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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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5th July '09
I am constantly stopped in the streets of Bideford by people with ‘good ideas’ as to what the council needs to do in the town. I always listen but cannot follow up all of them but there is now some good news. Some months ago Torridge signed up to the Sustainable Communities Act which is designed to encourage people and communities to come forward with ideas to foster sustainability in their area – with this rather vague term covering everything that improves the social, economic and environmental features of an area and promotes involvement. Given the recent shockingly low turnout in county and European elections then heaven knows we need that. The first 15 ideas have now come in following a press publicity campaign and they have been initially looked at by a panel of local people before coming before the council. They include ones suggesting a ‘council tax levy’ on second homes with the money raised going to build affordable homes, tighter planning controls on agricultural buildings and even a new pavement between Londonderry and Abbotsham. One that was close to my heart wanted penalties for retrospective planning applications. As chair of the town council planning committee I have noticed more of these and we had a very contentious one to look at recently. I have asked council officers to prepare details about numbers of such applications as there is a feeling around that Torridge rarely takes action against offenders. Councillor Bob Hicks did point out that, in his opinion, some people didn’t bother applying for planning permission because our planning officers ‘are so unreasonable as to make it not worth applying.’ This was immediately challenged by Torridge’s solicitor Ken Miles who reckoned there were two reasons for people not applying: a. people don’t realise that most developments need permission and b. some hope that no-one will notice! At this point councillor Len Ford asked how many illegally built properties Torridge had ordered to be ‘flattened’ over the last 5 years? – and received the simple answer ‘None’. Of course councillor Ford has a very interesting retrospective planning application being decided on soon in his own ward in Appledore so he has more than a passing interest in these things. We are going to get a report on how we can tighten up on such applications – and which of the ideas under the Sustainable Communities Act will be followed up.
For those of you wondering about the exciting possibility of recyclable material being transported through Bideford port there is a little more news. Following my suggestion to do this and a lot of hard work by the harbour master Roger Hoad things are now progressing. The managing director of Recresco, the firm which currently transports this material by road, is due to visit Bideford in the next few weeks to see for himself what the town can offer both in terms of shipping and facilities and we are very hopeful about putting a full planning application in soon to get the scheme up and running. I should add that a full Risk Assessment and Work Plan is being drawn up although any problems there might be do not seem to be that difficult. Let’s keep our fingers crossed on this.
This news was relayed to councillors at a meeting of the Harbour Board where we also heard further news of the North Devon Ferry Project between Appledore and Instow which readers may recall reading about a year ago. Since then a new operator, Paul White, has taken over and has actually purchased the amphibious passenger vessel which is a bit like the old military DUKWs but which was custom built to much higher specifications in the Channel Islands a few years ago. The craft, currently being stored and refurbished at Yelland, is 12.2 metres long and weighs 15 tonnes and was operating in Jersey up until 3 years ago. It can carry up to 40 passengers but in order to meet legal guidelines Mr.White will only be carrying 12 people for the foreseeable future. At the Harbour Board meeting he answered many of our questions to do with mud spillage, environmental impacts on the river bed and safety problems over use of the slipway at Appledore bearing in mind how heavily used this is at times in Summer. The Board members were all in favour of this new ferry though we decided that operations will be centred around the Appledore steps and the old ferry steps at high tide which is when the slipway is busiest. At low tide the slipway is large enough to take both the craft and other users. Mr.White seemed satisfied with this and expressed the hope that his novel craft would be driving/sailing sometime this month. I am sure it will be a crowd pleaser and should enhance the area’s attractions a great deal.
Whilst writing about the port I might add that I raised the possibility of getting passenger vessels to call at Bideford – and was disappointed when the harbour master said the ones I had suggested were too large. Being proactive, however, he had already identified smaller ships that could access the port and he will be researching this further and reporting back to us.
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