CLYST ST MARY SPORTS & RECREATION CLUB

MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON THE 12th April 2017 (DRAFT)

AT CLYST ST MARY VILLAGE SCHOOL

Members Present:Peter Cain

Rob Hatton

Carole Trim

Shaun Perry

Mike Fernbank

Chris Booker

David Herbert

Apologies were received fromAmanda Hart, Bob Adams, James Bogue, Roger Lloyd and Ruth Chandler.

Non-Attendees:John Anderson.

Guests: Michael Howe

Minutes of the meeting held on the 29th November 2016

It was agreed that the minutes of the meeting held on the 29th November 2016 were a true record and signed accordingly.

Greater Exeter Strategic Plan

Peter thanked Michael Howe for attending our meeting and asked him if he would give an explanation to the Committee of his understanding of the Greater Exeter Strategic Plan, initial discussions for which have recently commenced. Carole was able to add further information following her meeting with Exeter City Council within the last week or so.

Michael explained that fundamentally this is a government directive designed to assist city councils with their restricted land supply for housing. In that regard adjoining district and parish councils had been requested to cooperate with city councils in trying to identify and agree a strategic plan and this has recently commenced with Exeter City. All the adjoining district councils such as East Devon, Teignbridge and Mid Devon are involved and so are the local parish councils. The problem with Exeter is that they only have a 2 year land supply for additional housing though they have agreed that they intend to maintain all existing green spaces within the Exeter City boundary. Exeter City needs a land supply for 5 – 10 years and therefore there is clearly a major problem in how Exeter can expand and cope with the increasing population. East Devon District Council has a local plan which should be perfectly acceptable for at least 5 years but within the next 10 years it will need to be amended, though any changes will be subject to rigorous scrutiny. Exeter City Council is looking to develop Brown Field sites and also to consider relaxing the rules with regards to high rise residential development but even those actions are unlikely to answer all of their requirements. There is major concern about the adequacy of highways both in the City and approaching Exeter combined with the resultant increase in air pollution and therefore the current preferred option in solving the problem is to create new towns around Crediton and Cullompton and it should be noted that EDDC have already provided assistance with the creation of Cranbrook.

Peter thanked Michael and Carole for their information and asked the Committee if there were any questions for either of them. In response the following questions were asked and answered.

  1. Is it thought likely that Exeter City Council will extend its boundaries to include Clyst St Mary? – It is felt this is a possible ambition of Exeter City Council but thought to be unlikely in the near future.
  1. Is it thought likely that Aviva are delaying actions with their planning application in order to “buy time” to increase the chances of obtaining permission for more housing in the future? – This may be the case but the reasons for the apparent delays are just unknown.
  1. What is the latest position with regards to the Aviva Planning Application with EDDC? – Over the past 3 months or so EDDC have requested further information and clarification on certain points from Aviva some of which have been responded to and it is likely that without further information a decision will be made by EDDC in June.

Report on Responses from Aviva and Plymouth Brethren Together with the impact on the use of the field

Peter reminded the Committee that he had written to Helen Rainsford of Aviva on a number of occasions since Christmas requesting a meeting and Shaun Perry and Rob Hatton have been kept on copy. Helen had previously responded that she did not see any necessity to meet until after her meeting with Plymouth Brethren and on the 24th March 2017 an email was received from Helen explaining the latest position. Peter read this email out to the Committee and is requoted below.

“I have now met with the Plymouth Brethren and have advised them that we will not be in a position to consider their request for access to their land until the planning application has been determined. I am sorry to say that remains the position regarding discussions around the long term use and future of the sports pitches. It would be premature to meet ahead of gaining clarity on the planning application and I have no plans to be in Exeter for the next couple of months, and a meeting in London would be of no benefit until the planning application has been determined. I do however note the preferred timing for a decision on use of the Football pitches from September and please be assured that I will pick this up with you before July”

Following receipt of this email Peter contacted Plymouth Brethren to obtain their current position and advised the Committee of the following – The Brethren confirmed they had met with Helen at the end of February where Helen advised them that Aviva would be happy to consider helping them with access to their land once Aviva were sorted in their own minds as to what they were doing with the land but they were unsure when this would be. As a result the Brethren have had their own separate meeting and have decided that they cannot afford to wait any longer and are now making plans to market the Plymouth Brethren field for sale.

A short discussion ensued with the Committee on the results of these communications and Mike Fernbank and David Herbert added their thoughts on the implications to both the Cricket and Heavitree Youth Football Clubs.

Mike was able to advise the Committee that while the Cricket Club was gaining access to the ground they had received a Hire Agreement from Colliers the Security Company employed by Aviva. This draft Hire Agreement was still unsigned because while there was an indication that there would be a security fee charged the Cricket Club was unable to obtain confirmation of how much that would be. Mike went on to say that as a result of the issues at Winslade Park the Cricket Club no longer ran a team within the Wednesday League and their Colts had merged with Alphington Cricket Club. Consequently the Cricket Club was no longer utilising Winslade Park to the extent that they had been up to two years ago.

David confirmed that Heavitree Youth Football are not utilising the Winslade Park facilities this season though would be interested in doing so in the future. However, once again this will come down to the cost of security that Aviva may wish to impose but the fact that decisions about hiring those facilities would be known by July was welcome

A fairly lengthy discussion took place by the Committee regarding these communications, their impact on our Plans for the Sports & Recreational area and number of conclusions reached which are listed below in bullet point fashion though not necessarily in an order or priority.

  • The information that decisions would be made about the Football pitches by July was welcomed and we should ensure we receive a decision in that month.
  • Any possibility of purchasing the Plymouth Brethren land was a decision for the Parish Council which Rob will raise with them.
  • The Cricket Club is to advise us as soon as they know the price of security costs to allow the Parish Council and ourselves to consider whether or not any help can be given.
  • We should do everything we can to ensure that the playing of various sports continues on the existing recreational field.
  • If sporting activities cease to take place on the recreational field we should write to Aviva advising that this is not due to a lack of demand but due to security costs and Aviva’s inflexibility.

Public Meeting Communications

Peter raised a point of concern regarding the communication of public meetings in relation to planning applications at Friends Life in that while the recent meeting was called by the Parish Council all communications about it seem to come from the “Save Clyst St Mary Action Group”. His concern was that any communications of this nature should come from an impartial source i.e. the Parish Council and a number of parishioners have mentioned to him that they have not attended previous Public Meetings because they had felt they were being run by the Action Group whose views they disagreed with. His view therefore was that the Parish Council should ensure that any notifications calling for a Public Meeting should be clearly seen to be coming from the Parish Council and no one else in order to ensure a broader representation of parishioners attended the meetings. Rob felt that while this was something he would raise with the Parish Council the Parish Council themselves could not stop any group communication with Parishioners and suggested that if we wish to do our own communications in addition, these could be done via the Village Facebook Page or perhaps by a hand delivered mail shot.

While the Committee did not reach any conclusions on this matter it was agreed that we continue to raise the issue of the village requirements for the Sports & Recreational Field in order to continue to generate support from the whole community.

Future Actions

After a short discussion it was agreed that there was very little we could do until EDDC had made a decision on the most recent planning application which would then provoke a response from Aviva.

With regards to the EDDC planning application decision the Committee agreed that we would prefer that any decision was made sooner rather than later and Michael Howe took note of our view.

There being no other matters to discuss the meeting closed at9.00pm.

1