Davidstow Parish Council Minutes

DRAFT

Date of Meeting: 5th August 2019 Attendees: Andrew McKersie, Julie Dowton, Valerie Jackson, Mark Wakefield, Will Kingdom, Phil Potter, Tony Steed Apologies: None

Item Action With Target Status who completion

1. Conflicts of Interest – AMcK & PP declared their membership of Davidstow Residents Action Group. PP also declared his interest in planning application PA19/01897.

2. Minutes of Meeting 17th June – The minutes were approved.

3. Actions – Future meeting dates of the Parish Council were AMc noted. It was agreed to re-schedule September’s meeting K to the 9th. All other actions were agreed closed.

4. Cornwall Council Governance Review - AMcK updated councillors on developments with Cornwall Council’s Governance Review. Initially, AMcK had been approached by Mr Dave Wilson, representing Treneglos Parish, suggesting that parts of Hallworthy should be transferred so that all of the village was within Davidstow. After email discussions in support of the proposal, AMcK had formally written to Cornwall Council to support the suggestion. Subsequently, AMcK had been asked to attend a meeting where Cornwall Council proposed a merger between Davidstow, Treneglos, Tremaine and Tresmeer. Following prior consultation with councillors, AMcK had stated that there would be no support for such a merger from Davidstow given that there were no obvious benefits to Davidstow residents. Other attendees at the meeting agreed that there was no obvious case for Davidstow to be included in any proposed merger plans. However, Councillors noted that the ultimate decision for parish boundaries lay with Cornwall Council. Although any proposed changes would be subject to consultation, any change could be pushed through. Councillors agreed to monitor the situation and react as necessary.

5. Planning PA19/05414 Land to west of New House, Vicarage Hill, AMc Davidstow: Erection of agricultural storage building, K together with associated works – Mr A Dickenson attended the meeting and answered councillors’ questions. Councillors voted to support the planning application. AMcK to advise Cornwall Council PA19/01897 Pre-application advice for a proposed residential dwelling – land south of Green Valley, Wassa Lane, Davidstow - Mr And Mrs Morgan attended the meeting, together with Mr Eireann Hassett of TBS Cornwall Planning and answered councillors’ questions. As this was an application for pre-planning advice, no decision was required.

6. Dairy Crest Update - AMcK reported that he had received assurances from Andy Stickland, Dairy Crest Supply Chain

Director, that despite implied comments from the Davidstow team, sufficient financial support and resources would be provided to solve on-going issues. However, it was now understood that Andy Stickland was leaving Dairy Crest. AMcK reported that Tom Atherton from Saputo, the new owners of Dairy Crest, had offered a meeting on August 20th. It was agreed that at least two councillors should attend. JD offered to attend with AMcK if she was available, otherwise PP to attend. AMcK to circulate AMc details. K The last community engagement meeting with Saputo and the Environment Agency was generally good but had finished on a different note. On odour, there was some improvement, with work at the creamery to stop spillages etc and the media in the scrubber had been replaced. Work was still required to block existing holes on the covered tanks. Dissolved oxygen levels were reported to have been much higher than achieved historically. Despite these improvements there had still been some reported instances of strong odour emissions. Other issues on noise and light etc were making progress. As previously communicated to Councillors, the Cornwall Council planning officer had indicated that she might be unable to support all the conditions requested by the Parish Council and would therefore have to issue a ‘5 day notice’. To enable Councillors to take a view on whether to continue to support the planning application AMcK had requested Saputo to reaffirm their commitment to the conditions agreed that the Parish Council meeting on April 15th. Saputo had responded and generally most of the wording was acceptable. However, on the subject of traffic, there was concern that Saputo was attempting to back-track from their previous commitments to undertake a thorough review of options. For the immediate future, it was agreed that the wording in their latest letter was acceptable but that further assurance would be sought from Tom Atherton at the meeting on August 20th. On odour, Saputo claimed that it had never agreed to maintain production at existing levels until the WWTP had been expanded but promised not to increase production if such increases would put the WWTP under stress. Councillors took the view that Dairy Crest / Saputo had agreed not to increase production at the meeting on April 15th and noted a letter from Dairy Crest on 20th November which stated the same commitment. Nevertheless, given the latest assurances about not putting the WWTP under stress, Councillors were prepared to continue to support the planning application. On that basis, AMcK was authorised to approve any ‘5 day notice’ unless circumstances changed.

7. Payments AMc K Councillors approved payment of £257.60 to Zurich to renew the Council’s insurance cover Councillors approved payment of £231.20 to renew membership of the Cornwall Association of Local Councils. Councillors approved payment of £180 for hire of the Methodist Hall for the next six months.

9. Any Other Business - JD/ AMc AMcK advised that Cornwall Council were providing K training on the Code of Conduct. The local session was scheduled for 11th October in Launceston. AMcK undertook to circulate details. It was noted that the Camelford Network had selected the following subjects as ‘priorities’ for the coming year: Climate Change, highways and the Camelford by-pass, rural poverty, access to health (and blue light services) & future infrastructure planning.

Date of next meeting – 9th September 2019, 7pm, Methodist Hall, Tremail