Minutes 1st November 2017
Minutes of the of the Parish Council Meeting held on Wednesday 1st November 2017 at 7.30pm at the Village Hall.
Present: Cllr S Luxton(Chairman), Cllr A Birmingham, Cllr E Hollingsworth, Cllr R Tillett, Cllr J Gibson and Cllr MMerrett
Apologies: Cllr G Carden (Away)
In Attendance: Carole Oliphant (Clerk), Cllr R Bloxham (DCC) and Cllr S Grundy (EDDC) and five members of the public
128/17 Apologies
Cllr G Carden (Away). Resolved to accept this apology
129/17 Declarations of interest
None at this stage of the meeting
130/17 Minutes of meeting held on 4th October 2017
The minutes of the Parish Council Meeting of 4th October 2017 were adopted as a true record and duly signed by Chair
131/17 Democratic period
None at this stage pf the meeting but members of the public were invited to join the discussion about the tree in Chapel road
132/17 Welcome to new Councillor
Cllr J Gibson was formally welcomed onto the council by the Chair Cllr Luxton.
The Clerk confirmed that Cllr Gibson’s Register of Interests form had been received and forwarded onto EDDC
133/17 Ongoing topics
1: Village Hall –
Cllr Tillett explained that the extension was now complete but had cost BSVHT a lot more than first anticipated
2: Footpaths & Verges -
Cllr Luxton said he would chase contractor Mr Butt as the last cut of the verges should have been completed by the end of September but had yet to be completed.
Cllr Luxton would try and contact alternative contractors to give a quote for the works
3: Trees –
Cllr Hollingsworth had spoken to residents in the village and the general consensus was that the village wanted to have a tree in Chapel Road. She suggested that the PC should no longer fund protection of the tree and that the village come up with a solution to improve protection of the tree and fund it through fundraising.
She explained that she was willing to lead with this.
There followed a discussion with the public who were present at the meeting where plans for moving the tree were presented to Council. The plans also detailed enhanced protection for the tree which would mitigate any damage in the future. It was confirmed that the improvements would be funded by donations and fundraising.
A request was made from the public to reinstall ‘No Through Road’ signs in Chapel road to stop people from having to reverse back around the three when they went too far.
It was agreed that Cllr Hollingsworth would work with the group to achieve the goal of installing and protecting a tree in Chapel road. If required it may be possible for the group to apply for a small one off grant from the PC through the Community Grant Fund.
Cllr R Bloxham said he would speak to highways about resiting the tree and reinstalling the ‘No Through Road’ signs and he indicated that he could provide some funding through the Locality Grant scheme
Cllr S Grundy said he would contact EDDC Planning department as it was a conservation area.
4: Highways –
Cllr Tillett explained that it was not worth pursuing the 20MPH repeater signs due to the constraints on who should install the signs and the location of them detailed by Highways.
He suggested that the PC wait until Highways had completed the ongoing 20MPH surveys being carried out across Devon
5: Traffic Management -
Cllr G Carden was tasked with chasing up the detail of the locations used in the recent speed survey
Cllr Luxton said he would do some gritting over the winter period and that he would ask Mark Short to also do some runs if and when required
Cllr Tillett said that he would put an article in Speke Up that although gritting would be done by the PC to supplement the DCC gritting it would not necessarily to of the same standard as DCC and drivers should take care and slow down in cold weather.
6: Communications -
Cllr M Merrett had looked into costings for providing Wi-Fi in the village hall but reported that a stand alone Wi-Fi provision would not be possible because of intermittent service in the village
The solution would be to have a standard fixed telephone line and modem installed in the village hall. The quotes to date ranged from £300 - £420 in the first year.
The PC agreed that Cllr Merrett and the Clerk would apply for Locality Grant Fund to assist with the costs
134/17 EDDC
Cllr Grundy explained that he a recently attended the Raddon Hills Group meeting and was pleased to report that it had been very informative. He thought that the Thoverton Bridge repairs were behind schedule and that a full road closure for approximately two weeks was required at the end of November.
135/17 DCC Matters
Cllr R Bloxham explained that he wasn’t going to present a detailed report but was happy to take questions and to take forward any issues that the PC had with DCC
Cllr Bloxham was asked if he could chase up more information on the Thorverton Bridge Closure and the Pot Hole repairs on Burridge Hill as they had been marked up three months ago but nothing had been done
136/17 Planning
None
137/17 Financial matters
The Clerk’s financial reports were all noted with thanks (appendix 1)
Cheques were approved for:
The Clerk
HMRC
Accounting Statements October 2017
Draft Budget 2018-2019
Cllr A Birmingham presented the first draft of the Budget for 2018-2019
The PC decided that although the precept request had not increased in recent years it would request a small increase to fund the increased service costs which had been handed down from DCC
PC agreed to increase the precept request from £6408 in 2017-2018 to £7000 in 2018-2019
138/17 Community Grant Fund
There had three applications received since the last meeting. Two of the applications were in the last week and one on the day of this meeting. The PC agreed that there had not been sufficient time to inspect the applications and that a final decision would be deferred to the January meeting.
The Clerk was tasked with contacting the applicants to request additional information and to invite them to the January meeting so that any further questions Councillors had could be addressed and that a decision could be made.
The PC agreed that the Community Grant Fund Policy should be amended to include the request that copies of quotations for specific items to be purchased with a Grant funding should be included, along with a projection of the applicant’s year end funds and information about the financial commitment being made by the applicant as part of the project request. The Clerk was tasked with updating and circulating the Policy.
139/17 Speke Up
Cllr Tillett would include the following subjects:
Chapel Road Tree
Community Grant Fund
Precept
Gritting
Thorverton Bridge
Mini Bus Service
140/17 Other information/Correspondence
Raddon Hills – Cllrs Merrett & Birmingham agreed to attend future meetings
Parish Plans – The PC decided not to pursue at this time
Parishes Together Fund – The PC agreed to apply for funding to replace benches in and around the village. Cllr Tillett and the Clerk would work towards preparing the application in time for the 8th February 2018 deadline
Agreement on monitoring PC emails when Clerk is away in December – This was agreed
Response received from EDDC on S106 agreements had been circulated. The PC would look at applying the monies to installing play equipment at the Village Hall, once the monies had been made available from EDDC
No response had been received from EDDC Waste Management on the quality of collections within the village. Cllr Hollingsworth would speak to her contact at EDDC to chase up a response
Hulk lane opening – 25th November 2017 2.30pm – the PC requested that the details be sent to the village email address
Cllrs Gibson and Birmingham had attended a meeting with William Gallios regarding falling numbers at the school. They discussed the possibility that some Affordable Housing could be
the solution but it was felt that this had been pursued by the PC before and there was no appetite for it by the village. The current EDDC planning policy was explained, which highights the various limitations on planning development within the village contained
within it. It was also discussed that even if more housing was built there would be no guarantees that the occupants would have children of an age to attend the school. It was decided that Cllr Gibson would forge links with the new head of the school to see if there was anything that could be done to help stop the falling numbers and in particular to more effectively market the PreSchool facilities available within the school
There had been no response from villagers about their thoughts on a Community Bus provision and it was agreed to put this onto the January agenda
127/17 Next meeting
The meeting closed at 9.35pm.
The next meeting would be Wednesday 3rd January 2018 7.30pm, Village Hall