East Coker Parish Council

Welcome to the East Coker Parish Council Website

Posted on November 02, 2011

Welcome to the East Coker Parish Council Website. We hope you find the information on this site useful.

Regular posts will appear on this homepage below this introduction (as well as in their appropriate category pages). These posts will include, but will not be exclusive to, Parish Council Meeting Minutes, information regarding Parish Council activities, and information of interest from other parties such as South Somerset District Council or the Police Authority.

If there is anything you would wish to see here or would like more information on, please do not hesitate to send us an email via the Contact Us page, or come see us at one of the monthly Parish Council meetings (see the Events page). We meet the second Wednesday of every month at East Coker Pavilion, Long Furlong Lane at 7pm; there is a public session at the start of every meeting.

A Small Disclaimer: This website contains links to external websites not under the control of East Coker Parish Council. Though we endeavour to make sure that the links are safe for your viewing, we do not hold responsibility for the content of sites external to this.

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East Coker Parish Council Minutes April 2013

Posted on May 17, 2013

April 2013 Minutes
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Youth Event

Posted on April 23, 2013

As part of the Parish Council’s work, we want to find out what youth provision our young people, aged 11 – 19 years, would like.

We are working with other Parish Council’s and Yeovil Town Council to do a proper consultation. This will take place in East Coker on Thursday 9th May and will be carried out by Somerset Rural Youth Project, who are expert in this kind of work. They will bring their mini-bus to the village and try to encourage young people to join them. The programme will be:

Sports and activities – 4.30pm to 6.30pm on the playing field

Nibbles and drinks – 6.30pm – 7pm at the pavilion

Focus group discussions 7pm to 8.30pm at the pavilion.

All young people between 11 – 19 years are welcome to join in, have fun and give their views. We hope to be able to act on the feedback from the young people. Do not miss out on your chance to have your say.

Please pass this message to any young people you know who live in the parish of East Coker.

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March 2013 Minutes

Posted on April 18, 2013

March 2013 Minutes

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Eden Project

Posted on April 17, 2013

Neighbourhood Planning Resources

http://www.edenproject.com/whats-it-all-about/places-and-regeneration/neighbourhood-planning

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Sandbags

Posted on April 11, 2013

As we all know, East Coker can have issues with flooding. As the weather becomes more unpredictable, this will become a more common occurrence. SSDC has a stock of sandbags and gel-filled bags available for emergencies. These will normally be limited to 6 per external doorway, but additional bags can be purchased.

If you find you need sandbags, call SSDC on 01935 462462 (24hrs).

More information can be found at http://www.southsomerset.gov.uk/environment/emergency-planning/request-sandbags

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Delay of County Councillor Elections

Posted on April 11, 2013

As you may be aware sadly one of the candidates for the Coker division election on May 2^nd, Audrey Spencer, passed away at the beginning of April.

Following today’s noon deadline for the withdrawal of nominations, there is more than 1 candidate remaining and as a result, by law, the poll must be countermanded and the new election will now take place on Thursday May 16^th.

In due course South Somerset District Council will issue new poll cards to the electors of Coker division before May 2^ndand these will include a note regarding the cancellation.

With regards the position of a County Councillor for Coker division, a County Councillor’s term of office is four years and all councillors retire together, on the fourth day after the ordinary day of election (the polling day) and therefore this will mean that from the retirement date until May 16^th, Coker will be without a County Councillor. This is similar to the situation where a sitting County Councillor passes away or retires mid term.

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Parish Ranger Scheme

Posted on April 02, 2013

For several years, general maintenance in the village has been carried out by the Lengthsman, Richard, who has also been doing similar work for other parishes. Richard has now retired and the Lengthsman Scheme has ended. After careful research, it has been decided to use SSDC’s Parish Ranger Scheme in the absence of the Lengthsman Scheme. The new Parish Ranger will start in April, and for the first three months he will spend two days a week on village maintenance reducing to one day per week thereafter.

The Parish Ranger scheme gives us access to a greater number of services than was provided by the previous arrangements. It will include clearing road drains, cutting back overhanging brambles and foliage in public areas, weed treatment, strimming of certain verges, repairs to stiles, fly-tipping and litter removal as well as many other related tasks. The Parish Council invites parishioners to report any necessary maintenance by contacting Councillor Bridget Sugg on 863435 or Councillor Stan Shayler 420291. With changes in funding arrangements for the County and District Councils, greater responsibility for village maintenance rests with the Parish Council who are dedicated to the upkeep and improvement of the village scene. Please contact us if you have any suggestions.

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Village Noticeboard

Posted on April 02, 2013

Councillor Bennett has been working on plans for a noticeboard giving information about places of special interest within the parish. He has developed a format, wording and photographs which are now being made into a draft of the proposed noticeboard. We hope the final version will soon be produced and sited within the Parish.

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Sports Store at the Recreation Ground

Posted on April 02, 2013

Work will soon begin on the creation of a new store for the football and cricket clubs at the Rec. Planning permission has been granted, and we are grateful for £2000 funding which has been given by Councillor Bakewell from the Somerset County Council Health and Wellbeing grant. This will be supplemented by funds from the Parish Council. The old store will be demolished and the larger, improved store will allow equipment and machinery to be stored safely close to, but separate from, the Pavilion. We hope that it further enhances the enjoyment and health promotion of all the local people who participate in these sports.

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Neighbourhood Plan – Last Quarter

Posted on April 02, 2013

Work has continued a pace in the process of Neighbourhood Planning. We have met with Andy Foyne and other South Somerset District Council (SSDC) officers on two occasions and have continued to emphasise that we still object to the development as suggested within the draft Local Plan, but we want to proceed with the statutory Neighbourhood Plan (NP) to give us some input to the detail of future development within the Parish, whilst having to conform to the Local Plan when adopted.

We have:

delivered an information sheet to every dwelling and business in the parish;
started the process of producing a questionnaire which will be available for all parishioners and those

working within the parish;
started to structure the evidence base which will be needed for the NP;
set up a dedicated area on the East Coker Parish Council website www.EastCokerParish.com

to keep people informed of what is happening, including notes of meetings etc;
plans to develop social media facilities.

Councillor Kath Wilson attended a free three day planning conference in Bristol to learn more about the process.

We have submitted the application for the NP area to be the same as the parish boundary to SSDC, and their consultation runs until 2 May 2013. With the support of independent consultants, who are grant- funded to help us, we have been working on a Memorandum of Understanding for working with SSDC, who have a duty to support our NP development. We will soon send this to them for their comments, and hopefully it will be adopted as the basis for agreement on how we work together.

We have already had offers of help from parishioners, many thanks to you all. I will be in touch as we progress through the tasks. If you are interested or can help in any way, please contact a Parish Councillor or Councillor Kath Wilson on 475029, kath.wilson@sky.com.

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