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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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14th December '08
With the on-going complaint that Tesco should have given more than £10,000 to the town still rumbling on it was instructive to revisit the Asda contribution of £100,000 to Bideford. A small group has been set up to see where the money could be spent to the best advantage and its minutes make interesting reading. The meeting began by bemoaning the current lack of contact between Bideford and Atlantic Village where Asda is based and how difficult it was to attract visitors who went to both. A ‘town centre manager’ was suggested but given the failure of an earlier creation this was not supported – and whilst a joint approach to Christmas events had ‘fallen apart’ everyone was still keen on improving links. The possibility of involving the Bideford Regeneration Initiative was floated but it was thought the whole thing would become ‘too long winded if they were included.’ Following full discussions the net result of the meeting was to concentrate on developing a ‘brand identity for Bideford’ and on marketing both the town and Atlantic Village as one destination. Rather oddly final decisions on how to spend the money will have to go before Torridge’s Policy committee for ratification. Clearly this joint working between councils and private companies is a new one in the town and one could expect some teething problems but the overall impression left from this meeting was positive – with a clear determination by all partners to do the best for Bideford. Given the severity of the current recession, of course, it might pay the partners to hold off spending until a definite up-turn is on the way in order to get the best return for the cash – and certainly the news that Marks & Spencer is going to Atlantic Village should help this process begin locally.
As a councillor one tends to end up speaking a sort of sub-type of English made up of a mix of business-speak, jargon and impenetrable acronyms. At Torridge’s last Full council meeting we had a masterclass in this when we were guided through the Government inspired ‘Comprehensive Area Assessment’. This centres on GVAs which stands for Gross Value Added; I won’t bore you with all the ‘targets’ we were bombarded with but will just pick up on one or two points. On the economic measurements Exeter scores 128 and we score 52.5 with North Devon being around 82 – and the UK average being 100 which means we are the worst area in Devon and Cornwall (and we have fallen by 16 in the last decade!). Apparently our figures are dragged down by low paid agricultural and tourism related jobs – not to mention the fact that because we are always lumped in with the rest of the more prosperous county we do not qualify for grants from Europe – which Cornwall gets in huge amounts. In addition in future the government is going to measure how well we work with other service providers and, depending on how well we do, will award us a red or green flag – though the latter will only come for ‘innovative ideas’ and, as councillor Philip Pennington pointed out, being innovative means taking risks and a lot of locals just wanted ‘bread and butter services that work’. He also highlighted the split between ‘incomers’ who wanted to keep Bideford and the countryside just as it is and those long-standing residents who wanted change in order to improve the economy. The former have what is known as a ‘drawbridge mentality’ i.e. they arrive here, figuratively ‘pull up the drawbridge’ after them and demand nothing changes their cosy ideal of an unchanging retirement area. It will be interesting to see if we can balance the expectations from the two groups – and win a green flag or two!
Readers may recall my mentioning that the well loved coastal footpath between Bideford and Appledore was becoming passable again with the infilling of a twenty year old gap in the route near Appledore. Since I wrote about this, however, no more material has come on site and the powers that be have recommended the existing construction waste that has been brought in to plug the gap must be landscaped – or more material brought in before the licence to dump it there expires. Over the last two decades an incipient saltmarsh has developed as the sea has flooded in through the break in the path embankment. The Environment Agency, who are in charge of work like this, are demanding that a ‘tidal flap’ is inserted into the replacement wall to safeguard this increasingly rare habitat so walkers should, in the near future, be able to complete their coastal walk and still see a saltmarsh area close-up. What time scale is involved in the completion I am unsure but let us hope it is in place for Summer 2009.
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