SKDC Council Offices, Grantham

Last week I travelled to Grantham to watch the first meeting of South Kesteven District Council following the elections on 7 May. The items on the agenda for the Council to consider were largely administrative, dealing with the appointment of members of the Council to various roles.

The meeting opened with a period of silence to remember the late Cllr Reg Howard, former Chairman of the Council, who died during the election.

The meeting then proceeded swiftly through the agenda. A problem arose however when there were more councillors nominated to represent the council on the Upper Witham Internal Drainage Board than available positions.

Councillors couldn’t agree on how to vote on the nominations using the usual electronic voting system and agreed to suspend the standing orders and resort to paper based voting, which then resulted in a delay as the meeting was adjourned to allow council staff to organise the vote.

Cllr Dilks noted that similar problems had been experienced four years ago and I would agree with his call for this to be addressed.