget – Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee            

Lots of talk about the Conservative’s Pie-in-the-Sky thinking for next year’s expenditure.

16/01/2020   Rural and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee

I am pleased to say the Communities Committee agreed to implement some of the measures recommended by the ‘Stop the Knock’ campaign which I had brought to their attention.

I am less pleased to say that they rubber-stamped proposals to ‘rationalise the face-to-face customer service provision’ in Stamford and the Deepings. This effectively means closing the SKDC offices at the Deepings Community Centre and at Maiden Lane in Stamford.

There is a consultation about the plans to close the Stamford and Deeping SKDC offices. The deadline is 20th February.

30/01/2020   Council

The Council meeting began with a silence in respectful memory of former Chair of SKDC, Cllr Peter Speigl and former Chair of the world’s longest running radio panel show and much-loved Grantham born entertainer, Nicholas Parsons CBE. The silence was, suitably, just a minute. It would have been great if all the afternoon’s debate could have been conducted without hesitation, repetition or deviation but this was unlikely from the outset.

Grantham favourite child – Nicholas Parsons
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