Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on Wednesday 28 April 2004 in Holne Village Hall
Present: Twenty-four parishioners, two members of the public from Buckfastleigh West, Lizzie Uttley of Community Council of Devon, all of whom signed the register. District Cllr C Ramsay.
Chairman: Cllr R Copus, Chairman of the Parish Council
Clerk: Joanna Radford
APM04.01 Apologies for Absence County Cllr Date, Mrs A Belam (Garden Group), Mr & Mrs J Walker
APM04.02 Minutes of the meeting held on 29 April 2003 Copies were available in the Hall and had been placed on the Holybrook Exchange. They were therefore taken as read and approved
APM04. 03 Matters Arising none that were not covered in the Agenda for this meeting.
APM04.04 Chairman's Report dealt with work done by the Council in the past year, in particular at Play Park and at Vicarage Cross. He congratulated the Fete Committee on a good day blessed by good weather. He also paid tribute to Tony Skerrit, who had died recently, and who had put a lot into the Parish and would be sorely missed. He then thanked the Forbes-Woods for their efforts to build a new village shop, the footings of which were now in. Finally, he told the meeting that there had been concern at the attitude of the DNPA officers in dealing with planning applications. He hoped this would be a subject of debate in the next year.
APM04.05 Financial Report The Clerk presented draft unaudited accounts for the previous year. A question on repayment of VAT received the reply that this would be reclaimed when the Jubilee Committee had decided what to do with the surplus from that account, as almost all the VAT related to this.
APM04.06 Reports were made by the following (some written reports are attached to these Minutes in the Minute Book)
The Police; Neighbourhood Watch; Holne Fete; Village Hall Management Committee when tribute was paid to Frank Niering and Judy Henderson who were standing down from the Committee; SEARCH - report attached; Toddler Group for which Tony Skerrit had acted as Father Christmas at their party.Parochial Church Council - on the expense of maintaining a Grade 1 listed building and of the churchyard which also cost £2000 per annum to maintain. The old churchyard could be handed to South Hams but there was a fear that the current high standard of care would drop.Parish Tree warden whose report included the news that a doormouse had been found in Play Park and rehoused in a nice new affordable house.
Holne Garden Group - Anne Belam was unfortunately not well enough to attend but had sent a representative to describe the successful year of the Group.
District Councillor Ramsay who made a brief report including the news that the grant to Village in Action would probably be all right this year but would need to be strongly supported by the community in future years.
Mr Michael French, Member of DNPA on the impact of proposed Regional Assemblies on National Parks, and on the proposed Local Development Framework as well as other matters relating to DNPA work.
County Cllr Date had sent a written report which is attached.
APM04.07 Proposal by Mr M Bonney that "the parishioners of Holne beseech the DNPA to give both considertion and sympathy to planning applications for housing from long term residents of the of the Park who have proven to give many years of valuable, voluntary, unpaid service to the Moor. Should such residents have to leave the Moor because of the housing situation, their loss would cause immense damage to both the environment and well-being of Dartmoor" was discussed and put to the vote, having been seconded by Mrs M Choat. A large majority of those present was in favour, a show of hands showing 19 for, with 3 abstentions. Also agreed to request that the Parish Council pass this on the DNPA.
APM04.08 Address by Lizzie Uttley of Community Council of Devon on the provision of affordable housing and the way of organising a housing needs survey was followed by a question and answer session on this subject.
The meeting closed at 10.25 pm and included refreshments taken during its course.[ Back ]