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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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1st July '07
The first motion of the new district council was passed at the Community Development committee a few weeks ago. Put forward by Green Councillor Miranda Cox it saw Torridge replying to a government consultation on the forthcoming Climate Change Bill. This is intended to bring in measures to help tackle global warming and it could have major ramifications for this area. There were 20 questions and our answers included the points that government targets of reducing CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050 were thought too low and methane emissions would need to be checked just as much as those of other greenhouse gases. In addition Torridge said there was a ‘need to consider the decentralisation of energy - encouraging locally produced energy that is more economically beneficial and secure.’ As I have noted before residents of Torridge spend around £50 million per year on their energy bills which is appreciably higher than areas elsewhere- and we consume some 12.5% more energy than any other area of Devon. If we could produce this energy locally it would both save us money and boost the local economy – something often ignored when nimbys attack such schemes.
How nice to read the letter in last week’s Journal congratulating the men who run the new CARC or Civic Amenity Recycling Centre at Clovelly Road. Anyone who has been up there will have seen for themselves how well laid out the whole thing is and how efficiently the place is run. I am always intrigued how virtually everyone who goes there cannot resist looking in the ‘hut’ that houses things that you can buy. If you have anything you think is to good to be recycled then leave it in the ‘hut’ and with luck someone will buy it thus subsidising the whole scheme – and stopping something potentially going for landfill. Recycling is now the flavour of the day of course and one way of increasing it wherever it has been tried has been fortnightly rubbish collections. Coming so soon after the withdrawal of ‘free’ black bags it definitely won’t be popular but come it will, mark my words.
The decision by Exeter City Council to ‘seek unitary status’ and go it alone separate from Devon County continues to reverberate as you may have seen in last week’s Journal. You may think the redrawing of political boundaries is a fairly arcane matter and is of interest only to councillors and council officers but think again. If Exeter do succeed (and it is a Labour council seeking permission from a Labour government) and Devon loses the city’s contributions to its overall tax income then the rest of the district council in Devon will not be able to fund and continue to run services as they do at present. There are three possible outcomes; one, services decline, two, council tax goes up, three, districts amalgamate to cut overheads. The third is probably the most attractive and we could see Torridge going in with North Devon at least and perhaps even some parts of West Devon. In crude monetary terms this makes sense but how would Bideford, Torrington and Holsworthy feel being bossed around by Barnstaple? One only has to read the Journal to see the high level of complaints from Ilfracombe who feel they have been sidelined by the council leaders in Barnstaple. There again if North Devon District Council do go ahead and knock down the Civic Centre in Barnstaple what better place to move the new seat of local government to than Bideford – geographically central and a place that is still recognisably a Devon town rather than the ‘clone-town’ Barnstaple has become. Just a thought!
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