DRAFT General Meeting Minutes Wednesday 11Th November 2013 at 7.30Pm the Blackdown Healthy Living Centre

DRAFT General Meeting Minutes Wednesday 11 th November 2013 at 7.30pm The Blackdown Healthy Living Centre

Present: Apologies received from: Chairperson: Heather Stallard (Hemyock PC) David Edmondson ( Pitminster PC) John Brabrook (Clerk Combe Raleigh) Cllr John Hart (Leader DCC) Margaret Lee (Pitminster PC) Lisa Turner (Blackdown Hills AONB) Catherine Bass (BHPN Co-ordinator) John Cornish (Upottery PC) Ken Pearson (Clerk Churchstanton) Cathy Gardner (Clerk Stockland) Gary Gardner (Stockland) Cllr. Frank Rosamond (Mid-DevonDC) Geoffrey Sworder (Dunkeswell PC) Graham Long (Upottery PC) Bruce Payne( Wellington w/out PC) Geoffrey Bass (Culmstock PC) Cllr. Andrew Moulding (DCC) D. Corden (Blackdown Support Group) Cllr. Paul Diviani (EDDC/DCC/Yarcombe) C. Fowler (Payhembury) Cllr Ray Radford (DCC) Clive McIntyre ( Kentisbeare) Roy Hare ( Culmstock PC) Linda Bennett ( Blackdown Hills AONB) John Barrow ( Dunkeswell PC) Kirsty Campbell ( DCC) Gill Beardsworth (BHPN Volunteer) 11 parishes represented

Two part meeting: Part One: Cllr John Hart (Leader Devon CC) and Cllr John Osman (Leader Somerset CC) had agreed in September to attend this meeting and were briefed to address the unique cross border characteristics of the Network parishes. Questions were invited in advance of the meeting and those received were sent to both invitees. Cllr Osman withdrew due to an urgent issue arising, while also expressing concern at the level of detail in the questions he had received, however was able to send written replies (Questions and Somerset Answers attached). Welcome and Introduction Heather Stallard welcomed everyone to the meeting, and apologised for the unavoidable absence of Cllr Osman. She expressed disappointment at this, as many rural issues for the BHPN relate to both Counties and occasionally policies appear to diverge. The opportunity to speak with both Leaders in the same forum had been keenly anticipated. For the benefit of Cllr Hart she described the development of the BHPN over the last 4 years. Cllr John Hart took the floor and spoke of the measures taken by DCC to accommodate austerity cuts imposed since the 2011General Election, including a reduction in DCC staffing from 9,000 to 6,000 ( with further cuts envisaged to reduce central costs by another £1m). He related his approach to MPs in Whitehall, urging a review of the effect of deep cuts on provision of public services; he has gained the support of over 100 MPs on this. Devon faces the prospect of having to halve the mobile library provision, cutting the number of Children’s Centres, reducing provision of care for the elderly, respite care to relieve family carers and subsidies for rural bus services (he urges everyone to use buses whenever they can in order to prevent service cuts). He suggested that devolution of decision making to local level is not yet apparent ( ‘Localism’). Highway maintenance is a deeply worrying issue in Devon, with more than 8,000 miles of county roads. He provided his resumé of the ‘Tough Choices, Devon’s Challenges’ faced by DCC (copy attached). QUESTIONS: • High Speed Broad Band (questions and answer attached), expressing concern at the apparent by-passing of many exchanges in the Blackdowns Hills, while any public enquiry into this is blocked by an NDA between the Counties and BT who are contracted to supply high speed BB to 90% of the population using £94m from Govt of which £53m is from the public purse. Cllr Hart explained that the written answer from Cllr Osman to this series of questions was supplied by the two leaders’ common adviser ( from Connecting Devon & Somerset?). In addition he commented that Devon County has to take a cross County view, BHPN contd

as an example, considering the benefit in lowest income areas such as Torridge, N Devon and Exeter (lowest p.c. incomes in the County). N Devon exchanges are in a similar situation to the Blackdown Hills with no specific dates for High Speed BB extent. The questioner was invited to write directly with any further detailed requests / comments to Cllr Hart who will ensure that questions are answered so far as is possible. • Highways: A question was supplied in advance by Ken Pearson (Chair of the Traffic Transport and Highways Action group of the BHPN), asking how the County Highways groups can work together in the area to address the many issues of traffic volume, speed, size, satnav misdirection, noise, safety etc. Answer supplied by Somerset is attached. Cllr Hart referred to the latest decisions at County level which will ensure that maintenance is ongoing on A & B roads to retain the current level of repair and which serve the majority of the population. Other roads will be serviced to a standard that will comply with basic safety needs only. Anyone may report road repair issues via the county website, these comments will be addressed in line with the Highways policy. • John Barrow (Dunkeswell) commented that there is considerable evidence and dissatisfaction with the quality of work being done on Devon County roads, particularly the commonly used tar and gravel-sticking solution to resurfacing which is frequently inadequate and insubstantial. Other comments indicated that there was considerable over-manning of works at some sites, could this not be arranged more efficiently? Cllr Hart accepted the points and will look into this. • Roy Hare (Culmstock) questioned the wisdom of using just one month’s worth of bus usage on any route to inform decisions on service revisions. Cllr Hart suggested that if a service is used at a level where the cost to the Council is £11/ passenger / ride over the course of a month, then there is little sense in maintaining that service. • A general comment from several contributors from the floor indicated that letters and emails to specific officers in both counties frequently go unanswered, whether from individuals, Parish Clerks or written on behalf of organisations. Cllr Hart suggested that he is copied to all correspondence to DCC officers in future. Part One session ended at 8.30 pm, Cllr Hart was thanked for his time and contribution on behalf of the Network by Heather Stallard. Part Two: 1. Minutes of the last meeting on 24 th May 2013 (AGM) There being no amendments, the AGM Minutes were agreed as a true record of the AGM. Proposed by Margaret Lee, seconded Graham Long. 2. Matters arising Matters arising were taken within the agenda . 3. Financial Report: Treasurer /Co-ordinator Catherine Bass The Bank balance at the end of last financial year end was £2019.31. The annual account to date was presented to the meeting (attached). Bank Balance £2,878.29, in-year income of £1,880, and outgoings of £1,138.79. A mid-year report has been supplied to TDBC detailing costs attributable to website targets set for the Voluntary and Community organisation grant of £1,000 awarded in April 2013 (attributed expenditure standing at £468.40).

4. Reports from Action Groups ( received and distributed as written reports)

BHPN contd

a. Communications Action Group - Activity Report May to November 2013 (Catherine Bass)

Several new website users have been trained at the website designer’s premises in Honiton, which completed the free training cycle available through the website set-up process. We received a generous grant of £1,000 from TDBC (Voluntary and Community Fund) just before the last meeting which is assisting the further development of the website. We are able to pay for additional training for anyone who is prepared to take on responsibility for a particular section of the website. We have also run our own self help group; a very successful meeting took place in the summer when six people got together to work on loading information and learned a lot at the same time. We are fortunate to have a new volunteer recently, Gill Beardsworth, who is going to help populate the Community Facilities pages, the idea being that this will encourage more hires or lets of some of the excellent facilities available to the BH community and help to ensure continued success and upkeep of halls, playing fields, barbeques, marquees etc etc. Gill will be pleased to hear from anyone who would like to have information posted about any facilities or assets which are available for pubic hire (complete or take away one of the copies of her letter available here this evening if you have something to advertise, previously distributed to all Parish Clerks). The website is now used to make the various Network Groups’ meeting minutes available to all, we are hosting two sets of parish webpages, the Events Diary is finding increasing use, and once we have a functioning online bank account ( by the end of November we hope), then we shall be able to attract more paid advertising to help sustain the cost of running the website.

b. Planning Action Group – Activity Report May to November 2013 (Lisa Turner)

An attempt was made to arrange an initial meeting of this group in September, but it did not take place due to, surprisingly, a lack of interest. In the meantime, several of the East Devon Blackdown Hills parishes have expressed an interest in producing a neighbourhood plan, initiated by Dunkeswell PC, and potentially on a collaborative basis. Lisa Turner has met with planning officers at EDDC to determine how best the process can be supported – locally and across the district. A possible way forward is to produce a common set of background evidence and supporting information that each community could then use to incorporate into or inform their own individual plans. Parishes could then supplement these common areas with detailed matters tailored to their particular interests, and work to their own time scales. EDDC have agreed a new post specifically to support neighbourhood planning and are hoping to appoint in the new year. There are now Neighbourhood Areas agreed for the following BH parishes in East Devon; Chardstock, Dunkeswell, Stockland, Dalwood, Luppitt and Axminster (which has a corner of the administrative area in the AONB), which is the first step to securing some government funding for the process and getting underway. Broadhembury, Upottery and Cotleigh have indicated that they intend to submit applications but haven’t yet. The steering group had suggested that another general meeting of the parish network be arranged soon after this one to discuss in more detail topics related to planning. Neighbourhood / parish planning / localism are being addressed to a greater or lesser extent by an increasing number of communities and it was felt that it would be valuable to discuss and share in a network forum the various approaches that are being taken, and how they may be applicable in the Blackdown Hills. We would anticipate there being a number of guest contributors invited to that meeting – not least the new neighbourhood planning support officer from EDDC. It is therefore likely that this meeting will take place in January or February.

BHPN contd

c. Traffic, Transport & Highways (Ken Pearson)

The TTH group chair submitted a copy of the last minutes of the TTH group ( attached and on website) and Roy Hare (member of TTH) gave a verbal update regarding the use of the Parish Online mapping facility as an asset for the TTH group. The TTH group met for a training session during the summer in order to achieve one of its key aims with regard to mapping common problems in the Hills to specific roads and routes to offer better evidence to local Highways authorities. More inputs are needed from parishes in order to achieve a comprehensive overview.

5. Open discussion re BHPN actions arising from CC Leader responses Not having the benefit of two leaders at the meeting this topic was not separately discussed, although there was a comment from the floor that Cllr Hart had chosen to dwell on several party political aspects in his contribution. 6. Presentation and discussion of the draft AONB management plan ( Linda Bennett, AONB) The draft management plan is out for open consultation (closing date December 3 rd 2013, available to consult on the AONB website). LB outlined the structure and purpose, the stake-holder groups (all Parish Councils, Axminster and Honiton Town Councils, and 40 organisations), funding partners (6 local authority groups) and statutory groups including the Environment Agency, English Heritage, Natural England, the Council for the Protection of Rural England etc. The plan addresses three broad themes, Landscape, Sustainable Development and Communications and Management. She drew the meeting’s attention to two key points in which the BHPN is invited to comment as a stakeholder group, specifically to actions suggested in the Sustainable Development objectives: Section 2.3 Transport and Highways (Ensure that the area is not unfairly disadvantaged by cutbacks to local authority highways budgets) and Section 2.5 Community and Culture (Encourage a culture of self-help and collaboration among local communities). The Steering Group will take views from the Network and will respond.

Discussion points: Cathy Gardner (BHPN Stg Gp & Clerk Stockland) commented that while Local Authorities have a statutory duty to protect the interests of the AONB, many of their decisions do not appear to follow this obligation through, even when Parish Councils raise valid objections to proposals. It seems that the many valuable attributes of the AONB are gradually being eaten away by isolated but significant numbers of inappropriate planning decisions. Other comments led to a view that the BHPN Planning Action Group could usefully develop a strategy for collating PC planning responses and the resulting LA decisions in future, and bring the outcome to the attention of all LA planning groups. Also, to reinforce PC responses to planning requests, it might be possible to prepare a set of suggested phrases within which to frame PC planning responses, actively drawing the LA’s attention to their common statutory obligations. The BHPN Stg Gp will take this suggestion forward.

7. AOB There being no other business, the meeting closed at 9.30 pm