Agenda for February 2021 meeting

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 4 February 2021 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 29 January 2021

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 4 February 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) 

01/02/21     Apologies - To receive apologies 

02/02/21     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. 

03/02/21     Minutes of the last meeting held on Thursday 3 December 2020 (previously circulated)

To be agreed and signed as a true record 

04/02/21     Mid Devon District Council

4.1              Planning Applications:

20/02130/HOUSE - Erection of an extension to carport, conversion of carport to garage, alterations to parking bay and driveway with associated landscaping at 1 Kingfisher Close Newton St Cyres Exeter Devon EX5 5DH

20/01584/MOUT – Revised Drawings and additional information for outline for the erection of a 50 bedroom nursing home at Langford Park Nursing Home Langford Road Langford

20/00317/CLU -  Appeal against refusal for a Certificate of lawfulness for the existing use of buildings and land on the 489 acre holding for agricultural use, including commercial storage within 3 buildings at Winscott Barton

4.2              Planning Decisions:

20/01403/TPO - Application to remove 2 stems of 1 Lime tree and reduce the height by

approximately 3m; reduce 1 Holm Oak tree by cutting back to boundary by approximately 2m and reduce the spread of 1 Yew tree by approximately 2m, protected by Tree Preservation Order 08/00008/TPO at Church of St Cyr and St Julitta Church Lane Newton St Cyres – application refused

4.3              To note publication of S106 reports on MDDC website https://www.middevon.gov.uk/residents/planning/section-106/s106-parish-reports/  There is £1,000.00 in the general pot which is available to NSC and Shobrooke

4.4              To note final report from Local Boundary Commission - https://consultation.lgbce.org.uk/node/18162 

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

05/02/21     Finance

5.1              Parish Council Receipts Current Account:

£500.00 DCC Locality grant for purchase of bench       

5.2              Parish Council Payment Current Account:

Item	Payee	Purpose	Amount £
5.2.1	J Hole	Reimbursement for PPE purchase	214.20*
5.2.2	Citizens Advice	Grant	100.00
5.2.3	J Hole	Salary and expenses (Dec and Jan)	607.47
5.2.4	HMRC	PAYE (Dec and Jan)	72.80

  * already paid

5.3              To approve signatures for this month’s cheques

5.4              Balances (after above transactions)

5.4.1           Parish Council Current Account balance: £15,841.78

5.4.2          Footpath Account: £268.02 

5.4.3          Car Park resurfacing fund balance: £6,014.08

5.5              Financial Statement and Budget Monitor (attached) 

06/02/21     Matters raised by the Chair 

6.1              None 

07/02/21     Councillor’s Reports    

7.1              Update on Coronavirus and NSC PC community response

7.2              Areas of Responsibility reports

7.3              To agree specification for new bench for village green – suggestions circulated

                  

08/02/21     Clerk’s Report  - None                  

09/02/21     Parish Council

9.1              Update on Broadband survey

9.2              Speeding update – to note correspondence from parishioner (previously circulated) and agree any further actions

9.3              Report from meeting with Environment Agency  re flood risk in NSC

9.4              Volunteer of the Year was not awarded in 2020 – to agree to carry over winner from last year to this year and present award virtually at Annual Parish Meeting in April

9.5              To note request for a salt bin for Kingfisher Close and to consider grant funding available for purchase

9.6              To consider “Gateway to Mid Devon” proposal – details circulated separately                  

10/02/21     Devon County Council

10.1            Outstanding Highways issues (see below)

10.2            New Highway issues

10.3            To note new Traffic Management Procedure which allows the use of vehicle activated speed warning signs – details circulated separately

10.4            To consider a response to Devon Carbon Plan consultation – circulated separately

10.5            County Councillor, Cllr M Squires, to report on DCC business relevant to the parish 

11/02/21     Miscellaneous Correspondence

Sandford Primary School have confirmed decision to federate with Exe Valley Federation

Volunteer help required to set Post Office up

To note MDDC are sending a new build homes residents survey – details circulated separately

Any other correspondence will be available at the meeting.                       

12/02/21     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. 

13/20/21     Date of next meeting: Thursday 4 March 2021, 7pm – via zoom 

End of Formal Business - Public Participation 

 

Agenda Item 4.5

Graeme Barnell-  District Councillor Newbrooke Ward -My New Year’s work programme

Last Year

2020 was a busy year for me partly because of COVID. The work of the Council has not stopped and cannot stop because of the virus.

Until August I was a member of the Mid Devon Council’s Cabinet with responsibility for Planning and Regeneration. I was able to play my part in ensuring we got our Local Plan across the line after years of delay. This Plan protects us from speculative Housing Development. I was also able to help in ensuring Government COVID grants to businesses were distributed efficiently and that businesses could reopen safely during the periods of respite we’ve had from COVID.

I had to spend a great deal of time opposing and helping to defeat GESP (the Greater Exeter Strategic Plan). I formed an alliance with friends in Mid and East Devon District Councils and with the Parish Councils that was finally successful in stopping GESP.

GESP was advertised as the bringer of new growth and investment to Devon. I was well placed to understand that this was just window dressing. GESP actually meant thousands of new houses locally and in other parts of rural Mid Devon that were not justified by any measure of local housing need. These schemes would have destroyed much beautiful countryside and degraded our environment.

My opposition to GESP cost me by job on the Mid Devon Council Cabinet, but that has given me much more time to work on local issues. Here are some of the issues I’ll be dealing with in the coming year.

Big development

I will continue to oppose any schemes for big housing development between Exeter and Crediton.

GESP is now dead. However there are sizeable areas of the Creedy Valley that remain attractive to town planners who are always seeking ways to meet Government housing targets and to developers who look at the Valley and see another lucrative suburb of Exeter.

Mid Devon District Council is just starting a new Local Plan. So are Exeter City and East Devon District Council. I will continue to be vigilant and  link with the Parish Council and with colleagues from other Councils to oppose any new proposals for big development schemes locally. 

Affordable housing

Like most rural areas of Devon we lack affordable housing for local people. Most of all we lack affordable rented housing (Government subsidy to enable rent at 80% of market) and social rented housing (50% of market rent) More affordable housing would enable and encourage families on ordinary incomes to live in villages like ours without spending disproportionate amounts of their income on housing. It would also mean that families on ordinary incomes who live in the village can remain rather than move into Towns.

I will continue to support the Parish council and my neighbours in developing a local Community Housing Scheme. First of all we need a site. Let us know if there’s a way!

I will also be working to get Mid Devon Council to invest in affordable and social rented houses rather than spend millions more taxpayers money, with little or no return, on speculative private housing development with its Company 3 Rivers Development. It is vital that any local affordable housing schemes are sustainable in their impact on the environment and fit in with and enhance the communities in which they sit.

Transport and Traffic Plan for the Creedy Valley

After much pressure the County Council have now promised us a controlled road crossing in the centre of Newton village. We are told this will happen later this year. We will need to work hard to make sure that it does!

I will continue my work with fellow Councillors including the Parish Council to deliver a Transport Plan for the Creedy Valley that responds to the impact of increasing road traffic on our communities, including that arising from new housing developments in and around Crediton. These plan meeds to include:-

• Footpaths and safe road crossing points in all the communities that sit on the A377.
• Speed calming along rural lanes that are increasingly being used as “rat runs” including through Shobrooke and Sweetham, .
• Average speed cameras along the A377
• Cycle Ways especially the Exeter to Crediton Cycle way (aka the “Boniface Trail”)

Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) disrupting life in local communities

I will continue to work with the County Council, Parish Councils and with local communities to deal with the impact of HGV traffic that disrupts normal life in some of our communities. This is not about ordinary farm traffic. It’s about the disruption and destruction caused by very large lorries and trailers that supply distribution businesses located in the countryside. At the moment this traffic routinely uses narrow lanes, passes through our hamlets and often by our local school. We have to find solutions.

The Birds, the Bees and Biodiversity

We are blessed to be able to live in such a beautiful place surrounded by lovely countryside. Even here I think we must work together to improve our environment. I will work with the Parish Councils, Landowners,  Community Environmental Groups like NEW, the Church Councils etc to identify, protect and extend places where ponds, wildflowers and grasses can provide a more diverse habitat. I will be proposing policies that actively support populations of birds, mammals, amphibians and pollinating  insects. These places include road verges, churchyards, the edges of fields. I will be working to:

• Replace mowing and cutting practices that degrade wildflower and wildlife habitats esp practices funded by the taxpayer
• Identify and support projects that develop and extend local habitats for birds, mammals, amphibians and pollinating insects especially projects involving schools and younger people.

Zero Carbon

Last on my work list (but definitely not least) is our part in combatting global warming. Mid Devon Council is signed up to the Devon Climate Declaration and is committed to achieving a Zero Carbon footprint within its assets and services by 2030. This is a huge task but it is not one we can continue to duck.

I believe that the Parish Councils should also have a Zero Carbon plan that encourages and supports local people to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

There are various ways we can contribute individually and collectively. These include:-

• Encouraging and prompting green energy generation and home insulation schemes.
• Sharing cars and journeys (post COVID of course).
• Further reductions in landfill waste.

Post Script

There is various other work that I’m engaged in, including local flood prevention and improving rural broadband but perhaps more of that another time.

If you are interested in supporting me with this work please contact me at g.barnell@middevon.gov.uk or on my landline 01392 851308. Let me know too if you think my priorities are wrong or that there is something more important that I should be doing as Councillor. 

Cllr Graeme Barnell

Halses, West Town

Newton St Cyres

 

 

Agenda Item 5.5

Accessibility Budget Monitor

 

Agenda Item 9.2

Reply from DCC re speed monitoring

SCARF does not only consider the measured speed of traffic. But for the Newton St Cyres 30mph limit,  measured speeds were below the threshold at which SCARF would normally be recommending any speed management actions. 

The speed data that was used in the SCARF review was the same data that had been collected by the camera partnership officers and shared with the parish. It did include speeds from the site near Tytheing Close.  I do appreciate that there has been a lot of correspondence last year raising questions about speed data. Whilst this will not alter the way that the Police and highways authorities use and interpret speed measurements.   I would still be happy to discuss this directly with the parish and answer any questions. 

Regards

County Road Safety Manager

 

 

Agenda Item 10.1 - Outstanding Highways issues

1. Speed restrictions in Station Road – SCARF re test requested – with Cllr M Squires
2. Request for a School sign in Station Road and possible zig-zag lines outside the school – declined - requested this is re-considered. Cllr M Squires to check if PC can put up sign
3. Request for a Road Safety audit on A377 in centre of village
4. Chapter 8 training for volunteers – on hold due to Covid
5. Drain cover on A377 – passed to BT as a fault
6. Double white lines on A377 – deferred until installation of crossing
7. Relocate grit bin from outside old school to Tytheing Close

 

Agenda Item 10.3

Dear Councillors 

Following the Scrutiny Committee Speed Task Group (SCTG) report (June 2019) which established the Speed Management Working Group (SMWG).  One of the group’s key areas of work has been the Newton Abbot 20mph trial. An update was provided to Scrutiny in Nov 2020.

However, another outcome of the SMWG has been the review of Devon’s Vehicle Activated Sign policy. 

The group investigated a more permissive approach to Mobile Vehicle Activated Speed Warning Signs (MVAS) to allow communities to communicate to drivers in different ways, such as signs displaying the vehicle’s speed, slow down text etc. The outcome is a new Traffic Management Procedure which allows the use of these signs. This procedure is attached. 

The procedure will empower local councils to bring about a behavioural change to speed within their community and assist the Neighbourhood Highway Teams to enable this. It will also provide another option/outcome from the Speed Complaint Action Review Forum (SCARF) process. 

The procedure covers a number of criteria which must be met before a MVAS can be installed on the highway. This includes the requirement for the locations to be reviewed at SCARF and the device to be moved to different locations on a regular basis. Devices which are capable of data gathering are also supported. This could assist us by providing data to evaluate how effective these measures are. 

DCC will continue to deploy either fixed or mobile VAS in accordance with the current SCARF process. This option of the community deploying MVAS at its own cost is in addition to the DCC VAS programme. 

Some of the operational details for implementing MVAS are still being tested and finessed. I hope these will be completed by the end of Jan 2021. 

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. 

Regards 

Senior Traffic Engineer

Traffic Orders, Policy & Programme Team

Highways & Traffic Management