Agenda

To approve as a correct record and sign the minutes of the previous Council meeting.

Announcements only from the Chair of Council, Leader, Members of the Executive or the Managing Director.

Members of the public may ask questions. A maximum period of 15 minutes will be allowed with a maximum period of three minutes per questioner.

To consider the recommendation of   Procedures Committee on Monday, 2nd October, 2023

RECOMMENDED to Full Council that the Overview & Scrutiny Committees are merged to have one Overview & Scrutiny Committee of 26 Members this would come into effect on 1 January 2024.

To appoint a Council representative to sit on the Local Government Association Special Interest Group Rural Services Network.

The main aim is of this network is  ”to act as the national champion for rural services, ensuring that people in rural areas have a strong voice. We are fighting for a fair deal for rural communities to maintain their social and economic viability for the benefit of the nation as a whole……and  working to ensure that rural areas receive fair funding to enable them to deliver their services, taking into account the additional costs of service delivery in rural areas.”

Here are links for background information.

RSN Member Induction Training - Rural Services Network (rsnonline.org.uk)

rsn-constitution.pdf (rsnonline.org.uk)

rsn-annual-report-lga-sig-2022-23.pdf (rsnonline.org.uk)

The appointed representative has been invited to the AGM on 4 December 2023. 

RESOLVED that under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the Press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

RESOLVED  that the press and public be allowed into the meeting.

Notice of Motion’s shall be referred to the appropriate Committee meeting. The mover of the motion can outline the proposal and then it will stand adjourned. The motion may be debated to assist debate later if agreed by two-thirds of Council Members.

Motion 1

The following motion in conservation areas has been presented by Cllr Mullone and supported by Cllrs Daws, Bradford, Macgregor, Radford, J Taylor and Gearon.

Large parts of residential Teignbridge are designated Conservation Areas. The rules for a conservation area come under Article 4 Directions that, unlike listed status for an individual building which are nationally codified, may be set and amended by a district council.

The rules for Conservation Areas in Teignbridge have not been re-examined for a long time. They do not take into account the sweeping changes in technologies, materials or group aesthetics. Neither do they account for the Climate Emergency that has been declared by many councils including this one.

Amendment to these rules is seriously overdue, most urgently in regard to windows and solar panelling. The rules on windows were drafted to stem the tide of shiny white plastic PVC windows being installed without thought in Georgian and Victorian houses that began to detract from areas of archirtectural heritage in the 1980s. These insist on like-for-like replacement of timber frame louvre windows. Today windows are being made from airtight, scientifically advanced materials that are, to any observer, entirely in keeping with older houses and which would bring them up to environmental standards with no loss of area aesthetics.

Solar panels, meanwhile, may need a change in our culture. We have decided as a society that wind turbines do not ruin a landscape; in fact most of us are pleased to see them. We might adjust our sensibilities to accommodate solar panels on the roofs of older, architecturally attractive dwellings. None of them, after all, have the original roof anymore so it seems somewhat contrarian to object to solar panels being installed on them.

We need to permit sensible ecological adjustment in Conservation Areas, as blanket bans make no sense, run contrary to our declared Climate Emergency and the rules are currently being applied with no consistency at all. At the Forde Park Conservation Area in College Ward we have residents being persecuted for high-quality modern upgrades next to houses full of PVC that have got away with it for years, seemingly because they weren’t ‘dobbed in’ by a neighbour within the required time.

I therefore propose that:

A) A task and finish group be put together to look at reassessing the limits of remodelling in the area’s Conservation Zones with an eye to allowing green improvements, and

B) Any resident with a current notice against them be given a stay of execution on any remodelling requirement until the rules can be examined and reframed.

Motion 2

The following motion on Devon County Council library service has been presented by Cllr Daws and supported by Cllrs Bradford, Macgregor, Radford, J Taylor,  ...  view the full agenda text for item 18.

Members of the Council may ask questions of the Council subject to procedural rules.