WIDECOMBE PARISH COUNCIL
                         Minutes of a meeting of the Parish Council held on Thursday 3 May 2018 in Church House, Widecombe
Present: Councillor Newbolt-Young (Chairman), Lomax, Morley, Routley, Southcombe and Welby
Also present: Rob Steemson (DNPA Ranger)
Members of the Public: There were two members of the public present.
Clerk: Suzanna Hughes
4293 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
• Cllr Booty
• Cllr Fenton
• Cllr Hassell
• District Cllr Jeffery
• County Cllr Gribble
4294 OPEN FORUM
Rob Steemson introduced him as the new sector ranger for Widecombe and gave an outline of his roles and priorities.  Rob was advised that there were issues with vehicles parking and blocking gateways at Newbridge. Rob advised that steps were being taken to try and prevent this. A question was asked about whether DNPA were taking any steps to reduce the amount of litter and dog fouling (in particular that which is bagged and then hung on trees and hedges). DNPA do not remove dog poo bags but there are initiatives in place to educate people about littering.
4295 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST & REQUESTS FOR DISPENSATIONS
Councillors were reminded of their responsibility to continually update their Notice of Registerable Interests and to declare any disclosable interests, including the nature and extent of such interests they have in any items to be considered at this meeting. Unforeseen requests for a Dispensation to be considered at this point only if there was no way a Councillor would have been aware of such before the meeting. There were no declarations of interest or requests for dispensation.
4296 RATIFICATION OF MINUTES
Members received the minutes of the Parish Council meeting held on 7 June 2018 which were approved and signed by the Chairman as a true and correct record. As a matter arising from the minutes, it was confirmed that there is signage at Newbridge for the CCTV. It was also confirmed that the data in the camera is kept for one month and a day.
4297 POLICE REPORT
No report.
4298 COUNTY COUNCILLOR’S REPORT
No report.
4299 DISTRICT COUNCILLOR’S REPORT
No report.
4300 DELEGATES REPORTS
None.
4301 MATTERS ARISING
(a) Annual Walkabout
The following items were noted following the annual walkabout of the village:
• Lack of maintenance of the hedge and bank adjacent to the leat opposite the tennis court.
See item (c) below.
• Recent reduction of the trees on the green were considered an improvement by members
• The first gate to the Parish Field looked as though it may need replacing at some point in the near future. It was agreed to look at this again next year. The fencing was fine.
• Members looked at the sign on the green for which there had been a request for it to be cleaned. See item (d) below.
• It was noted that the boulder on the boundary of the green had been put back into place. It was agreed to write and thank Brian Booty for doing this.
• It was noted that the public telephone in the car park had not been working but thanks to Cllr Southcombe’s persistence it was now functioning again.
• Members looked at the conversion of the pig sty and were very happy with progress to date.
(b) Community Housing Project
Cllr Hassell sent a written report following a meeting of the Affordable Housing Group Steering Group (copy attached). The report was noted by members.
(c) Maintenance of hedge and bank adjacent to leat opposite the tennis court
The clerk advised that a Land Registry search confirmed that the land belongs to Coombe. Enquiries had been with Historic England about whether the leat bed can be protected through its listing ystem. Applications can only be taken forward where the building or site is under serious threat of demolition or major alteration OR has very strong potential for inclusion on the National Heritage List for England OR is one of Historic England’s strategic listing priorities. It was agreed that it was unlikely that the leat bed fell into any of these criteria. Members were also advised that BT will not trim branches which are resting on cables without the owners’ permission. It was agreed that the Council would await Cllr Gribble’s report next month on action he had been able to take.
(d) Widecombe Village Sign
Members received a request from Widecombe History Group requesting that the Parish Council considers cleaning and possibly repointing the village sign on the green. The History Group will be happy to assist with the project. Members agreed to gratefully accept the offer and request that the History Group submits a detailed plan of the proposed work, who will undertake it and costings (if any) for the Parish Council’s approval.
(e) Consideration of registration of unregistered parcels of land in the parish In the absence of Cllr Fenton who had offered to research this, this item was deferred until the next
meeting.
(f) Widecombe Village Hall Steering Group Cllr Hassell sent a report, which was noted by members. He advised that the Steering Group has asked him to join the Steering Group and act as a liaison with the Parish Council. It would seem that the Group is at the stage where they need some indication of the Parish Council’s position and its position on the feasibility report. Members agreed that they were happy for Cllr Hassell to join the Steering Group. They also looked forward to receiving details of the proposals.
4302 PLANNING
(a) New applications/appeals
(i) Pre-consultation – Proposed Emergency Services Telecommunications Base Station
Installation at EAS0545A, Land at Newbridge Hill, Poundsgate  After discussion, members agreed that they had reservations about the proposed site and would like to accept the agent’s offer of a site meeting to discuss the proposal and the various issues which have been raised by adjoining landowners, namely noise, visual impact, coverage and the benefits to locals.
(ii) 0257/18 - Siting of a mobile home for temporary agricultural dwelling (revised siting of mobile home granted under application number 0140/16) at Blackdown Piper, Widecombe-in-the-Moor Members agreed to support this application.
(b) Decisions
(i) 0175/18 - Replacement agricultural building for livestock, Glebe Farm, Widecombe-in-the-Moor Members noted that DNPA has granted conditional planning permission.
(ii) 0177/18 - Replacement plaster to walls and ceilings, replacement outside light and removal of render together with repointing, Honeysuckle Cottage, Ponsworthy Members noted that DNPA has granted listed building consent.
4303 FINANCE AND GOVERNANCE
(a) Payments
Members received and approve payments for approval:
▪ Cheque no 000985 - Clerk’s salary and disbursements - £229.45
4304 HIGHWAYS
The clerk had been informed by Cllr Hassell that every effort had been made to clear up after the Dartmoor Discovery race and all gates closed. Cllr Routley confirmed that, as far as she was aware, there had been no problems during or after the race and that it had been well organised.
4305 CORRESPONDENCE
None.
4306 MATTERS OF INFORMATION AT THE DISCRETION OF THE CHAIRMAN
None.
There being no further business, the Chairman closed the meeting at 8.40pm.
Signed ………………………………………….. Dated ……………………………………….

The next meeting of the Parish Council will be held on Thursday 5 July 2018 at 7.30pm

 Meeting to decide on the composition and way forwards for the Widecombe Affordable Housing Steering Committee  Tuesday 4th June at Ilsington Country House Hotel

Present – Ed Lamb Mary Ridgeway Tim Hassell
1. Mary had bought a document along that set out some proposed Terms of Reference to consider (copy included)
2. It was decided that the group should be made up of no more than 6 representatives of the community (1 from the Parish council and 5 others). It was seen as being important that this represented a good crosssection of the community and any future stakeholders. [committee now confirmed as Mary Ridgeway, Ed Lamb, Tim Hassell, Chris Elliot, Kayleigh Zab and Richard Palmer] See note 19.
3. There was talk of any conflict of interest that may arise from members of the committee wanting to be considered for accommodation. The main one was that when setting up selection criteria any interested parties should not be involved or declare an interest at the time.
4. The timetable suggested is that we enter in to a pre-app with the DNPA at the end of the summer having completed all necessary ecological surveys. We then put in a planning application in the Winter of 2018/19 and building would then start in summer 2019 to complete by summer 2020. This is quite ambitious and may drift by 12 months but we do need to be ambitious if this is to move forwards at an acceptable pace.
5. Mary Ridgeway asked if Tim Hassell would be prepared to chair the committee. Tim is happy to do so for the time being but it may be that the chair role could be rotated.
6. The advice that Mary has had on the ecological survey is that the most likely place for “trouble” is the ancient hedgerow at the top of the site.
7. Before the Pre-App the composition of the housing needs to be decided. Mix, Size and Tenure
8. Teignbridge are very risk averse when it comes to self-build and the only acceptable route MAY be for a vacant shell for the individual to fit out and make habitable. There needs to be a debate and proposal on this.
9. The likely make up is 4 rented and 2 self-build.
10. There was a discussion on the covenants likely for resale of the Self-build. This is often 80% of agreed red book sale value or an affordable percentage of the estimated value. Essentially the houses must be affordable. In Hennock it was decided that the “owner” must have at least £20k of sweat equity.
11. Conditions are also that the property can only be sold to a qualifying person.
12. There was a discussion on how lenders looked at borrowing against self-build on the basis that it is not initially habitable and there are covenants restricting its future value but Mary assured us that this is now tried and tested and there are specialist lenders for this sector.
13. There would be no shared ownership options mainly due to the DNPA restriction on only 80% ownership which makes borrowing more difficult.
14. Local lettings policy will dictate rent and allocation of the properties.
15. Who the rented properties will be allocated to will have to be done through Devon Home Choice which relies on banding applications on need not on where they live or where they come from.
16. There will be limited opportunity to offer any residents of houses that are under-occupied in the existing affordable accommodation alternative dwellings in this development as the rents will have to be much higher than the existing rents. There is a stipulation on rents having to be 80% of market rents but capped at the housing benefit limit.
17. The Steering committee will need to decide on design and appearance of the development.
18. The Group will move the project forwards initially through Pre-App without asking for comment from the community. The final proposals from the group following the pre-app process will then be put forward to public/community consultation. Following this all comments will be considered before any changes to the plans and proposals are made prior to moving forwards with planning.
19. Discussion took place on the composition of the steering committee and the following candidates were proposed based on their experience and sector of the community they could represent/have experience of
a. Chris Elliot – School and Village Hall Committee
b. Kayleigh Zab – Eligible tenant and younger member of the community
c. Richard Palmer – local business and has experience of process these sorts of project take
20. It was agreed to approach these individuals and ask for a commitment of a maximum of 1 meeting per month for around an hour.
21. Date of next meeting TBC