AT the July meeting of Newton St Cyres Parish Council we spent some time discussing the recent Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (HELAA) report from Mid Devon District Council (MDDC). (This is available on Mid Devon’s website).

Briefly, the background to this is that MDDC wish to produce, rather quickly, a new Local Plan.

They hope that in this way, whatever local government structure comes next, they will have had a chance to influence future development. The process leading up to the HELAA report is confidential and involves a call for possible development sites and then an assessment of these sites.

The sites listed for development, and there are six in Newton St Cyres Parish, were offered last year or in earlier calls for sites.

The report is used to help develop the Local Plan. However, nothing is necessarily committed to. Landowners are not obliged to sell, and there is some doubt if some of the sites in Newton St Cyres are still available. So, it is important for us all to consider and contribute our views.

There is currently public consultation on the Local Plan and I gave a link last month to this on the Mid Devon site.

Also, Cllr Jock Campbell has produced a Community Planning Framework. This puts together all the excellent work the Parish did in previous parish planning processes and in trying to form a Neighbourhood Plan, bringing together the priorities of the community into a single document.

The document can now be found on the Parish Council website. Jock and I hope to work with Devon County Council (DCC) Cllr Steve Keable (who is also a MDDC Councillor) to make our views known and appreciated.

Signage at the primary school also came up. It looks as if we should have ‘school’ signs in place for September and Cllr Steve Keable very kindly offered to fund these. Painting zig-zag lines at the school entrance will not be possible, Steve maintains that these can’t be enforced.

His suggestion is we have some double yellow lines instead as these are more enforceable. He proposes to take this idea to HATOC, the committee in DCC that approves alterations to road structure.

They meet in September and so maybe we will hear more then. A 20mph limit on Station Road seems unlikely and we will consider ’20 is plenty’ signs in the future.

Cllr Russell Viner has been worked with Nick Gillon, from the road wardens’ group to produce a plan not only to respond to flooding issues but also to prevent them if possible.

In their first report, they examined the Sweetham Brook and its catchment area. They found that if two culverts were kept clear, the brook is very unlikely to flood. So, we hope to put in place a regular check to keep these clear.

Our meeting was absolutely packed with information and decisions, and I only have space to talk about three.

However, our minutes are on the Parish Council website for you to read and you’re always welcome to come to a meeting to see just how much we do.

Our next meeting is on Thursday, September 3 at 7pm in the Parish Hall. You are very welcome to come along. But you can also meet us on the 2nd Saturday of the month at the village coffee morning.

Liz Ouldridge