Agenda and minutes

To consider and approve the minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Town held on 26 May 2021.

Resolved that the minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Town held on 26 May 2021 were approved as a correct and accurate record.

Good Evening

It is good to be able to meet once again at the Annual Town Meeting after two years of disruption during the Covid pandemic which has affected so many people and in so many ways.

Early in my term of office I congratulated our local businesses on getting through the difficulties and continuing to trade in spite of such difficult times. Some also found ways in which to assist through Helping Dawlish.

Thankfully the situation has eased, and I have had the pleasure and honour of representing this Town and Parish on various occasions since being elected in May 2021, such as at Civic Services, including my own, and our own Community Carol Service.

In Carnival week I even enjoyed a duel on the dodgems with the Mayor of Teignmouth!

I thought that I already knew a lot about Dawlish but through my duties I have learned so much more about the many groups and organisations in our community, providing various help services or leisure activities and providing topics of interest or friendship.  A truly thriving community in fact!

Recent months has seen a major planting of trees across the country, and on 11^th March I had the pleasure of planting an oak tree on behalf of us all, as a tribute to the Queen in her Jubilee Year and as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy.

It is in a prominent position where one day it will be a significant part of the landscape and a long -standing reminder of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth’s amazing reign.

I also attended a tree planting day at Orchard Manor School on Holocaust Day and planted another small oak on another day as part of the school’s tree planting programme.

In addition, I attended a tree planting ceremony at Forde House commemorating the date of the first Covid lock -down.

As an ex-officio member of all Committees and Working groups it has been a very busy time in general and I have managed to attend and take part in virtually every one of these, gaining a thorough insight into the workings of the Council. I am pleased to say that I am proud of the work being carried out, although even I sometimes feel frustrated by the time it takes to complete projects.  I hasten to add that this is not the fault of our staff but it is simply due to the fact that the Council has to abide by various procedures and regulations when spending public money, your money, and rightly so!  An added problem of late has been the continuing effect of Covid on staff absences within businesses and Local authorities etc.,

I have thoroughly enjoyed my year as Mayor and the chance to tell anyone who will listen, what a lovely place and what great people we have here in Dawlish Town and Parish.

I shall always continue to take any and every opportunity to promote this very special place.

Councillor Val Mawhood

Mayor of Dawlish  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

First and foremost, a huge thank you to our clerking officer for all her hard work, perseverance and efficiency. The CAC Committee members have shown great teamwork, focus and necessary humour in dealing with challenging and complex situations. We have achieved a great deal for the parish.

We have consulted with the community on a couple of occasions where many options were available, with a great response. Asking the public what they wanted to see carved into the tree stump on the Lawn received over 100 responses through an online survey. So many incredible ideas came through and this has directly shaped the design brief that members have put together ready for receiving quotes.

Asking the public where they would like to see benches has resulted in us having a wish list ready for when budgets allow for additional seating across the parish. In fact, we recently acquired some free benches from Teignbridge District Council which can be placed where suggested by the community.

These consultations have used social media, so not inclusive to all but have shown a great desire of the public to be involved in decision making. A good starting point with thought needed for future consulting to be all inclusive.

We have seen increasing interest in the Waterfowl, with great appreciation for our outside services staff. Along with some challenging times, we have celebrated great success with hatching and seeing our bird community flourish. More investment in railings, etc. have been delayed somewhat due to the pandemic, labour availability and rising costs.

In consultation with our wildlife wardens and the Climate Emergency Declaration working Group, we have identified two pilot verge/path side areas for wildflower planting. This has been met with great enthusiasm from residents in one area who will be nurturing one area, reporting back to the committee as the seasons pass. We also reviewed the cutting schedule to ensure that we are respecting the wildlife and nesting seasons whilst also ensuring safety to drivers and the public for those verges that our Council are responsible for.

There have been ongoing repairs at the Skate Park on Sandy Lane and following years of discussion, we have successfully requested for £10,000 to be allocated in the budget which, with additional grant or match-funding, could see the facelift and improvements necessary to better serve our residents using the facility. Currently we are awaiting work on the fence panels which were blow down in recent adverse weather.

We have worked with private agencies regarding issues impacting the wider community, such as that of the littering at The Buntings and continue to seek solutions in partnership.

We have maintained a good working relationship with the green spaces team at the district council, engaging in ‘green walks’ with a focus on improvements and problem solving.

We have continued to keep the ‘green audit’ as a living document pertaining to issues around the parish that need addressing. This and increasing our use of photos to aid description, has helped monitor, report  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Due to ill health, no report had been submitted.

The draft annual town council budget and precept received initial consideration at a Finance and General purposes committee meeting on the 20^th January, the committee unanimously agreed that both the draft budget and precept be recommended to Full Council. Full Council approved the budget on the  26^th January.

Preparation of the budget is one of the most important annual tasks a Council must undertake. Indeed, it is not lawful to set a precept unless a budget has been prepared and approved. This is because the precept is not a figure arbitrarily set by the council but is the balancing figure after considering estimated expenditure and income.

Setting a budget is an annual statutory requirement, it is a means of financial control although there are inevitably variances that arise during the year due to changing circumstances, we have, like every other council, experienced the impact of Covid 19, for nearly two years. Our income from the Manor House and the Riverside centre has understandably dropped drastically and we have had to implement costly measures to reduce the risk of infection from the virus.

But, at last, there appears to be a glimmer of hope on the horizon and hopefully we will be able to emerge from the Covid chrysalis and resume normal life in the coming months.

The budget setting process started in November and our subcommittee met on four occasions, the meetings we facilitated by our town clerk, who was assisted by Angie Weatherhead and Erica Dunn I would like to place on record my sincere thanks to everyone who took part in the process.

The proposed council tax percentage increase will be 5.26%, which is similar to other councils. According to my calculations the average increase  equates to 10-15p per week per dwelling for the Parish of Dawlish, TDC is more.

We are currently in a healthy financial position, but, we cannot take our eye off the ball. Teignbridge are doubtless thinking behind the scenes about shedding assets and transferring them to Parish councils. Our most recent experience of this was last year when Teignbridge decided to close the TIC in Dawlish. We were given the option of taking it on, we carried out detailed evaluation and costings of this proposal but decided to decline the transfer. A combination of rent, rates, repairs, and staffing would cost between £40-50K a year, we believed this to be unreasonable and too far a heavy burden for the taxpayers within the Parish to bear.

We decided to strengthen our online presence and place tourism literature in local shops and cafes. Initially there was a degree of criticism from some residents about the TIC closing but we had to be realistic and take a balanced view on what was potentially a 10% increase on our Parish element of council tax.

During the recent financial year we have awarded a number of grants to charities and other organisations totalling £42K.

We have much to plan for and a great deal to be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

This has been a busy year when the committee has considered several aspects of managing the two properties, ranging from usage, minor internal redecoration future external redecoration, and so on and including up-grades to the female toilets in the Manor House.

In addition, there is the intention to install some solar panels, together with an electric car-charging point and replacement central heating boilers and zonal thermostatic controls.  Thought has been given in general, to efficiency and energy use, regarding the climate emergency and general running costs.

The Committee agreed to engage a consultant to inspect the Manor House and the Riverside building, and a very thorough investigation has taken place. The resulting Report has recently been received and studied and a process of repairs is to be put in place in order to proceed with the recommended works at the earliest opportunity. 

As part of these works the existing conservatory is to be replaced, subject to Listed Building and Conservation Area consent and to a better standard then the previous building, taking into consideration the recommendations of the consultant.

Following a request from the Climate Change working group, another comprehensive report was commissioned concerning energy efficiency and which has recently been supplied to this Committee, to be studied in conjunction with the report on the fabric of the two buildings.

Together these reports will ultimately result in a comprehensive management plan to improve the energy efficiency of the properties going forward, as part of the Council’s bid to reduce its carbon footprint in these times of the climate crisis, whilst preserving the historic Manor House and maintaining these two buildings as valuable community resources as well as Council Offices.

Councillor Mary Lowther

Chair – Manor House & Riverside Centre Committee

It’s been a very busy 12 months on Planning – however before I begin my report I should like to offer my thanks to Cllr Lin Goodman-Bradbury for her hard work as the Chair of our Planning Committee, a post she has held for the last 3 difficult years. Lin has now stepped down as our Chair as she has instead taken on the role and responsibility of the Chair of the Planning Committee at Teignbridge District Council. I am sure Lin will do an equally good job as the Chair at Teignbridge as she has done for us, where she will now be supported by Cllr John Petherick in the role of Vice Chair.

Well done to you both in becoming elected to these District roles.

As Members will be aware, Dawlish Town Council is a statutory consultee to Teignbridge - the Local Planning Authority - on all Dawlish planning matters.

As a consultee to the planning process, we have 21 days to respond to new planning applications which come forward in our Parish. As a consequence, our Planning Committee is obliged to meet every 3 weeks throughout the year to meet the timeframe to review new applications, which now average around 10 applications per meeting (or around 150 applications per year).

At the last meeting there were 19 – and there has been no sign of applications tailing off, despite the ending of the Government’s Stamp Duty holiday which had been brought in to stabilise the housing market as the result of Covid.

To the contrary – Covid appears to have reset peoples’ expectations of the homes they live in, with many more applications now coming in to build on additional space – improving rather than moving – all against a backdrop of rapidly increasing house prices.

As well as our statutory duties, our Planning Committee – in common with other Town and Parish Councils across Teignbridge – also now has powers to ‘call-in’ planning applications to the District Planning Committee for determination.

Previously an ability granted only to District Ward Councillors, this is an important and hard-won concession which places trust in our planning committee to nominate applications to be deliberated and decided upon by district councillors rather than by officers, perhaps where it would be in the public interest or for other sound planning reasons.

As such, members of the committee have become better versed in planning fundamentals such as overdevelopment, overlooking, highways and access – as well as the ‘nice stuff’ such as good design and the appropriate use of materials (with Delabole slate raising a few knowing oohs and ahhs during a recent Listed Building powerpoint presentation!) 

This last year has been especially busy also due to two consultations on TDC’s Local Plan (Part 2 on housing site options and numbers and Part 3 on renewable energy and small sites) with our committee findings brought to Council for their further comment.

Among the numerous extensions, alterations, conversions and new build applications we have also  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Electors are reminded that written representation should have been presented to the Town Clerk at the Town Council Office, The Manor House, Old Town Street, by 12 noon on 4 May 2022.

Electors are reminded that written representation should have been presented to the Town Clerk at the Town Council Office, The Manor House, Old Town Street, by 12 noon on 4 April 2022.

There was none.