March 2025

ST HILARY PARISH COUNCIL Meeting Friday  7^th March 2025

ATTENDANCE,

Cllrs  D Reed, (Chairman) G Ford, (V/Chairman), P Behrens, J Howells, W  Searle, T Thomas, L Vardy, M West.

APOLOGIES

Cllr M Ryan

C/CLLR MARTINS REPORT

St Aubyns Estate Solar Farm Consultation- 18^th March from 2pm to 7pm at St Pirans Hall.

Shortage of construction  workers reported at the Economic Growth and Development Overview and Scrutiny meeting. As a response CC is initiating an increase in apprenticeships-collaboration with local Colleges and the Construction industry.

Alterative budget proposed by Lib Dems-Some of their points were absorbed  into the main Budget So there was only one version of the budget tabled, It was approved by a slender majority ,Council tax set at4.99%,  1.3billion debt critical next year, The budget will have to be balanced, Likely more cuts and redundancies.

Purdah begins Friday 14^th March.

Andrew George Surgery is being organised either at Marazion Community Centre or Church Hall.

Long Rock Beach application has been withdrawn

A30 meeting with National Highways and Andrew George 2pm 21^st March at Murley Hall, Ludgvan.

PUBLIC QUESTION TIME

Nothing Raised

DECLARATIONS OF INTERESTS

Nothing Raised

MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

It was proposed by Cllr Howells and seconded by Cllr Searle that the Chairman sign the minutes circulated prior to this meeting as being a correct record of that meeting,  All Councillors Agreed

CHAIRMANS  REPORT

Nothing to Report

PLANNING.

The Clerk reported that the application PA24/ 06806         Badcock has been recommended for approval by Cornwall Council and the Parish Council has been given 3 options to reply, After a discussion it was decided to go to option 3 and take it to committee.

NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN UPDATE

Further to the update in the February meeting report I have contacted the NDP Team at Cornwall Council for a view on how on how our plan is affected.  There was an indication that possibly 13 NDPs less than five years old might still have valid housing policies provided they can show that they have specific land allocations enabling them to meet the increased targets.  However, they now say that it may be a smaller number than 13 and that St Hilary NDP will definitely not qualify as it has very tightly drawn development boundaries.  Until Cornwall Council can update its local plan to accommodate the increase in housing targets from 2,707 to 4,421 per annum its housing supply policies will be out of date and carry little to no weight in planning decisions which will now have to be based on the National Planning Policy Framework.  That St Hilary has already exceeded its completions target for the whole planning period by a greater amount than the increase required for Cornwall is not deemed sufficient.

For now, although our development boundaries will have little to no weight there are still protections in place regarding building in the open countryside and the development boundaries are useful in indicating where this begins.  However, whereas they had considerable weight in blocking any open market development outside the boundary it will now be more acceptable for open market development to occur just outside the boundary provided it can be shown not to extend into the open countryside.  As the development boundary from 12^th December 2024 no longer provides a legal definition of where the open countryside begins this will give rise to interpretation, uncertainty and disagreement.

Further protections for heritage assets including the WHS and the CNL will still be in place as will all the other policies in our NDP just as they will in the CLP.  So, for our NDP this will cover landscape including green open spaces, environment, heritage, climate change, local facilities, transport and the economy.

CIL PAYMENTS

After a discussion it was decided to purchase a public bench to be sited next to the telephone box  near the School.

Also to get a quote for the installation of a new path around the Open Graveyard, And to look into getting a more upto date version of the Marazion Memories videos.

REPORTS FOR CONSIDERATION

CLLR VARDY              Nothing to report

CLLR  W SEARLE      Nothing to Report

CLLR THOMAS           Nothing to Report.

CLLR  FORD                 Nothing to Report

CLLR  HOWELLS    Concerned about the state of Gorse bushes in the area some seem to be in a bad way.

CLLR  BEHRENS   Alerted Cllrs about the proposed Solar Farm and that we should all make an effort to attend the presentation at St Pirans Hall, Clerk to notify all Councillors two days before the event.

CLLR  WEST  Reported that she has made a map of all the paths that might be affected by the proposed Solar Farm,

CLLR REED   Asked if there has been any progress concerning the site at Halamanning, C/Cllr Martin said he will follow this up and report back to the Clerk.

The Chairman then closed the meeting at  20.08.