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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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23rd December '07
Occasionally things come up in council meetings that are discussed under Part 2 rules – which simply means that the debate is in secret. Such occurrences are not that common being limited to discussions about individual council employees or where sensitive financial details are being investigated. Recently the Community Development Committee on which I sit, had an item about the proposed North Devon Cultural Trust (the one aiming to run the Burton Gallery, the Landmark Theatre and the Queens Hall together) came up. Councillor Hugo Barton queried why it was in Part 2 pointing out that as the council hadn’t actually finally decided to go with the Trust then we would not be discussing final financial details. I agreed with this and moved that we didn’t go into Part 2. We were then told by the officers present that the ‘Business Plan’ provided by the Trust had only been submitted on the understanding it would not be made public. Notwithstanding this I asked for a vote on my proposal but it was defeated 5 to 3 (with 1 abstention) and because of this I cannot tell you what went on in our deliberations. Personally I still feel that I and councillor Barton were correct and this should not have gone into Part 2 – but that’s democracy.
I see that our MP Geoffrey Cox has been talking in Parliament about bovine TB, badgers and DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). As always his language is that of the barrister he is, viz; ‘I must tell the Secretary of State that it would be a gross underestimate of reality to describe DEFRA’s reputation in my constituency as poor’ and ‘DEFRA is regarded as a standing joke in the communities that I represent – often the joke is a grim and sardonic one, but it is a joke none the less.’ All good stuff but the nub of his contribution was about the need to use the culling of badgers ‘as an instrument of policy’ to tackle TB in cattle. The problem I have with this is that many of the articles I have read indicate that badger culling actually makes the spread of TB even worse as infected badgers from elsewhere move into areas that have been cleared by culling. I mention this as the town council owns a large area of woodland on the Southern side of the town where reportedly there is a large badger sett. When the possibility of culling first arose several years ago I persuaded my fellow councillors to support me in saying we would fight any cull on our land. Opinions may have changed with a new council elected only last May but it will prove to be an interesting debate if the council is ever faced with an ultimatum from DEFRA supported by our MP.
So Exeter’s bid to secede from Devon County Council and go it alone has been put on hold by the government - whilst more information is sought. If it had gone ahead it would have seen the county’s finances take a dramatic knock and probably would have led to the cutting of vital services in the remaining rural areas and small towns like Bideford. Needless to say members of the county council have been celebrating but what worries me is the fact that the proposals are to be referred to the Boundary Committee (a division of the Electoral Commission) to look at it ‘in the context of possible unitary arrangements for the wider county area’. As I perceive it this still leaves open the possibility of the county council taking over all the district councils and their services. This would I feel be a disaster. Bidefordians, for example, hear very little about what the county council does and probably knows even less about what the councillors do – even though they spend the vast majority of the council tax income raised every year. What makes it worse for Bideford is that neither of our two Lib-Dem county councillors actually lives in the town – one is in Torrington and the other in Northam. Based in Exeter the county council often seems out of touch with locals so giving it more power would I believe lead to less grass roots democracy. Given this scenario the idea of Torridge and North Devon district councils joining together as a separate ‘unitary’ entity looks more attractive!
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