THIS month, Newton St Cyres Parish Council discussed issues concerning plans for two local anaerobic digesters.

Anaerobic digesters take a variety of organic materials from specially grown farm crops to various forms of waste.

These are fermented to produce methane that can be burnt to make electricity.

The waste from this process is called the digestate which is often stored in lagoons before eventually being used as fertiliser.

This type of electricity generation is generally looked on favourably by planners.

A plant has been operating in Clyst St Mary for some time, partly using crops from our parish and returning the digestate here.

They have put in an application to change their storage facility.

Although the plant is in East Devon, and we are not normally consulted on planning, we felt that its operation was not always to its planning conditions and expressed our concern.

The other plant is being constructed near Crediton.

The developers wish to change the previously agreed design to increase capacity and to use a wider variety of source materials, including farm crops.

Again, although our comments would have little impact on the planning process, we felt the need to comment on the impact that a change of feedstock may have on farmers buying animal feed and the increased heavy traffic on the A377.

Mid Devon District Council continues to progress its Local Plan.

Some members of the community have been asked to complete a questionnaire about housing needs.

The survey is being carried out by an outside contractor and we questioned the appropriateness of the questions.

Devon County Councillor, Steve Keable is investigating this for us.

MDDC has also asked us to consider whether we wish to designate any areas in our parish as ‘local green spaces’.

We have until January to apply for this status and we are currently considering suitable sites in consultation with other interested parties.

The resilience volunteers are currently inspecting the Shuttern Brook to minimise the possibility that it is blocked and floods this coming winter.

So far, they have inspected from Belluno’s down to the Creedy and have observed no significant problems. There are some areas where the bank may be slightly undercut, but this was felt to be both untreatable and not necessary.

A draft agreement between the Friends of the Arboretum and the Parish Council for the management of the ‘Arboretum Triangle’ (this is the small area of land between the Church graveyard and the arboretum, owned by the Council) was agreed.

Once again, other topics were discussed, and you can read the full details in our minutes, on our website. Or you could come to one of our meetings to see how we work and/or raise an issue that concerns you.

Our next meeting is on Thursday, November 5 at 7pm in the Parish Hall. You can also meet us on the 2nd Saturday of the month at the village coffee morning or scan our QR code below to send us a message.

Liz Ouldridge