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Clerk’s Report April 2023

Parish Clerk Report for 17th April 2023

Completed Actions

Copies of all letters and emails will be available to view at the meeting.

  • I received a call from Sue Ebberley at the Dartmoor Trust to say that they were organising an exhibition of photos at the Methodist Chapel, probably in May. They are also organising a folk singer to perform probably in the Village Hall.
  • I received a call from Lizzy Bean from the Harvest Workers’ Co-Operative, making contact on any training and outreach opportunities that they could partake in. I informed her of the Village Hall events.
  • Because of the elections, the Parish Council posts on the Dartmoor National Park Authority will be up for re-election, and will need to be nominated very quickly after the elections. As nobody was interested at the last opportunity, I have not forwarded all the paperwork for this.
  • I have added the Annual Parish Meeting to the events in the Oke Links magazine.
  • I have confirmed to Devon Communities that we have a village hall.
  • We have had an update to the Electoral Roll, two people have been removed, and three people have been added, making a total of 208 electors.
  • Due to the elections, DALC will be removing all councillors from their email and website subscriptions on 4th May. You will need to re-subscribe after 9th May. There is a lot of interesting information that comes through, and the Council agreed that all councillors should subscribe separately so that the Clerk did not have to forward emails.
  • I have completed a feedback form from Devon County Council regarding the locality budget grant of £250 that we received last year for the engraving for the platinum jubilee.

Housing Survey

Cllr Daniel sent an email regarding a Housing Needs Survey which is being planned for July in the area. This would take the form of a questionnaire distributed to all households. It is important that we encourage people to fill this in to reveal the need for affordable housing in the village.

Training

  • I have attended free training from HMRC on tasks that must be done on payroll records for the end of the tax year, and completed those tasks at the same time!

Elections

I have published the statutory notices about the election on the website and the noticeboards, distributed the nomination papers and answered any queries from councillors. As you will have seen, it is an uncontested election, so from 9th May we have all seven elected members, including the new councillor Andrew Booth. Sue Norrish did not stand again.

Agenda Items

2023/24-011 Coronation

I emailed four companies regarding the engraving of the coronation stone, one replied that they did not do this, another that they had too much work on at the moment. F J Stevens & Son (Crediton) quoted £540 + VAT and Williams and Triggs said they would look at the stone and get back to us, but I have not yet had a price from them.

2023/24-015 Belstone Cricket Club

Just as a reminder, Chris Walpole and Peter Hammond stated at the Council’s October 2022 meeting that they “would consider repositioning or lowering the hedge to improve visibility”.

2023/24-017 Annual Parish Meeting Agenda

I have had positive replies from:

  • Josh Scillitoe (he requested that he could have an early slot, hence why he is after the chairman).
  • Lynn Daniel (providing that she has been re-elected, she will write a report anyway).
  • Chris Townshend
  • James McInnes
  • Theresa Weaver

I am awaiting a reply from Rob Taylor (DNPA) but I sent his invitation later.