The Chairman noted the sad passing of Ray Warden asking for a minutes silence whilst everyone reflected on Ray's many interests that he brought to the community and shared.

Councillors were reminded of their responsibility to continually update their Notice of Registerable Interests and invited to state whether they had a personal or prejudicial interest in any matter to be discussed during this meeting – None received.

In attendance were Lesley Winrow, Mr and Mrs Cowley, Col Teague ANOTHER all who declined to speak and Pc Mutton.

Pc Mutton advised he had no crime figures but would bring such to the next meeting. He noted that the number of Beat Managers in Devon and Cornwall will be reduced and probably his role in the community would be taken over by a PCSO. They are still awaiting to hear how people will be allocated around the area. There will be a neighbourhood investigation team for routine jobs as well as a neighbourhood team of PCSOs with one police officer co ordinating such. There are many change afoot in Kingsbridge. The PCSOs will probably be given more powers and maybe more traffic based and they are supposed to be recruiting seven more as PCSOs now have secured funding for the next two years.

Dist. Cllr. Baverstock enquired what hours the PCSOs would operate as they used to be restricted. They will work from 7 or 8 am to 10p.m. Therefore after 10p.m. there will only be one officer covering the whole area but they were awaiting a report from Blue Force.

The Minutes of the:

(a) full council meeting dated 9^th December 2011 were amended to 'Colonel' Teague and the venue noted as Methodist to 'Community Hall' being being approved by all present and duly signed as a true and correct record.

(b) Planning Committee dated – No planning held in January.

The applications below were considered at this meeting and the following observations submitted to District:

• 2776/10/F Householder application for interior additional floor to include half blocking up of existing window and insertion of new rooflight 6 Coleridge Barns, Chillington TQ7 2HR – No objection – No objection.
• 2830/10/F Householder application for alterations to dwelling (amendments to approved application 53/0794/07/F) Bayfield, Torcross TQ7 2TL – No objection.
• 2880/10/F Demolition of existing property and replaced with new build dwelling upon same footprint. Design to remain as previously granted permission for refurbishment and alterations reference 53/0868/10/F Golden Meadow, Widewell TQ7 2EE – No objection.
• 2905/10/F Retrospective application for replacement satellite antenna Rock House, Chillington TQ7 2LE – No objection.

DETAILED PLANS APPROVED

• 1679/10/RM Reserved matters application pursuant to grant of outline planning permission reference 53/1675/06/O for erection of 40 dwellings and associated roads, footpaths and open space Land between Shorneywell and Orchard Way, Chillington

PLANNING PERMISSION GRANTED

• 2174/10/F Householder application for alterations to the roof, walls and doors to the conservatory Holbrook, Stokenham
• 2313/10/F Householder application for alteration and extension to dwelling 29 Beesands, Beesands TQ7 2EN
• 2360/10/F Amendments to household planning ref: 53/1134/10/F for demolition of flat roofed wing, conservatory and greehouse, with erection of extensions to provide additional living accommodation and granny annexe Hafod, Chillington, TQ7 2JX

LISTED BUILDING CONSENT GRANTED

• Listed Building consent to replace rotten beams supporting bedroom floor boards with like for like, size and materials Orchard Cottage, Beeson TQ7 2HW

PLANNING PERMISSION REFUSED

• 1748/10/F Application for variation of condition 10 to Reserved Maters planning application ref: 53/1434/09/RM for amendmentsto exterior elevations and extended rear elevations New development site, rear of Penn Cottage, Shindle Park, Chillington

WORKS TO TREES IN A CONSERVATION AREA

• 0001/11/TCA Proposal to fell Sycamore and crown reduced Leylandii by 2m Site: White House, Chillington TQ7 2JX – No objection. The Tree Warden noted that this Sycamore is the last surviving tree on a bank between the White House and Gratton Drive with all others removed. This tree is unstable and there seems to be a failure in the root system, destabilising the bank and affecting a neighbouring property. Also No objection. The Leylandii only needs topping of 2m to allow more light in the neighbouring garden.

TREE PRESERVATION ORDER – WORKS TO TREES

• 2707/10/TW WITHDRAWN Reg. No: 3111 Proposal to remove dead bough from Ash Site: Chillington House, Chillington

It was AGREED to bring the Annual Parish Meeting forward to March and combine this with an Elections Awareness presentation on 16th March 2011. It was suggested that at such presentation councillors should give an outline of their duties and take questions and provide answers before ending the meeting and remaining to discuss such one to one.

DISTRICT CLUSTER MEETING

The Chairman and Clerk had attended the Cluster Meeting with Cllr Foss arriving later. About 5 or 6 parishes were represented. Attending were the Leader of District, the new District Chief Executive who summed up his findings and future objectives, Alan Robinson District Strategic Director together with the Leader of Devon County Council John Hart and Roger Grainger Community Liaison. As an adopted meeting rule the Chairman Cllr Greening asked that they did not mention 'cuts'; he historically referred to terms used such as economies, savings and rationing. He felt this meeting was worth attending with a discussion on Quality Status assuring Aveton Gifford that such was worthwhile and many other topics covered. Cty Cllr. Brazil and Dist. Cllr. Baverstock were also present.

POLICE AUTHORITY, COUNTY COUNCIL AND

Cllr. Baverstock attended this meeting and noted that the representative on behalf of Devon County had been well informed and able to answer questions noting they were facing a 28% reduction over the next four years with such impact being front loaded with 11/12 % reduction this year, dropping back in following years but arriving at 28%. For County this means £10s of millions. The Fire Authority were quite interesting because although the police authority have to reduce budget by £49 million over four years and thus will be looking at manpower change the Fire Authority only have a slight decrease of 1.1% this year and next year an increase of 1% so they were not greatly affected.

PROPOSED PARKING METERS IN KINGSBRIDGE

Cllr. Harwood advised he had attended this meeting in Kingsbridge and noted County had now rejected the provision of such meters but County had suggested putting together a transport plan.

DISTRICT PLAY EQUIPMENT GRANT

Cllr Rogers advised the working group had requested advice on specifications and costings from Alex Whish for equipment suitable for the space at Beesands but nothing to date had been received. With regard to the capital budget allowed of £25,000 there were now concerns that although it is ring fenced as it has not been spent it might disappear with the budget reductions if the money goes into next year.

• Kellaton – It was noted that as usual a hedge cutting notice should be sent to one owner.
• Beeson – As contact has been received from a land agent with regard to proposed development contact should be made with this agent in Cornwall to ask that the hedge be cut.
• Lengthsman – drains/buddle holes need clearing by Chillington Burial site in Tanpits Lane.
• It was noted that local roads were deteriorating terribly along the A379 to Plymouth with potholes and this was all felt to be due to lack of funding.
• Buddle hole at Mattiscombe Cross is still blocked.
• Withery Well, Beeson this corner buddle hole has a small trench which needs bank moving so when it is cleared workers can throw mud on to this area without it slipping back down. Also the trench at Beeson Pool needs attention although this might have been addressed recently. At Beeson Pool junction on the opposite side of the road to the aforementioned trench a buddle hole needs clearance.

• Road Closure 24 - 25^th February 2011 Blackpool Hill, Stoke Fleming to Blackpool Bridge to enable County Highways Works to A379.
• Notification from May Gurney of a proposed Road Closure for The Vicarage on the A379 to Mattiscombe Cottage 28^th - 30^th March 2011. Access to properties. Works for South West Water.
• District letter dated 21^st December 2010 advising that as a local authority they are now required to publish all payments over £500 online. Currently parish and town councils are awaiting advice as to whether they will come under this remit.
• Notification from a member of the public advising that the Coleridge Bus is experiencing difficulty accessing Kiln Lane to collect passengers due to trees overhanging the Torcross end of the road. Clerk to identify and contact land owners.
• Environment Agency letter dated December 2010 on Community Flood Planning offering their help to communities with flood risk to develop such a plan.
• Email from Legal Department at District advising that the final agreed Beesands Village Green Constitution will be printed and signed shortly. Thereafter notices can be put up for committee members election. Also advice from legal that the balance of public interest would allow the use of the field for the Endurance Life run and would not be seen as ongoing commercial activity. On this matter a further request from District to ensure that the Parish Council have no objection to such use which was agreed.
• Invitation dated January 2011 for the Chair, Vice Chair and Clerk to attend Ivybridge Town Hall 10^th February 2011 4 – 7 p.m to discuss local issues that affect this parish.
• Letter dated 13^th January 2011 from Dist. Cllr. Baverstock requesting that Parish Council submit a team for his charity quiz night in aid of Devon Air Ambulance Trust at the Royal Seven Stars in Totnes 8^th February 2011. £4.00 per head.
• Emailed letter received 19^th January 2011 from District in relation to the street naming and numbering of the residential development at land between Orchard Way and Shorneywell Chillington. Parish Council are asked to suggest further building names to be added for the barn conversions along with plots 30 to 33 which are in a close or courtyard.
• District 'A Councillor …. Who me?' posters and leaflets raising awareness of the elections and advising of an evening to meet councillors and staff at Follaton House 27^th January 2011.
• New Stokenham Parish Council Information sheets for noticeboards handed to councillors due to the recent changes to members and forthcoming elections.
• Notification received from Devon County that the Notice adverts for the pedestrianisation of Torcross Promenade have gone into the newspapers and been displayed. A resident did telephone when signs were prematurely installed to complain of its location and this should be borne in mind when they are placed, it is suggested they could go on the walls of the properties to protect the views. An advisory letter had already been dropped by County but there is still confusion as to whether it has been received.
• District letter dated 18^th January 2011 advising that all new and variation, premises licence applications can be viewed on the District licensing web pages.
• Taylor Wimpey have sent a letter to District advising that they have commenced building (the foundations were not commencing building) and therefore are awaiting a claim of the amounts of Section 106 they must pay. Once this is received in the next few weeks they will pay the monies over and advise parish council when this is done.

Dist Cllr Baverstock advised that he is fighting two battles at present. Firstly that as a result of the Helmers section 106 there is approximately £44,000 set aside for educational services to the parish. He is however in conflict with Cty Cllr Brazil who advises that this sum was ringfenced for Kingsbridge College. Kingsbridge College is now an academy and Dist. Cllr. Baverstock feels all education monies should be coming to Stokenham. Also parents of children in year one at Stokenham had written in a separate instance advising that the children were cramped in one class and catching flu off each other. He is therefore pursuing this education money with County.

Beesands has a number of areas in which cars have historically been able to park on District property free of charge. The present District budget proposition is that Beesands parking will become Pay and Display. Dist. Cllr. Baverstock vehemently opposes this and therefore has written to all residents at Beesands advising of such. So far he has persuaded District Executive to reconsider as at Scrutiny he objected that their business plan was flawed when investigated 6-8 years ago and it had fallen apart and there had been no change since then. On environmental grounds Beesands sits in a time warp with the only new addition a sea wall. District are now considering imposing 90 fee paying parking bays. If there are 50 marked areas with signs to say how much parking charges are, plus meters etc there would be a visual impact. Dist. Cllr. Baverstock also felt the locals would park on the other side of the road in order to overcome this restriction and there would then be a need for double yellow lines plus further signs. All of this is out of keeping with such a quiet rural village. Scrutiny fully agreed with his representation and have recommended refusal of such suggestion.

District are still considering their budget at present with the 15.7% cut. He felt it was fair to say that the average person in the street would not see cuts as there would be no rise in council tax and front line services would not be directly affected by the cuts due to the proposition of re organising senior management of South Hams and West Devon. At the moment there are somewhere in the region of 15 heads of department which will to go to 7 with another 4 directors in South Hams and West Devon to be reduced to 2. With such considerable amount of staff change provided that management effectiveness remains people will not notice changes. The Localism Bill is on the horizon and it is saying that communities are going to have to play a bigger decision making role in Society, if District says we will cut grass 4 times a year and the community say 6 times, parish will be offered the option to pay 'X' and District will cut accordingly.

He then asserted that if parish council would like to take on the services for grass cutting, toilet cleaning etc from District they will negotiate with parish about taking it on and would need to establish what they are currently spending and providing parish can show a saving they can take such on. The Chairman advised he understood at the Cluster Meeting from Richard Sheard that there was certainly some reality in grounds maintenance as it was a clear cut provision of money. Dist. Cllr. Baverstock advised he had liasied with District Laura Payne on what the definition of community is and felt that where a group of people in the parish feel that there is an issue over which they, want or do not want, something then they can create a petition which is small (5%) and go to District to request a hearing and if that Referendum gets the appropriate number of votes then council must debate the particular item. However council can debate and do nothing if they feel appropriate. Laura Payne's view was that the group who put such petition forward would pay for the referendum. This is the way that the Localism Bill seems to be going at the moment.

The District CEO has been in post now for a couple of months and had looked at senior management layout and the Executive will in turn will decide if the CEO's recommendations are sound. Dist Cllr Baverstock expects this to be accepted and quite an amount of money has been set aside for redundancy. Shared services between West Devon and South Hams are continuing and he suspects by summer every service provided by South Hams will be shared with West Devon. A poll as to whether the two District should join was held but councillors on both sides thought it was inappropriate as they had no affinity. However sharing services was saving approximately £2million so far. A councillor enquired whether reductions were mostly management so far and this was affirmed.

A discussion took place with regard to Stokenham School capacity. A councillor enquired if all Stokenham School children were from Stokenham Parish. There had been a decrease in numbers so that they were 30% down from six years ago but this had stabilised and with 22 affordable homes being built at Helmers this will bring numbers up. It was acknowledged that increased children numbers might be coming from outside the parish and the council requested such illustrative numbers.

It was noted that the Conservation Officer has sent an email welcoming contact with parishes and Cllr Vale welcomed this. It was not known why such offer was being made and hoped that such dialogue already took place. Cllr Vale went on to question the works to the barns at Helmers and suggested that rumour has it that such unstable structure was holding up any further work and they have sealed them for now. Dist. Cllr. Baverstock and Cllr Rogers understood from original discussions that Taylor Wimpey were not going to do anything to these barns as they had sub contracted such specialist work out to another builder.

Further discussion took place as to such perceived lethargy at Cluster and other meetings. This is inherent in local government but Aveton Gifford representatives had received advice on Quality Status and been most enthusiastic.

Cty Cllr. Brazil noted there had been a police representative at Strete Parish Council on the proposed forthcoming cuts which had been interesting. County were in the middle of the budget process and at a meeting of Scrutiny on Monday when he was able to make comments he did so. Rural buses are going to be affected but this will perhaps not touch Stokenham as the 93 is not subsidised apart from Sundays in summer. Most of the service is a paid for service. County are looking to totally axe the budget for partnership dealing with domestic violence which was extremely worrying and Cty Cllr Brazil was most concerned about the further effects of this. One bit of good news he imparted was that County are keeping the Community Budget for County Councillors and are increasing it. The Exeter Airport money is separate from budget money and they are preparing to give a lump sum for capital projects. Dartmouth College now has funding for the capital build which was suspended when Government stopped funding for building schools for the future.

On the matter of car parking meters all he felt had been said and County has learned that such high handed consultation was wrong. He felt it was a pity because County did have a case but they presented it wrongly. Cty Cllr. Brazil noted that anecdotal comment from Totnes traders is in favour of meters.

When questioned he advised that his Community Grant was now £15,000 together with a Capital pot of £25,000, both are proposed and awaiting ratification.

A councillor enquired if such County Councillor. funds could be spent on roads but was advised this was unlikely. Cty Cllr. Brazil noted that the recent months had been appalling weather wise and that this together with budget cuts produced the current situation on the roads. Councils he noted had been cutting their budgets for the last 5 years. County hoped to preserve as many frontline services as possible and cut back room staff. He did however acknowledge the public frustration suffered when he had intervened on a case of care work and noted that it took eight levels of County management before he got to a Director at Coombe Royal to ensure care for the said person.

Deposit (1) £28500.21

Deposit (2) £5073.98

Current £202.03

Transferred: £1500 into current account

Councillors AGREED the cheques and approved them for signature:

• DALC Nov/Dec and Jan/Feb 2011 Newsletters.
• Open Door Tor Homes Issue No. 53 Winter 2010/11.
• Slapton Line Partnership Winter Spring 2011 leaflet.
• Spinal Injuries Association Poster raising awareness of fund raising dates.
• Senior Council for Devon Issue No. 9 January 2011.
• Voluntary Vine Newsletter Jan – Mar 2011.
• South Hams Society Bulletin December 2010.
• The Royal British Legion letter dated 4^th January 2011 enclosing 'Great Poppy Party Weekend' brochure and advising of the celebrations for the weekend 10^th - 12^th June 2011.

The next full parish council meeting will be held on Thursday 17^th February 2011 at 7.30p.m. in Stokenham Parish Hall.

Meeting finished: 9.30p.m.

Signed ……………………… Dated: 17^th February 2011.