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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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7th December '08
Amongst recent planning applications to come before the town council plans committee was a fairly bulky one for the internal re-organisation of, and extension to, the Pollyfield Centre at East-the-Water. The idea of the trustees who submitted the application is to widen the existing facilities to include a new youth club, boxing club and restaurant plus a larger car park. These new facilities will be housed in a two storey extension on the South and Western sides which will in turn overlook a newly refurbished BMX track the plans of which also came before the same planning committee. Some of the new building’s energy needs will be supplied by new solar panels on the South facing wall. Both ideas are marvellous and the councillors unanimously supported them – a decision reinforced by a very optimistic presentation about the BMX track to the full council a day after the planning committee saw the plans. Obviously funding will be the next hurdle to cross but the town council has agreed in principle to take out a large loan to cover a lot of the Pollyfield costs and this scheme seems one that will be going forward – so congratulations to the Pollyfield trustees who have put in so much hard work to get this far. As to the BMX track I suggested we start the ball rolling with a grant of £12,500 which councillor Tony Inch seconded and the council accepted. I would just mention that amongst the supporting documents was a rather bizarre ‘Flood Risk Assessment’. Anyone who knows the site will, of course, realise that if Pollyfield is flooded there wouldn’t be many people left in Bideford to worry about it! At the same meeting as the BMX grant was discussed we decided we also voted to financially support ‘in principle’ the combined Community and Cadet Centre – though no figures were suggested. Councillor Steve Clarke assured us that some £600,000 has already been pledged to this scheme so hopefully all three ideas now have their financial legs.
Bideford produces a lot of rubbish – just wait until the post-Christmas pyramids of black bags appear on our streets if you don’t believe me! Currently this material, along with all the waste from Torridge and North Devon district council areas goes to Deep Moor near Torrington but as you will have read in the Journal a new super-incinerator is planned at Seven Brethren Bank in Barnstaple which, presumably, will take all this material. Needless to say a campaign to stop the incinerator a) being built and b) being sited in the middle of Barnstaple, has been launched and I must say I certainly sympathise with these sentiments. What, however, is the alternative? – especially as Deep Moor will run out of room soon and there are no new ‘holes in the ground’ identified for a new landfill site. The obvious answer would seem to be not producing the waste in the first place especially when one considers that packaging waste has risen twenty-fold in the last 50 years and now makes up one third of all household rubbish. Certainly I reckon shops, especially the large supermarkets, could cut down on the very large quantities of packaging they produce – much of which seems unnecessary. In addition we could re-introduce deposits (of a meaningful size) on bottles etc to encourage their return and re-use. I suspect that many in Bideford will merely shrug their shoulders thinking that because it is in Barnstaple it won’t affect them – but this is something we all need to tackle as it is literally on our own doorstep.
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