2024 Annual Parish Meeting

 

Present: Cllr A Gosling – Butterwick Parish Council Chairman

Mrs C Anderton – Clerk of the Council

 

Also Present:    6 members of the public

 

Apologies

There were no apologies received.

 

Chairman’s Annual Report

I wish to thank all the councillors for their time and commitment in attending the meetings for the past year and to the clerk for keeping us informed and compliant. We also received good support from the Borough and County representatives and would like to thank Peter Bedford and Paul Skinner though I have to say we have not received the same level of support from our other Borough Council member Dale Broughton who has only attended twice since being elected. We started the year with 2 vacancies however we have co-opted one new member who took up the role in November and have received an expression of interest from a second member of the parish but unfortunately they are unable to attend this evening. The Council have had a reasonably quiet year but during the year we have taken on the responsibility of upkeep and maintenance of Butterwick Park and we have completed some repairs which were needed and have repainted all the equipment so is now looking quite tidy. We continue to support the local clubs and organisations in the parish whilst keeping the Precept at the same level as previous years. 

 

Butterwick Village Hall Committee Annual Report

The village hall has been well supported during the last year with regular bookings and we continue to be a financially viable concern. We do not have any major projects in the pipeline at present other than painting the exterior.    

 

Park Green Project Annual Report

With the Parish Council taking on full responsibility for Butterwick Park there is nothing much left in terms of support needed from the Project and it is good to see that the park is looking much better now.

 

Boston Borough Council Annual Report

We are one year into the new administration and at this point we are still unsure as to what direction they are taking but at present there is a peer review team in place, appointed from the Government so we will know more in due course. It has been confirmed that Helen Staples will be the new Mayor of Boston from next week.

 

Lincolnshire County Council Annual Report

In contrast to the situation in Westminster and many other parts of the country the

political situation at LCC remains stable.

Our services are in good shape and finances are very strong compared to many and

we are in the enviable position to be able to continue to put additional resources into

highways and major infrastructure which the public welcome.

Within the political arena, we have had 3 by elections last year, the first being the

very sad loss of Ray Wootten whose seat we held against the odds due to a very

strong campaign. Congratulations to Paul Martin in his success.

We also lost Rob Parker who from opposition led a prominent role in the council and

Julie Keilly both seats staying with Labour. I had the pleasure of working with both on

various committees.

Marc Jones held his seat with a greatly reduced majority.

In NE Lincs the conservatives lost 8 seats & control of the council but remain the

largest party.

The District Councils leadership remains status quo but with stresses emerging at

times.

The main political event has been the successful bid for devolution in Greater

Lincolnshire and although many of us have reservations about having a mayor, it is a

great opportunity to bring more money, assets and national influence to our area. We

must do our best to get the right individual elected to the role.

The Storm meetings continue around 860 Section 19 issued since October 2023.

More funding has been found for Potholes and Flood Investigations.

 

To receive comments from the public on any relevant local issues

 

There were no comments from the public.

 

The Chairman thanked all those in attendance and the meeting closed at 7.10pm.