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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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2nd December '07
Several months ago I reported on the embarrassing debacle at the town council when Councillor Steve Clarke put forward plans for a ‘Combined Cadet Centre of Excellence’ in Victoria Park. On that occasion the Bideford Blues, who were said to be one of the partners in the venture, turned up at the meeting to say they wanted nothing to do with it. Indeed after listening to the arguments for and against the town council voted not to support a Cadets-only building but rather threw their weight behind a centre for all the many youth organisations in the town to use. I raised this point when the issue came back to Torridge at their last Full meeting when the building once again appeared under the title ‘Combined Cadet Centre of Excellence’ – and some £15,000 of funds were being requested to carry out a feasibility study into the scheme. I never really got an answer to my query about the name but my fellow councillor Adam Symons strongly questioned how any money could be directed at this scheme given that our annual budget had been set many months ago and there was no provision for any spending like this? Councillor Bob Hicks claimed there was an element of urgency over this particular plan and we shouldn’t allow it to ‘fester’ – to which councillor Symons responded ‘We can’t be pushed to shell out this money now’ – and if we are then other budgets would suffer. In answer to his further questions it was pointed out that only £5000 would be coming from Torridge the other £10,000 being split between Bideford town council and the Bridge Trust – which will be news to both these organisations. Whether the town council wants to support just a Cadet’s building and whether the Bridge Trust can actually legally give money for this purpose has yet to be tested but it seemed to many of us an intriguing way of raising funds. On top of all this I should add that councillor Des Shadrick reminded us that the original report from Torridge’s officers on this project listed 14 ‘problem points’ – so if I were you I wouldn’t hold your breath – and no-one has yet even mentioned the running costs of the new building – because Torridge won’t be picking those up!
Christmas is coming and Bideford is doing its bit to try and control problems associated with excessive drinking. At a recent town council meeting we heard from Sarah Simpson of Y-Smart, a charity set up to give advice and information about alcohol as well as drugs and solvents, and Claire Lethaby from Safer North Devon which does similar work. They are mounting a campaign in the run up to Christmas to push the safe drinking message via posters and the media. Additionally members of their staffs in high visibility jackets will help supervise taxi queues which, apparently, are well known as confrontation blackspots. They will also be carrying out street interviews to discover what young people would like to see in the town – let’s hope the answer isn’t more late night clubs and pubs.
Some time ago the town council discussed plans to build affordable homes on some disused allotments at Pollyfield. Before anything could happen, however, the council had to write to the Secretary of State to get their permission to dispose of the land. An answer has now been received via Government Office South West to the effect that permission has been granted. As the site in question adjoins land owned by Torridge which is also under consideration for development then the two bodies might be working together. Councillor Andy Powell trusted the houses would be ‘proper’ ones and not the Lego-brick ones we seem to keep getting – and he also expected that some of the proceeds would be ploughed back into improving the existing allotments. Joint working could, as I pointed out, give the town council a lever to make Torridge use their land for affordable homes – not the current plan as I understand it. Obviously it is very early days yet but as ever one has to start somewhere.
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