UPTON PYNE AND COWLEY PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on the 20th April 2015 in the
Upton Pyne Village Hall.
Present In Attendance
Mrs.J Ward – Clerk.
Cllr R. Short Police: Jack Stannard
Cllr A Jackson Linda Findlay Friends of Upton Pyne
Cllr I Short Nick Baker Tree Warden
Cllr K Tilley
Cllr S Grundy
Cllr C Smith: arrived later.
Public attendance – approximately 13 members of the public.
Welcome from the Chair Cllr Bob Short,who introduced the evening and explained the procedure and introduced the various speakers. He said that various reports were available for people to look at and that there would be a chance to speak with councillors later in the evening.
Police Report: PCSO Jack Stannard introduced himself and said that there are fewer police covering a larger area. They are based at Ottery St Mary as far as Cranbrooke.
Questions from the public:
- The police would send the closest officer from either Exeter or Crediton.
- PCSO Stannard left his details for everyone to view/collect.
- PCSO Stannard left at 7.20pm.
Report from Linda Findlay: Friends of Upton Pyne:
A grant has been received from DCC for the roof repairs. This decision was swayed by the fact that this is such an active and supportive community.
An amount of £20,000 has been raised in the two years since this group started.
Linda said the priorities were as follows:
- Repair the external walls. Cost: £6,ooo
- Improve access.
- Repair the internal walls.
- Fund-raising would begin in earnest in the autumn.
Linda said the Supper Club meetings were very popular. There will be other events this summer.
The coffee mornings and the bring and buys raise around £1,400 each year.
Once the roof repairs begin the Church will be closed for as short a time as possible.
It was suggested that the Revels should be resurrected.
Chair’s Report: The minutes from the APM 2014 were approved and signed by the Chair.
Affordable Housing update: the frames are now up to first floor levels; the drains are completed; anticipated finish may be September 2015; a strong local connection is the condition and then to Brampford Speke and other areas. The Chair said that the rent had not been agreed with Hastoes to date.
Footpaths: (Clive Smith, Footpath Warden, is attending a meeting of the cycle path at NSC): the Council received £704 from the Parishes Together Fund for the upkeep of the footpaths and that work was underway with the footpaths. Pynes Bridge and other improvements are also in progress.
Parish Precept: the Chair reported that this was increased by 2.5% this year; it was aimed to keep this as low as possible, however, with more local communities required to ‘self-help’ due to Government cutbacks, the increase was necessary due in part to the work required at Jackmoor.
Jackmoor: volunteers are needed and work began a week ago, amongst the tasks being the clearing of the stream. Some funding will come from the businesses at Jackmoor.
Litter: the Parish Council to discuss this at the next meeting in May. Volunteers will be required and people appeared keen to do this.
Revels: it was stated that it was 8 years since it was last held in the Village.
Elections: Upton Pyne and Cowley have 9 councillors all uncontested in the forthcoming election. There may be 2 or 3 vacancies after the election. The Chair said that if anyone is interested they should apply to the Clerk.
Thanks: the Chair concluded by thanking the Councillors and the Clerk for their work during the past year and flowers were presented to the Clerk.
The Chair invited everyone to join him and the Councillors for refreshments.
Refreshments: kindly provided by Councillors Isobel and Bob Short.
Main Speaker: John Daw – dairy farmer from Morchard Bishop.
This was a very informative and interesting talk on the introduction and background to dairy farming including information on milk prices and supermarkets.
Questions followed the talk.
The Chair thanked John for agreeing to come to the meeting and for a very interesting and informative talk.
The meeting closed at 9pm.
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