Westleigh Parish Council Meeting Minutes

Wednesday 3rd September 2025, 7 pm at Westleigh Village Hall

Attendees – Cllrs Heard, Gear, Saxby, Moores, NDCllr Coombs & Parish Clerk, plus 12 members of the public

Min 21 25/26 – Apologies received – Cllr Gear, DCCllr Biederman.

Min 22 25/26 – Declarations of Interest – none declared

Min 23 25/26 – Minutes – To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on the 9th July 2025 – agreed unanimously

Min 24 25/26 – Matters arising – The purchase of the Westleigh Phone Box has been acknowledged, and is now awaiting the removal of the telemetry equipment. Once done, a completion certificate will be issued, and it will be up to the Village to decide what use the Phone Box is put to.

Min 25 25/26 – County & District Reports – NDCllr Coombs report is attached as Appendix A. DCCllr Biederman apologised for his absence, but reiterated his message from July that he is always available to be contacted by email or phone, to help wherever possible. Cllr Heard asked if it had been noticed that the bus stops at the junction with the Bideford/Instow road had been vandalised with graffiti? It was also asked if there had been any complaints about the lack of visibility at the Torridge side of the road, looking towards Bideford, due to overgrowing foliage. The Clerk agreed to look into both issues.

Min 26 25/26 – Correspondence & Communications – most of the correspondence received had been related to the Christie’s proposal, and placed on the Planning Application Objections. NDCllr Coombs report updated the meeting, and is attached as Appendix A. Stagecoach had informed the PC that some minor changes had been made to some local bus routes, the Dogs Trust Ifracombe wanted to know if they could come along to a PC meeting and explain the changes they were making to the rehoming process, and the date of the next Parish Forum has been confirmed as the 1st October, 18.30 at Brynsworthy – agenda to follow. A complaint regarding the smell of fertiliser had been forwarded to Christies, and cc’d to WPC. As it is part and part of ‘Country’ life, the complaint was acknowledged through the WA Village Group, with no further action planned. However Farmer John May who attended the meeting, said that he would try wherever possible to notify the PC of future dates for fertilisation of local fields, for which he was thanked.

Min 27 25/26 – Public Session – a general discussion was held regarding the state of the Christie’s planning application, and what the possible outcomes could be, subsequently refused by the Planning Officer on the 5th September, thereby negating any need to document the detail.

Min 28 25/26 – Bulworthy Solar Farm update – Westleigh Parish Council submission objecting to Bulworthy Solar Farm – passed unanimously 03/09/25 - North Devon Council ref:80402, Torridge District Council ref: 1/0470/2025/FULM

Westleigh specific:

- The parish were not invited to the initial consultation, despite the battery storage being entirely within the parish boundary and the public consultation has been limited, and with the application coming out mid summer little opportunity for residents to be aware of the full implications of this development.

- The planning notice for the battery units is in the wrong field creating further confusion

- The fire service have detailed their concerns about the battery storage units which are comprehensive

- In addition there are traffic concerns for the Eastleigh side of the parish as demonstrated by the chaos caused with the A39 closure due to an accident on 19/08/24

- The proposed community fund from this site is the same as the Litchardon Cross one, despite the site being significantly larger, and also has the higher risk battery storage as well

Validity of the application

- Concern has been raised about the validity of the entire application.  The battery storage part is completely distinct from the main solar panels – should it be a separate application?  There is nothing in the plans detailing how the storage is to be connected to either the panels or the grid.  The panels themselves do not appear to have a confirmed grid connection either.  

- Support for the XLinks project has been withdrawn by the government as it is not in the national interest. This project is conveniently scaled just below being defined as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP), however, we believe it should be referred to the Secretary of State due to its relationship with the Alverdiscott substation – which clearly is linked to multiple NSIPs – and the viability of this project is completely determined by future grid capacity at the substation and should be determined post the release of National Grid’s Strategic Spatial Energy Plans.

Regional/National:

This development is one of a number of large solar farms linked to our proximity to the Alverdiscott substation and this one would see our neighbouring parish of Horwood become 7% solar panels and Alverdiscott 10% covered.  There is much concern over the cumulative nature of the development, particularly the impact on Northern Devon’s solar heat island effect, and that this 25% of this development is on agricultural grade 3A land.

At present it appears that the application does not have a confirmed grid connection.  Whilst not currently a planning requirement, concern has been raised within the House of Commons about its absence:  On 7th July 2025 the House of Commons Energy and Net Zero Committee Report: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cmselect/cmesnz/868/report.html  was published which amongst other things recommends that National Planning Policy should regard the ability to connect a renewable project, including solar, to the National Grid, as a "Material Consideration" when the LPA is considering the planning application. 

With the cancellation by the government of the XLinks project (still in the queue at Alverdiscott!) there is not clarity on whether planned substation upgrades will progress at Alverdiscott which may make access to the grid less likely, as has been recognised by the Gammaton developer:  “Any solar/wind applications you're dealing with at the moment though - will be struggling to keep to their expected timelines and dealing with a high level of uncertainty with regards to their earliest date of energy export.”

National Grid have confirmed their Strategic Spatial Energy Plan which will determine the amount of electricity each region is required to produce will not report until end of 2026.  Strong arguments are being made that no further applications for solar farms here should be made until there is clarity about the grid connection, else we are potentially looking at fields of solar panels not producing electricity, with an international investor controlling them.  Particularly given the likelihood that significant floating offshore wind developments will land into our region, the second phase are in the Alverdiscott queue, which may reduce our region’s need to produce renewable energy from solar.

Concern has also been raised about the provenance of the solar panels as the production of solar panels in China's Xinjiang region has been linked to the alleged exploitation of Uyghur Muslims and a government amendment is awaited on this supply chain element.

Overall there is a sense that we already have significant solar farm developments across Northern Devon constructed and which have cleared planning, and that it is not clear that this one is required for our national or local energy requirements. Cllr Saxby was thanked for her comprehensive and detailed report.

Min 29 25/26 – Litchardon Solar Farm update – Cllr Saxby informed the Council that the expectation is that the funding agreement will go ‘live’ to applications before the end of September, with the first payments likely in early 2026. The first ‘pot’ is double value due to the delay in progressing the fund, and Grantscape will help provide the materials to advertise the availability, and application criteria and detail. This is a real opportunity to look at what additional funding could do for the Village, for the Parish Council, and for the Parish as a whole. Cllr Saxby reiterated her willingness to help with any queries that may be raised

Min 30 25/26 – Village Emergency Plan – Cllr Saxby informed the meeting that a Community Workshop had been booked for Westleigh Village Hall on Wednesday 15th October, 6-8pm, to formulate a VEP specifically for Westleigh Parish. More information can be obtained from rod.birtles@devoncommunities.org.uk

Min 31 25/26 – Finance – retrospective agreement was asked for and received for several invoices received between meetings, those being 2 invoices from J Harris for maintenance work. The annual salary increase agreed by NALC for Parish Clerks, and backdated to 1/4/25 had been agreed by the Chair and Vice-Chair (as Finance Committee) which equated to an additional 43pence per hour. Cllr Heard asked if a year end projection could be produced, which the Clerk agreed to do.

Bank Reconciliation – September 3rd 2025

Balance as at 31st March 2025    £3397.05

Precept  (half year)      £3098

  Total      £6495.05

Cheques paid out and presented    £2714.64

Cheques outstanding      £100.00

    Total    £2814.64

Balance allowing for outstanding cheques   £3680.41

Min 32 25/26 – Next meeting – 5th November, 7pm (may change due to historical celebrations)

Appendix A – NDCllr Coombs Report

Application 80423

The public consultation period has closed. You will see on the portal that some consultees have raised concerns being over proximity to Rock cottage and a request for updating of information around local housing need.

To explain about housing need. This is referring to persons that are registered as requiring social housing. There is a process for persons to go through to see if they qualify. As part of this it will record the local area they have a connection to. They may not currently live in that area and maybe in temporary housing or rental housing.

The process for the application will now be that if the officer is minded to refuse the application they can do this under delegated powers. If the officer is minded to approve the application I have put it forward for “call in” which means it would go before the planning committee for a decision. If the latter was to happen up to 6 persons in support and up to 6 objectors would be able to give a short presentation to the planning committee.

Application 80402

Cllr Biederman and I have been keeping ourselves up to date on the application and have been in communication with the temporary planning officer. We have made some enquiries with the planning officer around the status of the connection to the national grid. We have requested that the planning officer make enquiries directly with national grid.

NDC full council held an extraordinary meeting and voted in agreement upon having a joint planning committee with Torridge District Council to deal with this application. Nine counsellors from each council will sit on the committee.

Local government re-organisation

North Devon Council continues to engage with other district councils and have engaged a company to put together data to analyse the 4-5-1 model.

Other updates

North Devon and Torridge district councils are sharing important information to help plan for future changes along the northern Devon coastline. Both councils are looking at long-term coastal risks to ensure that future development in the region is well planned. This work will form part of the wider evidence used for future planning.





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