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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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5th Oct '08
Did you see the recent report that labelled many new houses in Britain as ‘rabbit hutches’ owing to their small room sizes? Such houses with their minimal spaces available for everyday living have been identified as adding to social problems and even depression amongst those inhabiting them. I mention this as some recent developments in Bideford must surely fall into this category – and in some instances I have heard people label them as ‘the slums of the future’ – no names but I suspect many will know the houses I am talking about. So why are they being built? Firstly there is the very high price of land which encourages builders to squeeze in as many houses as they can – a move fostered by government legislation which stipulates a relatively high minimum number of new houses per hectare. This was designed to help safeguard greenfield sites and could work if only builders were prepared to spend money on proper architects who weren’t just working to a tight budget. I would point to the Post Office Mews off of Bideford High Street as a good example of what can be achieved on a small site (and yes I am a member of the Bridge Trust who built these houses.) Secondly there is no regulation specifying legally binding space standards which seems very odd as these do apply to the workplace. Thirdly, the enormous growth in the buy-to-rent sector seems to have generated a whole new group of landlords who apparently have little concern about the size or suitability of the accommodation they are leasing out. Of course I could play devil’s advocate and blame it on the space hunger of modern society i.e. we all seem to own enormous quantities of ‘stuff’ which we have to house somewhere. Go back in time and small houses weren’t really a problem as most people owned so little that it could easily be accommodated in smaller houses. I wonder if the current crash in the construction industry will lead to any change in this sorry situation?
The saga of the pebble ridge and the Westward Ho! Golf Club continues – almost as regularly as tides come and go. The latest news is that the Overview and Scrutiny committee of Torridge has recommended that the council give a maximum of £3000 to the Club to help pay for emergency repairs to the ridge i.e. moving pebbles from the Skern end to where the ridge is weak. Unfortunately the Club appear to think the council is to pay 1/3 of the total costs which isn’t the same thing at all as these might be as high as £18,000. The council leader James Morrish demanded to know where these figures were coming from as he certainly hadn’t seen any details – indeed he wondered if they hadn’t been arrived at following ‘a chat over a friendly glass of wine.’ He also pointed out that the initial agreement was for Northam town council to contribute a lump sum as well – but their share came down to them waiving the £2700 charged to the Club for grass cutting. Additionally Devon county council hadn’t coughed up anything either – so why should Torridge? I did ask whether it was true that the current ‘weakness’ was moving along the ridge – and if so would we be approached to pay for similar ‘repairs’ every time it moved? Our solicitor replied that this might be the case but the present scheme was to ‘buy time’ for the Club to move their endangered greens elsewhere on the Burrows. Councillor Steve Clarke also asked if any moves had been made to offer the course to the Club for a lump sum – with £750,000 to £800,000 mentioned. Whether Torridge can actually sell the land is, of course, another thing altogether but the fairly heated debate ended with we councillors being told that 3000 tonnes of pebbles were to be moved even though, to quote councillor Chris Leather, a lot of the missing pebbles had come back to the ridge ‘naturally’ since the issue first came before us.
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