2026 Parish Meetings – Corringham Parish Council

May 2026 Chair's Report

Corringham Annual Parish Assembly May 2026

Chairman’s Report

2025/26 has been a year where we have begun to see stability and consolidation within the Parish Council, and we are beginning to be able to look forward and plan for the future.

We welcomed Karen Bacon to the Council at the back end of last year, which means we have only one remaining vacancy on the council.

Whilst I remain Chairman of the Council we have now appointed Cllr. Johnson as Vice Chairman. I would like to thank Cllr. Blades for supporting the Council and myself over the last few years in her capacity as Vice Chairman. Her extensive knowledge of the community and willingness to serve have been second to none. Cllr. Blades will remain as a valued Councillor.

She has been my confident and rock over the last few year for which I offer my sincere gratitude.

The Budget

Spend for 2025/26 was just about on budget with a spend of £18,350 versus a budgeted spend of £18,540. Income of £19,237 was slightly up on the budgeted figure of £18,570. This was mainly due to a higher receipts from the VAT rebate and higher bank interest than were budgeted.

General reserves at the end of 2025/26 fiscal year were £18,420, earmarked reserves £13,000, with total held in the bank £31,535.

For 2026/27 our budgeted spend is £48,965 against an income of £20,485. Additional spend is to come from reserves and any potential grant funding.

After the large hike in precept last year we were able to increase the precept by a modest £500 overall for the 2026/27 fiscal year.

Annual Governance and Accountability Return

The Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR) has been completed and was signed by Councillors and officers at the last Parish Council meeting. The exemption certificate has been submitted to the external auditors PKF Littlejohn.

The 2026 internal audit is currently taking place and should be completed within the next week.

I do not foresee any major issues arising from the audit as we have the same auditor we had last year and we have never been so legally compliant or transparent.

Once we have the signed internal audit we will post the documents to the website and announce the Period for Notice of Public Rights where members of the public may apply to see all the documents associated with the AGAR .

Clerk

In October of last year I rejoiced at the appointment our new Clerk Diane Groves.

Diane has come from a military background and has extensive administrative experience. She has been a Godsend for the Council and for me personally.

She is extremely enthusiastic and has undertaken several training sessions both thorough the Lincoln Association of Local Councils (LALC) and with myself. She always comes to those session with lots of questions, so has kept me on my toes!

Once the bank finally sends though the security information Diane, or OD as she is known in Council (with two Dianes it was all getting quite confusing), will be taking over as RFO from myself.

Website

All of our financial documents, policies and governance documents can be found on the website, as well as useful information, and information about becoming a councillor.

We will continue to use the LALC Webmaster website service as we do not have persons sufficiently trained to work the site, and the current method of working performs well.

Emails

As required by legislation we have set up dedicated email addresses for the Clerk and all Councillors.

What should have been a simple task turned into a Labour of Hercules. It has taken us nearly six months and a lot of heartache to finally sort out payments.

I would like to thank Cllr. Johnson for organising this. I know he spent many hours speaking to the supplier and liaising with payment suppliers before we finally got a resolution just last week. Fingers crossed!

Aisby

We finally managed to get a defibrillator for Aisby. This was supplied, free of charge, by The British Heart Fondation and has been added to the West Lindsey District Council maintenance scheme, and is located at No1 the Stackyard. Thank you for Cllr. Tipping for constantly badgering me over this.

We have been in discussions with LCC Highways with regard to the flooding in Aisby and the state of the verges.

A site visit was arranged between Highways, Cllr. Crave and Cllr. Reeve (our County Councillor) and discussions were held as to possible solutions to the issues raised.

Highways are looking at undertaking works in Aisby to try and rectify the flooding issues and address the condition of the verges.

I would like to thank Cllr. Craven for advocating for Aisby with regard to the highways issues.

Our County Councillor Cllr. Reeve is also to be thanked for all his support throughout the year, especially when dealing with Highways issues.

Our thanks also go to Cllr. Craven for, yet again, undertaking the grass cutting in Aisby.

Grass Cutting Contract

We have reappointed Heather Property Services to undertake the grass and hedge cutting in Corringham as they have been reliable and consistent in their work.

Allotments

For those who do not know we have some field allotments in the Parish. These became flooded earlier this year and work had to be undertaken to rectify this. Once the diggers started clearing the overgrown and silted up ditches the water began to flow and we uncovered some existing, but blocked, drainage pipes. These have now been restored and the ditches cleared.

Thanks to Cllr. Parr for organising and helping with this work.

Ashwin Charity

Last year I said I was sad to report that we were still unable to administer this charity due to disagreement between the Banking Industry and the Charity Commission over the charity’s governance documents.

Despite us having produced a new up to date Governance document, which is now registered with the Charity Commission, and having ratified the appointment of the Trustees, and despite all best efforts we are still in a state of stalemate with the bank and still unable to access the bank account.

The issue with the bank is being further exacerbated by their insistence on communicating via WhatsApp! This goes against our internal control regulations as this method means communicating via personal devices. Yet again another hurdle to conquer.

It is an uphill struggle, but I am determined we will get there.

Support

Last year we supported the Corringham and Aisby Community Group with grant funding for the village fete. We have agreed to grant fund this year’s village fete to the tune of £2,500.

We have once again grant funded the Church for the maintenance of the Church clock.

We felt that the cost of the registration of the land on which the Village Hall stands should be covered from the precept as it is an important Community asset. To this end the parish Council paid the cost of all the legal fees incurred in the registration process. Thus securing the land on which the Village Hall stands for future generations.

St Laurence Church

For complete transparency:

Last year Councillors became very concerned about what was going on in the Community between certain factions.

We had Parishioners contacting us who were visibly upset, angry and saddened with what was happening at St Laurence Church. We discussed it long and hard in Council, spoke to representatives of the Diocese, and took the very unusual and difficult step of writing to the Bishop to ask him to intervene and help ease the situation.

This was a decision that was not taken lightly but, for the avoidance of doubt and blame, it was a corporate decision taken by all Councillors for the betterment of the Community. If only one Councillor had demurred the letter would have not been sent.

After waiting over six months, and after several chasing emails, we were finally told that the Diocese could do nothing to alleviate the situation as, in the law, it is up to the Parishioners to raise issues themselves at the Annual Meeting of the Parochial Church Council.

Needless to say, we far from happy with this outcome, but have taken the view there is little more we can do other than continue to support and work in the best interest of our community as a whole.

This situation has taken up far too much of our Councillors time that could be spent elsewhere.

In view of this I would very much like this to be the last time we have to intervein, and the last word we have to say on this matter.

Emergency Plan

We are currently working to put together an emergency plan. Although it may sound like a farfetched idea, in todays current political climate it is better to plan, for what we hope, will never happen.

We are liaising with Gainsborough Town Council and are intending to work closely with other local Parishes should they wish.

We have already approached members of the Farming Community, The Village Hall, The Church and the School with a view to building the plan.

Once we have an outline for the plan and how it is going to work we will let you know more.

Cllr. Johnson is leading up this project so if you have any questions or wish to offer your services please contact him.

Cemetery

Income from Burials, Exclusive Rights and Memorials in 2025/26 was £420.

The Cemetery is looking in rather a sorry state and needs a complete make over. We want to make the Cemetery more attractive and easier to maintain whilst increasing the biodiversity of the site.

Cllrs. Bibb, Johnson and myself are undertaking Cemetery Management courses throughout the year, so we will be better placed to understand what we can and cannot do in the Cemetery. Once we have undertaken this training we will be putting together a plan for the future.

We will need volunteers to help carry out the plan so please look out for information in the coming months.

The more volunteers we have the better chances we have of securing grant funding, so less burden on the Parish finances.

Pond

Last year I told you we had secured a Community Wildlife Grant of £500 from Lincolnshire County Council to allow us to purchase new plants for the pond area.

We asked to defer the grant to this year due to the adverse weather conditions. The hot and dry weather conditions were simply not suitable for the successful planting of new and young shrubs and plants.

Once again we be looking for volunteers to help us with planting out towards the end of the summer.

So if you would like to get involved, please do let us know.

A big thank you to Cllr. Parr and Cllr. Craven for undertaking the hedge cutting around the pond last year. It certainly needed it and has shown no detriment to having been cut back hard.

Thanks should also go to Cllr. Craven for installing the pond safety device.

The Future

We are now in discussion with Lincolnshire County Council to undertake a land swap.

A big thank you to Cllr. Bibb for using her contacts to get LCC to the table, or rather the field!

LCC own a large part of the pond area, which we have maintained for years. We own the field behind the pond and next to the school, however they own the entrance to the field.

We are looking to swap their land in the pond area for a strip of land in the recreation ground, while retaining a right of way into the remainder of the field. There will also be a mutual agreement enabling both parties to continue to use the recreation field.

This will enable us to manage the pond area better and once all this is completed we will be looking to seek funding for a children’s play area.

We have broached the subject of LCC creating a green parking areas up to the rear gates of the school for staff parking.

Our first step will be to form a small working group to look at the finer details and advise the Council accordingly. Any volunteers with suitable experience would be very welcome.

Thanks

I would like to say a very personal Thank you to each and every one of our Councillors. They have remained committed through some of the toughest decisions. I value the perspective each and every one of them brings to the table.

We are in a great position to move forward and make our Community better.

Become a Parish Councillor.

Having said that, we still have one vacancy on the Parish Council and I would love it if we could be a full council of 9 members.

You may not always see much of the work that we do, but we do beaver away in the background ensuring services and Community needs are met.

With talk of devolution there is an uncertainty in what the role of Parish Councils will be in the future. It is very likely that we will become the major voice of the local Community and will have to advocate stronger for essential services.

So please think about joining the Council. Everyone has a valid point of view, and if you have a point of view there are others in the Community who will share that view. So come and share it with us. We don’t bite, we discuss, we argue, but we make decisions as a corporate body, and we believe those decisions are the best for the community as a whole.

And then we eat cake and have a cuppa.