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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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9th Aug '09
Every year RegenSW, the sustainable energy agency for this part of England, produces a snapshot survey of the situation in their area of interest. This year two pages are devoted to Devon - and they make interesting reading. The county has the second highest figure for installed capacity at 32.8 megawatts from 152 projects and 27 in the pipeline. Of the 152 some 20 are in Torridge and as a district we produce the largest amount of renewable electricity in Devon whilst we come second for the number of renewable heat projects. I think we should be proud of these figures and, personally, I look forward to the ever greater deployment of renewable energy projects – both for the future good of our population and for the future development of this area.
Torridge provides many services but still has to be run on business lines – hence the ‘Monthly Budget and Performance Report’ all councillors get. Amongst the plethora of detail I noticed a few intriguing points which I asked questions about. Our Business Rate collection is not on target – mainly because a ‘Large National Retailer’ in Bideford has been late in paying - which is galling when you consider that, following requests by the local members of the Federation of Small Businesses for prompt settling of invoices, Torridge now pay all our local suppliers within the target period of 14 days. If we can do it why cannot others? One problem identified was not of our making – the county council’s delay in construction of the in-vessel composter at Deep Moor to take Bideford and area’s compostable waste is now horribly extended. I have been told that much of the county’s answers in a recent Journal were inaccurate to say the least and will be following this up. Perhaps most interesting were the figures I asked for in relation to retrospective planning applications. These are where people build or develop things without permission and then apply after construction. In 2007-8 there were 39 such applications of which 34 were permitted and 5 refused – the 39 making up some 3.4% of all applications. In 2008-9 the number rose to 52 with just 7 being refused – such applications making up 5.3% of all those received. This year, for April to June, there has already been 6 – or 2.5% of all those submitted. In many cases these can be very contentious e.g. overbearing house extensions, light blocking walls, new overlooking windows and massive decking – so Torridge is now trying to be more proactive in tracking these down – although I have to say most cases originate from reports by neighbours angry at unheralded developments on their doorstep.
Town councillors had an intriguing presentation recently from Maria Bailey and Ian Rowland, two of TDC’s officers, about Bideford’s possible development plans for the next 20 years. For a long time now new development has seemed to be seen solely in terms of houses but they stressed that in future such growth must be sustainable with infrastructure and jobs going hand-in-hand with expansion – a message that has come loud and clear from consultations many groups and people. The officers noted there would be more consultation next January and they hope to have the whole work completed and published by May/June 2010. This caused councillor Brian Lacey to query its price as, in his role as chair of the Bideford East-the-Water Residents Group, they had forked out £78 twice over for the last two ‘Plans’. He was assured that the new one would be much smaller and cheaper – indeed the word ‘sensible’ was used. Councillor Andrew Vanstone asked that members of the building trade be closely involved as their experience was of ‘Plans’ made impossible to follow owing to so many competing views – quoting ‘conservation’ as one. Councillor David Ratcliffe simply requested that ‘plain English’ was used in the document so that everyone could actually understand it. Such plans, of course, are subject to the forces of the market and national legislation but we await with interest to see what comes forth next year.
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