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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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18th May '08
The saga of the Kenwith Valley lakes rumbles on. This much loved area of water and walks was damaged by illegal fishing which led directly to the public lake being drained – and never refilled as the Devon Birdwatchers, who looked after the site, wanted Torridge to enforce the existing by-laws before they would go back on site. I demanded action and I can now report that at a recent council meeting all present agreed to constitute a new working group consisting of district and town councillors (the site is split between Northam and Bideford), the Birdwatchers, the Police, the Environment Agency and the Bideford Angling Club. Hopefully the latter group will be able to spread the word that fishing at the Kenwith Nature Reserve will not be tolerated. This followed quite a passionate debate. Councillor Phil Collins, for example, described the present situation as ‘preposterous’ considering Torridge had as one of its main strategies ‘to protect the environment’. Councillor Chris Leather thought it ‘terrible that this situation has developed’ remarking wistfully ‘The area was so lovely when it was first set up.’ The committee chair Gaye Tabor wanted to involve the Police Community Support Officers as there have been several instances of aggressive behaviour from the rogue fishermen in the past. The last word belonged to councillor Geoff Lee who said ‘We seem to spend a lot of time working out how not to do things – but we cannot walk away from this, it is our responsibility and we must find the funds necessary to achieve what we want.’ I would add that one thing came out during the debate that I wasn’t aware of – the area of land flanked by Alexandra Terrace, Northam and Kingsley Road was part of the area managed by the Birdwatchers until it was taken off them at the time of Tesco’s ill-fated bid to build a supermarket on the site. I could guess who ordered this but luckily reason won the day and the Planning Inspector who looked into the proposed development turned it down flat – but this ‘sleight-of-hand’ over a much valued green area of Bideford leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
Some months ago I noted that Torridge was going to give £2000 to each of its 36 councillors to distribute to ‘worthy causes’ within their respective wards. The idea has now been firmed up and will be happening very soon. Councillor Len Ford welcomed this as he already has experience of a similar scheme at Devon County council and I have noticed he has spent some of ‘his’ County money on supplying free parking to participants in the forthcoming Appledore Literary Festival. In addition to the £72,000 for councillors another £30,000 pot has been set up for ‘community’ schemes and Torridge will be inviting interested groups to submit requests for the money soon. I mention this as I have just received the latest copy of Torridge Matters from Torridge Voluntary Services who are based at 14 Bridgeland Street. This lists large numbers of charities with money to give away to deserving causes and I have to say the range of organisations listed is amazing. In addition they have listed ‘Current Volunteering Opportunities’ available locally. These range from assistants needed to help run the Bideford Film Society to a co-ordinator required to help run a local Marine Litter project – basically a posh name for a beach cleaning scheme in this area. All of this indicates that Bideford is a vibrant town with a lot of exciting things going on – where there is no excuse not to get involved in giving something back to the community.
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