In attendance:
Cllr Wheeler (Town Mayor)
Cllr Biggs
Cllr Taylor
Cllr Fice
Cllr Mrs Bricknell
Cllr Cohen
Cllr Miss Clark
Cllr Whitfield
Cllr Lang
Police: Sgt. D. Green and WPc J. Pengilly
District Councillors Coulson
Members of the public: Mark Long, Les King and Ian Hatch
Toby – Kingsbridge Gazette
APOLOGIES
County Councillor Gilbert
District Cllr Coulson
Cllr Mrs King
Cllr Collings
1. MINUTES
The Minutes of the Annual Town meeting prepared and presented by the Mayor and held on 23rd April 2013 were approved and duly signed by the Mayor as a correct record.
2. MAYOR’S REPORT
The Mayor commenced by thanking Pete Robinson for all his input with regard to digitising the cemetery records and regularising all the records. The landscaping of Jubilee Gardens at Ember Road was nearly complete and Town Council were just awaiting the play equipment installation. The running of the Park and Ride was extremely challenging the previous year and currently Town Council solicitors were preparing Traffic Orders and service providers were being approached with regard to enforcement. The Council Hall renovation had been long overdue but the building was now waterproof and rendered. The Berry, Redfern and Bonaventure Woods had all received tree management works plus there had been further significant emergency works carried out at Redfern Woods after the storms. A local review of trees had taken place at Shadycombe cemetery with residents ideas being included together with other works requested by Town Council and District permission was awaited. Town Council continued to have significant planning application involvement especially in view of the major changes brought about by the National Planning Policy Framework. The Mayor thanked all those who had put so much input into this town work.
3. VERBAL REPORTS
The Mayor asked if there were any community organisations wishing to speak and noted that due to the absence of the District and County Councillors there were no reports for them.
It was noted that Cty Cllr Gilbert had offered his apologies due to an unexpected extra ordinary meeting being called at County Hall and the fact that due to political reasons he was unable to leave such meeting until a vote had been cast.
Police Report by Sgt David Green
Total crime for Salcombe town for year 14/05/13 -13/05/14 74
(Same period 2012-2013 69)
Therefore annual increase of 5 crimes (7%)
Crimes per 1000 population: Salcombe: 22
Kingsbridge: 48
Totnes: 102
Torquay centre: 318
The 74 Salcombe crimes recorded for the previous 12 months include the following:
Burglary: 3 x dwellings, 1x garage, 1x commercial unit.
2 of these burglaries were through unlocked doors
Assault: 3 with injury, 3 without injury, 2 police officers assaulted.
All assaults have been detected and dealt with either by arrest and charge, caution, or a restorative approach
Shoplifting: 11 through the 12 months. 7 of these have been detected.
Marine Crime: total of 12 thefts of or damage to marine equipment, fuel, boats. Mixture of locations, some on land, also includes figures from East Portlemouth side.
Criminal Damage: total of 10 with a variety of locations, some cars, some buildings.
Miscellaneous crimes: including fraud, cruelty to animals, threatening behaviour, malicious phone calls, drink driving, drug possession, and other thefts
Other policing activity included responding to emergencies. Sgt Green also noted the recent Marine awareness day held at Whitestrand on the 22nd April 14. Whilst it had been quiet in terms of numbers they would definitely repeat this. The theme of this awareness day was not just about crime prevention but also about safety on the water with the motivation coming from what happened at Padstow the previous year which could so easily happen in Salcombe.
There had been input into local schools with road safety and crime prevention awareness for children.
The national police monthly theme this month was road safety with ‘Driver Distraction’ i.e. mobile phones, unrestrained dogs, misbehaving passengers etc. Marine crime was seasonal and many of these crimes were not on the water with engines and fuel being stolen. Assaults and public order tended to go up with the increase in people in the area and the fact that they were out for longer hours.
Cllr Miss Clark felt that the Marine awareness day would be better held at another time during the year. Sgt Green agreed and noted that they chose the Tuesday after Easter Monday as they thought that people would still be around and also because they took up valuable space in Whitestrand car park. If they repeated this they would have to look to pay South Hams to take over the car park probably on a Saturday. The return of the hair braiders on Whitestrand was noted with the advice from District that they did not expect their enforcement officers to get into confrontations. Sgt Green advised that the police would assist if there was any breach of the peace and they were always happy to assist South Hams to enforce their legislation. Cllr Cohen asked about cars parked in parking spaces on property frontages but overhanging the pavement. If a vehicle was obstructing the pavement then police could look at this. It was advised that PCSO Gibson had been of great assistance on this matter and Sgt Green felt that he should be contacted to continue and follow up. Cllr Taylor noted dog fouling in Salcombe was getting much worse this year.
Les King, as a member of the public, noted that people who dumped their vehicles and boat trailers on the Beadon estate were consistently parking right on the junction. Sgt Green responded that police needed to balance their action in a town like Salcombe and many other rural villages where parking was at a premium. They had to be sensible on how to enforce the law, balanced between law upheld and safety but without completely closing down all on street parking in the community. However if a particular vehicle caused a problem they could look at the legislation.
4. OPEN FORUM
Mark Long noted that there had been a question with regard to the Council Hall renovation raised at a Salcombe Information Centre meeting the last week. There were comments that there was a leak coming through the back window. The Mayor noted that this matter had been reported a month or so ago and the contractors had been back to consider. Mark Long went on to ask whether weed spraying of pavements was going to be done again and he was advised it would be.
He then went on to ask what progress had been made on the Neighbourhood Plan. The Mayor and Cllr Cohen attended a meeting at Follaton House that week and were advised as to the progressing of the District Local Plan which Town Council need to work with to interface into. Town Council had stalled their plan intentionally to look at the saved policies with District and get a lead on what policies to consider. Town Council had during the year had a business breakfast meeting to which all businesses were invited. District had said that it would take two years to get their Local Plan in place. Cllr Taylor noted that District had created a Facebook page of Our Plan. Also further funding had been put aside for Planning Aid to assist town council in the early stages. Lynton & Lynmouth it was noted had an adopted Neighbourhood Plan which included a policy with regard to development of second homes. However the reason for this was because they were in a National Park so were under a different planning authority.
Cllor Cohen felt that politically Salcombe had to encourage local people to believe that their participation in the consultation was actually worthwhile because from meetings attended elsewhere there was clearly a feeling that Localism was not working. Mark Long felt that there was a further potential stumbling block with the elections next year and perhaps a change in Government.
Mark Long also enquired what the Town Council relationship with Vickery Holman was and what their contractual obligation entailed. The Mayor advised that they had been selected as the Town Council surveyor and had carried out obtaining the tenders and managing the works at the Council Hall. Therefore as they were the chosen expert advisors currently retained they had been asked to further this work in the Council Hall and look at the internal uses and also do a desktop layout of the Park and Ride for the Parking Orders. All of this was minuted and professionally done.
Meeting closed : 19.26p.m.
Signed: …………………………………………….
Town Mayor of Salcombe Town Council
Dated: