May 2026 Draft

UPLOWMAN PARISH COUNCIL: DRAFT MINUTES OF ANNUAL MEETING

Held on Thursday 21^st May 2026 in Uplowman Village Hall, starting at 7.40pm.

Cllrs N Raleigh (DCC), J Lock (MDDC) and one member of the public present. Minutes by Mr R Hodgson, Clerk. Action points in bold. Subject to Approval on 16 July 2026

 

1. MEMBERS PRESENT and PROCEDURAL MATTERS

1.1 Present: Cllrs D Westerman, M Moore, E Egan, R Adcock, J Mayne and D Thomas.

1.2 Cllr Westerman offered to continue as Chair for 2026-7. This was seconded by Cllr Adcock and agreed unanimously.

2. APOLOGIES AND REPORTS FROM MDDC & DCC

2.1 Cllr McCombe had been unwell and tendered apologies for absence, as had Cllr Westcott (MDDC).

2.2 DCC report: Cllr Raleigh noted that DCC was updating its footpath network and asking all PCs to identify problems with existing paths and to propose additional permissive paths where appropriate. Some grants were available. Cllr Raleigh reminded the PC that his Locality budget had restarted for the coming year and could also help replace gates, improve surfaces, etc.

2.3 MDDC report: Cllr Lock said that there remained no agreement on Local Government Reform in Devon and the process might take some time to resolve.

 

3. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING (19^th March 2026)

3.1 Draft Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 19^th March 2026had been circulated. No changes were requested and they were signed by the Chair as a true record of that meeting.

 

4. FINANCES and PROCEDURES

4.1 Current Balance: £9685.89

Income since last meeting (Precept and VAT reclaim): £5674.52

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

     Devon Ass’n of Local Councils, subscription of £152.98 had been deducted from precept

     Four Seasons Tree Services (grass cutting) £136.80

     AP Hayman (grass cutting and road works): £201.50

     R Hodgson (Clerk’s expenses, inc Membermojo): £101.15

     Play Safety Ltd (TrimTrail inspection): £99.60

     Community First Trading (Annual Insurance): £237.52

     D Westerman (compost and liner for planter): £45.80

The Clerk reported that he had sought alternative quotations for the annual insurance but other providers had been unable to better the Community First price. Community First had offered either £245.75 for one year or £237.52 pa for a three year deal. After brief discussion it was agreed to take up the 3-year deal. The Clerk noted that a new cheque book would be required. He would liaise with Cllr Moore over ordering one as they were no longer sent automatically.

4.3 The Chair read the annual governance statement and all present agreed that each of its requirements had been met. It was noted that an IT policy was needed. Cllr Westerman would look into developing one. He duly signed the statement

4.4 The Clerk presented the annual accounting statement for approval. Cllr Westerman proposed its acceptance, which was agreed by all present and signed by the Chair.

4.5 The Clerk recommended that Uplowman PC declare itself exempt from a requirement for limited assurance audit. The turnover had been less than £25,000 and oither conditions were met. All agreed and the exemption certificate was signed by the Chair and Clerk. Thanks were expressed to Richard Clark for again acting as internal auditor for UPC’s activities.

5. PLANNING APPLICATIONS

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

5.2 25/01266/FULL: 3 Crossways, Erection of social dwelling. UPC had objected to 2^nd revision and decision awaited.

5.3 25/01366/FULL: Land at Stonebridge, replace barn with two self-build houses. UPC had objected to revised proposals. Decision awaited.

5.4 26/00466/PNAG: Hay barn on Tiverton road, for information.

5.5 26/00489/PIP: Mellway Stables, 2 dwellings. UPC had ojected, MDDC had approved the application.

5.6 26/00580/MFUL: PV installation, Willand. Variation of condition. UPC hadno objection.

5.7 26/00615 and 26/00620PNCOU: Class Q notifications for conversions at Whitnage Farm. Cllrs Westerrman and Adcock had discussed with the applicant but UPC was not being consulted as it was application by prior notification. Cllr Moore commented that the proposed access for one of the sites onto Whitnage Lane would not be safe for large vehicles.

5.8 Planning enforcement: A parishioner had complained to Cllr Adcock that a property that had been granted as a commercial unit was in use as an AirBnB letting. The Clerk had enquired about progress with the investigation but not received a reply. It was understood that the Enforcement team was under pressure at present.

 

6. VILLAGE IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS

6.1 Parish website: Enquiries of the UHRA suggested that there had been no progress.

6.2 The planter on the Green was now planted and thanks were expressed to the Parish Magazine for providing the funding.

6.3 There was discussion of a possible parish social to fullfill a requirement to hold an Annual Parish Meeting. After consideration, it was agreed to hold a meeting in September to follow up on the Housing Needs Survey and start a process of developing a Parish Priority Statement. A more social event would be arranged during the coming winter.

6.4 The Clerk reported that Devon Communities Together’s Housing Needs Survey had now concluded. DCT considered that the responses had been reasonable and would provide an analysis in due course. They had offered to attend the July meeting but it was agreed instead to invite them to present to the September meeting discussed in item 6.3.

6.5 The meeting expressed its thanks to Paul Hayman who went above and beyond in maintaining the neat appearance of the village centre and the playing field.

 

7. SUSTAINABILITY AND HEALTHY LIVING

7.1 UHRA was progressing with installing sustainable energy sources at the Hall.

 

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:

8.1 All items covered under the agenda.

 

9. HALL AND RECREATION ASSOCIATION

9.1 Funding for the bridge was now all in place and applications were under way to obtain funding for sustainable heating (solar PV, back-up battery and heat pump) for the Hall.

 

10. STATE OF ROADS IN PARISH

10.1 Whitnage Lane signage: DCC had indicated that this would not be a priority. Cllr Moore said that UPC should investigate more visible signage in any case. It was agreed that Cllrs Westerman and Moore would visit the site and consider options.

 

11. DATE OF NEXT MEETING

The next meeting was confirmed for Thursday 16^th July 2026, in the Hall at 7.30pm.

 

The meeting closed at 8.45pm

 

DRAFT MINUTES OF 21^st May 2026

 

Public discussion:

 

Cllr Westerman presented the Chair’s report on 2025-6.

 

Chair’s report 2025-6

 

We started the year saying appreciation to the previous Chair Mary Moore who stood down after three busy years as the Chair, Mary remains a valued member of the council. Kevin Baugh also stood down during the year after long service and we offer him thanks for his service and wish him well for the future. We welcomed Emily Egan as our latest councillor and we are confident that she will be a valuable asset to the Council and Parish.

The year began with a major problem with the historically valuable leat, that stopped flowing in May 25. After much discussion, Councillor surveys and local knowledge it became apparent that the Leat, following years of neglect , was in need of a significant desilting operation. Thankfully a local farmer helped to desilt the Leat from its source to the start of the village. It proved a success but highlighted the ongoing issues with maintaining a historical feature within the Parish and led the Council to revisit the financial reserves.

Through careful financial management UPC has a satisfactory balance but as discussed earlier we revisited the value of reserves set aside as per the reserves policy established in 2016, it was agreed that accounting for inflation since 2016 then the reserve should be increased to £5000 and be maintained at this level plus annual inflation each year.

We continue to manage local amenities such as grass cutting, Leat bank management, Childrens Play Area Insurance, we have also helped to secure funds to replace the decaying bridge to the Village Hall.

A wide variety of projects were supported by the council last year. These ranged from installing a modest planter on the village common area opposite the pub, pulling together a small team of councillors and volunteers to clear the Leat to establishing a .gov.uk email address for each councillor - a mandatory requirement from 2027 onwards. The single community website has once again been delayed as we try to understand who will manage the website but we have been made aware that the current historical website run by a member of the public will be unsupported in 2027, thus UPC needs to understand whether this should be adopted by the new UPC domain or integrated into the proposed community website.

Continued communication with DCC Highways resulted in the road to Sampford Peverell being fully repaired but requests for improved signage to dissuade HGVs from using the Whitnage road have been rejected.

UPC has maintained its and MDDC Local Planning Policy in terms of objecting to unsustainable development within the Parish unless it meets the exception criteria for development in rural area. This means that in general we continue to object to new dwellings in the area. To help to understand the numerous planning policies, a number of councillors have attended various planning training sessions with MDDC regarding the latest government planning policies and housing targets, the major issue facing Uplowman and Mid Devon is that the current Mid Devon Plan fails to meet the governments housing targets and thus what is called the ‘Tilted Balance’ approach will be used in reviewing applications, this means that the application starts from a more favourable stance for approval than rejection. Uplowmans proximity to local transport connections mean that we will be under increased pressure from speculative development applications. We have been reviewing whether UPC requires a Neighbourhood Plan or a Neighbourhood Priority Statement to establish our stance on development, to aid the development of either policy then UPC have supported a housing survey, aimed particularly at affordable housing. The results of such survey will enable UPC to move forward with deciding if we need a policy and which one we should move forward with.

Over the coming year it will become clear the intent of the government of moving for larger unitary organisations which could see the end of Mid Devon Council, UPC will maintain communications with various organisations to ensure we fully understand the implications of such changes at a Parish Level.

In the next year UPC will continue to work to maintain and enhance the village amenities whilst supporting the planning views of the Parishioners, it is intended that an annual meeting be held to share the housing survey results and discuss openly with the Parishioners their views for village projects and if they wish the village to grow.