Longstanding Parish and District Councillor, Cllr Judy Stevens has decided that she would be better off entering next year’s elections as a Conservative.

Cllr Stevens is well-known as a tireless community activist involved in many organisations and initiatives in the village of Deeping St James. She was at the forefront of the Deeping St James in Bloom campaign and can still be seen regularly weeding, tending plants and picking litter.

Fellow Deepings Councillor, Ashley Baxter, who is still Independent, comments “Judy has clearly been seduced by the flattery and empty promises of the SKDC Tory Leadership. One can only assume that she has been promised a Special Responsibility Allowance next year as a Committee Chair or Cabinet Member. While I am disappointed that Judy Stevens has abandoned her independent status I guess it would be better to have someone in such positions of authority who have a track record of speaking up for residents and being practically involved in the community rather than some of the Tory yes-men who turn up just to collect the allowances and make up the numbers e.g. one of the existing DSJ Tory Councillors now lives on the other side of Peterborough and was until recently a Vice-Chair of a Committee.

The best outcome next May would be for more Independent candidates to stand and win so the Tories lose their majority. Failing that I hope that Judy can cause havoc among the already divided Tory group.

Councillors are volunteers. They present themselves for election and take on responsibilities on behalf of the people who live in their ward or division. They have a duty to attend meetings which, in South Kesteven, usually take place in Grantham.

I have compiled a spreadsheet summarising the attendance records of all SKDC Councillors elected since May 2015 and posted it as a page on this website. There should be a tab near the top of the page marked SKDC Attendance.

An overall average attendance of 80% is not bad considering the distance some of us have to travel. From the Deepings it takes the best part of an hour to get to Grantham and the same again to get home again. The spreadsheet takes no account of how long each meeting lasts. They might be just 45 minutes or they might drag on for 8 hours (as was the case with a planning meeting earlier this year).

Most SKDC Councillors are retired, some are self-employed and some have full-time jobs and have to negotiate with their employers in order to attend the scheduled meetings which nearly all take place on weekdays mornings or afternoons.

District Councillors are paid allowances supposedly to the responsibilities they take on, e.g. the Leader receives an allowance of nearly £19,000pa (recently increased from £15,000) as the role is so demanding and time-consuming. The Deputy Leader receives £15,000pa (recently risen from £10,000). The Cabinet Members get a bit less and so on down to the backbenchers who received an annual basic allowance of £5,407pa (recently increased from £4,641pa). The argument for the increased allowances was that since the coup d’etat last year SKDC has become a ‘Member-led’ authority with Councillors taking the important decisions rather than leaving the Officers to get on with their jobs.

Part of the winning strategy for the coup d’etat was to increase the number of cabinet members and the number of committees. As each committee has a Chair and a Vice-Chair with a ‘special responsibility allowarnce’ the number of people entitled to more than just the basic allowance increased. The increase in allowances and the increase in special responsibility claims explains why the annual cost of members allowances has increased to almost £1/2m pa.

Have a look at the spreadsheet and see for yourself whether the Councillor(s) for your ward are diligent in their attendance.

I hope to publish similar statistics for attendance at Market Deeping Town Council in the not-too-distant future although there are no allowances for the time-consuming role of a Town or Parish Councillor, only out-of-pocket expenses (which are very rare).

Just the 274 pages this month (plus Local Plan appendix)

All 56 Councillors have been sent these documents, mostly through the post. The documents include the entire Local Plan which is quite a handy document to have on the shelf although it would be more useful as a separate distinct document.

The late Cllr Terl Bryant, back in November, did question the Leader on the volume of paper:

“Members’ Open Questions –

Question 3

Councillor Bryant referred to the inclusion of Cabinet reports and minutes in the Council agenda and the amount of paper that was used as a result. He highlighted that the information was already available, speculated about the number of people who read the full pack of documents and asked whether it was necessary.

The Leader stated that he was attempting to make sure that information was available to all Councillors, whether or not they chose to read it.”

Under the terms of the Local Government Act, 1972, each Town and Parish Council across the country is obliged to hold an annual public meeting on a date between 1st March and 1st June. Deeping St James held its Annual Parish Meeting on 8th May 2018 at the Deepings School.

Over 130 people attended the meeting including:

• Many local residents
• Nominees for the annual ‘Making a Difference’ awards
• Children and parents from Deeping St James CP School
• Most Parish Councillors, some District Councillors (including me) and the Conservative County Councillor (although he arrived late and only stayed for 30 minutes).
• Representatives of local community organisations including the Lions, scouts etc
• ‘Distinguished guests’ including: the Chair of SKDC; the Chair of LCC; the Mayor of Market Deeping; representatives of the Woodland Trust; and two Senior Officers from SKDC also attended.

The meeting began with a minute’s silence to remember a number of Deeping St James villagers who had died since the last APM.

Cllr Andrew Bowell then opened the meeting with a welcome and a short illustrated presentation about the Parish Council’s activities and achievements during the year. One of the highlights was the opening of a £135,000 state-of-the-art skate park at Woody Heights on Linchfield Road.

Then came the best bit of the evening. Anyone still suffering the illusion that this was a meeting about parking, litter and grass cutting was about to realise that they do things differently in Deeping St James. A musical interlude from the very talented school band of children and staff from Deeping St James Community Primary School rocked the house with three classic covers from their repertoire including “I love rock and roll” and Tina Turner’s “Rolling down the River”. These youngsters were a very hard act to follow…

…but they were followed by three varied and interesting presentations:

• Kaye Brennan of the Woodland Trust explained the ‘Charter for Trees’ which had been signed by DSJ Parish Council in November last year
• Pam Byrd of Deepings First gave a brief overview of the Deepings Neighbourhood Plan including the of the Deepings Green Walk project to enhance and consolidate the network of pedestrian and cycle routes across the Deepings.
• Andrew Norman, recently appointed Head of Visitor Economy at SKDC, outlined his challenge and aspirations from promoting tourism across the District.

The rest of the meeting was devoted to the popular ‘Making A Difference Awards’. The MAD awards have been presented annually since 2009 and are designed to celebrate the friendly and genorous community that make up the village.

This year there were many nominations in five categories. Each nominee was presented with a certificate while the winner in each category was given a small trophy.

• MAD Special Award to ‘Sossie’, a friendly dog who had led her owner, Clive the baker, to a collapsed person who required urgent medical attention.
• MAD Young Person (under 19) – Harriett Spriggs who had completed a ‘coast-to-coast’ cycle ride in aid of the Root4Ryley charity.
• MAD Citizen – Bob Parmenter and Betty Fenech who are long-time volunteers for Deepings Age Concern.
• MAD Organisation – The Forget-me-not club which has run monthly for elderly people for many years.
• MAD in the course of doing their job – This award went to Dave Blessett, who recently retired after decades as caretaker of the Deepings School.

Not satisfied with celebrating so many people and animals in the village, the next item on the agenda concerned trees in the village. Parish and District Cllr Judy Stevens announced the winner of ‘Deeping St James favourite tree’. Before the meeting started, attendees had the opportunity to choose between 10 trees nominated from around the village via Facebook. Cllr Stevens revealed that one of the 10 trees was, shock horror, not in Deeping St James but was actually across the river in Deeping Gate. This tree should have been disqualified if not immediately chopped down to the root! Fortunately for the tree, the generous adjudicators allowed it to remain in the competition which it lost. The winning tree was a willow which I am sure would have been weeping with joy and surprise when it heard the news (Just to be clear, the trees were not expected to attend the meeting).

All that remained was to draw the raffle and for Cllr Mike Ward, Deputy Chair of DSJ Parish Council, to propose a Vote of Thanks to all involved.

After the meeting, attendees were offered tea, coffee and cakes prepared by Margaret Flegg. There was also an opportunity to browse community stalls including the Deeping Lions, Deepings Age Concern and the Woodland Trust.

If you have never attended the Deeping St James Annual Parish Meeting, I really recommend you put it in your diary for 2019. It is a really positive celebration, of all that goes on in the village during the year.

Under the terms of the Local Government Act, 1972, each Town and Parish Council across the country is obliged to hold an annual public meeting on a date between 1st March and 1st June. Market Deeping held its Annual Town Meeting on 1st May at the Green School in the Town.

Almost 70 people attended the meeting including several Councillors, representatives of local organisations, some residents of the Town and a few interlopers from the neighbouring parish of Deeping St James.

Before the meeting, attendees were offered refreshments and an opportunity to browse stalls from the Royal British Legion, Deepings Youth Centre, Lincolnshire Credit Union and other local groups.

Mayor Pauline Redshaw opened the meeting with a welcome and a few words about her mayoral year which comes to an end next week. Cllr Redshaw expressed disappointment about criticism of the Council on social media and urged residents to approach the Town Clerk if they had a problem with Council services.

As a District Councillor I pick up a lot of relevant information and local issues from Facebook and Twitter as well as reading a wide range of opinions and ideas from constituents. So no offence to Cllr Redshaw, but this is the 21st century and, rather than decrying or ignoring social media, perhaps the Council could consider how to engage with it more effectively?

The introduction was followed by a mercifully brief report from the Chair of the Amenities and Open Spaces Sub-Committee. Cllr Broughton began by declaring that a written report had been circulated and he hoped we had all read it. Given that there were almost seventy people in the room and probably fewer than 30 copies of the agenda and reports, I was probably not the only person who had not read it. Notwithstanding the lack of paperwork, Cllr Broughton gave an update on recent issues including firstly the planting of a hedge and widening of the footpath opposite William Hildyard school. This was offered as an excellent example of partnership working as volunteers, including Councillors, had planted the new hedge and the County Council had laid the new footpath soon afterwards. Secondly Cllr Broughton reported that an ongoing case of ‘unauthorised parking’ (of travellers) on the old Baston End Road was being addressed by the appropriate officers of the District and County Council who were ensuring that due legal process was being followed

Next was the turn of the Chair of Planning and Highways Sub-Committee. Cllr David Shelton informed the meeting that the formal consultation on the Local Plan is imminent and encouraged residents to engage with the process which will include local exhibitions, online consultations etc. He also brought residents up-to-date with progress on the Deepings Neighbourhood Plan.

Cllr Roy Stephenson followed with his annual report from the Town Hall and Cemeteries Sub-Committee. On behalf of his committee, he boasted of the new chipper purchased to reduce the financial and environmental costs of green waste disposal. Most of the Council’s green waste is now recycled… as are many of Cllr Stephenson’s jokes! (and I’m sure he won’t mind me saying so). The other big news from this Sub-Committee is that the Town Hall door has been repainted and now opens without any need for brute force.

Reports from formal committees were followed by feedback from Cllr Virginia Moran about the ongoing SKDC consultation relating to a proposed Saturday market in the old market place. Over 300 responses have been received and nearly all of them favourable. With a fair wind the weekly market could start this September. Stall-holders at the Wednesday market will be invited, along with others, to sell goods at the Saturday market if and when it goes ahead.

Pam Byrd of the Deepings First Neighbourhood Planning Group gave a brief explanation  of the Deepings Green Walk project to enhance and consolidate the network of pedestrian and cycle routes across the Deepings.

Cllr Nick Neilson had been scheduled to address the meeting about the SKDC Members Ward Budget scheme but was unable to attend the meeting. Consequently, Cllr Ashley Baxter (that’s me, folks!) stepped in to outline how the scheme works i.e. each of the 56 SKDC Councillors has been allocated £1,000 to spend on community projects for the benefit of their ward. Cllr Baxter explained to the meeting that organisations interested in receiving funding through the scheme could approach any, or all, of their District Councillors. It is perfectly possible that, aside from the aforementioned £1,000, the ward Councillor might be able to signpost people to other available community funding pots, e.g. Tesco Bags of Help, SKDC Community fund etc.

Sgt Emma-Jayne Crisp gave a short presentation summarising the key priorities for policing in the Deepings. She said that although her team have to deal issues of Anti-Social Behaviour, burglary etc, we should remember that the Deepings is still a lovely place to live and work (Amen to that!).

With presentations and speeches completed, Cllr Redshaw opened the meeting to questions from the floor. The first question was about the attendance and activities of the Deepings Youth Club and was answered by Kate Jacobs who is a member of staff at DYC.

The second question was asked by Pam Steel on behalf of the Friends of Millfield. Mrs Steel summarised the current situation concerning the Millfield site including the ongoing Village Green application. She asked if the Council, as a corporate entity, would continue to support the protection of Millfield against development. Cllr Redshaw stated publicly that the Council intended to do so.

Another question concerned Footpath 4 which had been mentioned during Cllr Shelton’s speech. Footpath 4 is the link path between John Eve Field and Linchfield Road which has been built over by Tesco and Persimmon leaving only a narrow path with an adverse camber between hundreds of new houses and the local primary schools. Cllr Adam Brookes has done a lot of work on this issue and valiantly attempted to explain a relatively complex issue in a concise manner. The issue is explained in more detail on Cllr Brookes’ blog.

A few more questions from the floor completed the meeting. On the whole, it was an upbeat and informative meeting although it suffered some verbosity. There was plenty of opportunity to ask questions to Councillors and community organisations before and after the meeting. In some ways it was a shame that more people didn’t attend the meeting.

On the other hand, it is just as well more people didn’t attend as the Green School was barely sufficient for the number of people and the type of meeting. Last year the event was held at the Deepings Community Centre which has more chairs and better acoustics. Even the Coronation Hall might have been more appropriate; it would at least have comfortably seated all those who wished to attend. It also has better parking.

However my main criticism of the Market Deeping Town Meeting is the lack of any kind of visual aid. Where else, in this day and age, would you expect 70 people to listen in virtual silence to a series of speeches of up to 20 minutes in length with no powerpoint, video or any other prop?

At the end of the meeting I looked around the room and discovered that I was probably among the five youngest attendees (and I’m almost 50!). Occasionally people bemoan the fact that there aren’t more young people involved in community activities and politics. Sadly, people under 50 are not likely to engage with a system which proudly rejects social media, powerpoint and everything else the 21st century has to offer. Perhaps next year, the Annual Town Meeting should be replaced by a webinar?!