YARCOMBE PARISH COUNCIL MINUTES
Held in The Jubilee Hall, Yarcombe, Monday 2nd March 2020 at 8.00 pm
In Attendance:
Cllrs C Stone (Chair), T Long, L Pidgeon, S Vining, C Ford, S Horner, C Vining, S-J Martin (Clerk & RFO)
Members of the Public present – 1
Cllr Stone welcomed everyone to the meeting gave apologies as per the below:
1. Apologies for Absence:
• Cllrs D Barnes, D Little, D Key & C Brown
2. Declarations of Interest
• Cllr Stone declared 1 Declaration of Interest in planning applications.
3. Minutes.
• The Councillors were asked if they were happy that the Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held on Monday 3rd February, received by email were correct and able to be signed off. No comments were raised, and the Minutes were signed by the Chair.
4. Reports
To receive the following Reports
a. County Councillor – Cllr Iain Chubb
There had recently been a full Council financial meeting and it had been in the news that it was the best budget ever. Interestingly the size of the budget is £1.1 billion and Cllr Chubb went on to detail a ‘high level’ overview of what DCC actually does on behalf of all tax payers, in what is a very big business in terms of its budget and the numbers of people employed to deliver services. Some of the County Council’s main service groups are:
Adult care and health including services for older people and adults with physical or learning disabilities.
– care at home for 10,000 people a year
– 13,000 people with dementia
Children’s services including education and learning; services for vulnerable children and families; safeguarding; looked after children and care leavers.
– supporting 16,500 children with special needs or disabilities
– over 200 children adopted or fostered a year
– 97,000 pupils
– 398 schools
Communities, Public Health, Environment and Prosperity including planning, transportation and environment; economy, enterprise and skills; trading standards; libraries; community safety and emergency planning.
– 50 libraries and four mobile libraries
– free school transport for 14,500 pupils a day
– funding for 185 bus services, 60 voluntary car schemes and 16 community ring and ride schemes
– nine new primary schools built or due to be completed in 2020
Highways, Infrastructure Development and Waste including road and bridge maintenance; waste disposal and – – recycling; and the County Council’s capital programme.
– 8,000 miles of road (England’s largest local network)
– 62,000 potholes filled a year
– managing 357,000 tonnes of domestic waste a year
– 19 recycling centres
– £114 million invested every year on major infrastructure projects.
Legal, Human Resources and Communications including democratic support and scrutiny; Crown services; registration of births, marriages and deaths, and the Coroner services.
County Treasurer including Revenue and Capital budgets; Investment and Treasury management; Devon Audit Partnership and the Devon Pension Fund.
Digital Transformation and Business Support including ICT; procurement; property management; customer service and information governance.
Cllr Chubb also reported that there is to be a new initiative rolled out whereby Communities can communicate as effectively as possible with their local police.
There is also a new Broadband coming to our area – Jurassic Fibre who are a private firm, currently installing between Exeter and Exmouth with a view to reaching the Honiton area by late 2020 and then branch out into the villages. There is a page on their website, https://jurassic-fibre.com/can-i-get-jurassic-fibre when nearer the time you can register interest and check if it getting close. It promises to provide exceptionally fast download speeds.
Iain also went around the Parish with Cllr Barnes looking at the roads and advised that the long-awaited “dragon patchers” is being increased from 1 machine to 4. These machines will cut a hole in the tarmac and hot fill them as opposed to being manually done. Here is a short you tube clip – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lFbDTgZ8FA
Cllr Stone asked if EDDC had any investments in Shopping Malls – evidently a long time ago but this was disposed of.
Cllr Stone also asked if there has been any advice concerning the Coronovirus cascaded. There has from Phil Norrey the Chief Executive and Iain advised he would forward this on to the Clerk. Additionally he mentioned the Public Health England website which is regularly updated – this is as follows: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-the-public
b. District Councillors – Cllrs D Key and C Brown
Cllr Iain Chubb reported on behalf of the District Councillors that there could be a problem long-term with the Council looking to invest in Council Houses to make them more sustainable, but this would be at a high financial cost.
There is also a shortage of waste recycling lorry drivers so there may-be some occasional late deliveries
c. Police
PCSO Darren England reported he has incurred a recent injury and is now back at work but on reduced shifts. He reported Staffing levels have got better and there is a new Neighbourhood Sgt coving Honiton and Axminster. There are plans to try to get out to Parish Council meetings once a year
d. Yarcombe Community Land Trust
Cllr Horner cascaded the following report:
We have now receive comments back from East Devon District Council Planning Department in response to our Pre Application Planning Statement, generally the comments were favourable we have however been requested to obtain five more reports from Consultants, three of which concerned the Ecology on site, we have obtained a grant from EDDC to carry out these reports which are underway.
A public meeting was held in the Flintlock Inn las Monday 24th February at which our Architects Bailey Partners displayed our plans to build six affordable Homes on the site
The meeting was attended by 33 members of the Public as well as our advisors and members of the Parish Council , we have received 22 written comments and one of which contained more comprehensive queries which will be answered shortly
Several comments concerned the layout of the buildings and the need for extra car parking spaces, we have a meeting with our advisors on 12th March when these queries will be considered in detail
In general, nearly all the comments that were received were in favour of the project although one neighbour has informed us that they will object when the planning application is submitted
e. Reports from Individual Councillors
Cllr C Vining
Reported from the Village Hall meeting that they wanted more details on what the Parish Council was proposing to do for the VE Day Commemorations. This was discussed later in the Agenda.
They are also looking at installing lighting in the Village Hall car park.
Cllr S Vining
The year-end finance report for the Parish Paths has been completed and submitted
Cllr Horner
Cllr Horner cascaded the following report:
The meeting listened to a presentation from Consultants about future mobility in our area, it proposed the use of electric cars linked to an Internet signal, I regarded such proposals as being unrealistic even in the long term the Blackdowns having few charging points and also a very poor broadband network. The urban elite preaching to the rural deprived
The meeting also heard that Graham Long and Catherine Bass had met Digital Infrastructure Minister, Matt Warman the previous week in Westminster. In the meeting Graham stated that Connecting Devon & Somerset is about to embark on its fourth attempt to get it’s rural broadband programme off the ground having abandoned three previous attempts and wasted 5 years in delay and mismanagement
I also met a representative of Gigaclear who confirmed no new rollout programmes, based on their own funding, not CD&S would be confined to semi urban areas and it was almost certain no future programmes would be undertaken on the Blackdown Hills.
5. Parish Council Priorities
o Village Facilities / Amenities
Update on a Defibrillator in Marsh
We are to insure it as soon as it is installed
No update received
Yarcombe Defibrillator
Cllr Little reported the electricity to the defibrillator has failed and he will contact Helen Parris.
Planters
We will see what grows up and consider as we get into the Spring
Update on Streetscene grass cutting
Cllr Stone is liaising
Landmark Trees
It was considered who we can ask to plant the tree and it was suggested a member of the Meyrick family could be asked which Cllr Horner will do and it will be planted on the corner of the Tennis Court
o Highways
Damaged fence due to accident
We need to contact both David Ashford and Philip Morgan about the fence as a stretch of it has fallen over. Clerk to email.
o Additional Items
Review of Standing Orders
The Standing Orders have been reviewed and we are to go through and revise where necessary.
6. Open Session for Public Participation
Clifford was in attendance and reported a large pothole outside Duffields. This has already been reported on the Pothole app (https://www.devon.gov.uk/roadsandtransport/report-a-problem/report-a-pothole/) but was done again and also reported that this whole stretch of road has some bad pot holes along it.
7. Finance
• The Councillors received the Clerks report on the current Financial Position by email
• Payments within the Clerks Report schedule were agreed
• A discussion was held on donating some monies to the Yarcombe Inn for the replica Yarkie (the Corbel in the shape of a horse’s head) which is with the RAMM Museum in Exeter. The costs are anticipated to be £1,000 and it was decided to donate £100.00 when the fund-raising reached £900.
8. Clerk and Correspondence – Discussion / Decisions and Actions required
First aid training
The proposed training was cancelled, and an alternative provider will be investigated who can also provide defibrillator training.
Footpath at Mount Pleasant
Clerk had received an email from a user of the footpath which crosses the road on the bend stating it is dangerous and whether we could consider signage and/or the movement of the footpath. An email had been sent to Highways, but they had responded that “…there is no funding for new signs, they will only pay for signs which are already in place and have been damaged and need replacing”. Additionally, the Public Right of Way is not something the Parish Council would look to change.
VE Day Commemorations
We had received an email from Miranda Gudenian who had suggested an event in the pub on the Bank Holiday 8th May, to maybe include Maggies Mix
Cllr Horner advised Otterford and Buckland are spending a lot of money.
A Hog Roast was suggested, and Cllr C Vining will ask Luke for his thoughts. It is proposed the Parish Council would contribute £250 to the event which all the Councillors agreed to.
We will also ask Maggie if this could be feasible
Village Food Composter
Cllr Stone advised it had been suggested the village could obtain a food composter which would be circa £2,500. The Councillors were asked for their thoughts but they voted against the idea.
9. Planning
To receive and endorse the Planning Decisions of the Council taken since last meeting under delegated authority.
Cllr Long has raised the issue that the Blackdown Hills AONB is consulted on some planning applications but not others.
It was discussed whether we should write to the AONB or to the Planning Office and decided we would write to the Senior Planning Officer.
Cllr Long went through the current planning applications and has had an enquiry as to whether all the planning conditions have been met at Broadley Farm. The lights are an issue and Cllr Long will draft a letter to be sent by the Clerk, regarding the conditions of approval being lighting and landscaping.
Cllr Long also asked the Clerk to let him know if planning application notifications seemed to be reduced as there are still ongoing problems with the planning portal and uploading to their system.
With no more comments or questions from the Councillors, Cllr Stone called the meeting to a close at 8.50pm.
To confirm the date of the next meeting being Monday 6th April at 8pm at the Village Hall, Yarcombe