Category Archives: Local News
Parish Council Meeting Tuesday 29 July 7.30 pm Tunley Recreation Centre
BANES Local Plan Regarding Possible Location of Houses
and Somersetshire Coal Canal Policy Consultation
Overview of the Plan
BANES Council is currently working on a new local plan. A local plan is how local councils implement the national government plan for new housing and related development with respect to considerations such as design, impact on the Green Belt, sustainability, historic environment and natural environment amongst others.
The BANES Local Plan consultation will be about possible sites for new houses and new planning policies along with amendments to current planning polices.
BANES consultation will be in the autumn of this year. The parish council will be responding to this consultation but wanted to inform parishioners of aspects of this plan that you may also wish to respond to by taking part in the consultation yourself.
- Possible sites for new houses.
- Possible changes to the existing planning policy relating to the Somersetshire Coal Canal called policy HD/SCCW Somersetshire Coal Canal and the Wansdyke.
Policy HD/SCCW Somersetshire Coal Canal and the Wansdyke
As parts of the parish in Dunkerton, Withyditch and Tunley are on the route of the Somersetshire Coal Canal the parish council would like to inform you that BANES will be consulting on 2 possible versions of this existing policy.
Protection of the route
Retain the existing policy which aims to prevent further loss of the route from building development.
Or
Restoration/Creation
Amend the existing policy option so that it supports restoration/creation of the route (by the Somersetshire Coal Canal Society) with the creation of a new buffer route, and consideration of the deletion of routes already lost to development. Any restoration works would require the agreement of landowners before any works take place.
If you live close to the historic route of the Somersetshire Coal Canal, these options to varying degrees may limit or inhibit development you may have in mind for your property, so it is important you are aware of them and, through the consultation, express your preferences.
If you have any questions relating to this please contact our planning leads Cllrs Martin Robinson and Hannah Willert or the clerk.
| Parish Council Contact | Telephone | E Mail |
| Cllr Robinson | 07484 768021 | martinrobinson1188@gmail.com |
| Cllr Willert | 07971 001202 | hannahwillertcouncil@gmail.com |
| Clerk Kathryn Manchee | 01761 411305 | Clerk.dunkerton@googlemail.com |
The BANES Local Plan can be viewed on the BANES website at
Parish Council Meeting Tuesday 24 June 7.30 pm Tunley Recreation Centre
BANES COUNCIL’S COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT – INFORMATION AND AN INVITATION
BANES Council ‘s Community Engagement Team (CET) holds periodic meetings to try to engage face to face with local communities. Information about these meetings – called Community Engagement Forums – is published here:
We are in the Bathavon Area Forum.
Prior to COVID, these meetings had drifted to a point where they were mainly attended by parish councillors. That wasn’t the intent, as the meetings duplicated a lot of stuff that was being done at other BANES meetings held specifically for parish councillors!
Post COVID, the BANES CET has made a real effort to get these meetings back to what they should be: meetings of interest to BANES residents – particularly residents running local organisations, clubs and businesses.
It should be an opportunity to hear directly from, or flag up directly to, the BANES Team those things that are causing problems today or might help or hinder your future plans.
The next Bathavon Area Forum meeting will be on Wednesday 25 June from 6.00pm at Camerton Community Hall, Meadgate. Do plan to drop in if this opportunity sounds of interest.
David Orme
Chairman, Dunkerton & Tunley Parish Council
Annual Parish Council Meeting 7.30 pm Thursday 22 May Dunkerton Parish Hall
2025 2026 PRECEPT AND PARISH COUNCIL BUDGET
Dear Parishioners,
Dunkerton & Tunley Parish Council Funding
The parish council’s work is funded by the precept, which you pay as part of your Council Tax. Each parish council determines its own level of precept to fund its work through an annual budget setting exercise, but the billing of it is undertaken by the local Council – in our case, by BANES.
The activities funded include:
- The employment of our highly experienced clerk, who is also our Responsible Financial Officer
- Training for councillors and staff
- Maintenance of our various parish assets such as phone boxes, green spaces including land owned by the parish, bus shelters, street lighting
- Room hire costs for parish council meetings
- Maintenance of the parish website (by law the parish council has to be able to display information such as agendas, meetings and financial information on a website)
- Insurance
For many years when setting its annual budget the parish council did its utmost to keep the precept as low as possible. However over several years those budgets resulted in a year end deficit – the parish council’s expenditure each year had exceeded its income.
Obviously this could not go on. We could not keep eating into our reserves which, by law, have to be maintained at a minimum equivalent to three month’s expenditure.
Therefore, just over a year ago, the parish council decided to increase the precept more than usual, with the rise spread over two years to soften the blow. We are approaching April and the second of these 2 financial years, and the increase as planned will amount to £9.01 per annum (based on a Band D household). For an individual household (based on Band D) this equates to 17p a week.
Based on research on the level of precepts in other similarly sized parishes within Bath and North East Somerset, the level of precept still remains lower than many and is below the national average.
Your parish council, in keeping with most other parish councils, has only the one source of income: the precept. We are investigating other possible sources of income by diversifying the use of parish council owned land. One example is the cricket ground in Dunkerton where, thanks to the cooperation of the Bristol Lions cricket club, we have been able to reduce significantly the costs to the parish council of its maintenance.
Thank you for your continued support. Your councillors will endeavour to continue maintaining the parish for as low a cost to you as possible.
Regards
Cllr David Orme, Chairman Dunkerton & Tunley Parish Council
Parish Council Meeting Tuesday 25 February 2025 7.30 pm Tunley Recreation Centre
RiverBlitz 2024
On their eighth year of delivering RiverBlitz the Bristol Avon Rivers Trust is hopeful that enthusiastic citizen scientists will sign up in record numbers to help gather important data on the health of rivers and streams across the Avon catchment.
If you would like to get involved in this year’s project, please register for your kit using the link here: https://bristolavonriverstrust.org/riverblitz/register
Dunkerton · Tunley · Withyditch 