May 2025 DRAFT

UPLOWMAN PARISH COUNCIL: DRAFT MINUTES OF ANNUAL MEETING

Held on Thursday 15^th May 2025 in Uplowman Village Hall, starting at 7.40pm.

One member of the public present. Minutes by Mr R Hodgson, Clerk. Action points in bold.

Subject to Approval on 17^th July 2025

1. MEMBERS PRESENT and PROCEDURAL MATTERS

1.1 Present: Cllrs M Moore (Chair), J Mayne, A McCombe, K Baugh, and D Westerman.

1.2 Election of Chair for 2025-6. Cllr Moore stood down from the Chair. Cllr Baugh proposed Cllr Westerman as Chair for the coming year. This was seconded by Cllr Mayne and agreed unanimously. Cllr Westerman accepted and took the chair.

2. APOLOGIES AND REPORTS FROM MDDC & DCC

2.1 Councillors R Adcock and D Thomas, working, had tendered apologies for absence. Cllr Moore had spoken with Cllr Thomas and been assured that his shift pattern would allow him to attend all future planned meetings. She proposed that Cllr Thomas remain as a councillor, which was agreed by all.

2.2 No reports had been received from DCC or MDDC councillors. The Clerk had emailed papers to Cllr Neale Raleigh, Tiverton East’s recently-elected DCC councillor, as soon as an email address was available but had not received a reply.

3. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING (20^th March 2025)

3.1 Draft Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 20^th March 2025 had been circulated. There were no changes requested and they were signed by the Chair as a true record of that meeting.

4. FINANCES and PROCEDURES

4.1 Current Balance: £7610.34

Income since last meeting (Precept less DALC subscription) :£4601.66

4.2 The following payments were approved and cheques signed to effect the disbursements:

    AP Hayman, grass cutting, £104.00

    Community First Trading, Insurance premium, £162.28

    Mrs S Lewis, reimburse paint for book swap, £43.97

    R Hodgson, Clerk’s expenses, inc. Membermojo and replacement table tennis bats, £144.65

 

4.3 The Annual Governance Statements were read to the meeting. On a show of hands, each item was agreed and the Clerk and Chair duly signed the Statement. The Clerk informed the meeting that the 2026 statements would include a requirement to have a .gov.uk domain and emails for councillors.

4.4 The Annual Accounting Statement had been circulated before the meeting. On a show of hands the statement was agreed and signed by the Chair.

4.5 The Clerk stated that, as UPC’s annual turnover had not exceeded £25,000 and other qualifying conditions were met, Uplowman PC could declare itself exempt from the need for a Limited Assurance Audit. The Chair proposed adoption of this option and, on a show of hands, it was agreed. The Clerk and Chair signed the Declaration of Exemption.

4.6 The meeting expressed its thanks to Mr R Clark for his services as internal Auditor for the past year. The Clerk noted that the External Auditor in 2024 had noted the absence of an Asset Register and one had been created to correct this.

5. PLANNING APPLICATIONS

5.1 24/01033/FULL: Hill Farm, revised catle shed layout. UPC had not objected and decision awaited.

5.2 24/01741/FULL: Sweetings, erect barn. A revised plan had been submitted. MDDC had approved.

5.3 25/00229/FULL: Lands Mill Lane, convert barn to holiday unit. UPC no objection, decision awaited.

5.4 25/00348/HOUSE: Tiggs Oak, ancillary accommodation. MDDC had approved this.

5.5 25/00573/LBC: Shapcott, remove 1^st floor partition. UPC had no objection, decision was awaited.

6. VILLAGE IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS

6.1 The Redwoods Pub project:There had been no further development of plans for supporting the Inn.

6.2 Parish website: The website developer had reported progress but was currently occuied with examinations so had apologised for being unable to attend the meeting. A meeting with the Hall committee and other stakeholders in the project was needed. Cllr McCoombe had attended a webinar about .gov.uk registration and confirmed that this would be desirable. A Registrar would be needed and the Clerk was asked to consult other clerks about how they had identified suitable Registrars. The Clerk would also contact MDDC to ask whether UPC’s current site (hosted by MDDC) would still be available following local government reorganisation, expected about 2 years later.

6.3 The Clerk had contacted the Hall Secretary to identify possible dates for first aid training in the autumn and awaited a reply. He would ask again.

6.4 The book swap in the former telephone box was getting a makeover, including a repaint. This was being funded from a Parish Magazine grant held for the purpose. There had been a suggestion to replace the ‘Telephone’ signs with similar ones stating ‘Book Swap’. However, the community team doing this had decided on a different signage and this proposal would not be pursued so approximately £56 remained in the designated fund for the book swap.

6.5 Hospiscare had written seeking funds and prompting a review of UPC’s charitable giving. Following discussion, it was agreed that the present recipients all provided services that were used by Uplowman residents and support should be maintained. Cllr Westerman would research whether it would be appropriate to add Hospiscare.

7. SUSTAINABILITY AND HEALTHY LIVING

7.1 It was understood that the Hall was pursuing installation of solar panels. Cllr Westerman said he would clarify details with Cllr Adcock later.

8. CORRESPONDENCE

A list of correspondence received and sent had been circulated. Attention was drawn to the following items of interest that were not covered elsewhere:

8.1There were no items of particular interest not covered by agenda items.

9. HALL AND RECREATION ASSOCIATION

9.1 There was no report due to Cllr Adcock’s absence. The Clerk had obtained a quote for installation and emptying of a dog waste bin at the Hall amounting to £485 for installation plus an annual charge of £260. After discussion, it was agreed that although the request to MDDC needed to come from UPC, the costs should be borne by UHRA.

10. EMERGENCY PLANNING AND NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH

10.1 Nothing to report. It was agreed to delete this item from future agendas for the time being.

11. STATE OF ROADS IN PARISH

11.1 Whitnage Lane signage: There had been no further development. The Clerk would follow up with DCC. It was noted that the damage to the road caused by extricating the trapped lorry had not been repaired.

11.2 The Clerk was asked to enquire again of DCC when the Sampford road would be repaired.

12. DATE OF NEXT MEETING

The next meeting was confirmed for Thursday17th July 2025, to be in the Hall at 7.30pm.

 

The meeting closed at 8.30pm

 

DRAFT MINUTES OF 15^th May 2025

Public discussion:

 

Cllr Moore, outgoing Chair, presented a report on the previous year’s activities as follows on the next page. The report was received without questions.

This year has been a year of two halves with a busy first half and more sedate last few months. We have had the same councillor team for the year and this will continue into 2025/6

At the beginning of the year we finalised and distributed the Emergency Plan by hand to all households in the Parish. If you don’t have one please ask as we have some spares!

Two councillors accepted the invitation to go round the MDDC recycling facility at Willand and were very impressed with the whole operation. They shared their learnings and the council continues to encourage recycling wherever it can.

We have managed the usual activities in the village of grass cutting of public spaces and leat banks. We organised the removal of a diseased tree on the green and decaying rails on the leat,and the installation of new rails on the leat opposite Redwoods.

We were active in the objection to planning permission for the Greenway Landfill Application. This involved liaising with other councils and groups and making a submission in front of the DCC planning Hearing at County Hall. We were well supported by our parishioners, DCC and MDDC councillors and we all celebrated the resounding defeat of the application.

We have had the challenging situation of the application for conversion of Redwoods pub to housing. While we have sympathy for the needs of the publican to retire, after discussion with the community, we decided to object and try to keep the pub for community use if possible. The planning application was turned down at both initial hearing and at appeal as strong support was identified in the community for the retention of the pub for community benefit. It did not fit the criteria however to be listed as an asset of community value and the application for this was turned down. The Redwoods Inn support group was set up by a group of parishioners who wanted to explore ways of keeping the pub. They explored helping with marketing, taking it over for community use, raised some monies through quizes and were applying for grant funding for the parish to buy it. However the levelling up funds which they hoped to apply for were frozen and then no longer available as the new government took office. This group have stopped meeting now and the pub remains in its current state for now.

We correspond with DCC Highways department regularly with regard to the state of the various roads in the parish. We usually get replies and explanations or action (Whitnage road last year). We continue to ask for repair to Uplowman Road on both sides of the flyover the A361. DCC have accepted the need for repair but have failed to timetable it into repair work. We continue to work through councillors and council staff to get this done but the recent local elections have slowed this down in recent weeks. We will continue to work on this and repairs needed to other roads in the parish.

We have investigated Parish, Highways and Environment agency responsibilities with regard to the flooding of the river in the centre of Uplowman at periods of heavy rain. Highways are responsible for clearing any debris that builds up, which they did, but the build up of silt and stones in the river is not their responsibility and requires a digger. DCC and the Enviroment Agency consider the river too small for them to take action so we are in the process of organising the help of local parishioners to address this.

We are exploring with the Village Hall setting up a single Uplowman community website to replace the current one. This would support the parish council essential communications and the Village Hall bookings and communications and possible needs of other groups. Unfortunately this has been delayed but we are hoping to progress this at the start of this new year. This will be progressed in the light of new requirements for all councils to operate under new gov.uk credentials.

We hosted the Parish social on July 5^th 2024 at the Village Hall. This drew a good turnout and a festive time was had by all including the youngest to the oldest parishioners. We were joined by a drone which took an aerial photo of us all which is now the welcome photo on the Uplowman Community facebook page. Ross organised for the framing and hanging of the original old C19th Village map on the wall in the Village Hall which was much admired and appreciated and stimulated all sorts of discussions about changing boundaries and current title.