Documents

MAY 2022 APM Minutes

2022 Minutes Uploaded on May 26, 2022

Minutes of the Yarcombe Parish Council

Annual Parish Meeting

 

Meeting held in the Jubilee Hall, Monday 9th May 2022 at 8.00 pm

 

In Attendance:

Cllrs S Horner (Chair), L Myhill, T Long, C Ford, D Barnes, S Vining, K Thompson, M Tomkinson, S-JMartin (Clerk)

D Frost (new clerk) Councillor David Key

 

Members of the Public present – 10

 

  1. Firstly Cllr Horner welcomed everyone to the meeting.

 

  1. Apologies for Absence

Councillor Colin Brown, County Councillor Iain Chubb.

 

  1. Minutes

Cllr Horner asked if everyone was agreeable that the Minutes of the meeting held remotely on Tuesday 4th May 2021 could be signed as a correct record the minutes of the meeting and everyone said yes.

 

  1. Police Report

No report received.

 

  1. Retiring Chairman’s Report

Nothing to report.

 

  1. Planning Report – Cllr T Long

Generally it has been a little slower with lower numbers especially in the last quarter, probably due to financial, Governmen

t, Agricultural grants and a fresh validation system at EDDC that few people have mentioned.

This brought us 25 applications for the year:

16 FULL

6 LISTED BUILDING CONSENT

1 CHANGE OF USE

1 AGRICULTURAL

1 ADVERTISING HOARDING

19 have been approved by EDDC

1 was refused

5 are still awaiting a decision at present

The CLT application for Marsh is ongoing, for which the Parish Council is very much behind them and hoping for their success as soon as possible.

  1. Roads Report – Cllr D Barnes

Cllr Barnes reported that on the whole the roads are not too bad especially the main roads.  However there are still pot holes on other roads which need repairing especially in the summer.

 

 

 

8 Parish Paths Report – Cllr C Ford

Cllr Ford reported that path 30 was waiting for a gate to be installed which has now arrived.  This will be completed by the Handyman (Phil Holness).  There had been problems with 6 other footpaths but these have all been addressed by Phil.  Devon County Council has advised that there are gates now available to replace stiles after permission has been granted from the landowners.

 

  1. Yarcombe Community Land Trust – Steve Horner

Cllr Horner advised that the planning process for the application for six affordable houses had come to an abrupt halt following the publication of an advisory report from Natural England concerning phosphate pollution on the river Axe catchment area.

 

  1. Charity Report

Members of the Parochial Church Council and the Parish Council have been unable to meet during our last

Financial Year again due to Covid restrictions, but we are finally meeting next month.

An advert was place in the Yarcombe Voices asking if anyone would like to apply for a Student Grant in 2022 and

we have one applicant.

The Charity balance stands at £2829 with no distributions having being made during the year.

 

  1. District and County Councillor Reports

Councillor David Key stated that Devon County Council have total control of the roads and not East Devon District Council.  Any agriculture planning was proving difficult due to the mix of councillors on EDDC with many having no connection with agriculture.  David Key has a direct line with the enforcement officer David Coker so need to let him know of any problems.  He also advised Dave Ashford has been replaced by Dan Woods in highways.

 

  1. Chair – Cllr S Horner

Councillor Steve Horner Chairman’s Report

You will be aware that I did not expect to be addressing you this evening; in December Clive Stone announced he

was leaving our community and would be standing down as Chairman.  I was greatly humbled that I was asked to take his place and with some trepidation agreed to stand as Chairman.

 

Clive worked incredibly hard to ensure the parish was run efficiently and his management of local officialdom was to be admired.  He remains as a driving force in our affordable housing project in Marsh

 

For my own part I was extremely grateful to Lesley who realising I was not well equipped for the task immediately agreed to step up as Vice Chair to advise and guide me in an office which requires skill and diplomacy; Lesley responded magnificently and has been of enormous help to me.

 

My thanks also go to David Barnes who has been another past Chairman and proved invaluable.

Also thanks to Tony Long for ensuring the Council’s input to planning applications goes smoothly and is structured in a manner that must be considered by the planners at East Devon District Council.  Also David Little who provides essential guidance regarding Health and safety and responsibility for policing matters.

 

Our real success story this year has been work on our footpaths ably managed by Caroline and Shaun and the work so efficiently carried out by Phil Holness our Parish handyman.  My thanks also go to Ros Davies at Devon

County Council who has supplied the materials and funds needed to keep our footpaths in tip top condition.

 

This year we have two new members of the Council, Katie Thomson has added to our resource with the addition of her Public Relations skills and Matthew Tomkinson brings a much closer liaison with the Jubilee Hall Committee

of which body he is vice chairman.

 

Finally, my heartfelt thanks to Sarah-Jane Martin who after six years carrying out her duties as Clerk has handed over to Diane Frost.  Sarah-Jane has managed her new Chairman in a courteous and diplomatic way and curbed

his desire to run headlong into conflict with those who seemingly wish to slow down the process to finding

solutions to the never-ending problems which we encounter.

 

I have mentioned each individual member of our council who carry out their duties on a voluntary basis.

This is in liaison with Devon County Council and East Devon District Council which has not always been easy.

This particularly applies to the repair of our roads.  Also there are still problems regarding installing broadband which keeps being delayed.

 

However on a more cheerful note the immediate priority is the Jubilee Celebrations which are being arranged by Lesley but she needs your help and support because as we know many hands make light work.

 

Yarcombe is an incredibly busy community where many organisations flourish thanks to the work of volunteers.

Some of these are Flower Show, Terrier Racing and Jubilee Hall.  These are all bound together by a wonderful communication system run by Miranda Gudenian who gives her time so selflessly.

 

On a lighter note, we have unfortunately lost our Member of Parliament  so doubtless some of us will now be

Involved in finding someone to serve in his place, no matter what party to which they belong I hope that person understands how the countryside works and lives within the constituency.

 

  1. Residents Forum and Open Discusssion

The lack of affordable housing in Marsh was raised.  It seems strange that planning is given for sheds and not housing.  All planning on housing is currently on hold.

 

What is a sustainable community?  Yarcombe will never be considered as we do not have a school, public transport or a shop.  This means the village gets less money & care as we are in an unsustainable area. Offwell which has all of these is still not sustainable!!

 

Beacon Lane still has safety issues with massive pot holes even though they were recently repaired.

 

Speeding coming into the village was raised.  Villagers were concerned that somebody will get killed or injured on that road.  This problem is worsened by electric cars which cannot be heard.  Steve Horner advised that the cost of speed cameras would be £4000 which was out of the reach of the parish council.  We are not allowed crossing signs or speed restrictions.  Donyatt have signage for 40MPH which could be investigated for Yarcombe.

 

  1. John Salter Award

This was presented by Barbara Salter to David Little for regularly climbing the church tower to wind the clock.

Barbara gave some history of the clock which was dedicated in December 1906 by Lady Drake and cost £110.00.  David Little award of £100 will be given for the children’s party for the Jubilee celebrations.

 

Cllr Horner called the meeting to a close at 9pm.