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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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16th December '07
The final moves are now being made to transfer all of Torridge’s council houses to Tarka Housing a new housing association which will be spending large sums on bringing the houses up to scratch. The council will then be turning to the on-going problem of below-par private property in the area much of which is in Bideford. The council’s own figures show that about a third of all the homes in its area (about 8100) do not meet the Decent Homes Standard. Unfortunately the funds available to the council are virtually non-existent so they are now looking at alternative sources of money to help poorer households improve their own property. Given that the cost of dealing with such homes is reckoned to be on average £8200 each then one can see the scale of the problem. I have to say that on occasions when visiting constituents I have been shocked at some of the things I have seen. Dampness is a major problem often exacerbated by people never opening their windows and thus encouraging condensation to build up. In the past, of course, whole streets in the town of what were termed substandard houses were demolished e.g. Prospect Place, New Street and one wonders if this will be one approach in the future. I for one would hope not as in many instances old and characterful houses can be refurbished and brought up to modern standards without the loss of history entailed in their demolition. One intriguing by-product of all this housing work has been to identify the 350 properties in the Torridge area that have been empty for at least 6 months. Often such houses begin to deteriorate and so add to the problem but I was very surprised to hear that the council have powers ‘to take management control of a dwelling in order to secure occupation of it.’ This may sound like ‘Big Brother’ to you but given the housing shortage in this area especially for young people it is a power that the council might well be exercising in the future. If you wish to read more about the council’s housing policies they are detailed on the Torridge website.
The subject of the proposed Appledore-Instow ferry came up at a recent council meeting. You may have heard of this ambitious scheme by a group of local entrepreneurs to buy 3 modern amphibious vehicles and re-instate the estuary ferry as well as extending the service to cover Bideford, Barnstaple, Braunton and Fremington. The NDC&CS has been asked to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment which will look at the effect of the vehicles on the local fauna and flora and until that is done the scheme is open to question – though as the Marines regularly use similar vehicles at Instow the impact shouldn’t be too difficult to assess. As Appledore councillor Andrew Eastman said ‘It’s all looking very handsome at the moment – it could be a winner.’ We shall wait and see – though I have heard rumours that the very speed of the tidal flow in the Taw and Torridge could cause problems to such a slow craft – and just how much traffic would there be in Winter. Personally I am intrigued as to where the vehicle(s) would be kept – if only because the large car park on the front in Instow is apparently being targeted as a building site. Doubtless everything will become clearer as time goes on.
This Saturday will see the annual ‘Signing the Lease’ ceremony in the town’s Pannier Market. Many people do not realise that the Market actually belongs to Torridge District Council having been passed to it (along with Victoria Park, the Town Hall, the car parks etc) in 1974 under local government reorganisation. After many years of benign neglect by Torridge the town council leased it back from the district council and embarked on a long and continuing series of costly refurbishment schemes to bring the building back to its former glory. To mark this occasion the town council holds a celebration where all the councillors put on their robes and march up to the Market behind the Mayor and beadles and once there dispense free mince pies and drinks (the recipe is a secret but to be honest I can’t see anybody wanting to steal it!). The market has been beautifully decorated so I would urge everyone to come – not just for the pies but also to support the traders and your local council – the former needing it more than we do.
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