Minutes 2 February 2026
FOTHERBY PARISH COUNCIL
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF FOTHERBY PARISH COUNCIL HELD ON MONDAY 2 FEBRUARY 2026 AT 7.30 PM IN ST. MARY’S CHURCH
Present: Cllr Steve Mansfield (Chair), Cllr Tim Hunter, Cllr K Ensell, Cllr Lee Sutton, Cllr C Chen.
In attendance: Mrs. Viv Davies (Clerk), ELDC Cllr E Mossop, LCC Cllr N Hastings
1 resident was present.
OPEN FORUM:
Cllr Mansfield advised that Fix My Street had reported that the work on the steps at North Elkington Lane leading down the bank to the A16 would be completed soon. They state that “our Highways team have issued work out to one of their delivery gangs and would let us know when the job is complete”.
16/2026 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Apologies were received and accepted from Cllr Neil Tomlin.
17/2026 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST – TO BE STATED IN ANY PROPOSITION
There were no declarations of interest.
18/2026 APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF 5.1.26
Proposed Cllr Ensell, seconded Cllr Hunter to approve the minutes of 5.1.26.
19/2026 CLERKS UPDATE
All items were included in the agenda.
20/2026 MATTERS ARISING FROM ACTION PLAN/MINUTES
Cllr Ensell had updated the action plan.
21/2026 FINANCE
Cllr Mansfield had verified the bank reconciliation. Cllrs noted the financial reports.
Proposed Cllr Sutton, seconded Cllr Mansfield approval of the cheques below.
Chq No
1489 PMP Printing Keyhole £112.74
1490 V Davies Clerk Salary £301.32
1491 V Davies Clerk expenses £32.37
Bank Charges
6.1.26 £6.75
Community Account (Formerly Treasurers Account) £5,225.14 of which £209.78 relates to ring fenced account for Fotherby Common (20.1.25)
COMM INST ACCESS (Formerly Business Bank) £2,573.62 (1.11.25)
TO APPROVE FURTHER ITEMS OF EXPENDITURE
There were no further items of expenditure.
22/2026 FLOOD RISK ITEMS
Cllr Mansfield had written to Emily Timmins, Director, AWS Water Recycling who had proposed the site meeting with AWS & ELDC representatives regarding flooding in January 2025. The letter was to update her on progress made on sewerage matters in the village during the year and to seek her further support during 2026 to remedy outstanding issues. Cllr Mansfield had contacted Mr Steve Ross (ELDC Flood Officer) on several occasions to obtain details of his contact with a landowner. This is connected to works that the farmer had agreed to complete in providing clearance of a drainage dyke to improve surface water drainage across the verge to clear standing water from Allenby Crescent. Cllr Manfield would draft a letter to be sent to the farmer.
Cllr Mossop reported that there is a free community event in Wainfleet on Monday 16th February on preparing communities for flood resilience. He is to let the organisers have sight of Fotherby’ own Flood Plan document. Cllr Mansfield would attend.
Discussion took place regarding the issue of water flow which had been highlighted around the back of the Alms Houses. Cllr Mansfield would investigate further and report back.
The flood report record for 2026 had been updated with the two flood reports received from residents.
23/2026 TRAFFIC SPEEDING IN THE VILLAGE
Cllr Mansfield had sent a list of suggestions regarding the speeding issue to Cllr. Hastings, our LCC representative. This would allow the LCC to consider them and take possible action, providing traffic calming methods to try to help with our problem. He also informed members that he had written to Graeme Butler of the Road Safety Partnership for advice but every approach indicated, it would cost Fotherby money. Speeding issues and a strategy to support speed reduction measures would be discussed at a future meeting.
24/2026 PARISH COUNCIL ASSETS
The Parish Council noted that the parking restriction (yellow lines) from Church Lane to the bus stop had been implemented.
Cllr Sutton had erected the disclaimer sign at Fotherby Top
The Parish Council noted that allotment 1 had become vacant and the only individual on our waiting list has been informed. We await a response. Letters will be sent to all allotment holders with new contracts in late March and advising them of a modest rise in the Allotment rents by £10 to £40 each year. Increased water costs for servicing the allotments has prompted us to do this.
25/2026 PLANNING APPLICATION
00033/26/FUL. Erection of 2no. dwellings and construction of a vehicular access. Demolition of existing dwelling. Field view, 2 Short Lane Fotherby. Lincolnshire LN11 0TE
03892/25/FUL. Erection of 1no. dwelling and demolition of 2no. existing garages.
Eastfield, Allenby Crescent Fotherby Lincolnshire LN11 0UJ.
The Chair asked Councillors if they would review the applications and send any comments they have to him so he can reply to the ELDC Planning Department by the relevant date for each application.
Cllr Mossop advised on the impact of the National Planning Policy Framework. East Lindsey District council would be unable to meet the new housing development targets. As a result, the District Planning Authority now had to take notice of the National Planning Policy Framework and place more weight towards approval on judging applications that are not on allocated sites. This meant that medium sized category villages such as Fotherby are under increasing pressure from speculative developments.
26/2026 BULL RUSHES AT THE DOCK
Cllr Hunter had investigated solutions to address bull rushes at the dock. One contractor, prepared to tackle this job, would lay spare vehicle tyres on the road and path to protect this area, remove the panels from the Dock fence so access could be gained and then require another operator to remove the extracted bullrushes from the site. Members decided to discuss this issue at the July meeting and to consider the removal again after bird nesting.
27/2026 LITTER STRATEGY & FLY TIPPING UPDATE
Litter picking continues. Thanks were given to Cllr Ensell and the litter picking volunteers across the village and beyond. Several fly tips outside Fotherby were reported by a resident and forwarded to ELDC for collection. Thanks were given to the resident for her diligence.
Councillors noted that litter had recently been cleared from an area along the Louth bypass and that this had made a significant improvements in reducing roadside litter following brush clearance in the summer.
The meeting finished at 8.25pm.
28/2026 DATE OF NEXT MEETING
Monday 2 March 2026 at 7.30pm