2026 Parish Council Minutes

ANNUAL REPORT 2025-26

Councillor Attendance

Councillors were present at the full meetings of the Parish Council for 2025-26 as detailed below:
Cllr McMillan 8 from a possible 8
Cllr Lukehurst 8 from a possible 8
Cllr Fletcher 7 from a possible 8
Cllr Winslow 6 from a possible 8
Cllr Kerman 6 from a possible 8
Cllr Coles 7 from a possible 8
Cllr Moorby 7 from a possible 8
Cllr Anderson 7 from a possible 8
Cllr Evans 2 from a possible 2

Meetings are not held in August and December and April was cancelled. The meeting in March was cancelled last minute due to an 8-hour power cut that day. The Parish Council meeting is open to the public but it is not a public meeting. A public forum is held at the beginning of each meeting to allow parishioners to report any issues to the Council or to comment on agenda items.

Councillors also served and represented Tetney on various outside bodies and at their meetings.
Cllr Fletcher sat on on the Friends of Tetney Primary School committee and represented St. John’s Methodist Chapel.
Cllr Lukehurst served as the Parish Council representative on the Village Hall committee and represented St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church.
Cllr Coles sat as a governor at Tetney Primary School.
Cllr Moorby liaised with the girl guiding groups.
Cllr McMillan is also the District Councillor for Tetney and Tetney Lock.
District and County Councillors have been in attendance at Parish Council meetings.

Council Vacancies
At the time of the report there no vacancies on the council.

Planning matters
The Parish Council is a statutory consultee of the local Planning authority, which is East Lindsey District Council. The Parish Council is consulted on every planning application within the Parish and also on those which are on its boundary or close to its boundary within a neighbouring Parish.
During the course of the year, and to the date of this report being written, 18 planning applications and/or appeals were considered.

Environmental matters
Issues for the year included:
❖ Continued grounds maintenance of the Cemetery, Public Toilet grass, Market Place tree, Jubilee Gardens, grass verge in front of the primary school and St.John’s Methodist Chapel grounds. A financial agreement is in place with St Peter’s & St. Paul’s Church for the upkeep of the churchyard.
❖ The upkeep of the flower bed around the War Memorial in Jubilee Gardens has been completed by a volunteer resident whom the Parish Council is indebted to.
❖ A resident volunteer has raised, lowered and changed the flags as appropriate.
❖ A resident has volunteered to litter pick around the village and thanks are given to him.
❖ Dog fouling has been a major problem again this year. Most dog owners are responsible with only a few who are regularly causing problems on the same route and letting the village down. The Parish Council have worked with the one dog warden for the whole of East Lindsey to try and bring about improvements.
❖ Ongoing support for and maintenance of the allotments. An additional tap was supplied and fitted at the allotments. Thanks to an allotment holder for arranging this.

General

• Cllr McMillan was voted in as Chairman at the Annual Council meeting held in May 2025 with Cllr Lukehurst remaining as Vice-Chair and Mrs Susan Booth as Parish Clerk.
• Two lime trees were bought to replace the ones which had died on Town Rd. It was agreed that the trees would be dedicated to Mrs Phyliss Crowson, a lifelong Tetney resident who was also the WI president for 20 years. A small planting ceremony was held and her family was invited to attend.
• The 80th anniversary of VE Day was celebrated with singers visiting various locations within the village and street parties were arranged.
• The annual scarecrow festival in July wasn’t helped by the weather but most roads within the village had a scarecrow on show.

• The Remembrance Sunday service was well attended and a Parish Council wreath was laid at the War Memorial by Cllr Kerman. It was agreed this year that a donation would be made to the Royal British Legion in lieu of buying a wreath as the wreath from the previous year was still serviceable. 15 large poppies were purchased to adorn lampposts for 2 weeks before Remembrance as a mark of respect. These were well received by the parishioners so more have been ordered and will be displayed in November.
• Cllr Fletcher and the Clerk organised the Christmas Fair and light switch on. Thanks go to Mr Ramsey who replaced faulty bulbs in the Market Place tree. Although numbers were down on previous years parishioners attended the switch on and fair which raised much needed funds for the village community groups. Louth Salvation Army attended and performed outside The Plough and inside the hall.
• A Christmas meal was once again jointly funded by the parish council and District Councillor McMillan and was hosted by St. John’s Methodist Chapel. 39 2-course Christmas meals supplied by the Crown and Anchor at Tetney Lock were served or delivered to invited guests as part of the Chapel’s “Talking together, preventing loneliness” project. Each guest received a Christmas meal, gift, handmade card, table decoration, homemade Christmas cake and mince pie. Thanks is offered to all who helped, made, donated and served.
• The Parish Council requested a new footpath to be installed at the crossroads from the existing path to the benches and bin. This has be installed and is now in use.
• A new .gov.uk email has been set up to comply with new regulations advised by the audit authority.
• Two roadside planters have been purchased for Humberston Rd and Threeways. Spring bulbs and seasonal bedding plants will be planted.

The Parish Council continues to work closely with outside bodies and other agencies to improve the village for all.

Finances
The precept set by the Parish Council for 2025/26 was £40,000 which was an increase of £7500 on the previous year 2024/25.
Other income came from allotment rental and cemetery fees.
The Parish Council hold 3 bank accounts. 1 current account, 1 business savings account and 1 business Money Market account which is funds held for capital purchases only at the cemetery.

The expenditure for the year centred on general administration such as purchase of the new .gov.uk domain name and email address, annual subscriptions to local council advisory bodies such as Lincolnshire Association of Local Councils (LALC) and insurance including public liability, for the year. A new laptop and software was also purchased for the clerk.
Other expenditure included grounds maintenance, general maintenance including the moving of the flagpole, securing 10 litter bins in place, repairing the bus shelter roof, annual allotment field rent and running of the public toilets.
The public toilets cost approx. £3500 per year to run with additional maintenance this year of replacing the sky light in the disabled toilet.
The annual audit report was successfully submitted by the Responsible Financial Officer and returned from the external auditor, PKF Littlejohn, with a positive no action needed comment.
The Council raised the precept significantly this year to incorporate a reserve contingency fund and to still allow the Council to make improvements to the parish.

There is a brief summary/breakdown of the Council’s accounts for the year, at the end of this report.
 

Bank reconciliation

End of report.