Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held on Wednesday 5 January 2005 in Holne Village Hall
Present: Cllrs Paul Arrowsmith, Richard Copus (Chairman),
John Iles, Cynthia Irish, Michael Maddicks, Belinda Owen, Gill Simpson
Clerk: Joanna Radford
Members of the Public: Twenty members of the public as well as County Cllr G Date, District Cllr C Ramsay & Mr Michael French, DNPA representative and Mr Graham Wall, Director of Planning & Community, DNPA
Public Forum : Mr Wall began the discussion on DNPA
methods by explaining that government policy at present demands that
quantity overrides quality in dealing with planning applications, whereas
at the same time there is a national shortage of planners. Members of
the public then put their case, and the following points were made:
officers encourage people to make applications then recommend refusal,
the applicant has only three minutes to speak at DNPA meetings and has
no right of reply, the arrangement of site visit personnel seems arbitrary
and unfair, delegated powers make it difficult for an applicant to know
whether the decision is on the whim of the officer rather than the decision
of elected members. Mr Wall answered these points, stating that all
applications, whether delegated or not, were decided on/advised by more
than one officer, that until recently applicants had no right to speak
at meetings at all, that the DNPA was considering changing the means
of arranging personnel for site visits. On the question of officers
encouraging applicants then recommending refusal, he said that measures
were being taken to avoid such encouragement by individual planning
officers.
A question was then put as to what policy DNPA had to keep young people
in the Parish by providing low cost social housing/allowing self-build.
Further discussion showed that residents would like more flexibility
in allowing building in the village for people able to provide a site
and needing to live in the area for business or work reasons. Mr Wall
responded that DNPA has been working to provide social housing throughout
the National Park, and if a need here was found as a result of the recent
housing survey, an exception to the local plan would be made to allow
such housing in the Scoriton/Holne area. The process would be as follows:
the need established, support of the housing authority achieved, the
right site found, and a housing association found to manage the project.
A question on DNPA policy on the needs of cross-compliance for CAP payments
and waste disposal on farms was responded too, citing the Park's record
in allowing the building of agricultural buildings to make ESA requirements
possible.
A comment on the fact that the building put up to serve as a village
shop has been stained an ugly black drew the response that there is
more concern in DNPA that it has not yet opened as a shop, in spite
of receiving public funding to do so.
Further comments reflected the feeling that there is too little direct
election to the National Park and that those elected representatives
that do exist have no power in that organisation.
Finally, Mr Wall spoke briefly on the procedure for appealing against
decisions of the planning authority and encouraged those unhappy with
such decisions to make use of the procedure.
Mr Wall then left the meeting and Mr Howard asked the
Council to consider allowing members of the public to speak at the end
of meetings. The Chairman replied that this had been done for a trial
period, and there had been little or no demand. Mr Bonney
drew the meeting's attention to a Social Group Evening planned for 16
February to show photographs of his and his wife's recent trip to Sri
Lanka, to raise funds to help that community in rebuilding its future
after the recent disaster there.
County Cllr Date had no report to make, and District
Cllr Ramsay had provided a written report for circulation to
Councillors.
0501.01 Apologies for Absence were accepted from Dr N Atkinson, Chief Executive, DNPA because of illness.
0501.02 Minutes of the Meeting of 1 December were approved and signed after the substitution of Cllr Irish's name for Cllr Simpson's in the sentence in the account of the Public Forum referring to the colour of a building on her property.
0501.03 Accounts for the Month The following payments
were approved:
a) Holne Village Hall Management Committee Hire of hall £31.00
b) Mrs J M Radford salary for October-December incl £185.00
c) " " expenses for same period (Internet Access £15,
Telephone £15.63 inc £2.33 VAT SLCC membership (share of
£64) £24) £56.96
0501.04 Broadband Connection for Houses in the Poundsgate Exchange Cllr Maddicks explained that he had discovered a problem locally in the projected provision of Broadband in the area in July 2005. Agreed to write to British Telecom to ensure that it is possible for all its subscribers on the Poundsgate exchange to access Broadband when this becomes available later in the year (those at present on DACS (Digital Access Carrying System) connection will not be able to as these are the modern equivalent of party lines and will not allow the necessary upgrading).
0501.05 Michelcombe Notice Board Frank Niering has agreed to repair this and will start work in the near future.
0501.06 Website This is due to go "live" in the next two weeks and will require that the Clerk attend training on putting materials on the site on behalf of the Council which would be in PDF format, which most computer users could access with free download software.
0501.07 S Hams Draft Crime & Disorder Reduction Strategy Councillors agreed to support the statements made in this.
0501.08 S Hams Budget Briefing 12 January No one was available to attend this.
0501.09 Parish Council Grant for Maintenance of the Churchyard Cllr Arrowsmith requested that this be discussed again at the next meeting as he had been unable to attend the December meeting when the grant was set. Agreed.
0501.10 South Hams Grant to Villages in Action Agreed to put on the next Agenda a proposal that the Council write in support of the need to continue this grant aid.
0501.11 Interim Beating of Bounds with Buckfastleigh West Parish would also be on the next Agenda.
There being no further business the meeting closed at 10.10 pm. The next meeting of the Parish Council will be on Wednesday 2 February 2005.
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