Cotleigh Parish Council Meeting 19 March 2019 at 8pm
At the last Parish Council meeting, a further complaint of dog mess not being cleaned up was reported.
Can anyone walking their dog around the village or green, please clean up after their dog, and dispose in their own household waste bin. Please also remember to keep dogs under control and on a lead on any road
Present trustees of the Northampton Trust are due to retire at the end of 2018. If you are interested in becoming a trustee, please contact Pam Lane tel. 01404 43339
This plant may look pretty, but the damage Himalayan Balsam causes is severe, both in terms of the direct out-competing of native species, but also due to the fact it grows as an obligate annual in our climate, which means the river banks which it infests are completely bare when it dies back come winter so then have nothing to consolidate them and wash out with winter flooding, so filling the downstream areas with sediment. (Quote from Blackdown Hills ANOB wildlife office)
Although Landowners do not have to remove the plant from their own property, Landowners do have an obligation not to let this invasive plant spread to other Landowners properties and there are now powers that Councils have under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, that have recently been used to compel owners to control this invasive weed species.
landowners also have a legal responsibility to control the species under Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 – which states ‘it is an offence to plant or cause to grow’ the species in the wild.
So what can you do about this problem?
Himalayan Balsam is actually relatively easy to eradicate:
Pulling it up two years in a row before it flowers is normally sufficient.
Please therefore inspect your property, especially if you are by a stream and start the eradication process as soon as you can.
If you are receiving spam/nuisance calls to your phone, you can report these calls to the Information Commissioner’s Office at web address ico.org.uk
It won’t necessarily stop the calls straight away but hopefully they will track down the companies making these calls, fine them and stop the calls.
The Blackdowns Road Action Group (BRAG) officially launched in September, to focus mounting local and national opposition to Devon County Council’s proposals to build a new road through the Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
There are only 38 AONB throughout England and Wales, and we are all lucky enough to be living within one of the best. AONBs are created under the same legislation as the National Parks, The Blackdown Hills AONB is a nationally protected landscape at level 5. This has the highest protection like a national park.
We recognise that improvements need to be made to address safety issues but believe these could be achieved far more sympathetically.
Now the Devon County Council Consultation has ended, that doesn’t mean we can stop putting our views forward. We would urge that all Cotliegh residents and their friends and family sign the electronic petition in the link provided. https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/please-rethink-the-a30-road-scheme
BRAG formed from a small group of local people. We are primarily looking for support from those who have media, web design or legal experience. Anyone wishing to join or offer support in any way should email:blackdownsroadactiongroup@gmail.com
Cotleigh Parish Council invited representatives of Devon County Council’s A30 Road Scheme team to attend a Q&A session in Cotleigh Village Hall immediately following the parish meeting, last night, Tuesday 6th September, from 8pm. Attendees included Mr David Black, Mr Mike Smith and Mr Peter Chamberlain.
The Parish Council note that the event was extremely well attended, and that there was strong feeling within the room against the proposed routes, both of which would irreversibly damage the Viney Ridge Plateau on which Cotleigh resides.
At the end of the evening many questions remained unsatisfactorily answered and so the DCC representatives were given a list of questions and asked for a response to each in writing as soon as possible to the Parish Council.
The Parish Council would like to state on record that they, representing their parishioners, are strongly against the proposed routes and would urge for DCC to consider less impacting routes that more closely follow the route of the existing A30.
Michael Langford
Chairman, Cotleigh Parish Council
The parish council would like to thank everyone who either helped organise or attended the meeting held in the village hall on Wednesday 24th August. It was an excellent meeting which was informative and extremely well presented, especially considering the meeting was held at such short notice. Particular thanks go to the presenters and contributors. It was amazing to see how much expertise and knowledge is held within our parish and this will be invaluable going forward.
As everyone is aware, there is more and more potholes in the road network, if you can report a pothole to the highways, they are supposed to respond, the more people that report the same one, hopefully the greater priority they give it, so here is the link
https://new.devon.gov.uk/roadsandtransport/report-a-problem/map/map_src/poth/
Service dates and times
3rd March – 9.30am – Holy Communion at Offwell
10th March – 9.30am – Holy Communion with Offwell
17th March – 9.30am – Holy Communion
24th March – 9.30am – All age worship at Offwell
31st March – 9.30am – Mothering Sunday
7th April – 9.30am – Holy Communion at Offwell
have been meeting for over 15 years on Thursday evenings. There are 12 members and they play occasional local matches and although thriving would always welcome more members.
Please contact Len and Pam Spiller if you would like to book the village hall. Telephone: 01404 831396
