Minutes 6th February 2019
Minutes of the of the Parish Council Meeting held on Wednesday 6th February 2019 at 7.30pm at the Village Hall.
Present: Cllr S Luxton (Chairman), Cllr E Hollingsworth, Cllr R Tillett and Cllr M Merrett
Apologies: A Birmingham, J Gibson & E Johns
In Attendance: Carole Oliphant (Clerk), Sarah Randall-Johnson (DCC) and 3 members of the public
12/19 Apologies
Apologies were received from Cllrs A Birmingham, J Gibson & E Johns. RESOLVED to accept these apologies.
Apologies received from Cllr R Bloxham (DCC) & Cllr S Grundy (EDDC)
13/19 Declarations of interest
None at this stage of the meeting
14/19 Minutes of meeting held on Wednesday 9th January 2019
The minutes of the Parish Council Meeting of 9th January 2019 were adopted as a true record and duly signed by the Chairman
15/19 Democratic period
None
16/19 Village Tree Group
Gregg Dawe provided the council with a report on the progress since December and explained he had spoken to highways and produced a plan. He had spoken to Helen Shelby who had been very helpful and had given him links to DCC rules and regulations. He confirmed that DCC were happy that tree is replaced but the group would need to ensure that any protection didn’t infringe any further into the road. Various protection options were shown to the council and he explained that the tree would be a Fastigate Oak and the protection probably a Gabion basket.
Councillors asked where the finance was coming from and felt that it was a good idea but that any new tree or structure would be damaged again and they raised concerns that repairs would be left to the Parish Council. Assurances were given that the group would deal with any ongoing maintenance and repairs.
The council gave congratulations to the tree group for taking it on and for carrying on with the tradition of the tree.
Gregg Dawe was given details of the community grant fund available from the Parish Council and explained that it would not fund the total cost. The tree group would report back at the next meeting.
17/19 Mid Devon Mobility
Sarah Holmes explained that she worked for Crediton Community Transport which covered a wide area including Brampford Speke. She confirmed that lots of elderly and disabled people found public transport very difficult. Mid Devon mobility had volunteers who go and help people to ensure they were ready and able to leave their home on a trip. Mid Devon Mobility had car users who were able to take people to hospital appointments. She explained that they could not take a booking on the day and could not compete with taxi firms. The criteria for people to use the service were to be rurally isolated, elderly or vulnerable. Anyone who is vulnerable could use the service as some people were not able to use public transport.
She passed out some leaflets and gave them to councillors.
Councillors asked if they were to give a donation to the service what would it be used for. Sarah explained that any funding would be ringfenced for the Crediton area and used for core funding, leaflets and administration. The service was looking for about £100 but weren’t just looking for money they wanted to get message across and promote the service.
The Clerk would send a community grant fund application to head office and invite them to the Annual Parish Meeting to speak to parishioners.
18/19 Ongoing topics
1: Village Hall – Cllr Tillett explained that the BSVHT had held the joint meeting which was very constructive. It had been agreed to employ a local builder to inspect the footings and the roof to see if any repairs were required. The Council RESOLVED to fund the cost of the inspection to a maximum of £500 and the monies would be taken from the general reserves.
(Proposed by Cllr R Tillett & seconded by Cllr M Merrett)
2: Footpaths & Verges- Cllr Gibson was given thanks for organising the clear up of Station Hill.
3: Trees – Cllr Hollingsworth explained that EDDC had offered to replace trees which had been affected by ash dieback and she would liaise with them on the locations.
4: Highways & Traffic Management-Cllr Tillett explained that both DCC Highways and Cllr Luxton had gritted Burridge Hill during the last cold snap and that he had reported the blocked gullies.
5: Community Engagement – No Update
19/19 EDDC
No Update
20/19 DCC
Cllr Randall-Johnson said that she had been to the new psychiatric unit and she had sent some guidance re effective scrutiny of local strategies to prevent or reduce suicide.
She referred to Cllr Bloxhams report on Air Quality outside of schools in the area.
21/19 Planning
No applications within the Parish had been dealt with since the last meeting
22/19 Financial matters
The Clerk’s financial reports were all NOTED with thanks (appendix 1)
Payments were approved for:
• 1 x The Clerk (Jan)
• 1 x HMRC (Jan)
RESOLVED to authorise these payments. The authorisations were signed by Cllr Luxton and Cllr Tillett.
The Council received a late request for funding of replacement Children pads for the defibrillator from Mary Greener and RESOLVED fund this.
(Proposed by Cllr S Luxton and seconded by Cllr R Tillett)
Accounting Statements January 2019
23/19 Other information
• Speke Up – the following items would be included in the next edition
o Elections May 2019
o Mid Devon Mobility Information
o Operation London Bridge
• The Council RESOLVED to approve the revised meeting schedule for 2019/2020
(Proposed by Cllr Luxton and Seconded by Cllr Merrett)
• Operation London Bridge - The Council RESOLVED that in the event of the death of a senior royal it would put the proclamation on the website and cancel any schedule meetings during any mourning period. It was agreed to ask the village if they wanted to organise a formal event via a piece in Speke Up.
• S106 – It was agreed to ask villagers at the Annual Parish Meeting if there were any projects that they would like to support
24/19 Next meeting
The meeting closed at 9.20pm. The next meeting would be Wednesday 6th March 2019 at 7.30pm, Village Hall