News from Broadhembury Parish Council

Dear Subscriber,

Neighbourhood Plan

In our last newsletter we told you that we were due to meet with East Devon District Council to try to resolve a conflict between our Neighbourhood Plan and the District’s own Local Plan. Since the two plans have to be in ‘general conformity' by law, we need to find a way to resolve this.

The issue in dispute concerns whether or not the Parish might be able to build some affordable housing in the hamlets. The number would be small: some 15 to 20 over the next 10 to 12 years. Some hamlets may not want to do this, but we know that some might. The whole debate is about keeping the opportunity available for those that may wish to do so in the future.

As diplomatic communiques often say, we had a 'full and frank exchange of views'. The meeting was constructive and EDDC has offered to redraft parts of the plan for us. Of course there is a risk that the redrafting will not be to our liking but we can amend it. We have no choice anyway. The drafting required is highly technical and we cannot do it ourselves. We need EDDC’s support too if our plan is to proceed to the next stage without failing independent scrutiny.

Another Parish Council, Membury, has had a similar problem and proceeded to scrutiny without full EDDC support. Their plan was rejected by the Inspector and cannot proceed to referendum. They can redraft it of course, and resubmit, but the process will be complex and lengthy. We will tell you more about our plan as it unfolds.

Memorial Hall Car Park

The owners of Manleys, the property adjacent to the Memorial Hall have helpfully reduced the size and scale of the conifers at the bottom of their garden. These trees were overhanging the car park and we are grateful for their community-spirited action.





We can now complete the landscaping plan and plant hedging and trees along the North bank. Our plan is to do this before the end of November.

During this year we planted 450 hedge whips and 13 trees as part of the landscaping scheme.Thanks to the efforts of everyone who turned out to water them over a very dry Summer, we lost only 10 hedge plants and one tree.

Discussions with the EST (Energy Savings Trust) are proceeding to secure a grant to install electric vehicle charging points in the car park. It is likely that many more of these will need to be installed over the next ten to fifteen years, so this first one will be a good test .

Finally we have agreed with the Trustees of the Hall that we will submit a Planning Application to light the car park. This will be low-level, low intensity footpath lighting when the Hall is in use which will make it easier to find your way from a car to the hall. This will depend on securing grant funding, for which we will also have to apply. So take a torch with you this Winter because this project will not be completed for a while.

Broadband

We have campaigned and lobbied for the last three years to improve Broadband in the Parish. We even completed an application for our own EC funding to do this (requesting over £20m). Perhaps not surprisingly our bid was turned down but it prompted other action.

Public funding (whether from the EC or central government) is managed by a body run jointly by Devon and Somerset County Councils. It is called Connecting Devon and Somerset. CDS has been much criticised for poor tender management, weak contract supervision and slow progress.

At the last round of contract bidding they awarded five of the six contracts for which they invited tenders to a rural fibre provider called Gigaclear. This provider is already rolling out a commercial contract in the Blackdown Hills. If you have waited at temporary traffic lights on the A373 around Awliscombe this Summer, then the road works holding you up were to lay Gigaclear’s fibre cables in the road.

Gigaclear are behind schedule on three of their five contracts and will therefore receive no further public funding until targets are met and CDS agree a revised schedule.

As a member of the Blackdown Hills Parish Network we invited CDS to attend a meeting with Blackdown Hills Parish councillors to tell us what was happening. They suggested that we should invite Gigaclear too, which we did. With breathtaking impoliteness both invitees cancelled attendance, in one case with 30 minutes notice, so we never did get to question them about plans and performance. They have agreed to attend on a future date and this is being agreed.

At the same time it is fair to say that BT’s broadband service for some in the parish has improved. However, BT do not usually offer fibre-to -the-premises which is what Gigaclear provide. The difference is significant. BT can reach download speeds of 20 to 30 Mbps (a technical measure of speed) and upload speeds of 3 to 6 Mbps. This is because the last part of the journey to your house is over copper wire. How fast and how reliable this is depends on how close you are to a fibre-enabled cabinet (those green road-side boxes). Gigaclear, on the other hand, can offer speeds of up to 1000 Mbps both upload and download if you want to pay for it.

We think that good reliable internet access could revolutionise rural economies, help people stay connected, and build stronger communities. We think that fibre to all properties and businesses is the best future-proof solution. Parts of our parish (for example, Kerswell) have a poor mobile signal and slow or non-existent broadband.

We will continue to press for better service both on our own or with others.

Drainage Infrastructure
 
Broadband is as much part of infrastructure these days as drainage. For the last four years we have raised grant funding, carried out work with volunteers and persuaded public authorities to tackle drainage in the parish. We have made an impact but we will have to keep working on it. Climate change means greater extremes of weather, even for us, so storms and heavy rainfall as well as long dry spells will all increase in frequency. If you have a problem with flooding or drainage in a public area and you have been unable to get it fixed yourself then tell us and we will see what we can do. It will often depend on the agreement of your neighbours, or a volunteer working party as much as a public body turning up to dig a hole. A flooded broadband cabinet or a drain blocked by litter can have consequences far greater than the immediately evident. So if you notice this, do something!

Broadhembury Playground

The playground committee, has made great progress to improve the playground in Broadhembury. We hope to secure grand funding and funding from Planning consents to improve the facility. Securing access to some of this funding is proving challenging but we will get there in the end.

Please support their Pre-Loved Clothes Sale at the Memorial Hall this Saturday the 17th November at 4:00pm.



Final Parish Council of 2018 - Tuesday 20th November 7:30pm

Finally, if you can, please attend our last Parish Council meeting of the year. You can ask us anything you like, listen to what we talk about, and learn a lot about the community in which we all live.


The agenda for our next meeting.

We are also extremely grateful to Graham Long, a Parish Councillor from Upottery Parish Council, who has agreed to come along and update us with the latest news regarding Rural Broadband and the Gigaclear/CDS program. Graham is a true friend of the parish who has been working tirelessly on this subject for many years now; championing the desperate needs of rural Devon and Somerset. Graham is often to be found on local TV and radio, and in the local and national press, and has lobbied at parliament with all of us mind, and there is genuinely no-one more knowledgable on this subject.

Seasonal Change

Autumn is here, and Christmas will soon be with us. Thank you all for your time.