May 2023

UPLOWMAN PARISH COUNCIL: MINUTES OF ANNUAL MEETING

Held on Thursday 18^th May 2023 in Uplowman Village Hall, starting at 8.30pm.

Cllrs G Duchesne and G Westcott (MDDC) and eight members of the public present. Minutes by Mr R Hodgson, Clerk. Action points in bold.  Approved on 20^th July 2023

 

1. MEMBERS PRESENT and PROCEDURAL MATTERS

1.1 Present: Cllrs M Moore (Chair), A McCombe, D Westerman, D Thomas and R Adcock. All completed and signed their acceptances of Office for the coming 4 years.

1.2 Election of Chair for 2023-4: Cllr Adcock proposed Cllr Moore as Chair, seconded Cllr Westerman. On a show of hands all agreed. Cllr Westerman said he would consider chairing for 2024-5.

1.3 Cooption of member to fill vacancies. Cllr Adcock proposed that Mr K Baugh be coopted as councillor. Mr Baugh, being present, accpted the nomination and all agreed. Mr Baugh signed his acceptance of Office.

 

2. APOLOGIES, PROCEDURAL MATTERS AND REPORTS FROM MDDC & DCC

2.1 Cllr Slade had reported on DCC matters. He noted that his locality budget would be reduced to £5,000 in the coming year. He had been pleased to support Uplowman in getting potholes fixed and in many ways.

2.3 Cllrs Duchesne and Westcott introduced themselves, saying that they were looking forward to representing Uplowman interests at MDDC.

 

3. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING (16^th March 2023)

3.1 Draft Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 16^th March 2023 had been circulated. There were no changes requested and they were signed by the Chair as a true record of that meeting.

4.2 There were no matters arising from the previous minutes.

 

4. FINANCES

4.1 Current Balance:                                     £22838.07

      Income since last meeting - precept, SPU mag, grants for trimtrail  :£18862.11

4.2 The following payments were approved and cheques signed to effect the disbursements:

    Cornilleau UK, for outdoor table tennis equipment, £1186.98, already paid

    R Hodgson, Clerk’s expenses inc Membermojo, £84.40

    Community First Trading, Insurance premium, £162.48. It was agreed to accept the 3-year quotation at this rate per annum.

    Cllr Moore, reimburse for NALC conferences, £78.44

    Redwoods Inn, grass cutting, £134.59

It was also agreed to pay for supply and installation of the trim trail as and when invoices were received. The Clerk would arrange cheques. He confirmed that funds received would cover the cost net of VAT.

4.3 Annual Governance Statement. The Clerk read each statement, which was duly agreed by all councillors and signed by the Chair and Clerk.

4.4 Annual Accounting Statement. This had been circulated. There were no comments and this was signed by the Chair.

4.5 Certificate of Exemption from limited assurance audit. UPC’s turnover had been less than £25,000 and councillors agreed that there was no need for audit. The Certificate was signed by the Chair and Clerk. The Clerk would forward to the auditors.

4.6 The Clerk noted that the period for exercise of public rights to examine the books would rrun from 5^th June to 14^th July.

 

5. PLANNING APPLICATIONS

5.1 22/00753/Full, Land at Stonebridge, replace shed with 2 dwellings, UPC objected, Awaiting decision. A new application, number 23/00684/PIP, had been received for this site for permission in principle for 2 self-build houses. Cllrs Westerman and Baugh excused themselves from the discussion as neighbours. After lengthy dicussion it was agreed that the new application should be rejected because the site was unsuitable for the same reasons as previously give, namely inadequate access and unsustainability of the Uplowman community.

5.2 22/01345/FULL: Chamberlains, relocate equestrian building. UPC no object, decision awaited

5.3 22/02325/F, Hill Farm, erect ag workers cottage. UPC no objection,. MDDC had permitted this application.

5.423/00385/FULL: Hill Farm, erect cattle shed. MDDC had permitted this application.

5.5 23/00354/FULL: Willow Barn, erect holiday cottage. UPC had objected, decision was awaited.

5.6 23/00472/FULL: Widhayes, erect cattle shed. UPC no objection, decision awaited.

5.7 23/00541/HOUSE: Sanctuary farmhouse, erect estension, UPC no objection, decision awaited

5.8 23/00372/FULL: Land off Uplowman Rd, concrete yard, permitted by MDDC

5.9 23/00498/FULL: Beer Down, erect shed. Discussed at meeting. No objection raised.

5.6 Inert landfill at Greenway. Cllrs Adcock and Westerman had visited the site. The principal concern was over the numbers of large lorries (2 per hour) that would be accessing the site over the coming 8 years. It was agreed to liaise with Halberton PC and await a planning application.

6. VILLAGE IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS

6.1 Village signs: Cllr Baugh would enquire as to progress.

6.2 Broadband update: Openreach had been installing fibre cables to the Stag Mill area under a separate scheme to connect remote areas. Work was expected to be completed during the summer.

6.3 All requested funds for the trim trail had now been agreed and, in most cases, received. It was agreed to proceed with purchase and completion of the scheme by July.

6.4 The coronation crab-apple tree had been planted at the church and seemed to be doing well.

6.5 £277 had been received from the SP & U Parish magazine. There remained £250 from the previous year. All councillors would consider how this could best be spent.

 

7. SUSTAINABILITY AND HEALTHY LIVING

7.1 Cllr Moore would attend an NALC conference on climate change and report back. Cllr Adcock said that considerable work was being done to install energy saving devces at the Hall.

8. CORRESPONDENCE

A list of correspondence received and sent had been circulated. Attention was drawn to the following items of interest that were not covered elsewhere:

8.1  The police had removed the facility for reporting non-urgen matters by email. The old 101 email was being replaced by reporting forms on their website to imporve responses.

 

9. HALL AND RECREATION ASSOCIATION

9.1 Cllr Adcock reported that the Hall was installing energy-saving lights and investing in an audio system. There were now two football teams using the pitch and facilities.

10. EMERGENCY PLANNING AND NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH

10.1 Cllr Moore would arrange a meeting to take the parish emergency plan forward.

 

11. STATE OF ROADS IN PARISH

11.1 The road into Whitnage was getting worse. The local highways officer had said that this was a priority but no date had been set for the work. The Clerk would contact the LHO again to push the matter. Local councillors considered that the road needed drainage as well as surfacing.

11.2 Maintenance of the grit bins would be put on the September agenda for discussion.

 

12. DATE OF NEXT MEETING

The next meeting was confirmed for Thursday 20^th July 2023, to be in the Hall at 7.30pm.

The meeting closed at 9.35pm

 

Public discussion:

Mrs Lewis informed the UPC that funding for the Trim Trail was now in place and it was ready to be ordered for installation during week commencing 3^rd July She was liaising with the Clerk to time the payments to enable VAT to be reclaimed and that a further £10,637.52 was now due.

 

The proposed inert landfill was discussed. This would involve infilling a dip in the landscape and use of a small crusher to recylcle waste concrete for paving. Approximately two heavy vehicles per hour would deliver materials. These would coordinate their movements on the narrow lanes using CB radio. Cllr Duchesne said that Halberton PC were not supporting the proposal.

 

Residents raised objections to the planning application for 2 self build houses at Stonebridge. They said that the exit onto the highway was dangerous and it had been agreed in the Local Plan that Uplowman should have no further development. No evidence of local need had been provided.

 

The application for a holiday let at Willow Barn was said to be revised with the building further up the field. However, the access arrangements were still not suitable.

 

MINUTES OF 18 May 2023

 

Uplowman Parish Council Chairman’s Report on the 2022/3 Year

The Parish Council have had a full complement of six councillors this year, who have varied backgrounds and provide a broad range of knowledge and input to issues we discuss. We have provided a helping hand on visits and research work on planning applications, consultation with parishioners on contentious ones, reviews of road conditions and positioning and content of salt boxes. We, along with the Parish Clerk, have Liaised with DCC Highways over repairs to roads, especially around Whitnage. We have represented the Parish at local events including tree planting, village hall community events and the Remembrance service.

The Parish Council have

Organised and funded the maintenance and improvement of various parts of the parish including usual grass cutting, leat clearance, the graveyard maintenance of Uplowman Church and removal of a dead tree from the Green. Many thanks to Paul Hayman for keeping the village tidy; Support for

Commissioned new village signs to be funded from the generous grant received from SP&U parish magazine, to be installed soon.

Due to the untimely death of HM Queen Elizabeth II, organised the proclamation of the accession of King Charles to the throne on the Village Green, which had a great turnout, supported by people of all ages from Uplowman and Sampford Peverill. There was no meeting in September due to the mourning period for the passing of Queen Elizabeth. 

We supported the village event in November to celebrate 20th anniversary of
opening of the hall;

We arranged the purchase and planting of Christmas tree on the green and its lighting
for the festive period;

We organised for the crab-apple tree which was donated to be planted at the church to commemorate the coronation of HM King Charles 111;

We worked with Community Hub group to support the establishment of a
children's activity area in the playing field. Thank you to Suzanne Lewis for the Project leadership and management here. It involved a lot of consultation, bids for grants from various bodies, harnessing of energy of various different groups, planning of the build and development of equipment and then organising the financing which the parish clerk helped co-ordinate and account for. We hope to report the completion of this in next year’s report!

Unfortunately, we had few volunteers to help to design an up to date emergency plan which all parishes should have in place, so a sub group of councillors together with a volunteer parishioner have committed to get together in coming weeks to draft an up to date plan. One councillor attended an on line MDDC seminar on Emergency Planning in March which will input to this Emergency planning session.

The parish is very fortunate to have a very active WI and various local groups who regularly organise and cater for social events at the Village Hall and fetes and shows in the village. In addition parishioners have a couple of social media chatgroups where they communicate everything from suspicious callers, internet failures, water leaks and pop up stalls that arise in the parish. We have a great monthly newsletter which our Parish Clerk Robert Hodgson organises, musters contributions, edits and in many case writes.

We are very grateful for the wonderful contribution so many people make to support the community who live in the parish. We, as a Parish Council, will continue to support and co-ordinate where we can and we welcome parishioners attending our meetings which we hold on Thursday evenings every other month. All meeting agendas, minutes and accounts are published on our website.

Five of Seven Parish Councillors submitted application forms for the Parish Council election. None were contested so these five will continue. Councillor Nicky Branton decided she would step down at the end of this year due to the pressure of her busy farm and family commitments. We are very sad to lose her as she has made a great contribution to the Parish Council. She assures us she will continue to contribute where she can and we will seek her advice when it is appropriate. We will confirm the five councillors in this meeting and consider who else we may co-opt to join the council. We welcome any suggestions from parishioners in this regard.