News from Broadhembury Parish Council

Dear Subscriber,

Electric Vehicle Charge Points in Memorial Hall Car Park

The electric vehicle charge point in the Memorial Hall Car Park is now operational. It is operated by Podpoint - a national supplier of both public and domestic charging stations for electric vehicles. There are approximately 18,000 charging points in the UK, and about 170,000 electric vehicles. Compared to 30m fuel-powered cars the number is relatively low, but it is increasing quickly.

Broadhembury Parish Council is one of the first PCs to install a publicly available charge point which has been funded by grants. This means that there has been no charge to parish council tax payers. We hope that it will encourage the uptake of electric or hybrid vehicles over the next few years.

To charge an electric vehicle download the Podpoint app, and follow the instructions.

Here's our first live test of charging an electric car at the hall recently:





Council Tax Bills for 2019/20

Council Tax bills are now arriving for the new financial year from East Devon District Council. There has been a big increase for Devon and Cornwall Police, and slightly smaller increases for Devon County Council and EDDC. Your Parish Council decided on a nil increase this year, which given the other increases has resulted in a reduced percentage. This means that our operational income for the year will be £8142.15.

Most of our big expenditure now comes from grants for specific projects. Last year this amounted to £18000, so we saw no need to increase the burden on the Parish. Of course applying for, tracking, and then reporting on grant spend is far more time-consuming than simply spending the Precept (that’s what our proportion of the Council Tax is called) but we believe that if we are selective about how we spend our money it is better value for everyone.

Broadband - Fibre to the Property

Some parts of the Parish are now better served by Broadband than they were two years ago. This is partly due to the PC’s relentless pressure, but also due to the arrival of competition. This is mainly in the form of Gigaclear ; a provider who offers fibre directly to your property rather than as far as the cabinet, as in the case of BT. In the Blackdown Hills where Gigaclear have a commercial roll-out speeds of up to 1000Mbps can be supplied which is way in excess of BT’s 20-25 Mbps.

In a recent meeting, Gigaclear confirmed that they plan to cover Kerswell, Crammer, and Luton by the end of 2020. We will press them to widen coverage but this will depend on the goodwill of landowners and continued government and EC support for their project. Their publicly funded project is behind schedule and CDS (Connecting Devon and Somerset; the public funding body) are in discussion with Gigaclear about this. You can learn more at the next PC meeting.

What Can You Do?

Go to the Gigaclear website and enter your postcode and indicate an interest in their service. You don’t have to commit to becoming a customer, just indicate your interest. That will give Gigaclear some confidence that there might be customers if they connect your community. Other parishes where Gigaclear have developed a service have told us how important this is. Please take 5 minutes to do it.



The Blackdown Hills AONB

An AONB is an ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’ and there are 46 AONBs in the UK (excluding Scotland), and 15 National Parks. Both have the same responsibility to conserve and enhance the natural beauty of the area. ‘Natural beauty’ means landscape, tranquillity, natural and cultural heritage and scenic quality.

Our own AONB covers the Blackdown Hills. Some 40% of the Parish falls within its area. The line runs along the boundary of the Memorial Hall car park then meanders off into open countryside. Part is in Devon (the villages of Dunkeswell, Hemyock, Upottery, Membury etc) and part is in Somerset (the villages of Churchinford, Churchstanton, Corfe etc). This AONB has existed for 28 years. It is administered by two full-time officers and two part-time staff. It has an annual budget of approximately £230,000, and like the Parish Council applies for grants to carry out major projects. It has a ‘management plan’ and is funded mainly by government. The whole activity is ‘steered’ by a partnership of different interests. Broadhembury Parish Council is represented on the Partnership Management Group through the Blackdown Hills Parish Network.

The Blackdown Hills AONB has carried out some remarkable projects on a small amount of funding and it plans even more exciting projects in the future. Water quality, flood alleviation, the preservation of heritage sites, dealing with ash-dieback, programmes for volunteers and activities for mental health all feature in its plans. There are walks in the AONB, volunteer schemes to get involved in and really big projects to support (like the repair of the Wellington Monument)

The Blackdown Hills AONB is a remarkably unspoilt part of the UK. It features cultural sites as diverse as Dunkeswell Abbey dating from 1201, wartime airfields from the 1940’s and the Neolithic Hembury Fort perhaps 2500 years old. It has unique biodiversity with nationally protected habitats and rare bees, butterflies and bats. It has a large number of Listed buildings including the Wellington monument commemorating the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. But it also has woodlands, fields and enclosures set out in Medieval times and picturesque farms set in beautiful countryside. It’s well worth a visit and it starts in our own parish!

Parish Council Elections



Parish Councils are elected every four years and elections come up again this May. Come along to our PC meeting tonight and ask the Clerk how to get involved if you are interested. You need to have the time, be comfortable with email and reading vast documents. You will need to be very persistent. Most of all you need to have a real interest in your local community. This is not the role for a person with a single interest or campaign because the issues are very varied.

Attending meetings is the easy bit. It’s the work between meetings that makes a difference. Sometimes it might be the physical: hedge planting, sometimes the mental: interpreting the latest EDDC policy proposal and sometimes administrative: applying for grants and dealing with public bodies.

To any Parish Councillor who intends to ‘retire’ this spring we hope they know that they leave with thanks for all their commitment and support.