The Area We Cover
The Parish Council covers Longdown and the surrounding areas.
Who is on the Council?
There are eleven members of the Council, including the Chairman and the Vice Chairman. Our Chairman is Charles Eden and the Vice Chairman is Louise Brind. A full list of Council Members, their contact details and the Committees they sit on is available here.
Council Members are elected every four years, at the same time as the District Council elections take place. If a Councillor resigns during their term of office, the Parish Council has a statutory duty to advertise the vacancy and to notify the relevant officer at the District Council that this has been done. Unless the required number of parishioners request an election, the Parish Council is then free to co-opt someone to fill the vacancy until the next election.
We employ a clerk to run the administration of the Council. Our current clerk is Jim Roberts. The Council can be contacted via the Clerk on 07768 457590 / 01392 202692 or preferably by email [email protected].
Council Meetings
We meet ten times a year on the second, non-Bank Holiday Monday of the month, at Longdown Village Hall. We do not meet in August due to Council Recess and also not in January.
The meetings usually start at 7.30pm but occasionally start at 7.00pm if there is a presentation by an outside agency.
The meetings are open to the public, but the public are not allowed to speak outside the introductory Open Forum section of the meeting.
Occasionally (for example, during Planning matters) we also drop Standing Orders. This means that members of the public can speak about matters that concern them, or where they can contribute to the debate.
Copies of Minutes for recent meetings are downloadable from this website.
What We Do
The Parish Council is a statutory body. This means that we have set powers and responsibilities, including in relation to housing, allotments, roads and planning.
We discuss local affairs, from potholes in the road and uncut hedges to the planning applications submitted to Teignbridge District Council.
The Parish Council’s powers are limited, but we can recommend action to the District and County Councils and other agencies, based on local knowledge, and we can provide a useful conduit for parishioners to get local issues raised with higher authorities.
Standing Orders and Code of Conduct
2018 Standing Orders and Code of Conduct
How We Work
A great deal of the Council’s work is done between Council meetings.
Each Councillor is a member of one or more Sub-Committees.
All Councillors are also members of the Local Emergency Planning Committee.
A summary of the work of our Committees is as follows. For further information, please contact one of the members of the Committee. You can find their contact details on the ‘Your Councillors‘ webpage
Footpaths and Bridleways
Maintenance and improvements are covered by special annual funding from Devon County Council called the ‘P3 Grant’. The P3 Co-ordinator for our parish is Mike Long who works with the Parish Council and Devon County Council to keep our footpaths and bridleways accessible.
Planning
All local planning applications submitted to Teignbridge District Council are considered by the Parish Council. We have no right to veto a planning application, but our comments are noted by the Planning Officer and Teignbridge’s Planning Committee.
If we feel that an application has special issues for consideration, perhaps because there have been objections, we can ask the District Councillor to recommend that it is placed in Category B. This means that it will be considered by the full Planning Committee at Teignbridge, rather than just the Planning Officer, and that there will probably be a Site Visit by members of that Committee.
We welcome written comments from members of the public about planning applications. We always give careful consideration to these letters.
Play Area
We are responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the Childrens Play Area at the Village Hall. This has undergone resurfacing in 2016 and every year it is inspected by RoSPA to ensure the required standard is met.
How We Are Funded
We receive an annual payment, which is allocated from the Council Tax collected by Teignbridge District Council. This is called the “Precept”, and is itemised on your Council Tax bill.
We spend this money on maintaining the Play Area, employing the Clerk, and on various other projects and donations.
Our Accounts are inspected annually by an external auditor and will be available on here.
How You Can Get Involved
As well as coming to meetings, points which parishioners want to raise can be submitted to the Clerk by email, or raised in the “Questions raised by the Public” section of each Meeting (which is always at the beginning).
Privacy Notice
Due to the change in privacy laws and to comply with the GDPR which is effective from May 25th 2018. Please review our Privacy Notice which refers to how we process and handle data.