Agenda for July 2020

Newton St Cyres Parish Council

Notice of Meeting of Parish Council

Dear Councillors

I hereby give notice that a Meeting of the above-named Parish Council will be held remotely using Zoom on Thursday 2 July 2020 at 7.00pm. 

All members of the Council are hereby summoned to attend for the purpose of considering and resolving upon the Business to be transacted at the meeting set out hereunder. 

Dated this 25 June 2020

Signed                    Jane Hole

Clerk to the Parish Council        parishclerk@newtonstcyres-pc.gov.uk          01392 851148 

Public Participation – please email jimenright@newtonstcyres-pc.gov.uk by 6pm on Thursday 2 July for details of how to join the zoom meeting 

Public Participation

Public Question Time.  Members of the public are invited to give their views and ask questions on issues on this agenda or to raise issues for future consideration by the Parish Council.

Formal Business 

(Members of the public may not take part in the formal business of the Parish Council except under special circumstances) 

01/07/20     Apologies - To receive apologies 

02/07/20     Declaration of Interest

2.1              Register of Interests.  Councillors to update as required

2.2              Personal Interests.  Councillors must declare any personal interest in items on the agenda and their nature.

2.3              Prejudicial Interests.  Councillors must declare any prejudicial interest in items on the agenda and their nature and they must leave the meeting for that agenda item.

 

03/07/20     Minutes of the last meeting held on Thursday 4 June 2020 (previously circulated)

To be agreed and signed as a true record 

04/07/20     Mid Devon District Council

4.1              Planning Applications:

20/00743 - Conversion of existing annex to separate dwelling including raising of roof for first floor at Lilly Farm, Newton St Cyres

20/00744/FULL - Erection of 2 dwellings following demolition of barn Location at Lilly Farm, Newton St Cyres    

20/00898/HOUSE - Alterations to enclose part of existing porch at Ridgeway House, Newton St Cyres

4.2              Planning Decisions:

20/00587/CLP - Certificate of lawfulness for the proposed erection of an extension to carport, conversion of carport to garage, alterations to parking bay and driveway with associated landscaping at 1 Kingfisher Close – grant permission

20/00827/PNAG - Prior Notification for the erection of an extension to an agricultural storage building at Five Elms Lane, Newton St Cyres – prior notification is not required

4.3              LGA Consultation on new Code of Conduct – details below and email circulated

4.4              District Councillor, Cllr G Barnell, to report on MDDC business relevant to the Parish – sent separately 

05/07/20     Finance

5.1              Parish Council Receipts Current Account: None                                

5.2              Parish Council Payment Current Account: 

                  

Item	Payee	Purpose	Amount £
5.2.1	Koncepta	Domain name renewal/10 x email accounts	264.00
5.2.2	Simon Saunders	Grass cutting parish	320.00
5.2.3	Simon Saunders	Grass cutting churchyard	240.00
5.2.1	J Hole	Salary and expenses	288.84
5.2.2	HMRC	PAYE	57.00
		Total	1,169.84

                                                           

5.3              To approve signatures for this month’s cheques

5.4              Balances (after above transactions)

5.4.1           Parish Council Current Account balance: £13,404.94

5.4.2           Footpath Account: £268.02 

5.4.3           Car Park resurfacing fund balance: £6,013.73

5.5              Financial Statement and Budget Monitor (attached)

5.6              To agree that urgent cheques can be signed before the September meeting if required (as there will not be a meeting in August) 

06/07/20     Matters raised by the Chair 

None 

07/07/20     Councillor’s Reports    

7.1              Update on Coronavirus and NSC PC response

7.2              Areas of Responsibility reports

7.2.1           Car Park Management Report – attached.  No meeting held this year due to restrictions

7.2.2           Verbal report from Cllr L Ouldridge re MDDC Climate Conversations zoom meeting                  

08/07/20     Clerk’s Report - None                  

09/07/20     Parish Council

9.1              Update on progress with Community Shop

9.2              To note there will not be a meeting in August (unless required for planning) and the September meeting will be via zoom.  To agree at the September meeting the arrangements for the October meeting.

9.3              To consider invitation from Police and Crime Commissioner to join the Councillor Advocate Scheme – details below

9.4              To consider proposal from Hydro-Logic services for maintenance of tipping rain gauge from 31 July 2020 – details circulated.

9.5              Average speed cameras - email sent to DCC and Peninsula Road Safety Partnership (PRSP) re average speed cameras – PRSP state they have no input to decision making.  Waiting for response from DCC

9.6              To agree formation of working party to work with PCC to agree plan for new graveyard

9.7              To consider a grant application to purchase signage in the event that we activate our CRP and need to maintain safe distancing in our evacuation site – details below                  

10/07/20     Devon County Council

10.1            Outstanding Highways issues (see below)

10.2            New DCC issues

10.3            County Councillor, Cllr M Squires, to report on DCC business relevant to the parish – report below 

11/07/20     Miscellaneous Correspondence

Thank you from Half Moon parishioner for cutting back of footpaths

Report of mountain bikes on FP 22 – DCC are sending “no bikes” signs 

Survey request – impact and use of Devon’s bus network - circulated                         

12/07/20     Minor Matters and Items for Future Agenda

Each Councillor is requested to use this opportunity to report minor matters of information not included elsewhere on the agenda and to raise items for future agendas.  Councillors are respectfully reminded that this is not an opportunity for debate or decision making. 

13/07/20     Date of next meeting: Thursday 3 September 2020, via zoom at 7.00pm.

End of Formal Business - Public Participation 

 

 

Agenda item 4.3

Consultation on the new model code of conduct 

The LGA is consulting on a new model code of conduct, which could be adopted at all levels of local authority, including parish councils.  However it is not compulsory – a council can devise its own, although in our area there is a clear benefit to having harmony across the board, including up to county level. 

The consultation will run for 10 weeks and ends on the 17 August 2020. 

Any councillor can respond to the consultation individually online via the following link: https://www.local.gov.uk/code-conduct-consultation-2020, or your Council can make a joint submission – if this is the case then it would be helpful to us if you could summarise your points and feedback to the Monitoring Officer (monitoringofficer@middevon.gov.uk so that our Standards Committee can be made aware in general terms of the concerns of Parish Councils. 

A copy of the draft model code and a sample of the questionnaire is available as an attachment for your consideration. 

We would encourage you to take part in this consultation and would be grateful if you could circulate this amongst your members. 

Many thanks and kind regards

Sally Gabriel 

Member Services Manager /MDDC

 

Agenda Item 4.4

 

 MDDC Report To Parish Councils July 2020 from Cllr G Barnell

The current situation with regard to the COVID 19 pandemic is that, at the time of writing, there have been 102 tested cases in Mid Devon and 8 deaths (with a COVID 19 positive test result).   There have been no new cases for two weeks in the District.  There were 831 confirmed cases in Devon (excluding Plymouth and Torbay) out of a total population of 802,375.   In terms of the national situation, the UK has more than 309,360 confirmed cases and 43,414 deaths (with a COVID 19 positive test result). 

As you will see below the MDDC Economic Development Team continues to be tied up with providing grant assistance, supporting businesses in the immediate response mode and reopening high streets safely work.  This is set to continue over the next few weeks.  Key areas of activity to date are as follows: 

Business Assistance

The team continues to work alongside the Revenues and Benefits team in processing Business Grants.  To date, the Council has released £19,060,000 worth of business grants to 1,680 applications from businesses.  Work continues with this including extensive cold calling to notify business who have yet to claim.   

The Discretionary Business Grants scheme continues to be an important source of funding for many businesses including charities who did not qualify for previous funding opportunities, B&B’s (particularly those who are not registered for business rates), businesses occupying shared work space and market traders; however there is significantly less monies available for these grants with only around £1 million allocated to Mid Devon as compared with the £22 million available for the business grants scheme.    

Discretionary grants have now been distributed to 115 businesses totalling £608,000.  

Please see below a link which provides more information with regard to the Discretionary Fund including eligibility criteria.https://www.middevon.gov.uk/COVID19DiscretionaryGrantFund 

The Economic Development team continues to signpost businesses to other funding opportunities as appropriate and are signposting them to the Growth Hub for advice on opportunities such as the well-received  ‘Bounce back loans’.  In certain circumstances, where individuals are facing specific hardships, we are directing people to the community schemes below. 

Community Support

Following Monday’s announcement on the future of shielding, the Government shielding programme will be ending on 31st July.  The District Shielding Hub will effectively be standing down from today, as the last of the DCC top up boxes will have been delivered, and the market walk unit will be handed back to property services.  We may still need to respond to requests for emergency food supplies from individuals having to self-isolate unexpectedly due to a suspected Covid19 infection.  It is not clear at this time what the expectations on the Council will be from the Health Protection Board to support with food security and shielding in the event of a local outbreak.

Over the 13 weeks of shielding we have dealt with 133 customers and delivered 125 emergency food packs and 103 top-up food parcels. Customer First have also dealt with 301 Covid-related enquiries. 

The Mid Devon Covid 19 Support Fund (a DCC funded hardship fund administered by MDDC)  - There have been 118 applications to the Local Hardship Fund, since the beginning of May.

 

We are expecting an announcement on the Government’s further £63 million for financial hardship on Monday 29th to assist those struggling to afford food and other essentials. We are not sure if this funding will be distributed through the County Council or through the District Councils, or indeed whether there will be specific criteria for its use.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/63-million-for-local-authorities-to-assist-those-struggling-to-afford-food-and-other-essentials

A link to our webpage can be found below:

https://www.middevon.gov.uk/residents/coronavirus-support-for-communities-and-businesses/ 

Devon Recovery

 The Devon Economic Recovery plans are starting to take shape and a Devon recovery Prospectus should be released in July.  I will keep you posted.  As formally described it will focus on securing support and delivering relief in four core areas:

• Our People – Ensuring that our workforce and our residents are supported through the current downturn and provided with the support they need to access good quality work and learning, reinforcing both their prosperity and that of the wider economy.
• Our Businesses – Supporting our business community through the current crisis, and enabling it to emerge stronger, more diverse and more resilient than before the pandemic. In particular, seeking to reinforce our hardest hit sectors, such as Tourism and Retail, whilst still maximizing the impact of new growth opportunities for Devon.
• Our Places – Ensuring that no place or community is left behind through the current crisis, whether our rural and coastal communities which provide the backbone of our visitor and agricultural economy, or our core city and market towns which underpin our manufacturing, health and digital expertise.
• Our Opportunities – Ensuring that the County maximises the impact of emerging opportunities to drive recovery and set a renewed economic direction for the future, whether for our people, communities, business or whole economy. 

MDDC will continue to be fully engaged with the County Council and other partners with the recovery plan work which aims to restart, regrow and reset our economy with the aim of emerging stronger in order to build Devon back better.    Officers also continue to engage in partnership working at a sub-regional  and local level regarding economic recovery.  

Reopening High Streets Safely Fund

Work on this project continues and current temporary measures appear to be working reasonably well.  Cabinet will consider an Action Plan at their next meeting. 

Our webpage can be found here  https://www.middevon.gov.uk/BusinessReopeningHelp.  This includes useful information for businesses to help them protect their staff and customers such as health and safety advice, risk assessment templates and posters which informs the customer of the procedures in place for that business. 

Risk assessments will continue to be reviewed with the assistance of the town councils.   Liaison will continue with local ward members, the Town Councils, the Local Resilience Forum and with the business community as further measures develop over the coming months.  Regular meetings with the Town Mayors is proving to be a useful platform for discussion.

Love your Town Centre Fund

Given the importance of town centre recovery and revitalisation at this time a fund is being set up from within existing budgets.  The first tranche of which has taken the form of providing a grant to the three largest Town Councils (Crediton, Cullompton and Tiverton) of £5k to spend on quick-win projects that support:

1. the safe resumption and use of our high streets and town centre activities
2. activities that increase shopper confidence in our town centres 

The Town Councils have been notified and they are currently considering projects to fund.  We have encouraged the Town Councils to supplement this fund where possible.  The Town Councils will be accountable for managing the grant towards projects in its town centre.  As the fund exists to help identify new ideas to benefit town centres, it is not anticipated that the fund should be used for existing town centre activities or events, unless it is specifically for a new element/phase of that project. 

The Town Councils are welcome to spend the fund on projects identified by themselves or may wish to ask local organisations to put forward and deliver ideas. However, we would expect the fund to be spent within the next six weeks. 

It is envisaged that the Town Centre grant would be a first phase of grant funded support to assist with the regeneration of our town centres.  We intend to make a second tranche of funding available soon which will be run and administered by the District Council from within current budget as planned.  We would also very much welcome the town councils’ engagement with that fund along with other town centre partners.   

 

 

Boundary Commission Draft Proposals Feb 2020 -Report to Newton St Cyres and Shobrooke Parish Councils

1. As a result of COVID-19 the Boundary Commission has extended the consultation period on its draft proposals for District Council Ward Boundaries until July 23^rd. I have submitted my response.
2. I do support the Boundary Commission’s aim of balancing the number of voters within each ward. This will be more democratic for voters and fairer to councillors who currently represent more residents than others.
3. I have based my response to the Boundary Commission’s draft proposal on the target voter populations for 2025 of 1660 adults of voting age. The Boundary Commission require the voter population of all proposed wards to fall within a variance threshold of 10% of that figure.
4. I do not agree with the emphasis in the Boundary Commission proposals for Mid Devon on multi-member wards. I do not think that this supports local democracy and is unnecessary in achieving the required equalisation of ward populations.
5. Wherever possible I support the creation of single member wards in Mid Devon based around larger villages. Single member wards are most accountable and transparent.
6. Unfortunately the Parish of Newton St Cyres does not have a sufficiently large voter population on its own, or in combination with neighbouring parishes, to form a single member Ward that meets the required voter population size.
7. I have objected strongly to the proposed splitting up of the present Newbrooke Ward, which includes the Parishes of Newton St Cyres and Shobrooke.
8. The Boundary Commission has proposed a large ward called Yeo to include Newton St Cyres together with the villages of Yeoford, Hittisleigh and Cheriton Bishop. It calls this ward “cohesive”. I do not agree that the proposal for the new Yeo ward will be at all cohesive. The villages of Yeoford, Hittisleigh and Cheriton Bishop currently form part of the same ward and share both geographic proximity and strong historic and social links. However, they are not located anywhere near to Newton St Cyres and its associated settlements. The Parish of Newton St Cyres shares no historic, educational religious nor social links with the three other villages.
9. Travel times and distances in this new Yeo ward are long. The nearest of these three villages to Newton St Cyres (Yeoford) is nine miles from Newton and nearly 30 minutes by minor single-track roads. The furthest Hittesleigh is 13 miles and 40 minutes away by road. The rail link exists but is little used as stopping trains are infrequent. The A377 does not connect these communities.
10. The Boundary Commission also proposes the creation of a large new ward called Morchard. This is to include the Parish of Shobrooke. There is no clear reason to link the key villages of Morchard Bishop, Sandford and Shobrooke into one ward. Morchard Bishop is separated by several miles of open countryside from the other two villages and is not directly connected by any main roads. Morchard Bishop shares no obvious social, educational or religious links with either Sandford or Shobrooke.
11. The Parish of Sandford is much closer socially and geographically to the Parishes of Shobrooke and Newton St Cyres. I believe that there are strong reasons for these three Parishes to be linked into a single ward even though it would need to have two members because of population sizes of the communities involved.
12. I therefore propose the formation of a new ward to be called Newbrooke and Sandford based on the Villages of Newton St Cyres, Sandford and Shobrooke. I also propose the inclusion of Hookway into the new ward because of its close proximity to Newton St Cyres and its strong links with and dependencies on the neighbouring villages. This will form a Ward that is cohesive in terms of social interaction, community links, travel and transport connections, and geographic proximity.
13. The following table sets out the proposed new ward of Newbrooke and Sandford by Parishes and voter population. 

 

Ward	Name of parish	Voter population
Newbrooke & Sandford	AQ - Crediton Hamlets (Hookway)	191
	AV - Kennerleigh	74
	AW - Newton St Cyres	778
	AY - Sandford	1111
	AZ - Sandford (East Village)	117
	BA - Sandford (New Buildings)	177
	BB - Shobrooke	466
	BE - Stockleigh English	53
	BH - Upton Hellions	52	3019

 

Recommendation

I hope you will consider this matter and support my proposal in writing to the Boundary Commission before July 23^rd. 

Graeme Barnell

Mid Devon District Council

Newbrooke Ward

27^th June 2020

 

  

Agenda Item 5.5

Accessibility Budget Monitor

 

 

Agenda item 7.2

CAR PARK MANAGEMENT REPORT, 2019-20

There have been no crises or major developments over the last year.

Parking: A lot of the spaces are occupied overnight (and quite a few during the day) by neighbouring residents. I suggest that we leave as is at present, but discuss possible options when we have a face-to-face meeting in 2021.

Thanks to Jane Hole who took action though MDDC that resulted in the removal of a vehicle that had been parked for weeks.

We propose having a closure day during the Christmas-New Year period.

Condition of car park:  The surface is still good. The case for re-lining, both within the Car Park and by exit to West Town Rd, is increasing. We propose that this is looked at during our inspection in 2021.

Car Park fund:  Payments of £750 from both the PC and the Hall have been made into the fund. I believe that the first of these annual payments was made in 2017 so four have been made by each partner and the fund stands at £6,000. When this arrangement was made, we agreed to review the payment rate every 5 years. This is something which we should do at our meeting next year. The Car Park was re-surfaced in 2009 at a cost of £10, 000. The payment was fixed at £750 per year per partner on the basis that the fund would accumulate £15,000 by 2027 and that would hopefully be sufficient for resurfacing at about that date.

Possible community shop and changed access to Hall:  The availability of the car park will be critical for both of these potential developments, but the present plans would not reduce the number of spaces in the car park.

Risk analysis:  We do not think any changes are required

Roger Wilkins, Chris Barlow

June 2020 

Agenda item 9.3

I am writing to you on behalf of the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner to give you more information about our Councillor Advocate Scheme, with a view to you nominating a representative of your council to join the scheme.
If your council does already have a councillor advocate representative I would appreciate it if could just confirm their name and the best email address to contact them. If however, your council isn’t represented I would ask that you consider nominating someone.
I have attached a number of documents which explains all you need to know about the scheme and how it can benefit your community.

The scheme currently has around 150 nominated advocates and we would like to see that number increase greatly in the coming months.
This and the attachments may help:
•    CAS Induction Document – Draft
This document explains the scheme, the role of councillors/police/our office etc. This approach has been very effective in giving councillors ownership of the scheme itself
•    Cllr Advocate Information Directory
We were asked by councillors to create something specifically for them in terms of an A to Z of community safety issues. This is completely bespoke so rather than giving members generic information, we explain issues and most importantly how they as a councillor can support the work of the police and other partners. So far this has proved incredibly popular

•    2 x PCC Briefing Documents
This is just to give you an example of the type of information we cascade from our office to the councillors as part of the scheme. The information is nothing that is not in the public domain so any elected member across the area could access this from our local police and crime panel website, however we have tried to put it into a slightly more digestible format for our advocates

The scheme itself works by offering:
Face to face discussions:
1. Access to a quarterly meeting with the police at a local level
2. Access to councillor advocate themed seminars each year
3. Access to a named contact within the commissioner’s office

Written materials:
4. A bespoke advocate information directory
5. Quarterly key topic briefing documents specifically for advocates
6. Quarterly newsletter from the commissioner
7. Monthly Citizens in Policing newsletter
8. Notification of press releases issued by the police and the commissioner

Campaigns and events:
9. Access to police campaign materials (e.g. posters and leaflets)
10. Prior notification of and invitation to police arranged community engagement activities

If you require any further information about the scheme please reply to this message.

With kind regards,
Sal Collins, Community Engagement Officer
Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner 

Agenda Item 9.7

As your community has a complete or draft community emergency plan of flood plan we are contacting you about a one-off temporary extension to the parameters of our Devon Emergency Resilience Fund. This extension has been made in recognition that other emergencies may still arise during the pandemic and we want to ensure that if you have to activate your plan in the event of an emergency, that you can maintain safe distancing in any rest centre sites. 

This extension therefore allows those communities who have a specified rest centre in their plan to purchase signage for that rest centre to ensure social distancing.

Devon Community Resilience Forum

 

Agenda Item 10.1 - Outstanding Highways issues

• Speed restrictions in Station Road – SCARF re test requested
• Request for a School sign in Station Road and possible zig-zag lines outside the school – declined - requested this is re-considered
• Uncollected road signs
• Request for a Road Safety audit on A377 in centre of village
• Footpath from Layby to bus stop in Half Moon – request to DCC to improve surface/land owner re hedge
• School Hill pavement – grass needs clearing – DCC chased
• Various Drains

 

Agenda Item 10.3 - Report from Cllr M Squires, DCC for July 2020

Recycling centres

From Wed June 24^th Devon Residents can use their personal vans to bring in their Household waste but only the equivalent amount of waste that would fit in a family car/trailer.   

This is to ensure that HWRCs have enough capacity to serve as many people as possible and to keep unloading times to a minimum, so that as many residents as possible have access to sites. Large vans full of waste can take time to unload, increasing site queuing times.

Sites only accept Household Waste delivered by the Householder. They will not accept waste from any Business or Trade source/premises - this includes wastes from Landlords properties/holiday lets and ‘Man and Van’ house clearance/waste removal activities.

Below is a part of a statement from Devon County Council Leader Cllr John Hart following the Prime Ministers announcement to relax Covid 19 restrictions on the 4^th July.

“All the evidence from our Public Health experts shows that because we were able to get an early grip on the virus Devon continues to have one of the lowest rates of Covid-19 cases in the country.

“Thanks to a brilliant Team Devon effort by our front-line health and care workers, council staff, police and military Devon is in a good position to start welcoming back visitors in July providing the low trend in cases continues locally and nationally.

“It would be a huge boost to our £2 billion tourism economy, the biggest in the South West, and all the tens of thousands of people whose livelihoods depend on it. We know the people of Britain need a break and we need them back for the economy of this county.

“So I want to say a huge thank you to local people for the way they have steadfastly followed the lockdown measures. Every one of you is a hero, you have stepped up, helped us save lives, protect our vital health and care services, and you’re helping to get Devon’s economy back on its feet.

“We just need everyone to keep up the good work, continue being sensible and keep following the local and Government guidance.

“For our part, the County Council’s Public Health team along with Public Health England, the NHS and District Council Environmental Health experts will continue to monitor the situation in Devon very carefully and we will not hesitate to take early action if there is any sign that the virus is making a comeback. ”

 

Meeting information