Thursday 5th May 2023

The above meeting was held in the Parish Hall at 7.00pm.

Chair Cllr Whittle, Vice Chair Cllr Allin, Cllr Cleave, Cllr Pollard, Cllr Wingard, Cllr Stokes, Cllr Minter, Cllr Elliott, Cllr Tape, Cllr Hargreaves.

Apologies – Cllr Wingard (Orchard Trust), Mandy Pollard (Launcells Parish News), Pc McDermott (Bude Police), Mrs Cole (Launcells Methodist Chapel) Sue Littlejohn (History Club) Teresa Folland (Vicar of St Swithin’s).

Also in attendance: The Clerk, Mrs J Gray.

7 members of the public were present.

The previous year’s minutes held on Monday 9th May 2022 have been noted. It was resolved to approve the minutes. Proposed Cllr Allin. Seconded Cllr Cleave. The Chair, Cllr Whittle, signed them as a correct record.

There were no matters arising.

Cllr Whittle reported back as to what has been achieved for the last four years.

Four years ago, Bude Town Council attempted to take over the Parish.

With a lot of effort from the Councillors the Red Post sign was replaced and CCTV placed to watch the sign.

There are now two defibrillators in the Parish – one at the Hall and one at Red Post – both fully stocked and looked after.

Thanks to sterling efforts from Cllr Minter and others the Parish has speed alert cameras at either end of Grimscott plus the new speed restrictions are almost complete. They have gone through due process and in the coming months the 40mph speed limit will be put in place.

Safety measures are still ongoing at Launcells Cross. Thanks to Cllr Allin’s efforts he has got people together to assist. Meetings have been held with Highways and Councillor Chopak and solutions to the visibility problems have been put forward.

The bus shelter at Herston’s Cross has been refurbished with thanks to S Jenkins and Matt and his team.

The History Club room has been finished and is used from time to time.

The planning issue at Red Post, where someone was living illegally, has been finally sorted after seven years of effort.

There is a new solar light on the bus stop opposite Red Post.

The Parish Council’s finances have almost recovered after the elections a few years ago.

My first task is to say thank you to the Parish Councillors who do a sterling job, on a voluntary basis, in sometimes very difficult and stressful circumstances.

My second job is to say thank you to the community of Poundstock. There have been some difficult issues to deal with over the past year and as a parish you have been an excellent team.

Planning applications take up a huge amount time along with highways and housing, along with standing on road junctions to see how highway improvements can be made only this week. However, since Covid, my journeys to Truro have diminished with the introduction of Teams, which not only helps my carbon footprint, but means I can attend more than one meeting at a time and ensure I can resolve issues residents have in a much quicker efficient way.

Cornwall Council has seen some changes over the past year, with 500 voluntary redundancies at the beginning of 2022 (800 staff applied). This saw the loss of some very knowledgeable staff, including planning and localism staff. Combined with the larger divisions we all now have (approx. 5000 residents), it has meant the contacts I have built up over 10 years are no longer there, so it does make the job more frustrating.

We saw your Council Tax rise by 4.99%, 2% of which goes on Adult Social Care, which still had to find £64m of savings this year. Debates have been had about the installation of a Mayor, which thankfully were dropped, and consultations have taken place about Dogs on Beaches, extending the 28 days rule to 60 days for temporary camp sites and legislation has been mooted about higher council tax on second homes.

In the meantime we have seen some ‘Levelling up‘ money coming to Cornwall. However, the money we have been allocated (just £206,000) will be distributed through the new Community Area Partnerships as the Bude Area Network Panel is no more. This area has now teamed up with Camelford, making a total of 24 parishes and our first meeting is at St Gennys on 5th June (tbc) and we, as Cornwall Councillors, are keen to hit the ground running. This funding is not going to be there for very long and I would encourage the Parish Council to attend a workshop being held on 10th May between 6-8pm at The Parkhouse to ensure any potential applications are successful.

The long-awaited waste and recycling system is now on its way, and you may have seen, from 1st May, you are being asked to ensure your rubbish/recycling is out by 7.00am as the rounds may be changing. You will also be provided with a food waste container, but again there is no specific date for this. We are also in the midst of a hose pipe ban, just to remind you!

We are also looking forward to the rolling out of the 20mph scheme across the county, which may reduce the speed in our country lanes, so look out for this in the next 18mnths.

Housing has become a major issue for this area, with many tenants being evicted as landlords are realising they can make more money out of Air BnB than providing local housing for local people. Should you decide to undertake a Neighbourhood Plan this will ensure it will be more difficult to build new houses for holiday lets and with the legislation I mentioned earlier, this may discourage landlords. But as we also know in this area, developers think they can ride roughshod over the planning system, from drainage to access, to overdevelopment, which is sometime difficult to accept.

There were reports from many local groups that will be placed on display on the Parish Council website, and available via email should anyone wish. Please contact the Clerk for more information.

 

The meeting ended at 7.25pm and was followed by the Annual General Parish Council Meeting.