MONKLEIGH PARISH COUNCIL Zena Tett - Parish Clerk: Bouchland Farm, Burrington, Umberleigh, Devon EX37 9NF Tel: A77LL255525 Email: [email protected] Website: www.monkleiehparishcouncil.co.uk Minutes of the Parish Meeting held on Thursday 18th July zAtg in Monkleigh Village Hall Councillors Present: Julia Landolfi (Chairman), David Grigg (Vice Chair), Chris Beer, David Butler, Martin Reed, Glenda McAuley, Geoff Williams and District Councillor Phil Pennington Also in Attendance: Zena Tett (Parish Clerk) and 5 members of the public Absent: The Clerk received the Declaration of Acceptanee of Office from Cllr Landolfi prior to this meeting. BUSINESS TRANSACTED 23. Welcome Address Julia Landolfi, Chairman of the Parish Council, welcomed everyone to the meeting. 24. Apologies for Absence County Councillor Linda Hellyer and Cllr Butler made their apologies. 25. Minutes of the Last Meeting The minutes of the meetings held on 1Sth May and Sth June were agreed and signed as true copies. Proposed by CIlr Read, seconded by Cllr Beer, all in favour. 26. Declarations of lnterest No declarations were made at this time. 27. Public Speaking Time A parishioner advised the meeting that she had managed to get 100% on the petition regarding the speeding through Saltrens. She said C.Cllr Hellyer was going to take it to Gounty Hall. Cllr Reed said the parishioner had done a sterling job. The same parishioner also mentioned a collapsed drain in Saltrens and that the recent road closure was not due to fixing this but to re-tarmac the road. 28. Co-Option of Parish Councillor Two members of the public put their names forward to be co-opted onto the Parish Council. Geoff \Mlliams and Glenda McAuley both said a few words about themselves and Councillors present unanimously moved to co-opt these parishioners onto the Council. Proposed by Cllr Landolfi, seconded by Cllr Reed, all in favour. 29. District and County Councillor Reports 29.1 District Councillor Phil Penninqton ln June 2018 Tonidge District Council embarked on a major change to its waste and recycling collections with the introduction of fortnightly black bag collections. At the same time the Council extended and improved kerbside recycling collections, including food waste from all households, and the extension of an optional green garden waste collection service made available to all properties for the first time. A year on and the flgures speak for themselves with recycling rates in the district soaring to 51% from the 41% achieved previously. The Councils figures show that around 3,600 tonnes of black bag waste has been diverted from landfill which equates to around 360 lorry loads that are now being recycled and the same reduction in lorry movements that those trips would normally entail. Residents have also helped in being prepared to sort their recycling prior to collection, which has allowed the Councilto operate more efficiently on rounds and to keep the cost of collection down from the 2.5 million household collections and 8 million receptacles emptied each year. People's efforts have also contributed to the high quality of materials collected with low levels of contamination. Demand for this type of "cleaned' waste is high and as a result the Council have been able to work exclusively with UK companies meaning the material has less far to travel before it is reused and reprocessed. Aluminium to new cans, cardboard to cartons, plastic pots trays and boftles to garden fumiture, wheelie bins, food packaging and plastic milk bottles are just a few examples of how this waste has been reused. Councillor Chris Leather - Lead Member for Waste said: "Many people will forget that back in 2018 we were one of the last Councils to move to a fortnightly black bag collection in the Country. At the time, and maybe even now, this was opposed by some in our communi$. However, while the costs of maintaining a weekly collection was a factor in our decision making our main goal, to encourage more recycling and less waste ending up in land-fi|I, was absolutely the right thing to do for the environment and for future generations. ln real terms the jump in recycling represents an amazing 25% improvement from where we were just a year ago with an emphatic reverse in the decline we were previously seeing year on year. This would not have been possible without people embracing the new service and it is perhaps no coincidence that this is now also being championed by our younger generations concerned about plastic pollution and climate change. We can still do more, and our focus will now be on areas of the district where participation has been harder to improve. We will also look to find ways to introduce further materials that we can collect. But in the meantime Iwould like to thank all of our residents who have participated in this success and try to encourage others to take up the challenge and reduce our landfill figures even further from the 2 million bags we still bury in the ground each year." Food Waste and Garden Waste is processed locally as below. Much of the remainder is sorted locally e.g. Exeter and then recycled as follows: o Food Waste: Holsworthy and is turned into fertiliser and fuel gas. Garden Waste: Open windrow compost site where it is turned into high quality compost. Paper: Norfolk where it is recycled into both regional and national newspapers. r Cardboard: Kent recycled into carton manufacturing. o Aluminium: Cheshire - melted down into aluminium ingots which are used to manufacture new cans. Steel Cans: Wales where they are recycled into new steel products. r Plastic pots: Leeds where it is used to manufacture large plastic items such as: garden furniture, plastic pallets and wheelie bins. 'Tough and squeezy' . Plastic - Essex - recycled and reused to make plastic milk bottles. r Plastic drink bottles: Lincolnshire - where it is recycled into plastic pellets used to produce food grade packaging. Other News: 1) Climate change issues becoming dominant. Devon CC voted to be carbon neutral (CN) by 2050. Torridge voted to CN by 2030. Torridge has a good record with many naturaladvantages to achieve these aims 2l Electric vehicular charging points coming on line in various public points across the district 3) Smarter Parking meters now installed. Savings in the region €100k My contact details for any issue with TDC are telephone 01237 422875, email councillor.penninqton@torridoe. qov. uk 29.2 County Councillor Linda Hellver C.Cllr Hellyer was unable to make the meeting however she forwarded a report: The Highways representative has been arranging to have the speed through Salterns checked again, !n the meantime, a resident has started a letter to DCC about the speeding issues in Salterns. I can give any petition in at the full council on the 25th July or in September. Highways also reported that we would not get a 20mph speed limit on the A388 as it is contrary to government advice, however, they will be conducting more speed surveys in the area in the next week. Highways have informed me they have written to Orchard farm. I still don't have a date for the collapsed culvert to be repaired in Salterns, but I will keep flagging it up until it is fixed. I did have a flurry of enquiries when the main road near Poachers lodge got shut for surface dressing. lt transpires that DCC/ the contractor don't have to do a letter drop to residents, they can just use the road signs. However, I have fed back the inconvenience that this road closure caused. One of the residents who was most affected has still not heard anything from DCC about his complaint. I have emailed Highways Management to see if they can chiwy up the right department to get in touch with the resident. I am going to help the schoolwith a contribution from my locatity grant towards sound proofing the new nursery. I recently visited the Horwood Combe, Forestry school in Monkleigh. They are doing some excellent work, which is enabling children to stay in Mainstream schools, including Monkleigh primary. The task group report into the plight of Special Guardians went to cabinet this week and they are considering the recommendations. I was also on a task group looking at Education and health reports (EHCP) which are required for children with special educational needs. The cabinet has pledged an extra El million to provide additional staff to speed up the process and the quality of EHCP's. I have separately sent a memo to the Clerk concerning an initiative that DCC has to raise awareness that everyone needs to be aware of Ash dieback and to take responsibility for their own trees, especially if they are near the highway. lam always happy for people to contact me:- [email protected] or 07829 8758360. Potholes, blocked drains and gullies, overgrown vegetation etc can be reported direct to Devon county council. You can google Devon County Council, report a problem, and a page with icons appears. Just click on the appropriate icon and follow the instructions. Or you can telephone the DCC callcentre on:- 0345 1SS 101S 30. Matterc Arising 30.1 Neighbourhood Plan Nothing new to report so this item was deferred to the next meeting. 30.2 Wa[ at Orchard Farm Please see G.Cllr Hellyers comments above. 30.3 Galvanised Roof Cllr Beer spoke to Torridge District Council (TDC) after concerns had been raised at a previous meeting of the Parish Council about the corrugated roof on a derelict building. TDC sent someone out to investigate. They took pictures and spoke to the developer onsite who was instructed to keep the structure maintained.