2026 Minutes

BICKER PARISH COUNCIL

DRAFT Minutes of the Parish Council meeting held on Thursday, 12th March 2026 at 7pm

In the Gedney Room, Bicker Village Hall

Present: 

Cllr Bateson - Chair

Borough Councillor Cantwell

Cllr Carrott

Cllr Kelly

Cllr Mountain

Cllr Pell – Vice Chair

County Cllr Paul Lock

County Cllr Barry Daish

Darren Stevens

Clerk – Alison Delaney

PUBLIC FORUM: 

No members of the press or public attended the public forum

135/25 Chair’s Welcome and Remarks:

The Chair welcomed everyone and thanked them for attending.

The Chair introduced Darren Stevens who had expressed an interest in filling the Councillor vacancy caused by the resignation of David Brown. Mr Stevens lived in Bicker and had a business in Quadring.

136/25 To receive apologies for absence and acceptance of any reasons given: 

No apologies received, all Councillors were present.

137/25 To receive declarations of interest in accordance with the Localism Act 2011:

Councillor Carrott – Bicker United Charity and Bicker Wind Farm Trust

Councillor Kelly – Parish Council representative on Village Hall Committee and Member of Bicker United Charity.

Councillor Mountain – Bicker United Charity

Councillor Cantwell – Full time Employment APMG International, member of the Conservative and Unionist Party, on the Board of Black Sluice Drainage Board.

There were no other declarations. 

138/25 To receive updates from Borough and County Councillors

Borough Councillor Cantwell provided the following update:

Council tax has been set. £7.83 increase for band D properties.

Lincs police awarded £12 million funding to ensure no redundancies over next 3 yrs.

Work to upgrade Lancaster Memorial now near completion. New plaque with further information and QR Code to link to the BCC website. Cllr Cantwell is paying for the sign.

The Emergency Group will be carrying out the Risk Assessment for Bicker at the end of May/June.

10 more surgery dates for the year. 2 for each village.

Winter Hubs programme will begin again next winter

AGR applied to change their route to bring construction traffic up Cowbridge Road. Wording has been changed by AGR.

Residents contacted James about the developer’s plans to close the roadways on the St Swithins estate – no more has come from that.

£200 Councillors award is available again if the Parish has any projects it would like to apply for.

Residents complained about mud near Back Lane. Sent info to the County and signs were put up and will follow up with landowner. Councillors confirmed the landowner had moved the mu off the road onto the side way.

Bicker Traffic Management Group. Cllr Cantwell will be taking the lead from Boston and will organise another meeting. 

County Councillor Lock provided the following update:

New Highways area manager. Pothole crews doubled. KPI’s into the departments. Get weekly reports on logged FixMyStreet incidents. Claims system takes time, about 3 months. 

BBMF museum at Conningsby 50 years old this year, had a refurb. 

£2m to actively clean drains.

£3.6 into Highways budget.

2.9% council tax increase across the county

Energy grants for elderly people’s homes – Cllr Lock is now getting involved in that

£62.5 million savings by efficiencies. Review of contracts. No planned investment in Youth services for 10 years. On the agenda to create a strategy to do better.

LGR with the government for assessment. Webpage where you can feedback on it. 8 pilot councils awaiting their decision. We are in the next round after them. May be some slippage.

The Chair asked if there was an update on the School Lane parking situation– taxis all queued up, 14 vehicles there one morning. Road blocked. Action: Clerk to re-send information to Councillor Lock so he can follow up with Highways.

The Chair asked about entrances and exits to the village – The Chair will provide a map for Councillor Lock. Only accidents with injuries that count, if you prang your car that will not count towards the statistics. 

139/25 To receive reports from representatives on outside bodies:

Village Hall – Cllr Kelly reported that the committee had not met since the last report.

Bicker United Charity – Cllr Mountain reported that the committee had not met since the last report.

Bicker Board – meeting on 27th March waiting for legal advice on structure. CIO format. Three trustees appointed by Bicker Parish Council and then four independent people appointed. Clerk has notified EE that we are creating a charity.

140/25 Notes of the last meeting held on 19th February 2026 were accepted and approved as the Minutes. Proposed by Cllr Pell, seconded by Cllr Kelly. The Minutes were signed as a true copy by the Chair. 

141/25 Clerk’s report on matters outstanding:

FixMyStreet report – Graffitti on Playground and School Signs in School Lane. 10.03.26: Clerk has emailed LCC and Boston with the original FixMyStreet details requesting an update on when the issue will be resolved. Boston replied to say that the issue needed to be dealt with by LCC Highways.

FixMyStreet report – broken drain on High Street that carries water into the dyke. First reported on 02.05.25. Cllr Lock requested an update and received the following on 10.03.26: I can see that a job has already been raised to repair the defect at this location. At the moment we don’t have a confirmed date for the works. Many of these planned repairs have been delayed due to the current winter pothole pressures, as some of our planned works gangs have been reassigned to support reactive repairs. The permanent fix will be carried out in due course.

In the meantime, I’ve asked an officer to visit the site to assess whether any temporary safety measures are needed until the full repair can take place.

FixMyStreet report – 12.12.25 reported streetlight near Corner Cottage and the school not working. Update 15.12.25 Investigating. 10.03.26 reported again with pictures ref: 2883798.

High Street sign: Clerk emailed Boston Property department on 10.03.26 requesting the sign be replaced after being missing for over a year. Response received 11.03.26 apologising and saying it would be replaced next month.

Cemetery maintenance – The contractor carried out the first grass cut of the season on 5th March. Strimming and cutting will be carried out at the next visit.

Verges and playing field grass cutting: The contractor anticipates that they will be carrying out the first cut of the verges and playing field at the end of this week.

Grassed area on School Lane outside the Playing field: Clerk telephoned a representative from the Methodist Chapel. They were aware of the state of the grassed area outside the playing field and admitted their parishioners have parked on it, as well as the verges on either side of the road. They have a monthly management meeting, and they will request that Parishioners do not park there again. Ideally, they would like the grassed area changed to a tarmac layby that could be used by the Chapel and those visiting the park. This was discussed at the meeting.  Councillors did not consider it was something they wanted to change at this time.

Allotments: The Clerk will shortly issue invoices and a copy of the regulations to all allotment renters for 26/27.

Bicker Buds Brown Bins: Councillors agreed to fund the annual cost for two brown bins for the use of Bicker Buds to be kept at the Methodist Chapel. Proposed by Cllr Cantwell, seconded by Cllr Mountain. Action: Clerk to ask a representative from Bicker Buds to attend the next meeting so that they could let the Council know what work they were planning in the village.

Repairs to play equipment – Playscape quote for £7,498.40 + VAT approved by Councillors. They have advised that the work will take 2-3 days to complete and they currently have a lead time of 4-5 weeks. Proposed by Cllr Kelly, seconded by Cllr Carott.

Metal sign outside the School Lane entrance to the playground: The metal sign has been removed from the fence by the entrance. Councillors approved the Signomatic quote of £59.16 plus VAT and delivery.

Moving to gov.co.uk email addresses:

Quotations have been received from the following providers:

Parish Online – Clerk and up to 20 email addresses plus website domain name £260 plus VAT per year

Cloud Next - are currently offering the first year of a website domain and email addresses for free (likely to be £200 a year after that).

NetNerd – £20 + VAT a year for the domain and unlimited email accounts for £49.99 plus VAT per year

Action: It was agreed that the Parish Council would proceed with NetNerd. Proposed by Cllr Kelly, seconded by Cllr Mountain.

142/25 To Receive Finance Report  

a) To approve February and March payments: The Schedule of payments for approval at the March meeting was approved. Proposed and signed by Cllr Cantwell. Seconded and signed by Cllr Mountain

b) The Asset Register had been updated and circulated to Councillors in advance of the meeting. The changes were approved at the meeting. Proposed by Cllr Pell and seconded by Cllr Carrott.

143/25 To Discuss Planning Applications Received Since Last Meeting: None received.

144/25 Lancaster Memorial event – update on arrangements: 

Posters are up on the Notice Boards

Order of Service was approved by Councillors 

Rev Mark Williams will be carrying out the service

Bugler booked

Mayor invited, unable to attend, Deputy Mayor and Mayoress will attend and bring their own wreath

Boston RAFA have been invited but have not yet responded.

Resident who is maintaining the site is aware of the date and will make sure that the grass is cut

We have a spare poppy wreath for the Chair to use

Updated text from LARG has been added to our website so that it can be linked to a QR code on the new sign.

145/25 Ownership of the cemetery and playing field. Cllr Cantwell explained that because of the local government reorganisation proposals, Bicker might be able to take over ownership of the cemetery and playing field from BCC. The risk if we did not take on ownership of the cemetery would be that it could be returned to the unitary authority and used as an overflow burial site for people in Boston. Action: Councillors agreed that the Clerk would contact BCC and say we would like to take them over. Cllr Cantwell confirmed they were both on BCC’s asset register. 

146/25 To Receive Correspondence: None

147/25 To Receive Members Reports:

Posts rotten on Gauntlet Road sign – Chair meeting with contractor to get a price for white fences and will include the heritage signs.

Posts on bridge by the Post Office have come down – Action: Clerk to report on FixMyStreet

Chair to speak to contract about spring tree pruning in the Playing Field and Cemetery.

Lancaster Memorial – a resident had asked if they could put some spring plants around the memorial. This was agreed. Action: Clerk to reimburse the resident for the cost.

148/25 Date of next meeting – this was confirmed as Thursday, 9th April 2026 at 7pm.

149/25 Any Other Business: 

Co-option to the Office of Councillor for Bicker Parish Council

It was noted by Councillors that following the resignation of Cllr Brown there was a vacancy on the Parish Council.

Cllr Pell proposed Darren Stevens. Cllr Carrott seconded. Mr Stevens said he was happy to be Co-opted into the Parish Council. Mr Stevens read the criteria, confirmed he was qualified and not disqualified from standing, so left the meeting. Councillors agreed unanimously to Co-opt Mr Stevens to the Parish Council. Mr Stevens returned to the meeting and the Chair welcomed him to the PC. Mr Stevens and the Clerk signed the Declaration of Acceptance of Office. ACTION: Clerk to notify BCC of the co-option and to set up a Bicker email account for Mr Stevens.

There being no further business, the meeting ended at 20.15

Signed:  …………………………………………………

Name: …………………………………………………            Date: …………………………………………………