News from Broadhembury Parish Council

Dear Subscriber,

Broadhembury Memorial Car Park

If you are a keen follower of this newsletter you will know that Broadhembury Parish Council has been given land by the Gundry/Allen family to enlarge the Memorial Hall car park.

The Planning Application to convert this land into an enlarged car park has now been submitted, and is available to view online here. Click on Documents, then View Associated Documents to see the surveys and reports which we have submitted.

The application requests approval to enlarge the car park from 17 bays to 50. Substantial screening and landscaping is proposed and there will be a separate entrance (the current gap in the Devon bank), and a new exit (North of the Hall on the Manleys side of the car park). The plan below shows the extent of the landscaping.

We are very conscious that this development is adjacent to Broadhembury Conservation area and the AONB. It is also on the approach to a unique village. The ‘Heritage Statement’ available here acknowledges this and we believe that the approach to the village will be improved by the work. We have consulted with neighbours and where possible have incorporated their ideas into the scheme.

We believe that Broadhembury memorial hall is one of the best community facilities in the area, and improved car parking will enable it to serve the whole Parish without blocking roads and causing disturbance. The car park will only be used by the Hall and St Andrew’s Church, with occasional use for community activities e.g. Broadhembury Village Fair.

Flooding

Most people now accept that our climate is changing (except perhaps the US President!). This means that there will be more extremes of wet and dry, hot and cold. In our Parish this usually means wet!

For the last three years the PC has really focused on how we can make the Parish more resilient to wet weather. Some parts of the Parish owe their names to the fact that water was their reason for existence (Dulford and Kerswell) so this is a challenge.

We have completed some projects ourselves and raised EDDC/DCC funding to employ a contractor (Wilderness Lane and fields to the South of A373), some we have lobbied EDDC to do the work (road from Colliton Cross to Broadhembury), and some we are still trying to persuade funders to tackle (Kerswell ). Some we have only just started to investigate (Dulford).

Our latest project was at Danes Mill (right on the border of our Parish and Plymtree). The Parish boundary is marked by a river and the work started at first light last Saturday to limit disruption to road users.

We have had a lot of co-operation from landowners and we intend to hold a get-together with relevant landowners to see what more we can do. Please watch out for an invitation!

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Thank you for your time.