THE March meeting of Newton St Cyres Parish Council was most exciting as we welcomed two new Councillors to our team.

Jock Campbell has joined us and has taken over the role of planning.

He will be looking at new and existing planning applications as well as pulling together the ideas that parishioners have expressed about the further development of the village.

Russell Viner will join me in the role of resilience, which has been rather demanding this year. We will be involved in maintenance of the defibrillators as well as running the flood network and snow wardens.

County Councillor, Steve Keable, and Mid Devon Councillor, Martin Binks attended the meeting.

They spoke about budgets for next year. Devon County Council has increased its council tax by 4.99%.

The big spending budgets of Adult Social Care (£395.9 million) and Children and Families (£268 million) continue to dominate the costs but you will be pleased to know that there will be extra to spend on Roads and Transport. Mid Devon Council has increased its council tax by 2.99%.

Councillor John Dean met with our Road Warden, Nick Gillon and Steve Tucker from Devon Highways to discuss road maintenance in and around the village.

He reported that Devon County Council intends to do much work on the drains along our back roads, hoping to minimise future flooding.

However, Steve Tucker felt that increased involvement from local landowners could help too. He gave the Parish Council some useful suggestions that we will follow up.

Councillor Monica Herpoldt-Bright briefed us on the latest Britain-in-Bloom entry which we will support as best we can.

The Parish Clerk reported that we have submitted requests for maintenance of the public footpaths.

These includes replacing a very steep stile on the footpath between Tinpit Hill and Marsh Lane and creating steps in a very steep slope at the entrance to the footpath that goes through up through Whiptail Wood.

Councillor Liz Ouldridge reported on the continued work of the resilience group.

We have recruited members in Langford, but still need members in Half Moon. Work will continue through the summer so that we can have an even better response to poor weather and flooding.

Devon County Council has recognised that not all people find it easy to report road issues online. You can now ring 0345 155 1004 to report anything to do with road maintenance, street lighting, signs and public footpaths anytime between 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 1pm on Saturday.

The Friends of the Station Garden have been successful in getting a grant from GWR to improve the Station Garden, watch out for more news soon.

The next meeting of the Parish Council will be held in the Parish Hall on Thursday April 2 at 7pm.

The Annual Parish Meeting will be held on Thursday, May 7. All parishioners are invited to attend. You can also talk to us at coffee mornings held on the second Saturday of the month in the Parish Hall.

Liz Ouldridge