Draft Minutes

Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on Tuesday 3rd June 2025 at 7:00pm in The Parish Hall.

1. Opening and welcome from the Parish Council Chair.

The Chair Cllr Ashton had sent apologies for the meeting. Cllr Dickason as Vice-Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

2. Chair’s annual report

Cllr Ashton sent in a Chair’s annual report. Which was read out by the Clerk. Please find attached.

The last year has been one of change for Wrangle Parish Council. At our July meeting, our Clerk of 17 years, Edwina Arnold (Teddy), announced her plans to retire at the end of summer, and we have subsequently welcomed Becca Herberts as our new Parish Clerk. We wish Teddy every happiness for the future, and continued success with her bowling. 

As always, change should be seen as an opportunity, and in our case, this has proven to be the case- with our superb new Clerk, Becca, offering a timely chance to update some of our practices and policies, which will make for a more efficient and better value Parish Council. For instance, adopting new Parish Council email addresses for the Clerk and all Councillors, and moving at long last towards internet banking. 

Similar opportunity has come about through Teddy's further decision to cease her administration responsibilities for the Wrangle Parish Magazine, for which the Parish Council had agreed to continue paying. Many years ago, the Parish Council supported the Magazine's production with paper and toner through the old Parish Photocopier, with the work being done by Church volunteers who took the advertising revenue in fair exchange. As time went on, this work was outsourced to Bolingbroke Deanery who provided a similar function for Stickney and other magazines with the Parish Council picking up the bill. Latterly this included the administration of the magazine being added to the Clerk's responsibilities, charged to the Parish Council with the Church continuing to benefit from full receipt of the advertising revenue, which on reflection is a remarkably poor deal for Wrangle taxpayers. The Parish Council have made clear that future support- either through a Grant, or a joint project- will require a full disclosure of costs and income before any decision can be made. Nonetheless, I am delighted to see that the Church appears to be continuing the magazine so far without Parish Council subsidy, and it is a huge improvement now it is in colour.

We have so far been unable to deliver the A52 bus shelters we had hoped for because of rising costs, however hopefully some grant funding may come available to help make these happen. 

Further change has come through the recent Lincolnshire County Council elections. I would add my profound thanks to Paul Skinner who has served as our local Lincolnshire County Councillor since 2017, and attended our meetings regularly and assiduously, even when we are giving a hard time over the state of our roads. We welcome Councillor Alistair Arundell to his new position and look forward to working with him over the coming years. 

My thanks to David as my Vice Chairman and Claire for their immense experience and help in staffing matters, and to all members of the Parish Council for their time and dedication over the last year. And particularly my thanks to Becca for proving to be an exceptional Clerk. We can look forward to the coming year with confidence and enthusiasm. 

3. Wrangle Consolidated Charities – Accounts

The Consolidated Charities accounts were received. Cllr Bowles read them aloud and they were circulated among the Councillors and members of the public.  

A resident queried the sale of the land showing on the accounts, they enquired as to why people were not informed. Cllr Bowles reported that the Consolidated Charities gained advise from a Solicitor and the land was sold to the person renting after they displayed an interest in buying the land.

4. Alenson & Erskine – Accounts

The Alenson & Erskine accounts were received. Cllr Dickason and the Clerk read them aloud and they were circulated among the Councillors and members of the public. 

5. Parishioners’ comments, questions and views

• Concern over speed of vehicles in the village, particularly Church End and Chapel Lane. It was discussed that the Council are looking into purchasing a new speed sign and would look to site the current sign in a different location of which could be one of these areas.
• Cllr Bowles asked the members of the public that with the current groups the Village has to offer, is there anything else they would like. It was discussed a ‘Wellbeing walk’ is being looked into. Funding and volunteering for such groups was discussed and options suggested.

There being no other business the meeting closed at 7:30pm