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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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15th March '09
Torridge’s ‘Quarterly Business Review’ was tabled at a committee meeting last week with an introductory ‘Commentary on Overall Performance.’ This identified an overspend of some £12,000 on the council’s 2008-9 budget though this apparently can be accommodated. What is more serious is the continued impact of the ‘global financial crisis’. This is blamed for the 13% fall in car park income and the 53% fall in harbour income - whilst at the same time earnings from planning applications and building controls are, not unexpectedly, dropping as development schemes are shelved. More worryingly on a personal level is that new benefit claims are 39% higher than this time last year – with associated knock-on effects on council tax and business rate payment levels. Clearly this is not a good time but the message from Torridge is simple – notwithstanding these problems the council ‘is maintaining the quality of service to its customers and providing additional support via customer advice forums and other special events to address circumstances created by the credit crunch.’
You may have seen the recent news items about the downturn in the demand for recyclable materials in China following the recession in the developed world. You may also have seen the recent advertisements by Devon county council explaining how important it was to keep recycling. Torridge is actually very good at collecting and re-using materials and was planning to extend its food waste collections this year – with the material being composited at a new ‘in-vessel’ plant at Deep Moor near Torrington. The plan was for this to open on January 5th but the bad weather has pushed the timetable back severely with a new target date of May (at the earliest) being set. This plan will, of course, mean more work for householders in terms of sorting waste but it is something we simply must get on with. During the war all such waste was sorted – with much going to feed pigs, a possibility not open to the council today which seems a pity. The council has been set a mandatory target by the government of reaching a recycling target of 40% of all waste by March next year – if we don’t meet it we, i.e. you the taxpayer, will be fined – so let’s both save money and salve our conscience by recycling as much as we can over the next year.
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