HOLCOMBE RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION 

Minutes of General Meeting held Friday 15 February 2008

 Police Community Officer Neil Wooldridge was welcomed to the meeting and gave a short talk about his duties.

 1.Welcome

The Chairman offered a warm welcome to members for the first meeting of 2008.

  2.Apologies

Tony & Audrey Sprague, Christine Tyler, Brenda Bruce, Charles Crossland, Sally & Stuart Horstead, Humphrey & Jean Clemens, Trevor & Molly Lucas, Mr & Mrs Tuohey.

 3.Minutes of the Meeting held 9 November 2007.

The minutes were approved and signed as a true and fair record.

 4. Matters Arising.

4.b The new Holcombe signs are now in place.

6.c Holcombe Jottings have been delivered.

5.Report on recent and planned Association activities.

5.1    The Barn Dance held on 30 November was a great success and will be repeated this year on 28 November. £92 was raised for AIMS during the interval with a challenge to roll a £1 coin closest to the prize bottle.

5.2    The Christmas Fayre. Carol reported a very good effort and thanked all who had provided goods to be sold. £88.95 was raised for the Village Hall, our best result ever.

5.3    Village website. Andy reported that there have been 580 hits in the two months that the website has been available. There are now photographs from the 1920s and 1930s on view. Any contributions will be welcomed, contact Andy. The committee will discuss the question of commercials being included.

5.4    Planning.

a.       The Seaglass development at the Gatehouse site is making very slow progress.

b.      The Channel View appeal for another detached house is still ongoing.

c.       71 Teignmouth Road. Appeal for 4 apartments instead of 2 houses.

d.      Old barn adjacent to 25 Teignmouth Road. We have presented a very strong objection to the application to build a barn dwelling on this site, with access across the coastal footpath and perhaps creating a precedent on this side of the A379. Also informed the SW Footpath Association.

e.       Holcombe Hall. New application to extend by 70 rooms. This follows an application for a large extension to the east and to the south last year that attracted many objections, including HRA, and was withdrawn. The new proposal contains 22 documents, one of which is 55 pages. The planning committee will meet and view the plans. The more written objections the better, some plans were available at the meeting. Care as to objections needed as the developer has responded to many of the original points. Anyone with helpful ideas for the association to include should write to John W as soon as possible. Margaret Behenna would like to know if any apartments or en suite rooms were planned and protection from future change to apartments should be in place. SW Footpath Association are also unhappy with the proposed improvements to the junction with the A379 it was agreed that this long term problem has still not been addressed satisfactorily.

f.        Higher Holcombe Farm. Charles Crossland  said that these plans had been rejected by the planning officer but as it is possibly skyline and proposed houses and a park on green field land it should be watched for the future.

5.5    Safety on the main road. The Area Traffic Engineer met John W and Andy. The speed camera has been uncovered and the Safety Partnership survey revealed that the speeds with the camera cover on or off only varied by 1mph. Only 15% were breaking the 40mph limit, which indicates that the speed limit is correct. The strategy between Teignmouth and Exeter will be to use speed flash signs and mobile patrols and the camera will remain uncovered for the time being.

6.AOB

  1. Gerry is concerned that there are many people in the village living alone and would like to provide an opportunity for them to meet. This could be in the Joan Copp room at the Village Hall for a cup of tea or coffee and if possible some people with information about available services etc.
  2. John W asked whether the Association should be taking responsibility for the WI seat. This has apparently become the property of the new house and neither the owner of the house nor the WI, who paid a peppercorn rent, were informed.

7. The date of the next meeting.

    Friday 13th June. Speaker - The Devon Air Ambulance.

Please note the speaker will be at 7.15pm, before the business meeting.

The meeting closed at 8.05pm.       

Signed  ………………………………………………… 

Date     ………………………

The meeting was followed by a very interesting talk on “Local Heroes” by Pat Warner, Archivist at the Teignmouth and Shaldon Museum and Teign Heritage.