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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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22nd June '08
One of the great success stories for the area over the last decade has been South West Water’s ‘Clean Sweep’ operation whereby the dumping of raw sewage into the Torridge at Bideford and at other places around the coast has been replaced by a series of treatment plants. I was, therefore, rather surprised to see the results of the first sample for the 2008 Bathing Season which were taken on 1st May. Two local beaches were monitored – Westward Ho! and Instow where the target is below 500 coliforms or 100 faecal coliforms. The Westward Ho! result showed just 10 coliforms/6 faecal coliforms which are very low figures and indicate the sea is remarkably clean. Instow unfortunately returned results of 5200 coliforms/2400 faecal coliforms. These figures are shocking and perhaps show why few locals ever swim at Instow even though it is a very attractive beach. Of this bacterial contamination some 96% came from cow dung and only 4% from human waste - which isn’t much consolation. I should add that on the three other occasions in May when the beach was tested the highest figure recorded was just 200. The Environment Agency is now looking into how these abnormal figures came about by examining ‘potential pathways’. A lot of people will, however, be asking why their water bills, amongst the highest in the country, do not seem to be enough for South West Water to stop this beach contamination.
Amidst all the furore over the closure of Post Offices the Journal highlights the fact that British Telecom has announced it is to close 80 phone boxes across Torridge and West Devon. Bideford and its surrounding area lost some a few years ago and although usage has declined owing to the growth of mobile phones the boxes still provide a lifeline for many in the town. It did remind me that some 20 years ago I had the old red telephone box between Victoria Terrace and the Pannier Market ‘listed’ as an historic monument in order to ensure this historic piece of our ‘street furniture’ was never removed. This K6 style box, to give it its correct name, actually plays a small part in Bideford’s history as its number ends in 001 which marks it out as the first public telephone box in the town being put next to the Market when this area was the weekly hub of the town’s commerce. Calls from it would have gone through the telephone exchange. It was sited above street level in the building opposite Chope’s in the High Street.
So our Tory MEP Giles Chichester had a ‘whoops a daisy’ moment and paid his own firm nearly half a million pounds completely illegally – but he has decided not to resign. I say ‘our’ MEP as Giles is one of 7 MEPs who represents Bideford as well as all the other towns in the South West. This lapse of judgement of course comes not long after a Tory MP was found to have paid huge sums to his son for basically doing nothing. So why do these people do these things? Is it simply greed – or is it a result as I believe of a lack of scrutiny by the media and public? Let me try and illustrate what I mean. How many of you could a) name the 7 MEPs that represent this area? b) say what they actually do? c) know where to go to check on their voting record/account claims/attendance records? I suspect that the answers to all three questions would be ‘don’t know’. Now I don’t want to get involved in a Europhobe-style rant about the EU but I do want to point out several worrying parallels with the new Unitary style council being proposed for this area by Devon County council. Currently Torridge has 36 councillors who represent you – and I believe many people could name their own and know how to contact them – and the Journal does a pretty good job of letting you know what they are up to (in the nicest possible way of course!) Under the county council’s plan this representation will be reduced to just 9 – within a new county wide Unitary structure of 100 councillors. Given this we could find two things – all the emphasis will be on South Devon, which will have 61 councillors, and the new councillors for Bideford could be living anywhere but Bideford – and yes, I do realise that the two existing councillors live in Torrington and Northam – but at least both do have links to the town. Given this reduced representation and the almost certain fact that the new council will meet in Exeter then I do think we will see even less scrutiny of what our elected politicians actually say in the council chamber - and do with our money.
You will have noticed recent stories in the papers about the Westward Ho! pebble ridge and its parlous state. The current chair of the Northam Burrows committee Andrew Eastman is meeting with a representative from the government body Natural England to make a final plea for recharging (moving pebbles from the North to the South each year) of the ridge to start again in order to help reinforce the feature. He warned that if this was not allowed we could face a ‘complete catastrophe’. I have a professional interest in this topic seeing that I teach Geography at North Devon College and I voiced my own fears. Natural England have said that if Torridge District Council begin any recharging operations that they will prosecute the council – yet Torridge are tasked to defend their area from floods – so I queried how could this apparently contradictory situation be resolved? I also pointed out that Natural England’s views are reliant on the research of Professor Pethick who reckons the ridge is swinging around a central point – and if this is so perhaps it will expose the area of Braunton Burrows and Crow Point to greater wave action? I was told that these points were being looked at by county councillor Humphrey Temperley who will be reporting on the subject. Unfortunately, as councillor Eastman reminded us this won’t be coming out until 2010 – when events may well have overtaken us!
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