TWELVE members of the public attended the February meeting of Crediton Hamlets Parish Council to express their concern about the news that Mid Devon District Council was planning to decommission the Yeoford Play Area.

They stressed the importance of the Play Area for the mental and physical health of all the children in the parish.

The Yeoford Community Association (YCA) said that the equipment in the Play Area was at the end of its useful life and they were prepared to raise funds and to access grants so that the equipment can be replaced but they wanted MDDC to continue to maintain the Play Area.

The parish council gave their unanimous support to the YCA and fully supported the proposal that they had made.

Cllrs Heal and Coren (MDDC) undertook to find out how much the running costs might be and Cllr Way (Devon County Council) said that some monies could be accessed via the Town and Parish (TAP) fund and the Locality Fund.

GRASS CUTTING

The parish council confirmed that they were not going to pay MDDC to undertake grass cutting in the parish now that DCC had withdrawn the funding. The council agreed to assess the impact of this in September.

The council heard that their website was under construction and should be operational by the end of March.

The council received further information about the transitional arrangements for the closure of MDDC’s Crediton area office and the Credition Town Council’s plans to assist with these.

The council agreed to have an Annual Parish Meeting this year when all members of the parish are welcome to attend to hear what the council has done for the past year and to consider what the council plans are for the forthcoming year.

All are welcome to attend at 7.15pm on April 4.

The council approved the budget for 2016/17 and their register of assets. These documents will be on the new website and are available from the clerk.

The council appointed an internal auditor and adopted a Code of Conduct and a Model Publication Scheme which sets out what information the public can access and how.

The council agreed to link with Colebrooke Parish Council to discuss their mutual concerns about rural broadband.

Anyone who is interested in supporting this issue please contact the clerk.

The council deferred a decision on a sand bag policy and whether the council should access the Devon Emergency Flood Resillience Fund and the Community Resillience Initiatives Grant.

The council received a police report confirming there had been one crime in the parish in January.

The council had written to DCC about the state of the roads in the parish and had been advised that anyone who identified a problem needs to report it here: https://new.devon.gov.uk/roadsandtransport/report-a-problem as this the most effective way of getting action taken.

The draft minutes of Crediton Hamlets Parish Council are available on three noticeboards within the parish: Hookway, Westernlea and Yeoford.

If you have any comments or queries the clerk, Diane Shepherd can be contacted on 01363 85051 or email: [email protected] .

DS