Annual Parish Meeting 2019

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL PARISH MEETING OF STOKEINTEIGNHEAD PARISH COUNCIL STOKEINTEIGNHEAD VILLAGE HALL 11 APRIL 2019 Present: Present: Cllrs Horton (Chair), Dagworthy, French, Setter, Small, Stanley and Stoneman Not present: Cllr Simmons Also present: Rachel Avery (Clerk), 15 members of the Public, County Cllr Dewhirst and District Cllr Clarance 1. Cllr Horton opened the meeting at 20.06 and thanked all those present for their attendance. It was NOTED that Cllr Simmons joined the meeting during refreshments. 2. Cllr French PROPOSED that the minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on 21 April 2018 be accepted as a true recollection of the meeting. This was SECONDED by Cllr Small and it was RESOLVED the APPROVE the minutes. 3. Cllr Horton read the following report: It has been a challenging year for the Parish Council. There have been several difficult issues which have given cause for concern not just to the council, but the community at large. One of the most unsettling was when, 18 months ago, the PCC informed us that because there were only 2-3 burial plots left in the churchyard, it would have to close. In light of this, we approached the owner of the land to the south of the church to see if he would be willing to sell a parcel of his field to enable us to extend it. This he agreed to do; at a cost of £10000 for 1/10th of an acre. The latter would be enough for 60-80 graves. This arrangement was put to the community at a public meeting on 11.9.18. It was agreed that the council would go forwards on the project. We are in the process of doing a survey on the land to see if it is suitable for a burial ground- drainage and subsidence could be a problem, amongst other things. However, we have recently learnt that there may be, after all, room for up to 12 more graves in the existing churchyard to the west of the church. Should this prove to be the case, we will review the situation. The 2018/19 precept had risen by 17.1% and now stands at just below £20000. This is mainly due to having to finance the new cemetery; £2500 having been ringfenced for the purpose of buying the land and this amount will continue to be ringfenced every year until enough money is raised. The council gave a grant to the shop, village hall, churchyard and, for the first time, the Twinners and the school. These grants totalled £2400. The council must also maintain the green at Pools Weir and £800 is ringfenced for this purpose. We also maintain and insure the Linney, some councils do not have expenses such as these. Other money has been spent on hiring the hall for meetings, the Christmas tree and wages. The winter has been kind to us so there has been no problem with flooding, however, some of the drains are beginning to silt up on the inside of hedges. Thus, what looks good on the roadside does not always look so good on the inside! We must remember to be grateful to landowners who allow dirty water (often containing litter and weeds etc) to drain onto their property. There have been few planning applications in the centre of the village. Extensions to Teign Harvey and Middle Rocombe Farm are ongoing. We continue to have problems with parking in the centre of the village. People who have garages are inclined to use them for other purposes (storage etc) and two have been granted planning permission recently for holiday lets. Unfortunately, this doesn’t bode well for parking in the future. On 11.11.18, we remembered the Amnesty which brought WWI to an end. A committee was formed comprising representatives of all parts of the community; the council, the church, village hall, knit and natter, shop, book club and garden club. A high tea was organised with food of the time and musical entertainment along with decorations and an exhibition of memorabilia. Some villagers shared their memories and read war poetry. 90 people attended the event and over £140 was raised for the Royal British Legion. I would like to thank most sincerely, Rachel our clerk, for all her hard work. Her job is sometimes very difficult, but I hope she knows how much I have appreciated all she has done throughout the year, Also, thanks must go to vice chair Bill Dagworthy, for his enthusiasm and support. Thanks to Chris 1 Clarance and Alistair Dewhirst for their attendance at our meetings and for their invaluable input and guidance. Finally, I thank the members of the council who have attended meetings and have worked selflessly throughout the year to be of service. I hope that helping to look after their community has given them as much pleasure as it has given me. Cllr Dagworthy proposed a vote of thanks to Cllr Horton, with all councillors in favour. 4. Cllr Stanley provided the following report on the Emergency Plan: The Emergency Plan has attracted approx. £7500 in equipment and training. We have a well-stocked emergency shed with signage and tools to help cope with different problems and, most importantly, we have a band of willing volunteers who are very pro-active and highly motivated. During the previous year it has not been necessary to activate the plan. The written plan itself has been amended, updated sections will be circulated to the response team and posted on the website. Carol and I have been working on the telephone cascades, which are now ready for distribution. A separate emergency flood plan is being prepared which will go out to the response team. We should thank DCC for the use of their ‘Devon template’ on which our plan was based and the advisory services of Mike Rose. Also to Jessica Bishop who organised DCC’s input and pointed us in the direction of existing plans in Newton St Cyres, Ottery St Mary and Uplyme who have similar problems to our own. Doe Fitzsimmons who, as part of DCC’s pathfinder project provided our rain gauge. Thanks also to Ruth Rockley from Groundworks who provided training and safety equipment for our volunteers. Last but not least the input, involvement and enthusiasm of our volunteers without whom the plan would be just a paper exercise. Cllr French proposed a vote of thanks to Cllr Stanley for his hard work and leadership of the Emergency Plan project, with all councillors in favour. District Cllr Clarance reported that he had been glad to financially support the shop and village hall this year. In terms of the District Council, challenges with Plan Teignbridge lie ahead. The document was approved in 2014 and is now coming up for review. TDC are expected to deliver 12400 homes over a 20-year period and are delivering 625 per year at its current rate. The review may lead to additional housing numbers and may also change due to District Council elections in May. New formulas are being used, meaning new numbers from central government. It is difficult to tell what will happen to existing village envelopes. This area has undeveloped coastline, but with directives from government to deliver more homes, there may be pressure to expand them. A cross party campaign to stop the closure of Teignmouth Hospital has led to the consultation being held off until May. The Clinical Commissioning Group will undertake the consultation, asking the community of Teignmouth to prove a case for the retention of the hospital. Minor operations take pressure of Torbay amongst undertaking other vital services. The CCG would like to create a new hub for Teignmouth on the old Swansons site. The plan was to sell the hospital to fund the hub. The original aspiration was to keep 12 beds at the hospital, with the NHS guidelines of one nurse per 8 patients. The campaign remains to convince the CCG that the hospital is a valuable cog in the NHS. He went on to state that the parish council still holds £2000 for flooding from his councillor budget. It was NOTED that these funds remain ringfenced. He also suggested that the village considers signing up to the Road Warden agreement. He has thoroughly enjoyed fixing potholes in the community which DCC do not deem to be dangerous under the government’s guidelines; the scheme is positive and the results are tangible. County Cllr Dewhirst read the following report: In May last year I reported on the arrangements for the opening of IKEA in Exeter, appointment of the new CX of the HOTSW LEP, David Ralph, and the plans to double productivity in Devon and Somerset over the next 20 years. 2 Closer to home was the opening of the Teign Estuary Cycle Trail between the Racecourse and the Passage House Inn – a year later we are working on plans for the much more difficult section down to Teignmouth. In June Ash Dieback reared its ugly head and I reported that there are nearly half a million Ash trees on Council land that will die – 20% of our total in the County. I reported that it had not reached Teignbridge, but sadly we know now that its pace of infection has increased rapidly and the Council included £300k in next year’s budget for this distressing disease. In July Civil Enforcement Officers received additional powers to seize cars belonging to offenders who have three or more unpaid parking tickets. County Lines first reared its ugly head and sadly we now know that although Devon is right in the forefront of countering this terrible menace in our society the Drug Barons are still making millions from others suffering.

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