2024 Annual Town Meeting

DRAFT Minutes  of the Annual Parish Meeting held on 18th April 2024

There were 46 members of public present. 

1.   Welcome from Chairman Cllr Amanda Bowen

2.   Notes from the Annual Parishioners meeting held April 2023 proposed and seconded as a true and correct record, all in attendance voted in favour.

3.   Mayor- Chairman Cllr Amanda Bowen gave her report on duties and events in her first year as a Council Chairman – full report attached. 

4.   Debbie Money Chairman of Coningsby Helping Hands – unable to attend, report attached.

5.   Coningsby Charity accounts were not presented or sent to council. 

Question time:  Host question master for the evening EL Councillor Martin Foster.

Councillor Craig Leyland - leader of ELDC; Lincolnshire County - Cllr Tom Ashton & Kimberly Pickett – Safer Together Co- Ordinator for East Lindsey – Police and Crime Commissioners officer.

Hoplands road update? – TA. Unfortunately, no date announced, Cllr A is working on together with Highways and is considering a petition if there is no movement very soon. 

Why are bungalows not included in the new build housing estates? Cllr Leyland – the current local plan has a need provide affordable housing but no requirement to provide bungalows.   Cllr Ashton – the developers cannot be persuaded to build specific types of properties but as Portfolio Holder for Planning EL he would like to push this question to be included in the plan currently being worked on. 

Lack of policing in the villages, when can we expect to see officers back on the beat? Kimberly Picket- Neighbourhood Police teams plan to do local events visiting different areas when they can. 

Could the panel see PCSOs being introduced back at all in the near future? Cllr Leyland agreed that PCSOs returning would be welcomed and supported by ELDC. Kimberley Picket – replied with the election of the PCC this month the question was impossible to predict each candidate will decide where monies are spent. 

Flooding damage to land, income, and nearby gardens, what is happening? Cllr Ashton – I have the deepest sympathy with all that have been affected and have been active in visiting farms and areas that have been flooded. From the 11th April there is 2.5k available for claims plus an additional fund for grants of compensation between £500 -£25,000. Please do claim for any losses. The Bain is an EA watercourse and they are responsible for the banks, damages will be very costly, pumps will be replaced. The water that is released from the Bain is restricted, but this was sadly not enough to hold the amount of water reaching the lower Bain including Coningsby; there are lots of conversations and work being done regarding the flood clean up. Cllr Leyland – More funding from devolution will be fought for by the Council and passed on to Flood relief funds.

Do the police get back to persons reporting a crime? Kimberly Picket – Yes if the crime is against you personally you will be contacted with any updates/conclusions. Do East Lindsey have a policy regarding selling from Laybys? Cllr Leyland asked for this report to be forwarded to him and he would investigate and get back to the clerk.

East Lindsey has 3 district representatives covering this area, one has never been seen to attend any local Council meetings, thus it is felt putting extra pressure on the other two whilst still claiming the same allowance; as this is his second term of office, do we take it that you are happy as leader of East Lindsey with his poor standards and attendance?  Cllr Leyland – This Councillor is not supporting his colleagues – as you have brought this up publicly it will be dealt with and a disciplinary matter raised. 

Help with dealing with scam phone calls and emails, how can we best protect ourselves and get the message out to others? Kimberly Pickett- the number to call is 01522 212333 or email Victim.lincs.co.uk, there are information packs available here tonight and these can be accessed on the website or ordered in paper form. Kimberly and her team are willing to attend group meetings please contact her. Cllr Leyland – County Council and District also provide documentation and advice, there is lots of support available. Kimberly Pickett – Please keep reporting any scams or potential scams as this helps the investigators to piece information together to stop or ultimately catch the scammers. 

Why did East Lindsey sell the land in Skegness to the developers for £1 when it could have made a profit on the open market?  Cllr Leyland – This parcel of land had been up for sale and failed to sell over many years, government funding was used to purchase the land and was part of a scheme to develop the area bringing employment and increase the marketing of Skegness. 

Why do the funds seem to go first to the coast? Cllr Leyland -The Government initiative was to improve the coastal areas also, Alford, Boston and Spilsby as recognised areas of deprivation have received funding for various projects including the Arts and Theatre.

Mayor of Lincoln – Devolution, what are your thoughts? Cllr Leyland – This should bring some benefit to ELDC and there will be a seat on the board governing the funds – Unitary Groups will be formed, ELDC are cautiously confident that things will improve locally.

Councillor Martin Foster thanked all the panel and the public for the interesting questions. 

6.   Cllr Mathew Mason presented the Rickard Cup to Coningsby and Tattershall Bell ringers for their work in and around the village. 

7.   Cllr Amanda Bowen read some fun facts about Coningsby's one-handed clock, Mr John Peter Bass was presented with a personalised framed picture of St. Micheals church, for 40 years of dedicated service winding the clock. 

Cheese and wine refreshments were enjoyed by all. 

Reports from Coningsby Bell ringers, Helping Hands and Chairmans report attached.

Coningsby Chairman Cllr Amanda Bowen

Good evening, and thank you for attending.

 I would like to start my round up of the year’s events with a thank you. We in Coningsby are so lucky to have a dedicated team who support and work hard to make our village great. The work that goes on continuously behind the scenes to give us a village to be proud of. I would like to extend my thanks to the whole team and also my fellow councillors.  

This year as of any has had it’s challenges, however great things have happened. Our local youth club DIVSS has gone from strength to strength, with community members supporting we have been able to give young people a space to let off steam and make memories. This year our journey will include the Duke of Edinburgh award. We will be taking a group of 10 to start the adventure with bronze. We hope this will encourage the group to team build, problem solve, and leave them a feeling of empowerment to take with them for life. 

The coronation of our King gave us yet again a time to celebrate. Of which we rose to the occasion with a family fun day. This saw an amazing turnout by our village, with charity stalls, food and bounce castles, fun was had by all.  Alongside this we also brought in the catering team and gave the Wonderful Women’s Institute a rest for our lovely well turned out afternoon tea. 

It’s so nice to see the village come together and share a smile, hopefully after the recent flooding we can do this again. Going forward we will work hard to repair and upgrade the existing Muga and add our new ping pong table to the Alan barker ground. We once again will have a beautiful space for us all to share. 

Coningsby Helping Hands have had another successful year with many fundraising events, we held a Christmas Fayre, New Years Eve party and Spring Fayre, we joined in at both the Coronation Fundays and 40 very excited children enjoyed breakfast with Santa. 

120 senior citizens from both Coningsby & Tattershall enjoyed a fabulous May Tea with entertainment by the very talented Dreambelles, we celebrated the Coronation with delicious food and plenty of flag waving and singing. 

We are very fortunate to receive many generous donations including one from Tattershalls Thursday evening bingo and one from the Woodhall Spa show committee. The Stanley Barker Trust have generously agreed to take on the rent for our garage which we use for storage. We had 4 collections left to Helping Hands in lieu of flowers after the passing of local residents, we also receive many donations showing gratitude for equipment loaned. All these very kind contributions to the charity are much appreciated. Overall, the total donations this year is £3295. Quite astonishing thank you. 

This year we purchased 3 electric scooters, car hand controls, over the bed table, bath seat, battery charger leads numerous new batteries for the scooters, tyres and inner tubes and had many scooters serviced; this year £4353.18 has been spent on equipment and repairs. 

I would like to thank the Lions the Town Council and the local community for their continued support. 

We are now in our 43rd year of service to the community and have just rebranded our logo, we will be proudly wearing our new shirts very soon! 

Thank you, Debbie Money.

Coningsby & Tattershall Bell Ringers 

Thank you so much for the award of the Rickard Cup and I am so happy to accept this on behalf of not only the Coningsby & Tattershall ringers, but all the other ringers from local towers who join us on a regular basis and make up our team, with special thanks going to the Old Bolingbroke ringers, especially Colin who teaches at Coningsby. 

The bells are not just our bells, they belong to the Church, but to us they also belong to the whole village. They have rung Coningsby’s history for centuries and so I perhaps a quick run down on the bells and how they have marked our history alongside us – also remember it goes without saying that ringers rock! – actually we do because if you ever come into the chamber when we are ringing one of the first things that is commented on is the fact that the tower does rock – if it didn’t it would crack! 

The tenor weighs over 10 hundred weight – over 522 Kgs for the metric amongst us, was cast in 1616 by George Lee and to this day she is still the bell that rings out at 15 minute intervals across the village – she is 408 years old. All of our 6 bells are now hung in a metal frame in the 15th Century Tower and in 2021 we were very lucky to have all 6 ropes replaced by a local benefactor to which we are all grateful – electrical tape around the tail end of the rope makes for interesting ringing as over time it tends to move and gets stuck around fingers etc. 

Back to the history: the first peal recorded at Coningsby was in 1785, the peal broad is in Coningsby ringing chamber, none of the names are recognised by the current ringers.

More current local history includes-

April 2021 – tolled for the funeral of Prince Phillip – Duke of Edinburgh
July 2021 – local NHS and military medical personnel were given the opportunity to try ringing for the National Covid Day. 
June 2022 – National celebrations of Queen Elizabeths 70th anniversary
September 2022 - fully muffled ringing for Queen Elizabeth’s funeral – the death of a sovereign is the one of the very few occasions when we can ring fully muffled
Quarter peal was rung for Joan Simpson, a well-known local ringer, who was awarded the BEM for her community work. Joan learnt to ring as a young girl in 1945 and rang throughout her life. 
May 2023 – the bells rang out for the Coronation of King Charles.