May 2021

UPLOWMAN PARISH COUNCIL: MINUTES OF ANNUAL MEETING

Held on Thursday 20^th May 2021 in Uplowman Village Hall, starting at 7.45pm.

Cllrs C Slade (DCC) plus seven members of the publ present. Minutes by Mr R Hodgson, Clerk. Action points in bold. Approved on 15^th July 2021

 

1. MEMBERS PRESENT

1.1 Present: CllrsT Milner (Chair), R Adcock, N Branton, A McCombe, M Moore, R Norman, and K Baugh

 

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

2.1 No apologies received, all were present.

2.2 Election of Chair for 2020-21. Cllr Adcock proposed that Cllr Milner be elected as Chair for the coming year, seconded Cllr Branton. Cllr Milner signified his willingness and, as no other proposal was made, he duly resumed the Chair.

2.3 Cllr Slade had circulated a report on DCC matters. Most activities had been on hold during the recent election. He expressed thanks to voters for his re-election and reminded UPC of his Locality Budget, available to support local needs.

2.4 Cllr Radford had circulated a report on MDDC. Trials of three-weekly waste collections would start in July in two areas. The Love your Town Centre scheme aimed to support initiaitive to regenerate the main towns. 3Rivers Development Co was finding its feet.

 

3. MINUTES OF LAST MEETINGS (18^th March 2021)

3.1 Draft Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 18^th March 2021 had been circulated. There were no changes requested and they were signed by the Chair as a true record of that meeting.

 

4. MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES

4.1 All matters would be covered by the Agenda.

 

5. FINANCES

5.1 Current Balance: £11146.82

Income since last meeting (Precept + donations for DAAT light)£6136.88

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

R Hodgson, Clerk’sexpenses (£13.00)

R Hodgson, reimburse for MemberMojo (£75.00) and Zoom subscriptions (£143.88)

J Veen, grass cutting (£60.50)

Community First, Annual Insurance premium (£182.41)

5.3The Annual Governance Statement was read to the councillors, agreed and signed by the Chair.

5.4 The Annual Accounting Statement had been circulated. It was discussed, agreed and signed. The Clerk recommended that UPC should declare itself exempt from limited assurance audit owing to its turnover being less than £25,000. All agreed and the certificate of exemption was duly completed and signed.

5.5 The Clerk’s Appraisal would be completed when face to face meetings were again permitted.

 

6. PLANNING APPLICATIONS

6.1 21/00658/LBC: Shapcott, replace timber lintel. UPC had no comment.

6.2 21/00460/FULL: UHRA Field, DAAT night landing ligh. MDDC had indicated that an archaeology watching brief would be needed. UPC had determined how this could be achieved at no cost to UPC and awaited granting of the permission.

6.3 21/00796/FULL: 2 dwellings to rear of Stonebridge. Cllr Milner said that this application was another ‘Class Q Fallback’ for development of an existing barn site. Class Q required suitable access and applied to conversions with not significant change to the existing buildings. Under Class Q the existing building should have had an agricultural use when last used before 2013, though MDDC’s Local Plan referred only to ‘rural’ buildings. He questioned whether the building had ever been ‘agricultural’. Neighbours said that emerging over the stone bridge onto the highway was hazardous do to lack of visibility to the north and two additional households doing so would increase risks of collisions. It was noted that the application was for two houses 7.8m high replacing an existing building only 4.9m high, thereby increasing the visual impact. After considerable discussion, all agreed that UPC should object to the Full application as being out of keeping with a rural setting and presenting access hazards and question whether Class Q was relevant. The Clerk would forward comments to MDDC

6.4 21/00460/FULL: DAAT night landing light. Application still under consideration by MDDC.

6.5 Cllr Milner said that he had not received a reply from MDDC planners regarding his request that Parish Councils be made aware of Class Q applications. He would write again.

 

7. SUSTAINABILITY AND HEALTHY LIVING

7.1 Cllr Moore reported that Uplowman’s apparently high carbon footprint partly resulted from agricultural activity and lack of community transport but was mostly due to the way the statistics were presented in that Uplowman has a small number of well-spread households. She said that MDDC were developing a lot of plans and UPC should coordinate with their larger group, led by MDDC’s Jason Ball. The Local Energy Act might be helpful in due course. Cllr Slade confirmed that Jason Ball had been very energetic since his appointment. Cllr Moore would draft some notes for inclusion in the Uplowman Newsletter.

 

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:

8.1There had been no correspondence requiring attention beyond that discussed under the agenda.

9. HALL AND RECREATION ASSOCIATION

9.1 The hall was being used again. UHRA had obtained grants for the road side fence and for redecoration of the hall.

 

10. EMERGENCY PLANNING AND NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH

10.1 Public consultation would be possible after the anticipated removal of social restrictions in June. Cllrs Branton & Moore agreed to form a sub-group to coordinate the process and would meet with the Clerk in the interim.

   11.  VILLAGE IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS

11.1 A quote of £995 was agreed for completion of the bus shelter. The clerk would apply to the DCC locality budget for the funds, following which the work would be completed and a plaque installed recording the donors. Cllr Norman would arrange installation of the bike rack near to the foot bridge.

11.2 Air ambulance night landing site: It was understood that DCC would require an archaeological watching brief. Arrangements had been made with the officer involved to undertake the watch and with a local firm of archeologists to attend, if required, to record finds. There would be no cost to UPC. Planning permission was awaited.

11.3 Broadband: The team was again in discussion with OpenReach now that a new round of grants was available.

11.4 Mrs Veen’s bench on the Green would be installed when John was again well.

11.5 Cllr Branton said that the PCC’s contractor would complete the kissing gate repairs in due course.

11.6 Former telephone box: Cllrs Milner and Adcock had met Catherine Marlow. They felt the project should be supported. They proposed a budget of £200, including to install shelves to the box’s full height, which was agreed.

11.7 Village celebration 21^st August. Cllr Branton had booked the hall and engaged local band ‘The Iscalators’. She was still investigating food and the bar would be open. It was agreed that costs would be part funded by remaining moneys from the Parish Magazine covid fund. The Clerk would publicise the date in the newsletter.

11.8 Community Assets review: Cllr Branton had noted that the Redwoods was now being marketed as a site for residential development. She considered that it was an important asset in the village, bringing people together for a vaiety of purposes and she asked if UPC might consider registering it as an asset of community value. After discussion, it was agreed that Cllr Milner would investigate what such a registration might entail and whether this seemed a suitable way forward.

 

12. STATE OF ROADS IN PARISH

12.1It was noted that the footpath bridge at Lands Mill would not be replaced this year and that Uplowman Hill had been resurfaced, which should increase surface friction for horses.

 

13. DATE OF NEXT MEETING

 

The next meeting was confirmed for Thursday 15^th July 2021, expected to be in the Hall

 

The meeting closed at 10.05pm

MINUTES of UPC ANNUAL MEETING 20^th May 2021

 

Public discussion: Cllr Milner read UPC’s report on the past year’s activities – see next page.

Chairman’s Report on the 2020/21 year.

What a year! Who would have thought that over a year later the country would still not have returned to normal and that Covid-19 would still be with us and affecting our lives? Our Parish Council meetings have all been held online, using Zoom (people in 20 years’ time will wonder what-on-earth that was) to avoid contact with both each other and the public. Despite all this the Parish Council work has continued.

There have been fresh elections for Devon County Council this May and we retained our local County councillor Colin Slade. In two years’ time it seems likely that Uplowman will be in another Mid Devon District Council constituency, but this needs to be finalised.

We thank and appreciate both our Councillors for attending our meetings and updating us on District and County issues. Once again, I thank my fellow councillors for their support, and especially our Clerk, Robert Hodgson, who has not only served this Council for over 20 years but been a major part in publishing our community news during a year of Covid isolation for many.

Last July we welcomed Mary Moore as our new councillor. May 2021 is a notable month in that we will resume face to face meetings but with precautions to ensure safety for everyone that attends.

We have received a donation from the Sampford Peverell Magazine which enabled us to pay for our Zoom meetings and to ensure that all the personal records we hold areGDPR-compliant.

Planning applications this year have been dominated by conversion of redundant agricultural buildings. We have learnt a great deal about what is called Class Q which permits such developments and have received information from Mid Devon to clarify several points especially when using Class Q fall back positions. Sounds complicated but can allow a better building than just a normal conversion.

Such applications have included a number of conversions agreed at Uplowman House and there are others in the pipeline at other locations. Consequently, we have amended our Planning Procedures to take in to account such applications. We have also decided to list all new planning applications on our website so residents can study them as soon as they are received. Covid has also brought forward our need to update our Emergency Planning Procedures which will be reviewed over the next few months.

The Mid Devon Local Plan has finally been agreed by the Inspector and adopted by MDDC, which will help form the framework for all planning applications.

There have been two major initiatives led by members of the community and supported by the Council. The first is that we are to go ahead to provide a night-time landing site for Devon Air Ambulance thanks to the generosity of benefactors. The second is that major strides have been made, with the help of a few key people, to get ultra fast broadband to the vast majority of houses in the Parish and we are now waiting for OpenReach to confirm the costings and grants and keep our fingers crossed that it will go ahead soon.

Further to our initiative last year for Sustainability and Healthy Living ideas we are actively trying to protect our historic assets be they kissing gates, road signs or the leat. We have asked the public for their thoughts on additional assets.

Finally, we were sad to learn that Lynne Veen was moving from the Post Office after 30 years. Lynne has served on this Council as well as the Village Hall Committee but were pleased to learn that she, and John, will remain a part of the community. We were also relieved and pleased that the new owners were to continue to operate the Post Office, and with longer opening times.

The future looks brighter, and we all hope that some form of normality will resume sooner rather than later.

Trevor Milner (Chairman)