THE September 3 meeting of Newton St Cyres Parish Council was held by Zoom. It was attended by nine Councillors, the Parish Clerk, the Devon County Councillor (Margaret Squires) and two members of the public.

Greater Exeter Strategic Plan (GESP)

Currently the GESP is suffering some setbacks. One of the five councils involved in the plan has withdrawn meaning that the plan cannot go ahead in its current form. The consultation period that was due to happen this autumn will not now take place and so the open meeting that was planned by the Parish Council has been postponed.

Boniface Trail

Progress continues to be made on the Boniface Trail. After achieving agreement with one major landowner on the proposed route of the trail, meetings are taking place with other landowners to address their concerns and rights. It is also time now to start “site walks” along the route to explore the logistical issues of building the trail. Both Mid Devon District and Devon County Councils are very supportive of the project and it is hoped that they may be able to make some funds available at some time in the future. The project has also been offered support for technical issues from Devon County Council Highways Department.

Community Shop and Post Office

The Post Office is now operating from the Parish Hall on Tuesdays and Thursdays and seems to be reasonably well used. We need to keep supporting this service if we are to retain it. Progress on the community shop has been halted by the COVID-19 pandemic and it will be some months before this project can be revived.

The COVID-19 pandemic

Pleasingly, the level of infection in the South West remains low and there has been very little need for assistance from our local support group. However, it continues to exist if the need should arise. Recently the Parish Clerk attended a briefing by Mid Devon on the next steps for councils in the battle against the virus. Here it was suggested that our local resilience plan needs to be updated to include response to a pandemic and this will be done when the plan is reviewed in the autumn.

Some services are beginning to get back to normal within the village. The Parish Hall is set to reopen in October, with restrictions on the number of people who can attend a meeting and the stipulation that government guidelines be followed.

The school remained open during lockdown, catering for 30-40 children of key workers, and it experienced a successful end of term for Year 6 in July. It is now open for all year groups, with alterations in the school day and other modifications to minimise the possibility of spread of disease.

Traffic Issues and the A377

• As a result of the Parish Council’s persistent complaints about speeding through the village, temporary speed cameras have been monitoring vehicle speeds recently to assess the extent of the problem. We await the results with great interest. Sadly, it will be too late to save the lives of two motorcyclists who have died on this stretch of road this summer.

• The advisory speed camera on the bridge near Belluno has now been reactivated and will tell you if you exceed 30 mph down School Hill.

• A request was received from a parishioner that the double white lines through the village, that were lost when the road was resurfaced, be reinstated. It has been suggested that double white lines are unnecessary here as there is automatically a ban on overtaking in a 30mph limit. The Parish council felt that many motorists would be unaware of this and that the double lines would be a good reminder. (I have since checked the Highway Code and can find no mention of no overtaking in 30 mph limits.) It was decided to request the replacement of the double white lines.

• Several parishioners complained that they were persistently tailgated by other traffic if they stuck to speed limits. Some commercial vehicles have been identified as repeated offenders. It was decided that the Parish Clerk will write to the companies concerned to make an official complaint.

• The bus shelters continue to be overgrown, particularly at Half Moon. It was decided to request some action to clear the vegetation from Devon County Council Highways.

Internet Connections

It is sadly the case that many of the smaller settlements in the Parish have slow broadband speeds. Some time ago, the Parish Council successfully supported a project to improve speeds in the centre of the village. Unfortunately progress on providing fibre optic connections will be slow to the remaining areas. It may be of interest to parishioners who are particularly worried about this that the 4G network can be used to provide faster speeds and the cost of subscriptions is slowly reducing.

The next meeting of the Parish Council will be held via Zoom on Thursday, October 1 at 7pm.

Liz Ouldridge