Minutes - 5th May 2026
7 members of the public; Jon Mold (Chair) and Diane De Halle (Clerk) present at the meeting
Notes
1. Minutes of the last meeting (7th May 2025)
The minutes were approved as a true record to the meeting.
2. Annual report from the Parish Council Chairperson
Welcome to the Annual Parish Meeting and we firstly say thank you to Ian and Denise for allowing us to hold it in the Three Horseshoes.
If you think this report is very similar to last year’s you’re right, it is!
I would firstly like to thank my fellow Councillors, Graham and Ian for their continued service on the Council, and also to Diane our Clerk and Responsible Finance Officer. Also, thanks go to two dedicated villagers who regularly attend the Parish Council meetings come rain or shine. Shout out to my wife Linda and Ian’s wife Lesley. They do tend to chatter at the back though!
It’s been a relatively quiet year for the Parish Council so there is actually very little to report on. We are still struggling to attract residents to fill the three vacancies on the Council and we have just three positions filled at the moment which makes arranging meetings quite difficult due to our various other commitments. However, we will continue to appeal for more people to come forward in the village newsletter. There are also elections next year for Parish Councillors so hopefully we may be able attract new candidates then.
In terms of our funding to meet our administration costs, East Lindsey has 103 Parish Councils which raise income via a local precept, and we are one of those Councils. We make one of the lowest Parish Council charges in East Lindsey charging just over £4,000 across the entire two villages, a sum of around £32 per household per year. We always aim to keep costs which are in our control as low as possible. At the end of the last financial year, the Council had £2,849 in cash reserves compared to £1,597 at the start of the year.
We continue to ensure that the village defibrillator is properly maintained and fully operational and notices have been placed on the Asterby and Goulceby noticeboards signposting its location.
Once of my personal crusades is to try and obtain funding to place village gates at the three entrances to Goulceby and also in Asterby. So far, the grant applications made have not been successful, as although they would have a traffic calming effect they do not hit many other grant criteria. My quest will continue however, so if anyone has got a wedge of cash they would like to donate for this worthy cause, please see me afterwards.
I would like to remind people that the Council does have a small £200 ‘grant pot’ available to villagers. Although we advertise this, to date we have not received any applications.
The village should soon have a flood early warning system as Lincolnshire County Council has identified our Parish as one of the areas that may benefit from flood monitoring devices. The location currently proposed by the Council is adjacent to the bridge (water course/beck) at the bottom of Watery Lane in Goulceby. After installation we will have an account login to access the data.
There will then be a meeting for any interested residents with a demo’ when it goes live, then the public will have access.
The Ford is being looked at as another possible second monitoring location.
These devices will:
- Monitor water levels year-round in ordinary watercourses
- Feed data into an online dashboard accessible to residents, and
- Deliver a simple alarm when water reaches predetermined levels
The two planters were kindly maintained by Tina and Graham last year and they have offered to do the same again this year so a big thank you to them.
We are very pleased that the pub has once again re-opened after the winter break and the new ‘serve yourself’ option and shop are going down well.
In terms of keeping residents informed of important and other news, through the Clerk we regularly update our website which also has links to organisations such as:
- Love Lincolnshire Wolds
- East Lindsey District Council (ELDC)
- Lincolnshire County Council (LCC)
- Lincolnshire Police (Louth Rural)
The site also covers such things as:
- Local Elections
- The Connect Bus timetable
- Wolds Activities
- Flood information etc
That’s it from me so thank you for listening (I said it would be short) and if there are any questions or other matters to raise with the PC you are welcome to do so now.
3. Open forum for residents to put forward ideas for improvements for the village and discuss issues important to residents:
- Suggestion received for a Defib poster to be placed in the church.
Meeting Closed at 6.20pm