YARCOMBE PARISH COUNCIL MINUTES
Held in The Jubilee Hall, Yarcombe, Monday 5th April 2018 at 8.00 pm
In Attendance:
Cllrs N Randle (Chair), L Pidgeon, C Stone, A Long, S Horner, D Barnes, Tony Wiggins, S Parris, S-J Martin (Clerk & RFO)
Members of the Public present – 0
The Chair welcomed the Councillors to the last meeting of our year.
1. Apologies for Absence:
Cllr M Tomkinson
2. Declarations of Interest
No declarations of Interest were received.
3. Minutes.
The Councillors were asked if they were happy that the Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held on Monday 5th March. The Chair pointed out, that the £100.00 for the John Salter Award is for the Winning Individual to direct the monies to a Yarcombe & Marsh cause of their choosing.
4. Open Session for Public Participation.
No members of the Public were in attendance.
5. Parish Council Priorities
It was decided this month to take stock of meetings held over the last few months and discuss any areas where we need to revisit any subjects and action points.
• We are to invite young members of the community from ages 5 with Parents, to 18 to ask them what they would like from the village. The invite would be for 7.30, before the parish Council meeting and Hot dogs and soft drinks would be provided, together with a draw for a couple of cinema tickets. Clerk will devise a poster along the lines of “Your Village, Your Future” to be placed in the notice boards and the Flintlock. Also, an e-voices publication and an email to the Young Farmers will be sent out
• Things we said we would do and have yet to address:
o Looking at the layby
o Looking at the triangular piece of land in the village.
o John Salter Award Nominations – we have already received one nomination and shall ask Miranda to circulate a further e-voices about it. Barbara has agreed to make the award.
There will also be a trophy to have a brass plaque which can be engraved annually and a photo at the award in May.
6. Finance
a. The Clerks report, previously distributed and available to view detailed the current Financial Position
b. Payments within the schedule in the Clerks Report were approved:
Date Payee Details of Payment Chq Nr £
31.03.18 Sarah-Jane Martin Salary 000575 223.41
31.03.18 HMRC PAYE 000576 55.80
18.03.18 Brian Smith Post Office Rent 000577 60.00
18.03.18 Mr N Randle Chair Exps 000578 100.00
18.03.18 Mr T Long Planning Exps 000579 50.00
04.04.18 SLCC SLCC Membership 000580 84.00
04.04.18 Sarah-Jane Martin 2 years expenses 16.04.16 – 04.04.18 000581 233.27
7. Reports received:
– County Councillor
• Cllr Chubb reported there is to be a further £4.5m allocated for expenditure on potholes and condemned roads.
• Re Healthcare, there are proposals for a new joint healthcare system with shared responsibility.
• Broadband is rolling out across the County.
• Waste – A recent tour of the Marsh Barton recycling site resulted in questions concerning not accepting certain items such as black plastic. The new machine at Sita, Greendale will sort grades of plastic
Devon already has high percentage of recycling and the addition of the soon to be collected green garden waste will push this higher and Devon very successful in recycling.
• Re Highways, Helen Selby is moving areas and will be replaced by 2 staff and was concerned that it may not be as good as having just one contact.
Cllr Randle asked if there were any questions for Cllr Chubb:
o Cllr Wiggins asked about the pothole funds and Cllr Chubb responded that these funds are in addition to what has already been allocated. Although not committing to which lane was ear-marked for attention, there is a local lane which they are hoping to address in a minor way to make it “driveable”.
o Cllr Horner pointed out that the Broadband provision in the County was still below what we should have. Cllr Chubb has recently been speaking to Graham Long who is still campaigning for our Broadband.
o Cllr Stone asked if it may be possible for the 2 new Highways staff to split the area, so they are solely responsible for half the area each
– District Councillor
• In the absence of Cllr Diviani, Cllr Chubb reported the old Knowle building was to be taken over by Pegasus Life to provide sheltered accommodation. Cllr Diviani will be standing down and a new Councillor from Upottery elected reported the new HQ was really coming on and Interserve Construction Ltd who are running the construction site are scheduled to complete it on time.
• We also received a report from Cllr Diviani as follows:
“Getting snowed in for 3 days complicated matters somewhat but I still ended up with a full agenda!
Our new HQ at Honiton proceeds apace, our Exmouth outpost is now occupied with happy employees, our recycling continues to improve (in the top quartile nationally) and last but not least, “Making it Local” is still in the number 1 spot nationally!”
– Police
• No report was received, and the Chair asked the Clerk to invite the new PCSO to our Annual Meeting in May and present a report.
– Yarcombe Community Land Trust
• Cllr Horner reported they are optimistic that they are proceeding at a snail’s pace.
– Reports from Individual Councillors
• Cllr Stone verified with Clerk that we hadn’t received a response concerning the Lengthsman costs from Highways.
• The Chair asked Cllr Stone to verify which area was t be addressed for eh next round of Parishes Together funding we had just been awarded. Cllr Stone advised the work is in Rosshayne Lane, below Blackhayes Farm and where there is an S bend, water comes down from 2 areas. The culvert gets blocked on both sides and the quote form Andy Podbury was to put a pipe in to take the water away. The quote was for £650.00 of which 70% would be covered by the Parishes Together Funds.
Resolved – For the work to be commenced and Cllr Stone to contact Andy Podbury.
– The Clerks Report
• Annual Risk Assessment:
Consider changing email system, from Yahoo to Microsoft 365, accessed through the Cloud, to avoid the account being hacked and us being open to the consequences of GDPR penalties.
Resolved – To keep with Yahoo to avoid the monthly fee unless problems occur with Yahoo.
• Insurance – review Fixed Asset Values for the Insurance renewal as per The Clerks Report.
Resolved – It was decided to depreciate the assets over 3 years and keep the insurance level the same.
• Following an email to Brian Smith of the Hall Committee, he has replied “I should like to convey thanks, on behalf of the Hall Committee, to the Parish Council for the kind offer of some financial assistance towards our improvements. It would be helpful if it is possible to give us a rough idea of the amount so that the Committee can consider which item on our list is most appropriate at the next meeting on 14th May”.
Cllr Horner questions the funds on deposit that the village hall holds.
It was thought there is a cap on the amount of funds that can be awarded.
Clerk mentioned to Cllr Parris an article in the recent Marshwood Vale publication about funds for village halls.
Resolved – Clerk to investigate the maximum we are mandated to award.
• Re Mary Smith’s concerns about the lane on the left up to Taunton, it was decided to wait until the 2 new staff are covering Highways issues and then make a list of areas of concern as Highways response was that “it was not really something that would be high priority for sending a gang out to.” Additionally, it was raised that the edge of that lane for a substantial distance is eroding away plus there are concerns at the top of Stopgate.
Cllr Stone questioned whether there could be any funds made available for more professional looking signage in the village, but it was thought that the signage needed to be date specific and could be too costly.
• We have received a response from the BT Contractor verbally (“that with no street lighting, anyone walking down that lane ought to be carrying a torch”) and since the meeting, the written response:
“An Openreach Representative has been to site to assess the pole in question. The pole has been set into the grass area 0.5mtrs away from public footway, there are no street lights present so if pedestrians are keeping to the public footways provided there wouldn’t be any safety issue. I’m sorry if this isn’t the answer you were hoping for, however these are the findings of the Openreach investigation.”
Resolved – Clerk to obtain some luminescent tape to put on the pole.
8. Planning
To receive and endorse the Planning Decisions of the Council taken since last meeting under delegated authority.
Cllr Long reported he is to attend a meeting on May 31st concerning planning and that Clerk had assisted in locating the planning comments which were recorded at EDDC planning department and it remains a battle to get the comments from YPC detailed in the system.
To confirm the date of the next meeting being Monday 21st May at 8pm in The Jubilee Hall, Yarcombe
The Meeting closed at 9.00pm