June 2025 Extraordinary Meeting Minutes
Digby Parish Council
Notes of the Extraordinary DIGBY PARISH COUNCIL MEETING held on Wednesday 18th 2025 6pm, in Digby War Memorial Hall
PRESENT – Cllrs K Groves, Chairman (KG); J Bourne (JB); G Garton (GG) and H Snowden (HS)
In Attendance – A McDonald, Clerk and Proper Officer.
Public Forum
4 members of the public were present. All comments were in relation to the agenda item of the appeal. It was mentioned that access to the proposed site is a problem due to constant parking on the road from the existing dwellings, so would not be suitable for construction traffic and then there will be long term issues once, or if, the dwellings are built.
There was support for the argument of cumulative development should be taken into account before more development is passed for Digby.
It was felt the appeal failed to address the situations of the application that had been refused by NKDC . It had not addressed the BNG and not addressed the Highway issue, as the land available is not wide enough for a two way road.
District & County Councillors' Matters
Neither the County or District Councillor were present.
The Chairman declared the extraordinary meeting in session
1. Chairman’s Opening Remarks. (25/103)
a).Welcome.
The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.
2. Apologies. (25/104)
Apologies were received from Cllrs A Barnham, D Green and M Lewington.
3. Planning. (25/105)
To consider information to formulate a response, if required, to the planning appeal for 24/1480/FUL Proposed site at land off North Street – Appeal Ref. APR/R2520/W/25/3367064.
The following points will be collated and a letter will be sent to the Planning Inspectorate in regard to the appeal.
• The village are not against development, if it’s the right development on the right land, these 9 proposed dwellings are not infill and will change the footprint of the village neither does the layout of the site blend with the character of the existing properties.
• It was acknowledged that the appeal stated 2 properties are being considered for social houses. It was agreed by the parish council that this should have been on the original application so it could have been considered by the planning department.
• The Parish Council support the request for the ecology report to be carried out at the correct time of the year.
• The Social benefits of providing housing for RAF Digbys expansion can be covered by the 35 houses already approved for Digby village.
• There were concerns about surface water will run off into North Street, if the track is metalled, which will then raise the level of the Beck, creating addition issues with flooding. There would also be serious health and safety issues, because of the dangerous junction
with the B1188 as mentioned in the original comments by the council, as the vehicles using this lane, which is an established walking/recreation route, would put the walkers in danger because of the narrowness of the track.
• The waste water treatment plant at Rowston is not due to have any improvements and is already working to capacity. The parish council agree with Anglian Water that no additional connections to the system can take place.
It was agreed the Clerk will put all the comments together and circulate to the councillors for checking before sending the response to the Planning Inspectorate.
18.45hrs - There being no further business the Chairman closed the meeting and thanked everyone for attending.