DRAFT MINUTES

Tuesday 8th September 2020 7.30pm via Zoom

Present: Parish Councillor(s): A Howard AH(Chair), K Branfield KB, A Collins AC, J Down JD, T Lloyd TL, P. Soltau PS, W Lock WL, County Councillor F Nicholson FN, District Councillor S Pugsley SP, Clerk C Hornsby

Members of the public: 4

34/20 Questions from the public. Previously emailed to the clerk for an official record to be kept. NONE

38/20 Matters arising from the Minutes of 14/07/2020: 22/20 – Kitridge Mast – it was asked (at the end of the meeting) if the mast will be able to be used for the village hall to put an Airband connection on or if it will be set up for emergency services as originally planned. SP responded saying that he is in contact with the ENPA planning officer who is trying to find out more. It is a Home Office scheme and it is waiting for other masts to be erected before it can be implemented. There is one waiting approval in Winsford. BT Phone Boxes – Awaiting response from BT but all parishes have stated they need to keep them due to lack of mobile signal. 24/20 – Highways – grid near Slade Lane – Devon and Somerset are having discussions over who would be responsible – FN to chase. 25/20 Finance – Website compatibility – completed. 27/20 Parish Gardens – KB stated that the present Tenants should not be reminded to pay their yearly rents, it is in their contract and so it is up to them to pay it. – Clerk will contact the present tenants and tell them that they will no longer receive a yearly reminder. If the rent is not paid by a certain date, they will forfeit the tenancy. 30/20 Correspondence – Clerk stated she had received a thank you letter for the donation towards the Exmoor prescription service vehicle. AH said that masks are being sold in the shop with proceeds going to the Exmoor Prescription Service Vehicle.

39/20 COVID 19 for the parish update (i) JD reported that due to increased vehicles parking on Sherdon and Landacre she will be placing a barrier on the Sherdon Track, which was discussed 4-5 years ago with the Park but was never put in place. This will not restrict people walking to Sherdon. The purpose is to prevent the vast amount people driving down unnecessarily and causing damage. The Cllrs were asked if they had experienced similar issues. WL stated that there was more traffic going through Hawkridge and that Apple Sat Nav sent people to Tarr Steps this way. A member of the public raised an issue with Cllr JD but the chairman stated it was not relevant to the issue being discussed and was advised to take this up with Cllr Down personally, outside of the parish council meeting.

40/20 Report by the County & District Councillors (i) FN reported that most of SCC were still working from home. (ii) Unitary Authority FN stated that it will be up to the Government to decide but however it turns out, it must work for all the communities in Somerset. SP reported that the District Council has a proposal for two Authorities, one to the east and one to the west of the M5, but again stated that the Government will decide. If nothing has been decided the CC election will go ahead in 2021. (iii) FN reported that the Glover Review will make lots of changes to ENPA and it may be that people living inside National Parks will have fewer rights than the rest of the county. SP reported that the Government spending review will either increase or decrease by 2% and if it is a decrease this will affect the Park very severely causing some job losses. (iv) Exmoor Panel: SP stated that this was a physical meeting and all adhered to the Gov CV19 guidelines. It was very helpful to show the Grit Bins issue across the area.

41/20 Highways (i) AH used the share screen option of Zoom to show some photos of the following: 1. Trees at the bridge that had been washed downstream 2. Drainage issues that had not been done 3. Old Rectory blocked drains – a request to dig a ditch to help ease the issue of the water that generally floods there. PS remarked that they clear their drains on the same road 3-4 times a year. They lift the drain covers and dig out the silt. TL stated that the problem is a Olivers Cottage and Raymonds Cottage. FN asked for the details to be registered on the SCC road fault website and also for the Clerk to email her about it. 4. White lines to go in the car park to show visitors how to park as many go either side which limits the number of cars that can park in there. (ii) Winter Maintenance - Grit Bin Survey – AH shared a screen showing the sites for all the bins. Clerk to liaise with AC about the missing ones and claim on the insurance. WL to check the ones for Hawkridge and get back to the clerk. Clerk to inform Highways which bins need filling.

42/20 Finance report (i) Bank Reconciliation 9720.76 ; (ii) Invoices: Zoom invoices for 4 months £57.56 CHQ 513 SW&TDC election cost for 2019 £100 CHQ 514, Spanglefish website yearly subscription £29.95 (already paid by RFO) CHQ 515 , Clerk pay and exp for Jul, Aug, Sep to be paid 5th Oct £334.78 CHQ 516 (iii) upgrade website – Clerk spoke about an upgrade for the PC website to make it more professional and easier to upgrade if and when new Government website enforcements come in to place and it was put to the vote as to whether this was a good idea. 3 cllrs voted for the upgrade, 1 voted against, two abstained. The Chair stated the upgrade would happen and asked the clerk to do this.

46/20 People and Parking in the village – issue raised at public question point in July meeting. Mr Milward and Mrs Lochrane asked the Cllrs how they felt about a field being turned in to a public parking area. They stated that they understand fully that it would have to go to ENPA planning however they wanted to see how the Council felt about this and would it have their support. The Council fully supported this idea.

50/20 Report from representatives of other groups: Withypool Village Hall – They will be using some of the money from the CV19 grant to have another shed so that it can store the Village Fete items. Internet was discussed and KB will take the info back to the Village hall Committee.

Exmoor Panel – As reported in point 40/20 (iv) and AC remarked how nice it was to actually meet everyone in person and even though masks were worn it did not affect the enjoyment of the event. He stated that the Police had not been too busy during CV19 however some money from honesty boxes, outside homes selling eggs, had been stolen. A quad bike had also been stolen; however, the quad bike did not have much fuel in and so was found very quickly!

The chairman then asked all members of the public and the clerk to leave the Zoom meeting as he needed to discuss the Clerk’s pay with the Cllrs. It was agreed to increase the pay for the clerk, using the NALC pay scale, from SCP 8 to of SCP 12 to take in to account working from home and for this to be back dated to the 1^st April 2020. The clerk was then asked to re-join the meeting and accepted the new hourly rate. A cheque for £79.88 No: 517 for Mrs C Hornsby will be paid on the 5^th October.

Signed by the Chair …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Date………………………..