DRAFT MINUTES ANNUAL PARISH MEETING 5th May 2026

MINUTES
BRAMPFORD SPEKE ANNUAL PARISH MEETING

Held on Tuesday 5th May 2026 at 7.00pm in Brampford Speke Village Hall

Present: Cllrs Luxton (Chair), Bannister, Honan, Hollingsworth, Ferns (Vice Chair) and Tillett. Seven members of the public and the Clerk.

APM 1/26 Welcome and introductions by the Chair of the Parish Council – The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. The Chair thanked the Councillors and the Clerk for their hard work throughout the year.
Over the last 12 months we have said goodbye to Cllrs Hillson, Langdon and Wayne and we thank them for their contribution to the Parish Council.
We have welcomed Cllrs Bannister and Ferns and we look forward to working with them.
A big thank you also to our Devon County Councillors Nat Vanstone and Henry Gent and East Devon Councillor Fabian King. Their support has been vital in securing local projects such as replacement benches, a refurbished noticeboard and a much-needed heated cabinet for the defibrillator.
We thank Wynn Stait for the sterling work he does with the footpaths and to Pete Smiley for keeping an eye on the defibrillator.
We look forward to the year ahead of us.
We would encourage anyone interested in joining us as a Parish Councillor to speak to one of the current Councillors or to email the Clerk on clerk@brampfordspekeparish.gov.uk

APM 2/26 Apologies – Fabian King EDDC sent his apologies these were accepted.

APM 3/26 Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on the 14th May 2025 
PROPOSED: Cllr R Tillett SECONDED: Cllr E Hollingsworth RESOLVED
The Chairman signed the Minutes as a true record.
APM 4/26 An update from Brampford Speke Parish Councillors on the work of the Council during 2025-2026
Cllr Richard Tillett
Highways: Liaison with road/snow warden Peter Stewart during year.
Quiet year, some pothole repairs, mainly done promptly after reported. Various problems including flooding in January, burst main within village, A377 closure, Thorverton School Lane closure.
Problems with icy roads during winter; PS tried to get gritting without success. Attempts to arrange meeting with DCC Highways neighbourhood officer Ricky Cowtan unsuccessful, have spoken on phone and he is trying to see what can be done for next winter.
Village Hall (PC representative on management /trustee committee, jointly with Will Honan): porch woodwork, doors, front doors etc replaced during year. Thanks to PC for commissioning work and dealing with VAT. Fire safety/electrics review has identified further work needed on emergency lights etc estimated cost £1200.
Hall bookings satisfactory and sufficient to cover basic running costs, but not maintenance/repairs (eg fire safety/electrics). very thankful to the PC for helping with the upgrades to the porch. Need emergency lighting.
BT Kiosk – Notice went up in October advising that BT would remove the phone if no representations were made to them within 100 days. The data advises that only 4 calls have been made from the kiosk in the last 12 months. The Parish Council have formally objected. BT have now said they will not remove. This may only be a temporary reprieve.
Cllr Will Honan – Planning – No new planning has been submitted since the last Parish Council meeting.
Cllr Elaine Hollingsworth – Environment and Open Spaces
The Community Payback Teams have been a huge help in keeping footpaths open and verges strimmed. They will return to paint the bus shelter when time and weather permit and also undertake more strimming and tidying when requested to do so. They have offered to tidy the graveyards and will take on any other reasonable task as required.

The WW1 Trees are growing well and now resemble a small, open woodland. One or two trees have died (as would be expected) and have been left as homes for 'mini beasts' which, in turn, feed birds. The long grass provides a home for small mammals, lizards and snakes all of which are also part of the food chain. Bats and owls hunt the area overnight while red kites, sparrowhawks, kestrels, buzzards and hobbies are seen during the day (preying on the small mammals).
Cllr Ian Bannister and Wynn Stait – Footpaths
Over the last year we have seen plenty of activity on the footpaths, from the removal of fallen trees to DCC repairing rotten and deteriorated foot bridges, we are also thankful for the help from the Community Pay Back Scheme were we have seen slippery footpaths cleared and overgrown hedges strimmed.
More maintenance is planned over the coming months to drain a footpath that floods in the winter, we also hope to have the Community Pay Back Scheme return to cut back the footpaths as they continue to grow throughout the summer.
We would like to thank Wynn Stait for the hard work he does as footpath warden, its much appreciated. A few maintenance works have had to be put in place. Red Rock needs sorting. Planks have been replaced on bridge to Upton Pyne.
Footpaths are in generally good condition although vegetation is now growing at a rapid rate ahead of the annual cut in June. There were a number of trees down during the winter storms but they were rapidly removed by the landowners once contacted. Ian Bannister kindly removed a fallen tree on FP6 - Church Path which children were walking under to access the school.
Updates on individual paths in no particular order:
FP5 - Station Hill to Burrow Cottages. This path includes approximately 300 metres of fenced off path which was completely overgrown with brambles and nettles. The entire path was cleared during the autumn and DCC have now added this to their cutting list.

FP7 - Water Steps, F8b - Lake's Bridge to Lower Woodrow, FP5 Station Hill. These paths have been regularly maintained by the Community Payback Team arranged by Elaine. Their work has been of a very high standard and should be commended by the PC.
FP5 - Station Hill - Richard Spurway (DCC) has inspected the failing tarmac surface and is getting a price from a contractor. He will try to access DCC funds to complete the work.
FP4 - Red Rock Rd to Sowdens - we are still awaiting the proposed flood relief work which will hopefully be completed this summer.
FP10 - Croft Cottages to Upton Pyne - a new bridge deck has been installed on the first bridge from Brampford Speke
At the time of writing, we are still awaiting the receipt of the P3 grant for 26/27.
Cllr Allan Ferns – Communications
Still setting up Instagram and Facebook. The Facebook page was shut down within 2 hours. It would appear a page has already been set up. Cllr Ferns will continue to work on this.
Clerk – Finance Report

The Annual Internal Audit has been completed for 2025-2026 and governance requirements complied with. There was a clean bill of health from the internal auditor with a couple of points raised which the Council will consider and action.

The year-end accounts and AGAR report will be available to view on-line after they have been signed off at the Annual Parish Council Meeting.

A meeting to discuss the budget for the coming year and to set the Precept claim was held on 4th November 2025. The minutes for this meeting are published on the website.

Spending was well below the set budgets for the financial year. This was helped by generous locality grants from our DCC Councillors which paid for the new defibrillator cabinet, a new bench and the refurbishing of the notice board. The Parish Council wanted to thank both Cllr Nat Vanstone and Cllr Henry Gent for their support. Thanks also to Cllr Fabian King (EDDC) for supported the grant process.

The Council invested in a new laptop this year and also gov.uk email accounts which is now a legal requirement.

Earmarked reserves were reviewed last year and reclassified to recognise the ongoing financial demands as currently seen. This has worked well this financial year.

Due to the stability and the close management of the accounts and discretionary expenditure the Parish Council have kept the Precept claim at £8750.00 for 2026-27.

APM 5/26 Any other ‘parish affairs’ matters that people wish to raise
No matters were raised.

Meeting closed at 19:23