Uplyme Parish Council

A Personal View

Very and possibly just a bit biased

Of the Meeting Held on 10th April 2002

Barnes Meadow John Steven told us that they were on schedule and that he predicted that the first of the village green houses would be occupied by the end of June. The three social needs houses would be run by "Signpost Housing". They have requested that the size of these houses be changed to one each of two bedrooms, three bedrooms and four bedrooms.Mr Steven saw no problem with this as the overall floor area is unchanged. Tony Cook of Whalley Lane got a verbal apology from John Steven. The reason being that a note had been slipped in his door telling him that his garden fence was going to be removed! His permission should have been sought first, I should think so. Barnes Meadow Page Uplyme's Special Constable Andrew Turner was introduced to the congregation as the village's own special constable, well for two days a week. He will divide his week out in three parishes and live at Woodhouse Hill whilst in Uplyme. He has been trained to use a radar gun and will shortly be trying it out in Uplyme. You have been warned. He related a story of catching the first offending motorist who turned out to be the person who was the chief complainer against speeding. I think we all look forward to seeing him around. Village Design Brian Mason introduced the Village Design Project. If you have strong ideas of how you would like to see our village in the future then this could be for you. Mr. Mason has the details and wishes to recruit members. EDDC Officers The parish council are not too pleased with the District Council's planning officers at the moment. There have been several incidents where the officers have not kept to their word. One in particular was a planning application for Hideaway, Springhead Road, where they were told that they could delay submitting their recommendations over the Christmas period. The officers acted before the agreed date and subsequently planning permission was given for a "completely inappropriate" house on a very small site. Other incidents were given, and the parish council are under the impression that the officers are just not diligent enough. A letter is being drafted to Mr Poad putting forward their complaints I myself have in the past detected what I consider un-professional conduct. One incident occurred at what turned out to be the final decision of the Planning Committee over the Barnes Meadow development. At a previous meeting the agreed number of houses had been brought down from 44 to 41. Mrs Little who had been negotiating with the developer was being questioned by the committee. She answered a question by saying that she has previously used every possible negotiating point available to her and that there was nothing left with which she could go back to the negotiating table. All this took place with the developer in front of her. I could not believe that she could expose her position to somebody with whom she would again negotiate . After this the drive to further bring down the number of houses on the site collapsed. Strawberry Fields David Sole had some good news on the proposed sports centre development. The Lyme Regis Town Council on advice from the West Dorset District Council have temporally withdrawn the application, because of lack of detail in the outline application. This was one of the many points that the opponents to this development had put forward in their letters of objection to the district council. Mr Sole had presented a series of photographs that he had taken from various locations around Harcombe Valley. These clearly showed what a prominent position Strawberry fields had in the landscape. Before it was discussed what action the council should take on the matter Mr Pratt said that he himself would not have any complaint if the site was used as a simple playing field. David Sole soon dispelled any hope that this was what the town council had in mind. To support this view it has only to be remembered that the town council is seeking to extend the Lyme Regis development area to include at least Strawberry Fields in the forthcoming Local Plan Review. When it was recalled that knowledge of this Planning Application was obtained from EDDC and then with less than two weeks in which to act, it was decided plans should go ahead to prepare the councils action for when the planning application is re-submitted and that the planning group be given the authority to implement this action. A vote was made on this and passed unanimously. Strawberry Fields Website Next Meeting on 8th May 2002

Topics on this Page: Barnes Meadow Update Uplyme's Special Constable Village Design EDDC Officers Strawberry Fields Other UPC Meetings: Meetings in 2003 Pre-2003 Meetings: 13th June 2001 11th July 2001 12th September 2001 10th October 2001 14th November 2001 12th December 2001 9th January 2002 13th February 2002 13th March 2002 8th May 2002 12th June 2002 10th July 2002 14th August 2002 11th September 2002 9th October 2002 13th November 2002 11th December 2002 Other Relevant Pages Barnes Meadow Development Rhode Hill Gardens Home Page Introduction Page