THE July 4 meeting of Newton St Cyres Parish Council was attended by eight councillors, the parish clerk and Mid Devon District Councillor, Graham Barnell.

A public session about the future of the village shop, held at the start, was attended by 22 members of the public and two members of the group that run the Cheriton Fitzpaine Community Shop.

Community Shops and the Post Office

· The village shop has now closed and is likely to be converted to a private dwelling. The Post Box located in the shop wall has been taken out of service, however Royal Mail has informed us that it will be installing a new Post Box near the bus stop, very shortly.

· The Parish Council is in the process of liaising with Stoke Canon Post Office which is prepared to operate a Post Office service for Newton St Cyres. This will probably be for about two hours on two days-a-week. A suitable location and the installation of a secure line have yet to be finalised, but we would hope to involve the Parish Hall.

· The visitors from Cheriton Fitzpaine outlined the process they went through to establish a Community Shop. They strongly recommended that we join the Plunkett Foundation if we wished to undertake a similar project. This guided them through the entire process from writing a business plan through to raising money. Cheriton Fitzpaine were very positive about their shop and said that it had given a heart back to the village. They also offered us their support.

· The Parish Council will be forming a steering group to investigate the possibility of a community shop. Ten members of the public have already volunteered to attend the first meeting. However more volunteers will be most welcome.

Road and traffic related issues

Many of the issues raised at the last meeting remain unresolved and these will continue to be chased up by the Parish Council. However the flashing lights to warn of children crossing have been moved to a more appropriate place, although they are not yet switched on.

Devon County Council has been contacted to request that they are switched on. The request for a school sign and possibly zig-zag lines outside the school has been turned down. The Parish Council is to ask for this decision to be reconsidered.

South West Water has been contacted about the sunken manhole cover on the bridge over the river Creedy. There will be some delay as a road closure will be needed to repair this and a three-month warning is required.

New issues include:

· Inappropriate parking on the brow of the hill near the entrance to Station Road. This will be reported to DCC.

· A badly sunken drain on the A377 between Five Elms Road and Smallbrook. Again this will be reported to DCC.

· Excessive traffic from Crediton Milling Company lorries through the village of Langford. A meeting of concerned residents was held. It seems that up to 80 trucks a day are now passing through the village, starting very early in the morning. This is causing noise and traffic problems on a very narrow road. It was agreed that this problem should be investigated by the Parish Council and the district councillor.

MDDC and Climate Change

Graham Barnell, the district councillor, reported on the actions taken by Mid Devon District Council in respect to climate change.

In May, MDDC joined with other local authorities in Devon and declared a climate emergency.

The proposals Devon-wide are to work for carbon neutrality by 2050.

However MDDC has committed itself to an earlier target of 2030. The council is now collaborating with other Devon councils to produce a county-wide carbon plan. MDDC would hope not only to become carbon neutral in its own provision of services but also seek to influence others through the partners and suppliers it works with and through the planning process.

Devon Community Resilience Forum

Jock Campbell attended a meeting of the Devon Community Resilience Forum and reported back to the Parish Council. Community Resilience aims to have plans and resources in place to deal with local emergencies, ranging from fire and floods to heatwaves. Newton St Cyres has a recently reviewed Community Resilience Plan (published on the Parish Council website) which was praised by the Fire and Rescue service.

The meeting was given details of the Met Office’s Weather Ready system which provides advice on severe weather. Details of the roles of other organisations was also given.

The Parish Council decided as a result of this report to have more hard copies of the Resilience Plan at key locations and also to consider issuing high-vis role-identifying vests for key community members such as the flood warden.

Brampford Speke, Upton Pyne and Cowley Community Land Trust

This organisation, Brampford Speke Upton Pyne and Cowley Community Land Trust, seeks to own assets in perpetuity on behalf and for the benefit of a community.

Its first two projects were affordable housing in Upton Pyne and Brampford Speke. The Parish Council was recently approached by them and it was agreed that membership should be investigated with a possible view to building some affordable housing on the old school site, which has yet to be sold.

There will be no council meeting in August.

The next meeting of the Parish Council will be on Thursday, September 5, at the new, earlier time of 7pm.

Members of the public are welcome to attend. There will also be Parish Surgeries at the Coffee Mornings held on August 3 and September 7 in the Parish Hall.

Liz Ouldridge