Minutes 2025

Chairman’s Annual Report 2024/25

As part of the statutory requirements of a Parish Council, I have a duty to report on the activities in which Marston Parish Council has been involved during the past year. It therefore gives me great pleasure to present my ninth report to this Annual Parish Council Meeting.

The Council’s accounts, records and systems for 2024/2025 have been internally audited and signed off.  Financial documents are available for inspection as in previous years. 

A precept of £6100 was raised with South Kesteven District Council for the Financial Year 2024/2025.  Additional income to the value of £1319.70 was received from other sources.  The total expenditure for 2024/25 was £6877.85

Councillors agreed not to increase the budget for 2025/26 and a precept of £6100 has been requested, overall, a reduction of 0.5%. Whilst it is not a large amount, it was felt that the Parish Council should do its bit to help the pressure on household budgets in these times of cost-of-living increases.

The Village Cleaner’s increased programme of grass cutting and strimming around the village now includes cutting the Village Green. The verges in and on the outskirts of the village are now much tidier that they were five years ago thanks to his efforts. The Parish Council are indebted to various parishioners for their efforts in keeping the parish looking neat and tidy and thanks once again to Councillor Watson for organising a very successful village litter pick.

In my report last year, I made reference to the problem with Himalayan Balsam growing on the river bank of the Riverside Walk. This invasive species has to be cut down every year to keep it under control. Following discussions with the Village Cleaner he has strimmed back the nettles, Himalayan Balsam etc. down to ground level on the river bank and the plan is to keep the bank clear by regular strimmimg. If this is successful it should control the Balsam and avoid the need for an all-out assault on it in late summer.

The Parish Council have also decided to keep the grass in the Riverside Walk cut down during the summer rather than letting it go wild and unmanageable. Hopefully this will make the area more user friendly and lead to greater use by the public.

Much of the work is completed on the Great Gonerby/ Cliff Lane, Marston Solar Farm and I am hoping it will be connected to the Grid this year. Unfortunately, no work has started on the Green Lane Project and the developers have not got a date for connection this year. It is unlikely that any Community Benefit will be forthcoming this year. The Parish Council will formulate a fair and transparent policy for allocation of the Benefit when it is awarded.

In July County Councillor Alexander Maughan outlined the details of collaborative projects involving LCC’s sub-contractors.  Following hard work by the Clerk and Councillor Brown a proposal was put together to resurface the village hall car park using plainings and materials purchased by the Village Hall committee and labour provided by LCC contractors. The proposal was accepted by LCC. Financing of the project jointly by the Village Hall Committee, Hougham and Marston Parish Councils and a personal contribution from Hougham PC chairman, John Wright.

 This was approved by the Parish Council Meeting in September and work completed in December. The end result is excellent and grateful thanks are due to the Clerk and Councillor Brown for driving the project through.

During the Christmas holidays the Clerk submitted an application to South Kesteven District Council on behalf of the Village Hall Committee for a £25,000 UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) Grant for refurbishing work at the Village Hall. The application was successful but allocation of the funds to the Village Hall Committee was delayed by administration problems at SKDC which were resolved with the assistance of District Councillor Wood. This left a very short time span to complete the work by the end of March. Due to the sterling efforts of Councillor Brown work was done to upgrade the lighting and plumbing, new patio, new doors, insulation and countless other improvements. My thanks go to the Parish Clerk and Councillor Brown for their hard work in firstly getting the grant and secondly project managing the work so speedily and efficiently.

On Wednesday 12 March 2025 Lincolnshire County Council organised a Safety Workshop at the Barn Hotel to discuss proposals for the A1 Trunk Road. It was attended by about 100 people and there was a presentation by Phil Shaw from National Highways. He outlined National Highways proposals to improve safety on the road and their desire to close all of the crossovers between Peterborough in the south and Blythe in the north. They will close the “easiest” ones first and it will be some time before they get to Toll Bar Road. Their method of operation is first carry out traffic surveys, then consider alternatives and cost them. They then consult with those affected by their proposed solution. The Parish Council will need to ensure that the viability of the link road to Gonerby Moor is properly considered in this process.

In the last year there has been a marked reduction in the number of Planning Applications for Marston. One for extending a property on Bridge Street has been refused by South Kesteven District Council which is disappointing. Otherwise there has been little else. A minimal amount of work has been carried out on the Grain Dryer Development but no progress since.

There have been very few members of the public at meetings. This is possibly because there have not been any emotive issues on the agenda during the year. In 2025/26 It would be encouraging if there was more public participation in meetings.  It is our job to represent the interests of the community and we can best do this if we hear directly from you. 

The new Clerk has settled into his role and I wish to thank him and the Councillors for their time, devotion and continued support to Parishioners throughout the year. Be assured your Parish Council will continue to strive to do what it believes is in the best interests of Marston. 

Philip Cartwright

Chairman to Marston Parish Council

Date: 29 April 2025