May 2007
MINUTES OF ANNUAL MEETING
Held on 11th May 2007 at the Village Hall, Uplowman, starting at 7.30pm
Minutes taken by Mr R Hodgson, Clerk. Action points in bold.
Six members of the public plus DCC Cllr D Hannon were present.
- MEMBERS PRESENT
1.1 Present: D Hamer (Chair), Mr R Branton, Mrs S Brown, Mrs J Woolley, Mrs L Veen and Mr R Norman.
1.2 Mr R Burman, outgoing Vice Chair, presided over the election of Chair and Vice Chair for the coming year. He noted that th 62% elector turn-out in the recent elections indicated that democracy was alive and well in Uplowman and that the new council had a real mandate to take things forward. Mr D Hamer was proposed as Chair by Mrs Veen, seconded by Mr Norman and elected unopposed. Mr R Branton was proposed as Vice Chair by Mrs Veen, seconded by Mrs Brown and elected unopposed. Mr Hamer took the Chair for the remainder of the meeting. He read a valedictory message of thanks to the councillors for their support from Mr White, outgoing Chair, who was abroad.
1.3 All councillors present undertook the Declaration of Office, which was duly witnessed by the Clerk.
- APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
2.1 Mr R Adcock had tendered apologies due to a significant family celebration.
- MINUTES OF LAST MEETING (9th March 2007)
3.1 Minutes of the previous Parish Council meeting held on 9th March 2007 had been previously circulated. They were signed as a true record of the meeting with the addition of ‘person and of con-men operating in the area’ to complete item 9.2.
- MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
4.1 There were no matters arising that would not be covered by the Agenda.
During a break in the meeting at this point matters were raised by the public. See notes at end of Minutes.
- FINANCES
5.1 Current Balance: £ 8396.55
Income since last meeting (Precept + Grant from MDDC) £ 2198.00
5.2 The following payments were approved and cheques signed to effect the disbursement:
RLP Hodgson for Clerk’s Honorarium (£370) and expenses (£7.12)
Community First, for Annual Insurance (£249.33)
Mr R Norman, for constructing the Hall footbridge (£5076.00)
Mr R Tancock, for grass cutting and maintenance of seats and noticeboard (£142.00)
5.3 Cllrs Hamer, Branton and Veen were mandated to act as financial signatories for future meetings, with any two to sign. Mandate forms for the Bank were signed to this effect.
5.4 The Annual Audit date was noted as 23rd July. It was decided that Cllrs Hamer and Woolley would meet with the Clerk to review internal audit and financial control procedures.
5.5 The Clerk noted that a VAT refund in December 2005 (£101.09) had not been minuted at the time.
- PLANNING/LICENSING APPLICATIONS
6.1 06/02576/F: Clover Mead Extension. MDDC had now approved this.
6.2 07/00021/F: Locks Farm conv of redundant buildgs (Revised) . This had now been approved by MDDC
6.3 06/02598/F: Greengates Cottage extension. MDDC had approved this application.
- 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:
7.1 MDDC had offered to update the PC on how the recently-implemented recycling scheme was going. It was agreed to invite a representative to the next meeting. The Clerk would contact MDDC.
7.2 Mid Devon Transport Group had invited a representative to their next Forum on 18 May. Cllr Woolley said that, as Chair of that Group, she would provide reports as appropriate to Uplowman PC.
7.3 A revised Model Code of Conduct had been produced and circulated. This should be reviewed, together with UPC’s procedures, and would have to be adopted by 1st October.
- HALL AND RECREATION ASSOCIATION
8.1 Work on the footbridge was now completed.
8.2 Hall business continued to be good. The floor would need renewing soon.
8.3 The UHRA AGM would be on June 12th. All would be welcome to observe.
- EMERGENCY PLANNING AND NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH
9.1 It was agreed to establish a sub-group to review emergency planning. The Clerk was asked to invite (via the newsletters) interested members of the public to participate.
9.2 A person missing report had come to the Neighbourhood Watch that day.
- VILLAGE IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS
10.1 It was agreed that each councillor would review the list of suggestions made in the survey returns and prioritise them. A programme of council activities could then be drafted at the July meeting.
10.2 As a first step, Cllrs Norman and Woolley volunteered to clear vegetation from the footpath between the church and school. It was agreed not to proceed with obtaining additional stone until the area had been cleared.
10.2 The School PTFA had written in support of continuing with the proposed school path. The Clerk reported that discussions were ongoing between DCC and the landowner’s Agent. Cllr Hannon would follow this up.
10.3 Mr Tancock had cut the grass a couple of times and had restained the seats and noticeboard. It was agreed that the results were pleasing.
10.4 The footbridge into the Hall carpark was now completed. The Clerk had sent an end-of-project report to Awards 4 All, who had sent by return a plaque to be affixed to the bridge. Cllr Norman would do this.
- CONDITION OF ROAD/TRANSPORT IN THE PARISH
11.1 A bad pot-hole had been reported near Whitnage. Cllr Hannon said that he could assist in following up such reports with DCC now that our direct links with Local Services in Tiverton had been broken.
- DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The next meeting would be on Friday 20th July 2007, starting at 7.30pm. Future meetings were set for 14 September and 9 November.
The meeting closed at 9.30pm
Public Forum during meeting (7.40-8.10pm)
It was suggested that the layby proposed as part of the school footpath scheme might be constructed using ‘grass-crete’. Cllr Hannon would suggest this to DCC Highways. In response to a query, the Clerk said that negotiations between DCC and the landowner’s agent were in progress and further details of the scheme could not be drawn up before they were finalised. Concern was expressed that reused tarmac might be inadequate. Cllr Hannon said that the design would be done by experienced footpath experts and that details would be made public when available.
It was reported that the numbers of speeding vehicles in Whitnage was on the increase again. However, imposing speed limits was unlikely to address the issue because enforcement would be difficult.
A large hole was reported in the road to the south of Whitnage. Cllr Hannon commented that there was a statutory duty to fix ‘pot-holes’ so it was important to describe holes as such when reporting them.
A water leak outside ‘Grasshoppers’ had been reported to SWW but they had taken no action. It was thought that the property was unoccupied.