Out and around Holdingham and Sleaford: Town Council Issues

The Sleaford Town Council (on July 24th, 2019) had one or two interesting discussions. Topics that have been discussed before in other contexts. 

The Audio recording is on the Sleaford Town Council web-site but is just over 2 hours long.  However, I have listed the parts of interest in respect to the time period they were discussed. 

The audio recording is here: Audio. 

The highlights I have listed are:

Time:

Public Question 00 to 18.00 mins: Becks and River water (mainly affecting Westholme): 

Community Speed Initiative: 23 mins 10 secs to 46 mins 15 sec. (Cllr Mervyn Head)

Cemetery Access:  1 hour 30mins 32 secs to 1 hour 57 minutes 51 seconds

Other topics include: External Electricity Supply - Market Place: 1 hour 22 minutes 40 secs to 1 hour 30 mins 31 

Cemetery Gates pre 2017

Earlier
Map of Sleaford

How often should Sleaford Town Councillors meet? Holdingham Councillors included!!!

A debate (I say with some tongue in cheek) took place in the Sleaford Town Council on Wednesday  10 July. The Agenda Item was at 9.1: "Following a recent meeting of the Clerks Management Team we would like to propose that Full Council meetings are changed from every two weeks to every four weeks". 

This Motion was proposed by Cllr Snookes and Seconded Cllrs Melody Shanahan-Kluth and Bozena Allen.

An audio recording of the whole meeting is available on the STC website. Agenda Item 9.1 commences at 1 hr 12 min 45 secs and continues for 56 minutes to 2 hrs  8 minutes 45 secs approximately. 

I have also converted the audio into a video recording and placed it on Youtube (slightly less quality as far as the audio bit is concerned). Video Youtube

THERE ARE ONE OR TWO ISSUES HERE:

1. Standing Orders do not specifically state for 2 weeks.
2. Clerks Management Team is not specifically set-up to formulate timetables for Full Council meetings.

The schedule for meetings has already been implicitly approved by the AGM in May.

However, I will say no more at this point.

Trees on the Sleaford Lincoln Road Play Area: why remove them?

Sleaford Town Council: Agenda Item 10.1 on 12 June 2019

This agenda item looked at a "request" to remove trees in the Lincoln Road Play Area. I have taken photographs and assume the trees in question relate to some bounding on Barnes Close. 

 Photographs of the trees adjacent to the Lincoln Road Play Area.

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Maybe three trees under threat

The trees are near the "Basketball" area

ATrees offer shelter and noise reduction

The corner between Lomax and Barnes Close Houses. 

These trees are the boundary to Lomax

Some are adjacent to Barness Close but there are also reasonably mature trees near Lomax. Complaints have been made in the past about noise from say Basketball area and other facilities. 

There are dangers in removing trees and the roots etc have drainage effects and other benefits. STC Agenda Item 10.1 on June 12th debated this and seemed to have made a rushed decision. What do other residents say?

NKDC Leader answers Questions from Sleaford Town Councillors

Interestingly Richard Wright visited Sleaford Town Council on 12th June. The audio recording is available on the Sleaford Town Council Web-Site. 

Two Councillors from Holdingham attended: Ken Fernandes  (Ken Fernandes) and James Thomas (James Thomas)

Audio Recording: Leader Richard Wright commenced around minute  11mins 50sec and finished at Minute 42 approximately. June 12th is listed at the audio list at the address given.

Interesting topics covered and it appeared a worthwhile meeting and others will be arranged in the future.

Do we need to pay more in Sleaford & Holdingham to protect our Open Spaces?

There were several reports in Sleaford (including Holdingham Woodside Play Area), about vandalism.

On a national level (and including damage at Stamford) there seems to have been a spate of it. Headlines included "Grown men weep" and the Market Deeping Club (whose exhibition it was) was extremely upset. Not good (understatement).

Nearer home (within Sleaford and Holdingham) the local media and social media reported other cases of vandalism. Woodside  Play Area reportedly had its Goal Posts vandalised. However, on visiting two days later. there were no signs of it. Maybe the Town Council attended the matter.

Boston Road has also been affected and areas nearer the centre of Town.

Do we need further security measures or is this a society based problem that needs addressing and quickly? (also on "Holdingham" Facebook)

Towards Sleaford Wood

Woodside Play Area

Awards to Sleaford People, groups and Companies: 2019 winners

We had the Sleaford Town Awards Thursday 25 April 
at the Sleaford Town Council. It is jointly sponsored by the Council and the Sleaford Standard. I took the attached photo of the Mayor presenting the Environmental Award group who are doing a great job helping clear the Town of Litter: but the full list is on the attached Sleaford Standard link. 

I presented the Sports Individual of the Year award to a huge impressive guy (Malcolm Fenton).

These events have been happening for many years now. I remember them from when John Lavery was Editor of the Sleaford Standard (facebook link). They are and were popular events which for many brought the Town together with differences (social and political) forgotten for a while. 

I took one photograph of the award for Environment. There were 16 in total this year. Click on this link Sleaford Awards

Holdingham Sleaford: Four years on!

Open Spaces and associated Play Areas have gradually improved over the past decae or so. But the last 4 years have seen more rapid improvements.

Here is my latest (and last) Ward Report as a Sleaford Town Councillor. The photographs were all taken on April 1st.

WARD REPORT APRIL 2019

General

On April 1^st I toured the Holdingham Ward with specific reference to the Facilities which are the direct responsibility of Sleaford Town Council. The facilities included: Woodside Play Area (Open Space): Lincoln Road Play Area; Bus Stop/Shelter adjacent to Furlongs Road;  Becks on Lincoln Road and to the rear of Winchester Way.

Some relevant Photographs are attached.

Summary

The improvement in the facilities available on the Lincoln Road and Woodside Open Spaces are considerable in comparison to those available in 2015. (These are my observations). 

Woodside: The Fencing in Summerfield (boundary with the Open Space) has improved matters for the residents. The entrance at Woodside (off Summerfield and the Sleaford Wood) is now more open. Note:  it suffers from very muddy conditions at times (responsibility unclear).

Bus shelter: Graffiti is a problem.  (I understand this is to be cleaned). Thankful for the cleaning but these ASB acts use up Ratepayers money.

Lincoln Road Issues: The Beck adjacent to Holdingham “Green” Housing (e.g. Stokes Drive) to Hockmeyers Garage) suffers from Litter mainly near to Hockmeyers Garage.  Fast Food Cartons and  Drink containers. Similarly: the hedgerows adjacent to Peterborough Way suffer from Litter deposits.  The pavements are cleaned by STC (and also McDonalds and NKDC (where appropriate e.g. Farm Bridge)

General Conclusion

Council Staff, Services and Assets Panel and others deserve some credit.

Vandalism or Graffiti Artwork?

Play Area for youngsters

Woodside

Lincoln Road

Lincoln Road 1

Litter thrown into Becs

Much improved with Football Pitch

Holdingham Roundabout and the A17/A15 connections!

With electons coming up: District and Town on May 2 2019, political pressure is mounting!

Update: Mayor expressses a view
Party politics plays an imporant role especially at District Level. Nomination by a Party to represent them in a Ward is a crucial part of that. Going Independent is feasible, especially at Town level, but support is not always there when you need it. However it is possible. 

There are issues affecting Holdingham: notably the recent indication that improvements to the congested Holdingham Roundabout are expected in the next 2 years.

An Article has appeared in the Sleaford Standard.   

At the same time I visited the NKDC (Full) Council meeting on Februaryy 28th. With a camcorder I recorded snippets of some of the Agenda Items. Notably the Code of Conduct rules coming in but also aspects of National Health and the 2019 to 2022 Local Plan. 

There will be vacancies this Spring (May 2) as some Councillors, at both levels, are stepping down. 

Anybody intereted?

NKDC Full Council. 

Update:

Standing For the Holdingham Ward in May 2019 Local Elections anybody?

I have put this post on the Closed usr Goup (Holdingham Ward)

Just to remind everyone: Local Elections this May. Who wants to be a candidate in the Holdingham Ward? 

Town and District? 

With the area expanding to include Holdingham Grange the Ward gets larger. Three Town Councillors and one District Councillor. 

Some existing Counillors may not be standing so new Councillors required. Here is the link 

Anybody interested? 

Sleaford Holdingham Local Elections: will Ethical Standards and Voter Identification put people off?

There appears to be two forces at work with this years Local Elections.
Voter Identification and new Ethical Standards to be considered in the future.

The issues are being considered in the local and national media including Social Media (Twitter, Facebook et al).

Ethical Standards can be seen on Twitter. 

Voter Identity can be seen on the link attached. Some complaints about this have arisen in the media. 

The topic will be brought up at this weeks Town Council meeting (6 February).

There three Polling Stations within Holdingham (to my knowledge: Care Home, Jolly Scotchman, Greenfield Road (Community Centre)