April 2025 Minutes - Annual Parish Meeting
ANNUAL PARISH MEETING
7:30pm Wednesday 30 2025
Minutes
1. Welcome and Introduction: Chair’s Opening Address:
Ladies and Gentlemen, this past year has been marked by continued dedication and hard work from many members of our community. The efforts have not only maintained, but enhanced the village’s charm and safety.
Starting with the Village Voice, Jane Brown has been relentless, from sourcing content to the final stages of folding, ensuring every edition is informative and professional. Alongside her, Douglas Brown has managed the SID (Speed Indicator Device), tracking and reporting on traffic speeds, which have shown an improvement when the SID is operational.
The Village and its representatives have long campaigned for reducing the speed limit along the A607. While others had previously been successful in reducing this from 60 to the current 50, continued pressure from villagers, a succession of Parish Council’s and dedication from both our District Councillor Robert Leadenham and County Councillor Charlotte Vernon, we have been told that the work order to change the signage from 50 to 40 has been given and sometime 2025/2026 we should see some shiny new 40mph signs appear and new roundels being painted on the road.
This is probably an excellent opportunity to offer thanks to our Community Speed Watch champions, Douglas, Kevin, Christian, Simon and Cllr Robert Leadenham, who you’ll frequently see in Hi-Viz jackets in the 30mph zones on The Drift, the High Street and Swinehill. With the A607 reduction to 40mph the CSW team will soon be able to report back to Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership on this road too. At the Parish Meeting on Monday, Blake Coghill expressed an interest in joining the CSW team, and it would be wonderful if a few more villagers could spend an hour or so a month helping out. If so, please do speak to Cllr Leadenham who will be arranging training.
Irvin and Pam Metcalf deserve the continued recognition and thanks from villagers for their meticulous efforts in litter picking along the A607. Other volunteers, including Don Walker, and until recently Keith Gabriel, have capably handled the maintenance of Coffin Walk. Our planters and borders have bloomed beautifully in spring, thanks to Lesley Parkes and her team, who prepared the grounds with spring planting.
Another achievement has been the new channel drain to the rear of the Sports and Social Club, and a new gravel drain to south of the Sports Field, which will hopefully capture a significant portion of the considerable rainwater run-off from the adjacent farmland that had so plagued the playability of the Sports Field for the football teams training and practising.
The insurance claim to resolve the flooding of Manor Drive outside the Sports and Social Club car park is still ongoing. Through the diligent efforts of councillors the insurer AXA has incrementally increased their settlement figure from £3k to £15k, and we continue to push hard for them to increase their offer so that we can at least cover our expenditure, let alone the future reinstatement of the Manor Drive car park surfacing.
Our village facilities are in excellent hands; Karen Young, Sue Hiorns, Jane Mann, Sue Carr, Sheila Finch, and Frances Warner manage the Village Hall, ensuring it serves the community well. You’ll notice a shiny new front door funded by the Village Hall Committee and with a grant from the CHIPPS Trustees. They’ve also had a wonderful new cooker and extract hood fitted, with grateful thanks to Keith Young for hanging it in the wall.
Similarly, the Sports and Social Club benefits from the dedication of Keith Young, Jeroen Jensen, Sue and Martyn Carr, Brian and Kathy Smith, and Peter Chalk in their management and operation of the building, including a well attended function room for events like Bingo, Quiz Night and the monthly music nights, along with the changing rooms for Cricket and Football. If you haven’t visited the Club, they’re open on Friday nights so drop in and sample their beverages, and perhaps have a game of darts, pool or to play on the Nintendo Switch.
Additional thanks to Glenys Robertson and her team for the Village Meal Night. Glenys is the incredible chef for the Club Meal Nights.
It’s unlikely that you’ve missed the current discontent about the Phase 1 200 house Planning Application on the Harlaxton Meadows, otherwise known as the Land Adjacent to Swinehill, which has the potential to irrevocably alter the beautiful and quiet nature of our village. The Village has given the Parish Council a very clear mandate to object to this application. For more information please see Christian, Amanda and Andrea. To robustly object to this application we need everyone to write to SKDC to clearly state their material objections.
Looking forward, we have a vibrant year of events. The 80th VE-DAY celebrations on Thursday, May 8th, which will feature numerous events around the Belvoir Ward culminating in the lighting of the beacon at 930pm at the Sports and Social Club.
The Harlaxton Village Fayre on Saturday August 30st promises to be a splendid event, thanks to the organizing committee led by Kathy Smith and Sue Carr.
We all wish to extend our thanks to everyone mentioned and all those who contribute quietly behind the scenes, including those who similarly maintain the LCC verges outside of their homes and others who have planted and maintained the flowers under the millennium sign and at the top of Trotter’s lane, for example. We all thank you for your efforts to make Harlaxton a better place to live.
Thank you for your attention and for attending tonight’s meeting. Let’s look forward to another productive year, starting off with a variety of drinks and some nibbles, kindly prepared by Simon Wicks.
2. Apologies: Cllrs Phillips & Clawson, and County Councillor Vernon
3. To confirm the minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on 15 April 2024, 14 February
2025. All were approved.
4. Open session for parishioners to raise items to take forward for consideration by the Parish
Council:
a. A villager gave thanks to Sue and Paul Hiorns for organising the various Macmillan Coffee Mornings, which have raised so much money for Macmillan Cancer Support.
b. The Harlaxton Primary School Head Teacher, Sheriden Edwards, advised that they are holding more of their successful parent workshops, covering items like Dyslexia, and would welcome others to attend who may have need of further information.
c. The Harlaxton History Society announced that it had been successful in its bid for a grant of £16k for investigations into the site of the former Manor off Rectory Lane.
d. Harlaxton’s St Mary & Peter's Church was delighted to announce that it had recently passed it’s Quinquennial Inspection, and further information is available from the Church Wardens.
e. A reminder was given that there are monthly Coffee Morning’s at the Church, usually on the 2nd Saturday, and all are welcome to attend for a coffee, cake and to see the various craft stalls invited to attend.
f. Everyone was reminded that the 80th VE Day Celebrations on Thursday 8 May are happing all across the Belvoir Ward, with events at the Bowls Club, The Church, and the Sports and Social Club, culminating in the Lighting of the Beacon at 9:30pm.
5. Refreshments and informal chat with local groups and organisations.