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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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20th Sept '09
Having talked to a lot of people in Bideford about the proposals to ‘regenerate’ the town the general feeling seems to be bemusement. Shopkeepers have expressed serious concern about the loss of car parking space as Bridge Street, the Pill, the Cattle Market and Brunswick Wharf are all major car parks - the latter also includes the East-the-Water car parking area which is, and always has been, a temporary facility – and even the Sports Ground provides some car parking during the day. If all these are to be built on shopkeepers worry where their customers will park. At the council meeting where we heard about the various schemes the two managers behind them used the odd little phrase ‘surface parking’. This stuck in my mind as I suspect someone is going to resurrect the tired old idea of a multi-storey car park somewhere in the town. Bridge Street has usually been suggested in the past but as the two managers themselves pointed out Bideford had escaped the worst excesses of the 1960/70s ‘redevelopments’ that have scarred other towns – so hopefully they will not be revisiting this now very outdated idea – and one only has to look at what a disaster the multi storey in Barnstaple has been to see just how bad these structures can be.
Devon county council have now come back to the Bideford authorities with their suggestions as to how to tackle traffic management on the Long Bridge after the present strengthening operations are completed. These include putting three sets of speed humps along its surface, retaining the pedestrian crossing at the eastern end and putting a raised pavior ramp into Torrington Street to both clearly identify the area as one of pedestrian priority and to make traffic slow down when it enters this narrow thoroughfare. The town council voted to support the last two but were against speed bumps. Councillor Brian Lacey voiced concerns about the idea of a ‘raised area’ into Torrington Street fearing it would be quickly damaged by heavy lorries going to the Kynochs industrial estate – the example, of Mill Street springs to mind here! It was agreed to go back to the county council and ask that if they want to go ahead with the Torrington Street scheme then they examine the use of harder wearing materials than brick paviors.
With all the talk of ‘joint working’ between Torridge and North Devon councils one might think everything is going smoothly. When it came up at this month’s Full TDC meeting I did ask what was happening about the planned incinerator in Barnstaple which is to be fuelled by waste from both councils’ areas? No-one could tell me and even though a ‘Scoping Document’ has been issued by the county (who are in charge of the scheme with North Devon’s strong support) only Northam town council has seen this – and no-one else in Torridge! Not an auspicious beginning to a new agenda of shared services.
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