| 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
|
6th January '08
Once a year the various councils that run this area set their precept i.e. set the level of the council tax they will be collecting from the population. At its December meeting the town council set a rate which has only increased by 2% on last year’s figure – which sounds good until you realise that last year’s increase was absolutely massive being set deliberately high to allow some £100,000 to be put aside for ‘regeneration projects’. Unfortunately, as councillor Trevor Johns pointed out, no such ‘projects’ came forward during the year but this hasn’t stopped the council going ahead and raising another £100,000 lump sum to go into this ‘regeneration’ pot. Let us hope that a positive and workable scheme emerges in 2008. I say this as some of the schemes proposed in the past haven’t really matched either criteria. One intriguing spin-off from this was the mention by the Mayor David Ratcliff that a letter had been sent out by the Bideford Regeneration Initiative to developers throughout the country inviting them to buy the Brunswick Wharf site and build something on it. I say interesting as this was first the town council had heard of this – and it was news to those councillors who also sit on Torridge which is all the more surprising as it is actually Torridge who own the site! Yet again there seems to have been a major and embarrassing breakdown in communications between the BRI and the councils that actually fund it. All I can say is that I hope that when Torridge do sell the site and the temporary car park there disappears that the council will carry out a better public consultation than seems to have been the case with the New Street car park in Torrington which has seen my email in-box stuffed with indignant messages.
You may recall me writing before about one of my pet hobbyhorses – the need to bring accommodation above shops in the town centre back into use. The reasons why are obvious; currently empty space is used, the presence of people deters criminals and often this accommodation is attractive to single people – a rapidly growing yet under provided for demographic today. Given all that you can imagine how pleased I was to see amongst recent planning applications one to provide 5 new flats above Barclay’s Bank at the corner of High Street and Mill Street. As with so many banks today Barclays have sold the freehold of their building (on-line banking is making building assets less attractive) and the new owners, Eros Properties of London, are the ones behind this application. There will, of course, be no parking provided with these flats, but as they will be right in the town centre the people renting them will be right next to any shops they need to go to. The town council planning committee have passed it so now it goes to Torridge with a final decision being expected in January.
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.