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Widecombe-in-the-Moor
Widecombe Parish Council Minutes
WIDECOMBE PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of a meeting of the Parish Council held on Thursday 5 January 2017 in Church House, Widecombe
Present: Councillor Newbolt-Young (Chairman), Fenton, Morley, Routley, Southcombe, Welby and Whale
Also present: County Cllr Gribble and Emma Stockley (Community Heritage Officer – Moor than Meets the Eye)
Members of the Public: There were four members of the public present.
Clerk: Suzanna Hughes
4071 RESIGNATION & APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
(a) Members received the resignation of Cllr Tempest. The Chairman thanked Cllr Tempest for her contribution to the Council over many years and wished her well for the future. The Chairman indicated that this left a vacancy for a Parish Council representative on the Educational Foundation Trust. Cllr Southcombe offered to take on this role which was agreed by all present.
(b) Apologies were received from: - Cllr S Booty - District Councillor M Jeffery
4072 OPEN FORUM A parishioner read out a letter she had drafted to DNPA objecting to a planning application at Blackdown Piper Farm (0648/16) which members would be discussing at item 4080 (a) (i). The owner of Blackdown Piper Farm spoke in support of his planning application (0648/16) which members would be discussing at item 4080 (a)(i) and invited members to visit his site on Monday 9 January at 2pm.
4073 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST & REQUESTS FOR DISPENSATIONSCouncillors 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.
4074 RATIFICATION OF MINUTES The minutes of the Parish Council meeting held on 5 January 2017 were approved and signed by the Chairman as a true and correct record.
4075 POLICE REPORT No report.
4076 COUNTY COUNCILLOR’S REPORT
Cllr Gribble reported that DCC will be shortly be considering its budget for 2017/18 and government funding reductions will make this process even more difficult. He informed members that he has driven around the parish with Highways Officer, Scott Riddell and has noted a number of finger boards which are missing. Cllr Whale advised that there were two finger boards missing at the Splash in Ponsworthy.
4077 DISTRICT COUNCILLOR’S REPORT
Cllr Jeffery was unable to attend the meeting but had advised that he had asked for the planning application at Blackdown Piper Farm (0648/16) to be determined by DNPA’s Development Management Committee.
4078 DELEGATE REPORTS No reports.
4079 MATTERS ARISING
(a) Parishscapes The Chairman welcomed Emma Stockley, Community Heritage Officer for Moor than Meets the Eye who spoke to members about ‘Parishscapes’ – a Community Heritage project which tells the story of the landscape and people of Dartmoor over the last 4000 years. ‘Parishscapes’ has three aims: conserving, enhancing the cultural and natural landscape of each parish; helping more people understand and enjoy the heritage of the area; and projects will help tell the story of the people and landscape of Dartmoor from a community perspective. To help communities ‘tell their story’, grants of £10,000 are available for each parish to be used in one project or more than one smaller projects. Examples of successful projects to date include the restoration of a bridge and carving of new boundary stone in North Bovey, researching the medieval period and the restoration of a ten commandments stone. Widecombe History Group has applied for a grant for a camera to help digitise their records. The grants are available until summer 2019. Members agreed that the History Group should be the point of contact for potential ‘Parishscapes’ projects.
(b) Defibrillator The clerk informed members that TDC is still in the process of drafting the licence for use of the bus shelter to mount the defibrillator and hopefully this will be available to sign at the next meeting. An electrician will need to install the defibrillator and it was agreed that a quotation should be sought. The clerk reminded members that the Council will need to appoint a ‘guardian’ who will check the device on a monthly basis and the Council will need to draft a governance document setting out how the device is managed. Training will also need to be arranged through Teign Heartbeat.
(c) Widecombe Fair Members received a draft contract from Widecombe Fair Committee for the hire of the Village Green for Widecombe Fair. Some minor amendments were proposed and agreed but largely the draft was accepted. The amendments would be made by the clerk and forwarded to the Fair Committee. The Chairman thanked members of the Fair Committee for their efforts and Fair Committee members thanked the Parish Council for supporting their proposal. The clerk advised that a letter had been received from Phil and Ann Raymond of Raymond Amusements who had expressed their disappointment, having attended the Fair for the last twenty years, about the change of arrangements.
(d) Widecombe night landing site Members were advised that an area of the Fairfield has been identified as safe for night landing. However, there is a lot of work to do with regard to establishing the costs for the lighting, applying for planning permission, engaging the community and raising funds and it was agreed that the Community Helipads Officer, Toby Russell, should confirm the most appropriate site and cost the project ahead of coming to speak to members about the next steps.
(e) Parish Field - fencing It was agreed that a quotation should be sought for additional fencing on the bank between the Parish Field and the car park to prevent sheep from escaping into and from adjacent fields.
(f) Dartmoor Local Plan Consultation Cllr Southcombe advised that she had attended a workshop at Parke at which Parish Councils were able to discuss the Local Plan Review. The deadline for comments, however, had now passed.
(g) Annual Parish Meeting It was agreed that subject to the availability of Church House the Annual Parish Meeting would be held on Wednesday 15 March. Ideas for speakers/topics included an update from Teign Housing about the development of the parcel of land near Brook Lane Cottages and Parishscapes.
(h) Sandbag Store Cllr Fenton advised that since the recent storm flooding where parishioners had been unable to access the locked sandbag store, the store was now unlocked in case further access was required.
4080 PLANNING
(a) New applications:
(i) 0648/16 - Erection of agricultural workers dwelling at Land at Blackdown Piper Farm, Widecombe-in-the-Moor Members discussed their concerns about commenting on this application following allegations that had been made against them by the applicant for comments made on a previous application and threats that there had been a breach of the Code of Conduct. It was noted that the Parish Council had neither received an apology from the applicant nor had the allegations been withdrawn. After discussion, it was unanimously agreed that this Council would not comment on this application on the grounds of the previous allegation made against it by the applicant for breach of the Code of Conduct which had not been withdrawn. The Chairman advised that it was his intention to pursue the issue with the MP as Parish Councils, whilst carrying out their statutory duty of commenting on planning applications in their parish, were open and vulnerable to such threats without protection thus negatively impacting the democratic process. Members agreed to support this action.
(ii) 0671/16 - Conversion of domestic outbuilding/store for use as an ancillary accommodation at Ivy Cottage, Poundsgate Members had no objections to this application.
(iii) 0631/16 - Insertion of doors, windows, roof windows and construct balcony at first floor level plus internal alterations to use the store as accommodation at The Coach House, Widecombe-in-the-Moor Members agreed to support this application.
(b) Decisions:
(i) 0600/16 - Extend roofline of existing agricultural building over yard area, Land at Ruddycleave Farm, Buckland-in-the-Moor Members noted that DNPA has granted conditional planning permission.
(ii) 0500/16 - Works related to a change of use to form residential educational centre, including the conversion of existing buildings and erection of new, for residential educational purposes and demolition of existing and erection of new farm buildings, East Shallowford Farm, Widecombe-in-the-Moor Members noted that DNPA has granted conditional planning permission.
(iii) 0440/16 – Installation of external boiler flue and internal alterations, Little Cresson Hayes, Lower Town, Poundsgate Members noted that DNPA has granted Listed Building Consent.
4081 FINANCE AND GOVERNANCE
(a) Payments for approval: The following payments were approved:
Cheque no 000936 - Clerk’s salary and disbursements (Jan) - £236.07
Cheque no 000937 - HMRC (PAYE) - £149.20
Cheque no 000938 - Teignbridge District Council (Additional toilet charges for Widecombe Fair - £174
Cheque no 000939 - Ronnie Richards Memorial Trust (Defibrillator) - £1,510.80. The cost for this was supported by grants to the value of £800 from County Cllr Gribble and District Cllr Jeffery’s community fund.
(b) Budget and precept 2017/18 Members considered the budget and precept request for 2017/18. It was agreed that the budget is accepted as presented. The precept to be demanded would be £6,218 + £210 council tax support grant allocation which equates to a 0% increase/decrease on the parish’s council tax. (Note: Due to the increase in council tax base for this parish combined with the reduction in council tax support grant, the total figure to be received from TDC in 2017/18 will be £6,428 compared with £6,264 in 2016/17. The parish band D rate, however, will be unaffected and will remain at £20.55).
4082 HIGHWAYS
Cllr Routley expressed concern about the leaves on Dartmeet Hill which had not been cleared making the highway very slippery. Further, it is her view that the whole gully needs clearing down to the cattle grid.
4083 CORRESPONDENCE
Members received DNPA’s final response to BT’s proposal to remove telephone call boxes. With regard to the kiosks in this parish, DNPA offered consent for the removal of the kiosk in Dunstone but objected to the removal of the kiosk at Badgers Holt on the grounds that there is poor mobile phone coverage, that it is required for emergency services, that it is a recreational site and that it is an isolated rural community.
4084 MATTERS OF INFORMATION AT THE DISCRETION OF THE CHAIRMAN None
There being no further business, the Chairman closed the meeting at 9.20pm.
Signed ………………………………………….. Dated ……………………………………….
The next meeting of the Parish Council will be held on 2 February 2017 at 7.30pm
The information on this page was last modified on February 09 2017 13:15:45.