HOLNE PARISH COUNCIL

Minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 3rd December 2008 in Holne Village Hall

Meeting commenced at 8.00pm

Present – Chair – Cllr Mrs G Simpson, Vice-Chair - Cllr Mrs B Owen, Cllr Mrs L Ross, Cllr P Arrowsmith.

Attended by - 3 members of the public & Ross Gray, Ru Roberts – Tree Wardens.

Apologies – Cllr Mrs C Irish, Cllr Mrs F Powell, Cllr R Copus, D Cllr C Jones, C Cllr T Pennington.

Public Forum –
1) Mr Ross Gray - Tuesday meeting would be unable to do, churchyard grant mentioned in the Agenda is for maintenance of it.
2) Roads - looks as though something may be going to be done.
3) Mr & Mrs Houghton - Stone hangar - Can they have maps of the leats - Parish Council to send to them.
4) DNPA representative - do they come to meetings - no they do not attend.
5) Ru Roberts confirmed that she had spoken to Maurice Retallick – DNPA and he is the representative for this area - Invite along to the next meeting. Send on minutes and agendas in future.
6) Mr French commented that DNPA he felt were not keen on the paper regards proposed direct election of representatives onto national park authorities.
Reports – C Cllr T Pennington – not in attendance – no report given.
Reports – D Cllr C Jones - not in attendance – but a written report given as follows:- There's not very much to report from SHDC currently, but hopefully folk will by now have received through their letter box a copy of the latest SHDC magazine (Winter 2008) which has lots of useful info. In particular, I would draw councillors attention to the following items .. Page 4 - Residents' parking pilot (but please note that the £10 annual permit is to be inclusive not exclusive of VAT) Page 4 - A little help (recent grants from SHDC Community Grant Fund) Page 5 - SHDC tops for recycling - well done to everyone ! Page 6 - Christmas 2008 refuse collection timetable Pages 10-11 - Local Government re-organisation ( there's still time to have your say !) Page 13 - Your voice counts (on budge

11.12.01 - Minutes of the meeting of 5th November 2008. These have been circulated and read - and approved. The minutes were then duly signed by the Vice- Chair – Cllr Mrs B Owen who took Novembers meeting in the absence of the Chair – Cllr Mrs G Simpson.

11.12.02 - Declarations of Interest - Members are invited to declare any personal or prejudicial interest relating to any agenda item at this stage in the meeting , but may also do so at any time during the meeting , should they become aware that they may have such as interest in a subject being discussed. No declarations given.

11.12.03 – Standing Orders – To be looked at and amended where necessary when a New Clerk has been employed.

11.12.04 - Planning Matters including any applications received in time for the meeting and decision notices/conditions: 1) Temporary Field Shelters - written to the Parks no reply received as yet 2) Langaford Meadows – erection of Polytunnel – Chairman – Mrs G Simpson - Parishioners had commented that this had been erected without Planning Permission - spoken to the owners and DNPA had a site meeting yesterday - (the Clerk will write and ask Louise Smith for a written report on this site meeting). 3) Stakeholder Event – DNPA 14th November – report from Cllr Mrs F Powell – carried forward to the next meeting.

11.12.05 – Finances - Cheques to be signed. Cheque no 524 - £137.41- Clerks Wages November 08. Cheque no 525 - £10.00 - Cllr Mrs F Powell – Course Fees. Cheque no 526 - £200.00 - St Marys Church Grant - maintenance of Churchyard Cheque no 527 - £16.50 - RBL – Poppy Wreath. Bank Balance – December 2008 = £3,973.00 Bank Charges Paid - £15.00 refunded from Lloyds Bank.

11.12.06 - Precept for 2009/2010 – Report from Finance Committee - Cllr P Arrowsmith reported on the figures presented. Final total being - £5,500 for 2009/2010. Cllr Mrs L Ross - cannot accept a 25% increase on the Churchyard amount - especially in the economic climate. They should look at their maintenance of the churchyard and see if they could save money on their expenses. Cllr P Arrow smith - Not in agreement with the above comments but to go up by £100 is not alot on this occasion for the amount of work that gets done in the Churchyard. Clerks wages could be cut down slightly but still should give as much as we can to the Churchyard. Vice-Chairman – Cllr Mrs B Owen - £800 increase on this years precept is a lot of money but perhaps some savings can be made. Churchyard - to have it well maintained is essential for the Churchyard but perhaps there are areas where it can be left for wildlife which would save money here. Maybe it would be an idea to go halfway on the churchyard increase. Precept figures into SHDC by the 20th January – carried forward to the next meeting to confirm the figures - proposed Chairman – Cllr Mrs G Simpson that figures are taken away to a final decision in January 2009. Seconded Vice-Chair – Cllr Mrs B Owen - 3 for and one against this proposal when a vote was taken.

11.12.07 - Playpark: a) E-mail from SHDC – Play Equipment - The Play Park committee to discuss what play equipment they would feel needs to be upgraded for January 09 meeting. b) Hedgelaying works – Vice-Chairman – Cllr Mrs B Owen - spoken to Sue Halse at DNPA and she is aware of brash clearance and this is fine with bigger pieces put to one side for people to come and take away logs if they wish. Dates - 12/13th January & 19/20th January. c) Short term grazing for sheep to improve Grass Quality - this has not gone ahead awaiting an answer from the Church Charity who have a meeting fairly soon. d) Working Party update - Leat clearance works - a productive morning was held. There are grants available from Dartmoor Trust for work on the leat. We need to find out whether it is feasible to put a granite clapper over the Leat and not the piece of concrete which is there currently. e) Play Equipment for Adults – details to be looked into.

11.12.08 - Holne and Scoriton Housing Group report – Chair – Cllr Mrs G Simpson - no meeting held recently but site visits have taken place due to remarks on the survey forms, visits have gone ahead with DNPA and Sue Hitchock but at the moment awaiting some remarks back from the parks on sites and awaiting comments from highways - meeting in January 09 to discuss this further.

11.12.09 - Potholes and Highway Maintenance reports – 1) Leat at Bearwood - work on the leat at Hilltop, Cllr P Arrowsmith confirmed that this has been attended to as far as he knows. Mr Sobol – Cllr P Arrowsmith spoken to about leat - it has been cleared but pipe under the road probably needs widening but it is OK now that is has been cleared. 2) Report on meeting with DCC, Gill Gray and Chair – Cllr Mrs G Simpson on 27th November 08. The meeting was held at DCC offices and covered all aspects of highways maintenance. Because of the weather over the past few years potholing has been put back and this has been one of the problems and if you do not use the money during that financial year the money goes elsewhere and is lost. Concerned about the hit and miss way they go about filling in potholes. A meeting to be held with Brian George DCC and Colin Jones, Trevor Pennington, to discuss this. DCC email to report holes southareahm@devon.gov.uk or try fillthathole.com. Suggested that Council do a road maintenance mapping exercise every couple of months, sending the results to Allan Cash. All in agreement. Copies to given of intended works in the area - Hembury is high on the list to be top dressed weather permitting next year. May Gurney have been asked to stop lorries going down through Hembury as they are making the road worse.

11.12.10 - Clerk’s or Councillor’s reports on matters authorised by the Council at previous meetings not otherwise on this Agenda – nothing to report. a) Making sport and Play accessible for all – Cllr Mrs F Powell to attend on the 8th December 2008.

11.12.11 – Correspondence for attention. a) CCD – Car Share Schemes - one hoping to be set up in Holne Parish. b) SHDC – Budget Meeting – 15th January 2009 – Cllr Mrs L Ross and Chair – Cllr Mrs G Simpson to attend. c) Parish Cluster Meeting - 20th January 2009. d) DNPA - Whats on supplement 2009 - Fete Committee and Pub, Village Hall details to be passed onto them. Matters not requiring discussion and placed into the folder for circulation and perusal by Cllrs. (Please ensure that you have informed the Clerk is any need attention at the next Parish Council meeting).

11.12.12 - Website - e-mail from Joanna to say that she is not charging a fee for the update of the site but that the New Clerk may want to carry on updating the website and she is happy to provide the software for this - write and thank Joanna very much please carry on. Also an e-mail from Parishcouncil.co.uk re running our website- Cllrs agreed no further action on this.

11.12.13 – Xmas Tree – Cllr P Arrowsmith confirmed - Tree to go up within the next fortnight. Pub are going to decorate the tree and happy to pay for it.

11.12.14 - Venford Reservoir Update – Chair – Cllr Mrs G Simpson reported - Phone call from a Parishioner who smelt oil and was concerned it could be leaking into the reservoir - contractors have now sorted it as it was a piece of equipment that was leaking and it was sorted out very, very quickly. We should all encourage more parishioners to contact Cllrs to enable things to be rectified very quickly as in this situation.

11.12.15 - Appointment of new Clerk – Report from Interview Panel and change of meeting dates to 1st Tuesday instead of 1st Wednesday of the month. Suzanna Hughes was interviewed - she is presently a Clerk at Haccombe who have their meetings on the 1st Wednesday of every month. Very good reference has been received from Haccombe PC - Chairman. Hall is OK for the 1st Tuesday of each month. 40p per mile to be claimed and £5 for broadband each month. Extra planning meetings were discussed if needed but these could be clerked by Cllrs if they were very short meetings. She has attended a new Clerks course and it may be a good idea for her to attend a DNPA meeing in the future. Chair – Cllr Mrs G Simpson recommends that she is employed on a trial period and this was seconded by Vice-Chair – Cllr Mrs B Owen and after 3 months to see how she is getting on and then after this period an annual review. And meetings changed to the 1st Tuesday of each month. All were in agreement with this. Many thanks were given by the Council to the stand in Clerk – Sharon Raggett who had helped out for the last 3 months.

11.12.16 - Chairman’s Urgent Business for action by the Clerk if covered by delegated powers or for inclusion on the Agenda of the next meeting. a) Cllr P Arrowsmith confirmed that the Parish Council paperwork he has at home needs to be sorted through and shredded or burnt where necessary.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 9.52pm Next Parish Council Meeting - Holne Village Hall - Tuesday 6th January 2009 at 8.00pm.

AANY MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC WHO HAS SPECIAL NEEDS AND REQUIRES A COPY OF THESE MINUTES SENT TO THEM – PLEASE CONTACT THE CLERK – 01364 644109.

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