January 2023 draft minutes

YARCOMBE PARISH COUNCIL MINUTES DRAFT

 Meeting held in the Jubilee Hall, Monday 9^TH January 2023 at 8.00 pm

In Attendance:

Cllrs S Horner (Chair), L Myhill (Vice Chair), T Long, C Ford, D Barnes, S Vining, K Thomson, M Tomkinson,              A Billington & D Frost (Clerk & RFO)

Cllr I Chubb Cllr D Key Cllr C Brown 

Members of the public present 3

1. Apologies for Absence

None

2.Declarations of Interest

To receive disclosures of pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in items on the agenda.

Councillor Thomson concerning 22/1603 & 1604 Emmetts Farm

3.Minutes

Councillor Horner asked if everyone was agreeable that the minutes of the meetings held on Monday 7^th   November could be signed as a correct record of the minutes of the meeting and everyone agreed.

4.Reports

A County Councillor

Councillor Chubb said DCC are having problems with balancing budgets.  There were still problems with the roads and encouraged the public to keep reporting potholes.  He said he had ringfenced £500.00 for signs for speeding for the village.  He advised in time to swap signs with neighbouring villages so drivers were unaware when they would be on any particular road.

Councillor Long questioned him about grants for new email system we had to install and website.

Councillor Chubb said to apply to Devon Locality Funding for emails system and Jamie Buckley at EDDC for website.

B District Councillor

Councillor Key said face to face planning meetings had recommenced which made decisions easier and quicker.

Councillor Brown advised of the passing of Paul Diviani a former East Devon Council leader.

D Yarcombe Community Land Trust

Councillor Horner reported that a solution had been found to the required phosphate reduction and were applying to EDDC for grants to employ consultants.

E Jubilee Hall Committee

Councillor Tomkinson reported the hall were looking to show the Coronation in the hall.  They are proposing to put together a committee and Councillor Thomson kindly agreed to represent the parish council. Councillor Tomkinson informed that the required markings in the hall carpark had been completed.

F Reports from Individual Councillors

Councillor Ford had placed a notice in evoices regarding any issues with footpaths.  One person came back

requesting gates everywhere which is not appropriate.

Councillor Myhill had nothing to report.

Councillor Vining advised the gates on the footpaths could be lowered.  Also the form for funding needed completing. Generally, the footpaths are in good repair.

Councillor Thomson attended the Blackdown Hills Parish Network AGM and advised there were 16 parishes involved.  They were keen to focus on speed limits in villages and water quality.  They have another meeting in February/March when more discussions will take place.

Councillor Billington advised Yarcombe has been accepted for the community speed watch. PCSO Darren England needs to visit to do a risk assessment of the proposed speed monitoring sites, we can then recruit volunteers who need to complete online training before they receive onsite training.

Councillor Barnes advised work on replacing the planters was in progress.

Councillor Long asked about a meeting happening in December.  He was advised historically there had never been one.  The November meeting has now been moved later in the month to reduce the time scale between meetings

Councillor Tomkinson advised everybody are now on their new emails and these would be circulated via evoices.

5.Code of Conduct

This was deferred to the next meeting.

6. Parish Council Priorities including clerk and correspondence

Planters on the layby 

Councillor Long along with Phil Holness have removed the old wooden planter.  Councillor Barnes has supplied 2 concrete planters which will be placed when the weather is suitable.

7. Coronation Celebration

Nothing more to report at the moment.

8.Insurance Policy Review

Councillor Horner advised our claim has been turned down by Zurich Insurance and DAS.  He has been in touch with other parish councils advising alternative insurance companies.  He will carry out further investigations with a view to cancelling the existing policy and taking out a new one as soon as possible but this will mean a higher charge.

9. Finance

b The payments below were ratified.

 c Yarcombe & Marsh Precept year to 31^st March 2024

 At a meeting of the Parish Council held on Monday 9th January 2023 the expenditure for the present financial year was discussed in order to calculate the amount of income from the Precept (the small proportion of Council Tax which funds the Parish Council) that would be required from April 2023.

As a result of multiple factors, it was decided that this needed to be increased by approximately £2.70 per year for an average household (Band D). The reasons for this are firstly that the income for the present year (Precept) amounted to £6,065.00 and the likely expenditure for the full year would amount to £7,033.00 an overspend against budget of about £1,000.00 which was not an acceptable position. There were several reasons for this overspend which arose from several items, a budgeted loss, higher than expected clerk’s wages due to overtime spent on the FoI request in respect of Rag lane and the expense for setting up a new e-mail system.

The meeting then went through the budget for 2023/24 line by line and each category of expenditure was discussed, savings were agreed by deferring the cost of a new information leaflet and the installation of a defibrillator in Marsh and by reducing the budget for village grass cutting and maintenance.

A large increase £425.00 in the cost of the Insurance policy was anticipated due to the fact that the present policy arranged by a charity in Wiltshire does not adequately cover legal expenses that were required to guide the council through the interruptions to the normal business caused by the obstruction of Rag Lane.

The resultant total budgeted expenditure was agreed at £6,642.00 and to balance the books an increase in precept  was required ; The Chairman explained that he had anticipated an increase would be required and had discussed this with the financial officer at East Devon District Council, who had informed me that there was no restriction on the amount that the precept might be raised and that that for each 1% increase in the precept the rates payable for each individual householder in the parish would increase by £0.27

A resolution to raise the precept by 7.5% was not passed and then a resolution to raise the precept by 10% was agreed by a majority to raise an additional £606.50 which would cover the budgeted expenses, this would result in the income for next year rising to £6,671.00 which would cover estimated expenditure of £6,642.00

The chairman stated that he hoped the community would understand the need to increase expenditure and as a consequence each household will have to pay a small extra sum on the rates bill, about £2.70 per household to cover these costs.

10. Planning

Councillor Long explained to the owners of Littledown Farm who were present at the meeting the planning process.  He advised that normally at least 3 councillors attend the site meetings, as they did in this instance.  He had been unable to contact the applicants prior to the site meeting due to GDPR and therefore EDDC redacting contact details.  Our response is also in line with Yarcombe and March Parish Plan etc. The owners then went onto explain their position.

EDDC have a meeting with them later this week and they will make the final decision.

11. Open Session for public participation

No comments were made by the public.

The meeting was closed at 9.30, the next meeting to be held on Monday 6^th February.