Your Parish Council
Chairman
: Richard Bence 01288331322 richard@beingorganic.com
Deputy
Chairman : David Cornish
Other Councillors: Adrian Wade and Colin Burrow
Clerk to the Parish Council : Lisa Cetinkaya 01237 441579
Click Here to read the latest Parish Newsletter
On Wednesday
8th May an open meeting was held at Welcombe Village Hall to discuss the
request from Torridge that Welcombe agree to the building of 5 open market
houses.
Torridge have a need to provide additional housing in the next
20 years up to 2031 and the locations for the houses will be included in
the North Devon and Torridge Local Plan which is currently going through
its draft phases.
Torridge have determined that Welcombe is able to take some of this
burden due to it having certain infrastructure, e.g. a pub, church, shop
and village hall. Torridge provided proposed development boundaries
which covered existing properties and their gardens in Welcombe and Darracott.
Meeting on 8th May:-
The
subject was discussed at the meeting which was attended by 13 local residents,
4 of whom were parish councillors. Views expressed by those in attendance
included:
Why are the development
boundaries only covering existing properties - how does this allow the development
of additional houses?
Should we be looking at new buildings in Welcombe or converting other buildings
into dwellings?
How will infrastructure cope, we already have an issue getting new phone
lines and broadband into the village?
Can these developments be linked with affordable housing to ensure these
are delivered too?
What protection will there be to ensure that these houses are used for residents?
How do we ensure any development is in line with the character of the village
- all houses are different?
Should we be using marginal or less valuable land to build on and keep new
developments near existing centres of population?
Conclusion
At
the end of the meeting those present supported a proposal to extend the
permitted development boundaries in Welcombe to include the four areas currently
designated for affordable housing with the following conditions:
Any developer of an open market house must also build an affordable house.
Suggested that 4 homes could be built on plot 6, with 2 homes on each of
the other plots.
In any development the affordable home must be built before the open market
one.
The ownership of the affordable home would be transferred to a Trust that
being a housing association or a Trust run by the village or the parish
council.
The original boundaries and proposed extended boundaries are shown in the
maps below. Note that the numbering of the extended boundary plots relates
to the numbers used by Torridge in identifying affordable housing plots.
There are no plots 4 and 5 as Torridge viewed these as not viable and would
not support development there.
Click Here to View the Map of Welcombe
Click Here to View the Map of Darracott
Having
Your Say
The
parish council welcomes further views on the above proposals ahead of the
AGM on Wednesday 15th May. Please send your views to richard@beingorganic.com
so that they can be considered at the meeting.Alternatively
please come to the parish council AGM next Wednesday 15th May at 7.30pm
in the Village Hall. We will open the proposals to discussion in the open
forum at the beginning of the meeting.
The parish council will then submit the final proposals to Torridge for inclusion in the next draft of the North Devon and Torridge Local Plan.
Thank you to everyone
who came along to the meeting on Affordable Housing on 30th
January. My notes on the meeting are below - please let me know anything that
has been missed.
The plan going forward is to get some answers to questions raised that will be brought to the next Parish Council meeting on Tuesday 19th February (7.30pm at the Village Hall). Everyone is very welcome to attend.
The following week, commencing 25th February we will arrange another public meeting and agree how to progress.
If you have any
questions in addition to the ones listed in the notes below, please can you
send them to me as soon as possible so we have the greatest chance of getting
answers ahead of 19th February. Please also send me any comments or ideas
you have.
Richard Bence
Notes from Affordable Housing Meeting held at Welcombe Village Hall at 7.30pm on Wednesday 30th January
Present:
Sue Southwell, Rural Housing Enabler at Community Council of Devon
Rachel Webdell, Strategic Enabling Office, Torridge DC
Gavin Spiller, Planning Officer, Torridge DC Planning Department
Approximately 25 residents of Welcombe, Parish Councillors and District Councillors
Sue Southwell gave a background on the history of the affordable housing project which started in 2008. In November 2008 a ‘Needs Survey’ was carried out which identified 7 households in need of affordable housing, 3 immediately and 4 within 3 years. Of the 7, only one family could consider part-ownership. There is a need for this survey to be ‘refreshed’.
Affordable housing
is a local initiative, driven by the Parish Council who:
Keep a list of those in housing need.
Support landowners who offer land.
Decide on support applications for affordable housing.
Provide Torridge District Council with accurate information on need.
Rachel Webdell distributed a map of Welcombe showing four potential locations for afforable housing. She explained the possible ways affordable housing can be achieved. These include:
Housing Association - they could run and ensure the houses remained affordable. Main issue is whether they would be interested in a location such as Welcombe due to the housing plots being spread across the village. Timescales for Housing Associations are 3 years to completion.
Private Builders - this includes those living in the affordable houses purchasing the land any building their own house. Alternatively a landowner could build the houses and recover the cost through rent at affordable rates. In some cases a landowner has provided affordable houses by building a number of properties, selling a minority at market rates and the remainder at affordable rates.
Community Property Trusts - this is where the community drives the funding of the building of the houses. CPTs can access funding and grants not available to private builders. These schemes have the maximum amount of community control both over the build and running of the properties. There are examples of CPT in Bradworthy, Pancrasweek and Bridgerule.
Affordable rates are described as in the region of £75-85 per week in rent or £82,000 for sale of a two bedroom house. In Welcombe is it likely that affordable houses for rent will get support at Torridge over those for sale.
Section 106 agreements
are used to ensure that the properties remain affordable. These are legally
binding requirements that are linked to each property and would include:
Requirement that the rent remained ‘affordable’.
Any sale of the property could only be at 3.5 times the average local income
(currently £82,000).
Priority of access would be for those in identified housing need in this order:
Those within the parish (for around one month of property becoming available)
Those in neighbouring parishes thereafter.
The wider area thereafter.
The priority of access within the parish would be:
Adults who had been resident in the parish for 5 of the previous 10 years
Adults who had parents or guardians that had lived in the parish for the past
10 years.
Adults who had worked in the parish for the past 5 years.
Section 106 requirements will also help ensure landowners sell at reasonable prices as the land can only be used for affordable housing and is therefore not worth as much.
Access to rented affordable housing in Devon is through Devon Home Choice and all those interested are encouraged to register.
Going Forward
Welcombe Parish
Council will endeavour to get answers to questions raised from the meeting
including:
More information on the Community Property Trust scheme
Information and experiences from local Parish Councils that have built affordable
housing
Greater clarification on housing need criteria
Outline of how and when the housing need survey will be refreshed
What impact there may be locally and how can this be mitigated
Information gathered will be presented at the next Welcombe Parish Council meeting on 19th February. A further public meeting will be arranged for the week commencing 25th February where a group may be formed to progress the scheme in coordination with the Parish Council.
Planning Applications
24/01/2013 Land at Hollacombe Farm Use of Land for the siting of * yurts and 6 bell tents. Conversion of barn to form facillities block ancilliary to camp site, proposed solar array and use of hardcore area to form additional car parking. Reference 1/1064/2012/FUL
Applications can
be viewed online at www.torridge.gov.uk/planning
online
Choir Rehearsals
These
are held on the first two Sundays of every month from 5.30pm until 6.30pm
Sundays. The sessions are for working on pieces to sing in the monthly family
service and at important services on the church calendar, such as Harvest
Festival and Christmas and Easter. All ages welcome.
Greg Hookway
Monthly
Discussion Group at the Pub - First Wednesday
Everyone is welcome. Come and enjoy 'cheap food night', helps the discussion
go down well!
Shirley Henderson
Team Vicar: Rev.
Shirley Henderson
01237 440229
Church Warden:
Mrs. Sheila Wade
01288 331391
Services:
lst Sunday each month 9.30am - CW Holy Communion
2nd Sunday 9.30am - Welcombe Service
3rd Sunday 11am. - CW Morning Prayer
4th Sunday 9.30am - BCP Holy Communion
5th Sunday - held in turn at one of the Church's in the Hartland Coast Team
- details in the Church Magazine.
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2005
