| Join the Green Party and you'll receive our local quarterly newsletter, as well as invitations to Green Events. You'll be invited to attend meetings, join our discussion list, vote on issues, and contribute to our campaigns and policies for North Devon. |
The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
Previous entries
|
4th May '08
Devon County council have now come up with their ideas of what a new ‘Unitary’ could be like. They envisage an Exeter City Board to run the city plus 28 ‘democratically accountable Community Boards’. These would be based on the county’s 28 market and coastal towns plus ‘surrounding parishes’. Each ‘Board’ would comprise of an elected Unitary councillor plus representatives of the town and parish councils along with ‘non voting’ members from service partners, business groups, voluntary and faith communities plus people from neighbourhood associations ‘nominated by a Community Forum.’ The ‘Board’ under its leader and champion’ Unitary councillor would then decide the priority for their area. I’m unsure how these boards will be ‘democratically accountable’ seeing that the number of genuinely elected members seems to be so small with only one Unitary councillor running the show. More importantly perhaps there is no mention of where the property holdings of existing district councils are to go. I know that my fellow town councillors expect to take over the town hall, car parks and parks in Bideford but I suspect it won’t be as straightforward as that. Any new Unitary authority would clearly want to get its hands on such property which it might then franchise back to the parishes – so the net result of re-organisation would be less local control in this area. I could, of course, be wrong but given central government’s enthusiasm to centralise more and more local government I am not too optimistic.
The developments now going on at East-the-Water are not all large estates, at least one of those planned is a small and, it has to be said, very unusual scheme. Indeed on first sight the town council plans committee had a mass dropping of jaws! It consists of 12 ultra modern eco-houses to be built in Cleave Wood, Mines Road. This is of course the old scrap yard where culm and coal mining used to be carried on so I cannot see anyone objecting to its tidying up. The scheme which already has outline planning permission i.e. the principle of building there is accepted, has been prepared by Dorset County Homes who are based in Blandford Forum. Only part of the site is being used for housing the rest is being put aside for a ‘Wilderness Area’. They are hardly ‘traditional’ houses but are real constructions of the 21st century. The main problem with the application is the potential soil and groundwater contamination and the developer has commissioned a very large report on this aspect. The scrap material on the surface has all been removed but analysis showed ‘moderate’ contamination and the company carrying out the tests suggests removing the soil in the gardens of the proposed houses to a depth of one metre and replacing it with ‘clean’ material. Additionally buildings will be designed to prevent gases possibly seeping up from the soil below the houses. The town council plans committee voted unanimously to pass the development which now goes to Torridge for a final decision. One thing that did intrigue me was that the people carrying out the site investigation dug 16 trial pits on the site to test soil and analyse the geology – and in one of them some 1.3m (4’ 4”) down came across an old railway line sitting on the bedrock. Old photographs do show a small mineral line used for removing the culm – but I for one didn’t realise it was still there.
A year ago the town council invited the then newly elected President of the Bideford Chamber of Commerce to regularly address the councillors on subjects of mutual interest. Unfortunately we saw virtually nothing of the Chamber’s representative but now the Bideford Chamber has split from the North Devon one and become its own master. In addition there is a new President, David Howells and he made a point of coming along to our April meeting, introducing himself and laying out areas where he believes we could work in unison. The Chamber itself after a period of being heavily ‘politicised’ by some of its members is trying to revive its sadly depleted membership roll and have reduced their fees to make themselves more attractive. Actual concrete aims were rather sketchy as yet but one that did catch my eye was their drive to produce an annual ‘Calendar of Events’. As Mr.Howells pointed out there are numerous things going on in the town yet often people are not aware of them – and sometimes unfortunate clashes occur. Hopefully the compilation of a ‘Calendar’ will overcome both difficulties and I wish them luck. On both occasions I have been Mayor it has come as a real eye-opener to discover the number of clubs and events one is invited to attend. Bideford is a town full of life and anything which helps people to enjoy it to its full is to be welcomed.
Website designed by Jon Hooper
Published and promoted by Jon Hooper, 3 Elizabeth Court, Well Street, Torrington EX38 8EP on behalf of the North Devon Green Party, 1 Taw View Terrace, Bishops Tawton, EX32 0AW
PLEASE NOTE: Not all of the material presented on this site is necessarily Green Party Policy or endorsed by The Green Party.