North Bovey Parish Council – Minutes of the meeting held on 8 August 2023

1.1   The Chairman welcomed the Councillors to the meeting.

2.1 DC G Gribble.

3.1 The Chairman introduced two new councillors to co-opt onto the council.

3.2 Cllr Loughton proposed Mark Jones. He has lived in the village for 4 years and in Bovey Tracey for 25 years. He is interested in the parish and helping, also bell ringing. He is a surveyor by profession.

Cllr Grist introduced Gordon Ilett. He has been involved with the village fair and is most willing to be further involved in village life. He is an optometrist and also involved in a charity. The co-opted councillors were given the declaration of interests forms from TDC to fill in and deliver to the clerk to take into their offices.

3.3 Hazel Jones said that Himalayan Balsam is being removed along the river path to Bovey Castle.

SWW: The conservation group is doing surveys at two points. West Country Rivers Trust measures pollution and dissolved solids since 2018. The quality has been poor this year.

3.4 John Clark questioned where the minutes are for the web site.

3.5 20 is Plenty. The signs are made, looking for suitable sites. Five signs are available. The council will look at this over the next weekend.

4.1 D Cllr Farrand-Rogers addressed the meeting:

All housing is managed by Teign Housing. They work with other councils in Devon. One TDC councillor was on their committee in the past but no longer. A plan to help homeless people is being prepared. A program called T100 is in place to build more housing.  Some are already completed and another 100 are in the pipeline. They are looking for more land. All are well built with low energy costs. The housing may also be acquired by people downsizing. Also looking for brownfield sites.

The motion to close rail ticket offices has been discussed; this will create second-class citizens who are unable to use the internet.  Cllr Grist commented on behalf of Friends of St Johns that TDC had not paid the annual car park rent however this has now been paid.

5.1 The minutes of the June meeting which had been distributed were approved. The name of the district councillor to be changed to DC Cllr Farrand-Rogers.

6.1 None.

7.1 The Clerk presented the payments due being the Clerk’s salary, J Bush, T Oxton and TDC all approved.

7.2 The Clerk presented the accounts to the end of July 2023 and also the budget turnout to date; both were approved by the council.

8. Moorland View: there would be a 9.45am meeting on Saturday to look at the plans, conditions looking at the frontage of the house with the plaster removed and reinstating granite materials.

Youlden Farm: Application for a farm worker’s dwelling.

Greenawell: A retrospective application for an agricultural building

Bowden Mill:  Replacement windows and prior approval. Granted.

Higher Lettaford: Refused solar panels. This is a listed building and DNP should be asked for their reasons. Mike Jeffery, now on the DNP could be asked what their policy is on listed buildings.

9.1 Cllr Button had approached Savills. A new person is now in charge of diocese land. It is now a much easier project as DAAT do not need landing lights, as there are now lights on the helicopter itself. There is a meeting on 23^rd August at 3pm. This information is on Parish Voices. A pilot will do a fly-in probably during September, and once that has happened, it’s likely that we get the go-ahead, and a ten year licence has been agreed. The Chairman thanked Cllr Button for her work. 

10.1 Following a response from SWW a representative can come for a visit to explain their plan. The Council needs results from their monitoring. The waste water pipes should be moved but not done because of costs.  Bathing places should have been tested. The WI has brought this situation to the attention of the Parish Council, as it’s a national campaign for the WI. Date to be arranged with the spokesperson from SWW.

11. Tuesday 17^th October at 7.30 pm

12.1 A salt bin had been damaged. The sign to North Bovey from Moretonhampstead (close to the Co-op) had been knocked so that it was pointing in the wrong direction.  A ‘20 is Plenty’ meeting will be held after the planning meeting on Saturday. 

 13.1 The library building was flooded and the books removed to the hall. The building is 100 years old and had problems with maintenance. The Council sold it to DCC. It is a listed building and it had been allowed to run down. A trust has been set up to take control and the original family who owned it had become involved to help with funds. Libraries Unlimited could be interested. D Cllr for the town DC Cllr Jerry Brook did not know whether it was worth restoring. Update at the next meeting.