Draft Minutes 2025 March 04

Mar 10, 2025 | Minutes

DRAFT Minutes of the Monthly Meeting of Blackawton Parish Council held on
Tuesday 4 March 2025 at 7:30 p.m. in Blackawton Village Hall

a. Open Forum

There were no Parishioners present and no matters were raised.

b. Councillors Forum

Cllrs discussed arrangements for memorial safety testing.

Present: Parish & South Hams District Council Cllr Rake (Chair), Parish Cllrs Coe, Hadow, Luckens, Mardon, Oughton (Vice-Chair), and Thomas were present, as was Devon County Cllr Brazil for his report, and Clerk A Thom.
Absent: No Cllrs absent.

  1. Apologies

All Cllrs present.

  1. Declarations of Interest

None declared.

  1. Minutes of Previous Meetings

It was resolved to approve the Minutes of the Meeting held on 4 February 2025.

  1. Report from South Hams District Council Councillor

SHDC Cllr Rake reported that SHDC has approved a balanced budget.

The Government wants all Local Authorities be unitary councils. Regarding the Government’s request for devolution proposals by 21 March 2025, SHDC has submitted support to Government for the 1-4-5 proposal. This proposal would see three unitaries created across Devon:
‘1’ would be Plymouth (Including the western part of the current South Hams, incorporating Sherford and possibly Ivybridge. The boundary remains to be decided.),
‘4’ (which is the one that we would be in) is West Devon, South Hams, Torbay, and Teignbridge, and

‘5’ is East, North, and Mid Devon, Exeter, and Torridge.
Those three unitaries would more or less meet the Government’s criterion of having 500,000 people each. The proposal has been agreed by all the involved District Councils except Exeter, which would prefer to be separate, expanding to include some areas in its surrounds.

Residents have until the end of March to buy their garden waste collection subscription at a discounted rate.

SHDC is currently in a calm before a possible storm, for instance double council tax letters are about to go out so SHDC is expecting that there might be some push back.

  1. Report from Devon County Council Councillor

DCC Cllr Brazil reported his views on the pace, parameters, and cost of the proposed local government reorganization. He said that the Government will receive four or five options for Devon. DCC has asked to be told which proposals are ‘non-starters’ so that resources are not wasted on those. Cllr Brazil thinks it is unlikely that there will be a move to a unitary in Devon until at least 2027, if not later, especially if electoral boundary changes are needed.

DCC has approved its budget. It went up 5%: 3% plus 2% for adult social care. There is a Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) budget debt of about £200 million and a budget overspend of £44 million in this coming year, with no signs of the overspend getting any less. There are problems with SEND across the whole country but if we don’t have a proper solution, in March 2026 DCC would have more debts than reserves and be technically bankrupt.

DCC loses its Rural Services Delivery Grant in 2025/26 (DCC lost Grant funds of £10 million and SHDC of £500,000). It was repurposed go to indices of deprivation related funding. Cllr Brazil commented that there are reasons why delivery of services in a rural environment costs more.

The Clerk asked about accessing P3 (Public Paths Partnership) scheme footpath grant funding for improvements to the Greenslades footpath. It was agreed that as the Greenslades Road footpath is not designated a Public Right of Way accessing P3 funding is not likely. The work needed to restore a footpath at Woodford, and to do works to prevent earth being washed down the footpath onto the road at Woodford was discussed. Mud needs to be removed from the road. Cllr Brazil will follow up both access to P3 funding for Greenslades footpath and works needed at Woodford.

Cllr Brazil left the meeting.

  1. Review of Meeting Action Items

This Agenda Item was moved down the Agenda at the Chair’s discretion.

The list of Actions Items was briefly reviewed. Discussion included the following:

Delay in the completion of the French Furze Development – Cllr Rake reported that the matter is ongoing. SHDC has taken action and the developer is showing signs of action.

Grant request to BPC from the Village Hall Committee – Cllr Coe will follow this up. An application is being prepared for grant funds towards the purchase of new audiovisual technology.

Main Street Phone Box – This will be an Item on the next agenda. BPC wants to discuss all the available options.

  1. Delay in the Completion of the French Furze Development

There is a meeting with the developer tomorrow to restart the process to handover the business units. The French Furze development was also as discussed in the previous Item.

  1. Planning Applications

    1. SHDC Planning Decisions

The following decisions were noted:

  • 0291/25/AGR West Hartley Bungalow Blackawton TQ9 7DH. Application to determine if prior approval is required for proposed new agricultural track (length 155 mtrs x width 3.5 mtrs). Prior Approval Not Required.

  • 0265/25/AGR West Hartley Bungalow Blackawton TQ9 7DH. Application to determine if prior approval is required for a proposed agricultural storage building measuring 18m (L) x 9m (B) x 5.5m height to ridge. Prior Approval Not Required.

  • 0282/25/AGR Westdown Blackawton TQ9 7AL. Application to determine if prior approval is required for a proposed building to cover existing livestock feeding & handling area measuring 33.52m (L) x 13.72m (B) x 5.17m height to ridge. Prior Approval Not Required.

  • 0095/25/ARC Penlows Park Lane Blackawton TQ9 7BD. Application for approval of details reserved by condition 3 (Structural Drawings) to planning consent 2798/24/HHO. Discharge of Condition Refused.

    1. Review of New Applications

  • Renewal application Pavement Licence The Broadstone Cafe, 16 Broadstone, Dartmouth TQ6 9NR.

  • New Premises Licence application Andrea Sharon Devitt Ltd at 1 Foss Street, Dartmouth, TQ6 9DW.

  • Variation of Premises Licence SHPL0099 Dudleys, 33 Lower Street, Dartmouth, TQ6 9AN.

  • 0496/25/AGR Broadley Farm Blackawton TQ9 7AJ. Application to determine if prior approval is required for proposed roofing over existing silage store measuring 22.86m (L) x 20m (B) x 7.71m height to ridge.

  • 0495/25/AGR Pruston Barton Blackawton TQ9 7AJ. Application to determine if prior approval is required for proposed roofing over existing silage store measuring 32m (L) x 40m (B) x 8.65m height to ridge.

BPC is not submitting feedback on the above applications.
Agricultural application decisions are based on technical planning policy and Parish Council feedback is not useful.

  1. Finance

    1. Update on Current Financial Position

The Reports and Bank Reconciliation were noted. They showed total funds of £59,656.39 and an unearmarked General Fund of £19,565.43. The reconciliation of both bank accounts with the cashbook has a £1 error due to a test transfer to a new recipient.

    1. Financial Reports and Bank Reconciliations

It was resolved to approve the proposal for monthly meetings of BPC to receive regular financial reports quarterly in arrears of each financial quarter instead of the current monthly reports, for bank reconciliations to be presented and signed at the same meeting, and it was noted that the Clerk will continue to produce the monthly bank reconciliations for BPC’s records and monitoring of accounts.

    1. Payments & Receipts

It was resolved to authorise the following payments:

  • Clerk’s February Expenses Reimbursement £99.03

  • Website updates £22.00

The following payment authorised since the last monthly meeting was noted:

  • January cut of inner face of Blackawton Cemetery hedge as per works schedule £120.00

  1. Personnel Committee and Subcommittee

It was resolved to appoint Cllr Rake as the Chair of the Personnel Committee.

It was resolved to approve the proposed revised Terms of Reference.

  1. Replacement for the use of the Clerk’s Personal Credit Card

It was resolved to approve the opening a Zempler Bank Account as proposed in the Report.

  1. Purchase of a Mobile Phone for the Clerk Role

It was resolved to approve the recommendations in the Report to authorise the Clerk to spend up to £200 on a mobile phone for the Clerk role and to purchase a SIM only mobile phone number for Blackawton Parish Council at a cost of up to £5/month. BPC is considering ceasing to offer the landline number for the Clerk.

  1. Clerk’s Working from Home Allowance

It was resolved to approve the proposal to increase the allowance to the £26 per month permitted without the allowance being subject to National Insurance or Tax.

  1. Proposal for a Temporary Cemetery Data Entry Contractor

It was agreed not to pursue the project to engage a data entry contractor for the project to transfer deeds of grant to software as discussed by the by the Personnel Committee meeting. The Clerk said they have worked out that because this is a small project the resources taken to engage a contractor outweigh the benefit of having someone working at a lower hourly rate to do the work, and also taking into account the safety of paper Cemetery records.

  1. Blackawton Community Emergency Plan

It was agreed that the Clerk will obtain and share with Cllrs examples of relevant Emergency Plan(s). This will be an Agenda item and a future meeting once Cllrs have had an opportunity to consider the Plans.

  1. Annual Parish Meeting on 15 April 2025

This year’s Parish Meeting will be on Tuesday 15 April In the Village Hall starting at 7:30pm.
There will be two external guest speakers: the Chair of South Devon National Landscapes (formerly AONB) and a member of Sustainable South Hams for a practical discussion of Home Food Waste Composting, including wormeries, bokashi and other food waste composting options.
The Clerk was asked to invite all Blackawton community groups and the School: who would be welcome to say something to to meeting.

Cllr Coe will arrange with the Village Hall Bar for refreshments on a sale and return basis.

  1. Annual Public Right of Way Forms

It was agreed to bid for grants for maintenance works to the Woodford footpath, and for improvement works on the Greenslades footpath if it is eligible.

  1. Correspondence & other Communications

The following were noted:

  • 2/2/25, Resident to Caroline Voaden MP re unfinished community spaces and business units French Furze.

  • SHDC Town & Parish Council Briefing – National Planning Guidance, 12/3/25 at 5.00 pm. Online.

  • Devon Community Resilience Forum, 11/3/25 9.30am – 4.00pm Torrington, EX38 8RH.

Cllr Rake said that he had received correspondence from a resident who asked for the Parish Council to arrange for a farmer to remove mud from the road at Woodford. The Clerk said that the Council would need to ensure that the work was done safely, without damaging the road, that those involved must be trained and insured to do the work, and that this work is best addressed by Devon County Council which is the authority responsible. As discussed earlier in the meeting DCC Cllr Brazil is looking into getting works done by DCC at Woodford.

  1. Next Meeting

It was confirmed that the next meeting of the Parish Council will be held on Tuesday 1 April at 7:30 p.m.

The meeting closed at 20:52.