Minutes 25th April 2018 Annual Parish Meeting
Brampford Speke Parish Council
Minutes of Annual Parish Meeting, Wednesday 25th April 2018
Present: 14 members of the parish including Cllr S Luxton (Chair), Cllr E Hollingsworth, Cllr J Gibson, Cllr A Birmingham (Vice-Chair) and Cllr R Tillett
Apologies were received from Cllr M Merrett & Cllr R Bloxhan (DDC)
In attendance: Mrs C Oliphant (Clerk), Lorna & Nick Christo (EDDC), Cllr S Grundy (EDDC) & Cllr S Randall-Johnson (DCC)
Papers available at the meeting were copies of the 2017 APM minutes, Community Grant Application forms, Councillor Nomination Forms and the accounts from the Parish Council for 2017/2018
Welcome by the Chair of the Parish Council Cllr S Luxton who gave an explanation about the purpose of the Annual Parish Meeting. It is not a meeting of the Parish Council. Its formal purpose is a meeting of the registered electors of the parish, convened and chaired by the Parish Council, at which electors discuss parish affairs and, if they wish, pass resolutions.
Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held in April 2076 were agreed by and signed by the Chair.
Report form Lorna Christo (EDDC)
Lorna gave a very informative report into the current recycling arrangements for EDDC. She explained that EDDC currently collected waste from 69,000 households which equated to 5 million collections a year and created 400 tonnes of recycling per week. All of EDDC recycling was sent to UK based processors to ensure that no waste was distrusted overseas. 57% of EDDC waste was now recycled making the district 30th out of 350 local authorities.
Lorna explained that green garden waste could now be collected kerbside for an annual cost of £48 per annum.
Members of the public raised an issue that there was an increasing amount of waste left strewn around the village after the collections. It was felt that this was due to the flaps on the lorries being left open and the operatives driving too fast to hold the loads. Lorna explained that this was disappointing and that she would follow this up. She explained that all of the lorries had 360 cameras so the actions of the operatives could be reviewed. She encouraged parishioners to note registration details and to telephone EDDC customer services to report instances of crews littering and speeding.
Lorna was asked if additional free recycling bags are available and she said she would find out and report back to Council.
Report from Nick Christo (EDDC)
Nick explained he was the Street Scene area manager for EDDC, and that his department used half of the council’s budget. There were currently two depot’s one in Sidmouth and one in Exmouth and this sometimes had a affect on response times to outlying villages. This would improve once a third depot was opened at Cranbrook.
He was in charge of a react team which carried out litter picking on fast roads, emptying of bins and dog waste bins. His team also dealt with over 400 instances on fly tipping within the district each year.
He explained that Brampford Speke was on an 11 week cycle for road sweeping.
His team were happy to support any village clean ups and Keep Britain Tidy campaigns and could provide a team and equipment to assist. Nick stressed that people should contact his team with reports of overflowing public bins etc and they would be able to get these cleared.
Cllr Hollingsworth explained that the waste and dog bins at the top of Station Hill were full again after a spell of hot weather. She explained that the amount of litter around the ‘beach’ increased during the summer due to the number of visitors to the village. Nick explained that his team would be able to support litter picking around the fields by the Beach and that parishioners should get in touch to arrange.
Report from the Brampford Speke Village Hall Trust (BSVHT ). Presented by Joff Machell
Joff informed the meeting that both the ramp and the extension were now finished and that last year the BSVHT spent £43k on improvements. The improvements were financed by various grants and donations.
The Hall was currently doing ok financially and the Trust were looking to encourage more use of the space available. A questionnaire was currently in development to see what the village wanted to see happen with the hall.
Report from Cllr S Grundy (EDDC)
Cllr Grundy explained that he was the District Councillor for the Exe Valley Ward which included Rewe, Stoke Cannon, Upton Pyne and Brampford Speke. He attended most meetings and was the liaison to discuss any issues that may arise with EDDC direct.
He was always available to help individual parishioners with any issues that the Parish Council could not deal with.
Report from Cllr S Randall-Johnson (DCC)
Sara explained that she and Cllr Bloxham both had a locality grant of £10k which could help towards any community projects that required assistance. In addition to this for 2018-2019 a further £10k was available from each of them in the form of a ‘Invest in Devon’ Fund.
She had recently lobbied for Whimple to be able to install night landing sites for the Air Ambulance and was currently looking for additional sites in East Devon which could be used for this purpose.
Annual report from The Chair of the Parish Council
Cllr Luxton explained that it had been a year of change for the Parish Council including a change of Chairman. He thanked Andrew Wiles for all hard work in previous years and was a hard act to follow.
He thanks Geri Carden for all her work on the council, especially liaising with the school and welcomed Cllr J Gibson. He felt it was good to see a younger Councillor on the Council as he had been the youngest 22 years. Cllr Luxton informed the meeting that there was currently a vacancy on the council and that if anyone was interested the Clerk had nomination forms available.
He gave a big thank you for Pam and Bea for acting as the village footpath wardens over the years and welcomed Jane and Julia Gibson to the role.
Cllr Luxton explained the current items on the Parish Council agenda:
• Antisocial Behaviour
• Speeding
• Parking issues
• Footpaths
• Verge maintenance
• Potholes
• Dog waste & Behaviour issues
• Trees
• Recycling
Cllr Luxton explained the success of the 2017 Community Grant Fund and reminded parishioners that the 2018 scheme was now open for applications. He then explained that each Parish Councillor would give a brief overview of their lead subject.
Cllr R Tillett – Highways
Cllr Tillett informed the meeting that he had attended the DCC Highways Conference in 2017 and that Cllr Luxton and Ed Sanders would be completing Chapter 8 Training. This would enable them to safely repair smaller potholes around the village.
He explained that Burridge Hill was due to re resurfaced in June and he thanked Cllr Luxton for his snow clearing and gritting efforts which had help villagers during the recent spells of extreme weather.
He informed the meeting that the Parish Council were going to fund a number cuts to the verges in 2018-2019 and that the verge outside of Stipperstones would be sorted out soon.
Cllr Tillett told the meeting that a speed survey had been requested by the PC due to the issue being raised at the last APM and that the results of this showed an average speed of less than 20MPH. Less than 10% of traffic was driving through the village at speeds in excess of 30MPH and this was the reasons that DCC were not going to take any further action.
The PC would look to try and solve the parking issue outside of the school with the help of the new Headteacher.
Cllr J Gibson- Footpaths
Cllr Gibson explained that she had been in the Parish Council for three months and had recently taken over the role of Footpath warden along with her mum Julia Gibson. She now had possession of the strimmer and leaf blower and would be attending a strimming course soon with Cllr Birmingham and Ed Sanders. Cllr Gibson was due to meet with the DCC P3 officer, Ros Davies soon to discuss any issues with the Footpath around the village. She would also be liaising with the new school Headteacher, Ed Nichols regarding continued parking issues outside the school.
Cllr E Hollingsworth – Trees
Cllr Hollingsworth explained that the WW1 trees were well and happy and she would be arranging another cut of the grass around them soon. She would be raising funds to continue with the grass cutting until the trees were established and was going to organise a BAT walk in the summer. She explained that the village tree had now been relocated and was aware that some villagers were raising funds to replace the tree with a more appropriate specimen.
Cllr A Birmingham – Finance
Cllr Birmingham thanked the Clerk for keeping the Parish Council accounts in order and explained that the year end audit had been signed off by the internal auditor. He explained that the PC reserves reduced by £1000 last year due to the introduction of the Community Grant Scheme and that the PC had managed to support three applications in 2017-2018. The precept had increased slightly in 2018-2019 due to additional commitments in taking on services from DCC.
Parish Affairs
The meeting was then opened to the public to raise any issues that they had or wanted to bring to the attention of the Parish Council. There were no issues raised.
A vote of thanks was given to Cllr Luxton for all the work he put in to clear the highways during the snowy weather.
The meeting was closed at 8.45 and many people stayed for informal discussions and refreshments.