Bigbury Parish Council has just been awarded £1540 from the DCC/SHDC Town & Parish Fund towards the repair and improvement of the playground at StAnn’s Chapel. If you have any views or ideas about this topic, please contact the Clerk on 01548 810719.
Posts in category Bigbury Parish Council
IDEAS, PLEASE!
If you have any ideas or pet projects for improvement anywhere in the parish that will be of benefit to the majority of parishioners and visitors, please contact one of your parish councillors (see Bigbury Parish Council GROUP for contact details) or come along to a council meeting on 2nd Wednesday of each month at 7.30pm in the Memorial Hall and tell us about it. All ideas will be considered.
VOLUNTEER ROAD WARDEN NEEDED FOR THE COMMUNITY
Increasingly, the responsibility for services that we have all taken for granted is being farmed out to local volunteers. This is part of the ‘localism’ move to let local people take control of local matters but, obviously this move fits in well with the shortage of local government resources (i.e. cash) at District and County level. The latest initative is to farm out repairs to our roads. If you fancy a role as the parish’s Road Warden, please see the guidance notes below about the Road Warden and Self-Help schemes before contacting the parish Clerk or Chairman of the parish council. Contact details are posted under the Bigbury Parish Council GROUP.
Minutes of February’s parish council meeting
The Minutes of the meeting of the parish council meeting of 11th February are available in the DOCUMENTS section of the bigbury Parish Council GROUP.
DOG MESS: BAG IT AND BIN IT!
As a dog owner and parish councillor, I hope to enlist your help in eliminating a scourge of South Hams’ beaches and footpaths. During a walk on the beach at Bigbury-on-Sea and on Burgh Island this week, I was disgusted at the number of black plastic ‘poo’ bags left lying at the side of the path or tied to bushes by irresponsible dog walkers after their pets had performed. These people obviously leave home with the intention of ‘emptying the dog’ because they are equipped with the necessary collection bags but they seem incapable of disposing of the fruits of their pet’s labours in the appropriate bins if they have to carry the full bags for more than a few metres. In Bigbury-on-Sea these bins are perfectly visible at the top of the main beach access points which beach users have to pass en route from the car parks and footways. The excuse that inadequate signage to dog bins is to blame just does not wash; if in doubt, TAKE IT HOME!
Many dog owners/ walkers do not appear to know that the failure to properly dispose of dog waste in a bin is as great an offence as leaving the mess unattended. As the SHDC website clearly states, ‘Dog Fouling is one of the top anti-social problems nationwide. Dog mess is unsightly, unpleasant & can spread disease, or in extreme cases, cause blindness. If you do not ensure that dog mess is picked up AND properly disposed of (my emphasis) a £80- £1000 Penalty may be payable under the District of South Hams Fouling of Land by Dogs Order 2013.
Come on dog walkers, clean up your dog’s act and help keep our beaches and footpaths ‘fit for purpose’ – ‘Bag It & Bin It’ for all our sakes!
‘SWAN MAN’: reporting protocol for anti-social behaviour
Recently, there was another incident involving Richard Crafer aka ‘Swan Man’ and his threats to river and Tidal Road users on the Avon estuary. This incident apparently involved Mr Crafer kicking a lady’s dog and threatening her with a rock. There have been numerous similar incidents in the past but the level of threatened violence seems to be escalating. Despite warnings from the police, ’Swan Man’s’ behaviour continues unchanged.
Bigbury Parish Council, the Aune Conservation Association, and the new owners of the Bantham Estate share a common view about this nuisance. The Duchy of Cornwall has asked us to make it very clear that ‘Swan Man’ is not acting as their agent, in any capacity, despite what he may claim.Our first concern is the preservation of free access to the estuary and the Tidal Road for the public. The estuary, of course, is an asset of huge recreational importance. We should all be concerned whenever that recreational experience is spoiled. The local police have become involved because of the very widely reported nuisance behaviour of ‘Swan Man’ – who is spoiling the estuary experience for many users of the water and Tidal Road with his off-putting, personal behaviour whenever he feels that his ‘charges’ may be at risk.
REPORTING PROTOCOL: The police have asked that anybody who feels threatened in any way (and it may be very early in the morning or very late at night, depending on the tides) should immediately report details of the incident on their 101 non-emergency number to log the incident into their records. Please also call local police officers:-
Jo-Pengelly 07921061657 or Dave Gibson 07525617842. Then and most importantly they should call the Anti-Social Behaviour Officer:- John Ward tel. 01803 861252 or john.ward@southhams.gov.uk because he is anxious to build a case to try and rid the estuary of this nuisance.
BURGH ISLAND SOLAR ARRAY – change to planning application 05/2499/14/F
There was extensive local and national interest in the planning application for a solar array on Burgh island when it was first submitted. A ‘visual mitigation measures’ revision to the original scheme has been submitted recently, presumably to persuade the planners to override the multitude of objections to the original scheme when it comes before the Development Management Committee on 15th February. The planning application number is the same – 05/2499/14/F – but the scheme now incorporates a 750mm high bank which, it is claimed, will help to screen the array from public view.
The new scheme is unlikely to receive the same level of publicity and comment as a new application because the original application number has been retained. A modified proposal has been added to the original application on the planning portal of the SHDC website but few people are likely to notice – see
http://apps.southhams.gov.uk/planningsearch/default.aspx?shortid=05%2f2499%2f14%2fF
Bigbury Parish Council has received notification of the change from the Planning Officer at SHDC and will be responding in due course. The parish council has also received an assurance that the multitude of original objections, including our own, will remain valid. However, you may wish to submit your own response to the proposed change at
http://www.southhams.gov.uk/article/609/Commenting-on-a-Planning-Application
Parish precept for 2015-2016
The precept for the next financial year (2015-2016) was increased by £400 to £8000 at a special council meeting in January. The minutes of the meeting and explanation for the increase can be found in DOCUMENTS section of the Bigbury Parish Council GROUP
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