2024 Annual Parish Meeting

MINUTES OF FRAMPTON PARISH COUNCIL ANNUAL PARISH MEETING HELD ON 18TH APRIL 2024 AT 1930 AT FRAMPTON VILLAGE HALL

Present: Cllr Ashton (Chairman), Cllr Burton (Vice Chairman), Cllr Pryke (Frampton Parish & Boston Borough Councillor – Kirton & Frampton Ward), Cllr Clare, Cllr Hildred, Cllr Fowler, Cllr Balgarnie, Cllr Hladun, Cllr Rylott (Boston Borough Councillor – Kirton & Frampton Ward).

Absent: Cllr A Austin (County Councillor) and Cllr David Middleton (Boston Borough Councillor – Kirton & Frampton Ward).

In attendance: Lana Maclennan-James (Clerk & Responsible Finance Officer) and various members of different community groups of Frampton.

1.   Welcome from Cllr Stuart Ashton, Council Chair (Agenda item 1 APM 18.04.24)

Cllr Ashton gave a welcome to all in attendance stating that he hopes to make this more of an event in the coming years by serving things such as beverages and light snacks.

2.   Approval of minutes from last year’s Annual Parish Meeting 20.04.2023 - (Agenda item 2 APM 18.04.24)

The minutes were signed and approved as a true and correct record.

3.   To receive report from members of the Parish and Community groups (Agenda item 3 18.04.24) 

Frampton History Group – Joan Dean

The group started in autumn 2006, they have meetings on 3 consecutive Mondays in spring and autumn. They started meeting in the room at St Marys church however after some building works they have moved to St Michaels hall. They have a range of speakers, for example they recently had a retired thatcher. They are in the middle of history talks at the moment, having recently had Sally Pinchbeck and her husband who are renovating Heckington manor. Since Covid it has been harder to get speakers and Joan asked the room for any suggestions of speakers for future events.

St Marys Church - Joan Ashton 

Joan explains that the Vicar (Revd Canon Sudharshan Sarvananthan) has been made a rural Dean of the Holland Deanery and is on the bishop staff of Lincoln. St Marys is a joint benefice with Wyberton and the Revd is the rector in Wyberton and victor in Frampton alongside filling many gaps of missing priests in the Holland area. The Deanery of Holland is the Boston Borough Council area, Holland North and Holland South divided by the river Witham. Next Monday the Reverend Mark Williams will take over in Bowland and Father David Stevenson will become priest in charge of the stump, freeing our Reverends time. This information shows that due to financial constraints the numbers of priests are falling in the Holland area. At both Frampton churches there are now only 2 services each month rather than every Sunday in years gone by. The church has been given its spring clean this week. There is no heating still at St Marys, for special occasions on colder days, heaters are hired in. Average services have around 40 attendees. There was recently a Deane reconfirmation service (last autumn). The church is the venue for the annual craft fair which is always well attended on a Saturday with Remembrance Sunday occurring the next morning. There is a trumpeter for the 2-minute silence and the event is always quite a spectacle. The few newsletters that were left in the church were taken very fast and the church have received many praises for it. However, it can be a struggle to organise material far ahead to put in the newsletter with it only being produced quarterly.

Frampton VC Hall Chairman, On Stage In Frampton, Frampton Charities - Wendy Cope 

FVCH – The situation is still very much the same, Jo plummer is still managing the hall. Preschool is held 5 mornings a week in term time, the hall also holds meetings from the WI, gardening club (monthly), dance classes (twice weekly), yoga sessions and FPC, there are also casual bookings for special occasions which have increased generally. The biggest outlay is still insurance and all necessary fire and safety checks have been completed. There is a new upgraded electrical circuit board fitted to comply with insurance. The defibrillator has now been installed and ready for use, it is a valuable amenity for the community. 

On Stage –

Now in its 30th year to help fund special occasions and every day running of the hall. On stage held a quiz in March and a Cabaret in the year too with great acts and more coming in September. 

Charities – 

A busy year with applications to register farm tenancies with land registries has now been approved. The annual tour of farmland occurred in June last year. The playing field grass was cut regularly in summer season, with the addition of a new gate, sign and pipework fitted to hopefully solve the drainage issue by LCC. In the year they have given electricity grants to some local elderly residents and also grants to students, organisations and clubs. 

WI – Louise Balgarnie

In April 23 there were major changes to the committee and a reformatting of the room to encourage a more social aspect. In May, Mabel attended the National Annual meeting and informed the group of what she had learned. The WI joined the village in lighting the Beacon and helped set up and celebrate the Coronation tea at St Michaels then helped clearing up some of the garden areas. In June they were joined by Jonathan Cooper who gave a talk on Lincolnshire Civil War history. In July the WI were joined by Heather of Boston in Stitch where they got to see the history of the project and touch the works in progress. In August they held a trip to Belvoir Castle and had some crafty evenings. In September they held a talk on Kimonos and in October for their 87th birthday they had a visit from the magic man who previously visited 10 years ago. November was a busy month with members knitting and crocheting poppies for the Church, special thanks to Laraine. They also helped at the craft fayre and raised over £2k for St Marys. In December they WI was decorated at Kirton Church and had Horace visit them, Mr Liberty, who gave a talk and show on the history and his version. In January’s meeting they had a Royal Navy history talk and started the book club, special thanks to Julie and Di. In February they had a talk on the port of Boston and March held their AGM where the new President Janice took over the helm. Throughout the year they were joined by many new members rising from 33 the previous year to 53, attended various supper clubs and donated items and their time. Louise thanked everybody with their help at the craft fair and recommends the walk and talk with Jane. She is determined to keep the group going with various occasions, only last week they had Vickie Reed from Sewing bee talk with over 70 people in the hall. 

Hubberts Bridge Community Centre- Cllr Andrew Hladun

Hubberts Bridge has finished its new kitchen decoration, the new kitchen is now very modern and very upgraded in the hopes it will encourage more bookings, especially larger events. There are new and mended curtains to be sorted out this week, to keep the place up to scratch. CCTV was installed with help of the Parish Council at the end of last year, following a complaint from a neighbour. There is a new booking system on Hallmaster finalised on Monday night with a link also. Hallmaster makes online booking a simpler process and stops a lot of work for the booking clerk and the deposit is taken.

The next AGM is in May, Steven who has been secretary and, on the committee, since it was built in 1977 is retiring. They are still short of members with only one newly joined. It is taking on bookings slowly but it is just not fruitful enough.

Question from the group to Andrew: Are there still sports events?

Answer:  No, only regular event is the blood donors once a month. The Indian community have a weekend celebration 3 or 4 times a year.

Frampton Hand Bell Ringers – Cllr Pete Burton on behalf of Val Marriot

The bell ringers meet every second and fourth Mondays in the month at St Michaels. In 2023 they have held concerts at the County Club, Frampton house and St Micheals. Old Leake Community Centre, Boston Community Centre and St Thomas Hill to be held this year. It is currently only a female group and they would love new people to come along and join them. The contact is Maria Freeman Boston 722191.

St Michaels Church & Church Hall – Myra & Keith Scott

There are two services each month and they are grateful to Val who takes one each month and the other is taken by the vicar. The quinquennial inspection took place last year which checks the building every 5 years. No work needed. The church held a pancake evening on Shrove Tuesday, a stew and dumplings event and a carol and mince pie night with the hand bell ringers entertaining. There is an ever-decreasing congregation.

Hall

The pancake and stew evening took place here to raise funds for the church. The Coronation tea was attended by about 70 people and each took home a fruit cake and Coronation souvenir, thank you to the WI who helped tidy up the garden and FPC for the defibrillator and help with the Jubilee. There is a quiz evening on Sat 19th October. 

Cllr Ashton asked if the hall has any structural needs and requested that they reach out if they need some support. Keith is looking in to it. 

RSPB – John Badley

A few changes since the last APM, the café is doing really well and bringing in quite a lot of income, business numbers have gone up 10-20%, the overflow carpark in now being used frequently and for longer durations. They reached a milestone of 100 volunteers, with only 60 a year ago, the café has made a really nice ambience to encourage more volunteers. There is a current project to upgrade 710m of footpaths, raising them up, widening them and giving a little bit of elevation to be able to see more of the landscape, this will be finished next week. They now have 2 mobility scooters that are free to hire, they have seemed to be incredibly popular and so are now on a booking system too. Also, next month they are changing the doors on the visitor’s centre as they are hard for people with mobility issues to use, they will now be automatic doors. They are holding an event in June for Frampton marshes 40th birthday, it is 21st-23rd June weekend, social media will have more details. They are currently trying to figure out how to accommodate more visitors and are thinking maybe a coach from local schools. RSPB changed the way that they charge on the 2nd of April, there was a facilities fee which has now been moved to a carparking charge. They are joining up with transported arts program on a project called wings which is being done in the local area, there are 25 different wings being produced for all sorts of locations, RSPB are participating and offering up the reserve. They now have a defibrillator outside the visitors centre. In regards to wildlife, last year they had more pairs of breeding waders than any other RSPB in the whole of the UK, (500) an increase from zero back in 2006 when land was first acquired. There were also two pairs of black winged stilts last year, one has come back this year, the two last year were the first two ever nested in Lincolnshire. 

Friends of Frampton churches – John Cooper

This year John has been the chairman of the committee, he states that it has been a privilege. This year they are helping Framfest and have more great ideas going forward. John hopes the group grows like the WI. They have had a very successful year, including an afternoon tea where Lady Bolsover spoke about the etiquette of drinking tea. Over several Saturdays they have held craft mornings and coffee with up to 40 people in the meeting room. They are holding a talk with speaker on July 27th, the speaker is Horice Liberty of the Liberty’s shop in London. Unfortunately, two friends are leaving, Keith and Myra, John thanked them for their help. 

Keep Fit & Dance Classes – Joanne Sutton (read by clerk)

The classes have continued to thrive this last year with several long-term attendees showing gained flexibility, balance and posture. One class was asked to take part in The Rotary Club of Spalding annual “Evening of Entertainment” last month (their 3rd year). Joanne also attended the Boston Rotary Club last year and discussed her career as a singer and dancer. There are now 2 further classes at Frampton Village Hall on Tuesday evenings. Hopefully there is much more dancing to be had in the coming years. 

Frampton Community Preschool – Susan Simmons (read by clerk)

The Preschool continues to thrive and currently has minimal spaces. They now employ 8 members of staff, 7 of which have childcare and education qualifications. They received a “good” grading from OFSTED in May 2023. They have taken part in national fundraising events such as “Red Nose Day” and “Christmas Jumper Day”. They celebrated Christmas with a party for the children and a visit from Father Christmas. They also held an end of academic year party for the children and families where the had a bouncy castle and picnic lunch. 

Frampton Gardening Club – Ray Harding (read by clerk)

They are still holding their indoor meetings on the last Thursday of the month in Frampton Village Hall where entry is £1. Their small but loyal membership has reduced slightly despite new members joining. A few changes have been made to stay viable, these are to not hold meetings in Dec, Jan and Feb (due to poor attendance), to raise subs from £10 to £15 per year and to hire 24 seats on a public outing to avoid paying fees for hiring a whole coach. They are in need of a more varied group of speakers. Their AGM takes place in May with a competition of some sort and a Social in August. A major success has been their January club lunch at the Thatched Cottage, Sutterton, taking their reduced-price Seniors’ menu for 30+ people. Ray thanked his loyal and hard-working committee.

The chairman finished the reports by thanking everyone involved. 

4.   Chairman’s report (Agenda item 4 APM 18.04.24) 

Looking back at his report from 2023, Cllr Ashton shared that we celebrated a Jubilee, a death of Queen and a new clerk which is a lot for one year. This year we celebrated a new King and again a new clerk (the 4th one). Our previous clerk Michelle, is recovering and looking a lot brighter. We have three new parish councillors, Cllr Tennent, Cllr Fowler and Cllr Pryke. In the last report, we discussed the demised of parish communication and we are pleased to announce that it is now back up and running. We already have contacts getting in touch and involved and we encourage people of Frampton to get involved too. The parish magazine will now go to the clerk and will be released quarterly with the next release being in June – all submissions required by the last week of May. We do not advertise local businesses, just local events / groups goings on. We have been able to and we will continue to support the 3 halls in the parish, we have done this as there are challenging times ahead for the village halls and we would like more bookings all round. There is no competition between them, we are here to support all three. We as a Parish Council welcome anyone knocking on our door for financial or clerical support and there is also a lot of funding opportunities through the Borough Council. Cllr Ashton is prepared to stand as Chairman for another year if required. Frampton Parish Council is effective, relevant, reliable and engages with the community and Cllr Ashton hopes this continues. 

5.   Questions and comments (Agenda item 5 APM 18.04.24)

Comment by a visiting Cllr from another parish is “amazed and enlightened by everything that has occurred in this meeting”.

Question from Cllr Pryke: In relation to the Wyberton gate debacle, will the gates be moved back in to Wyberton? 

Answer Cllr Ashton: We are not expecting them to be moved, they have just had the name removed from the post. Wyberton are still fighting this.

Question Cllr Pryke: Can we put something on our side for Frampton?

Answer Cllr Ashton: We have looked in to that but we are waiting until Wyberton have finished fighting on their end.  

The meeting ended at 20:40.