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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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2nd September '07
One learns the most surprising things from official publications. The other day I picked up the 2007 ‘Torridge Health Profile’ which gives ‘a snapshot of health in your area’. Prepared by the Department of Health and the odd sounding Association of Public Health Observatories it is full of intriguing titbits of data. Did you know that in Torridge ‘Indicators of health are generally better than….England’ with men living on average a year longer here than in the country as a whole. Again 10% of our residents are dependant on means-tested benefits compared with 13% in England which seems to effectively undercut the urban legend in Bideford that we have attracted large numbers of DHSS claimants from a mythical ‘up North’. Teenage pregnancy rates are ‘low’ compared to the average in the country though we do have above average rates of diabetes. Perhaps most surprising, at least to those people who stop me in the street to complain about drunken young people ‘levels of binge drinking are below the England average’ – though the ‘Profile’ does add the note ‘However, alcohol misuse is a recognised problem in some areas within Torridge’. Indeed hospital stays due to alcohol score 277 compared to the average of 247 – though the worst area in the country scores 652 (the area is not identified but I suspect we could guess.) From my point of view the most worrying figure is the value assigned to ‘GCSE achievement’; the English average figure is 57.5 whilst Torridge’s score is 54. Hopefully the new Bideford College campus when completed in the next few years will redress this. Certainly these figures on the whole seem to strengthen the council’s claim that Torridge is ‘a great place to live, work and visit.’
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