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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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25th January '09
You will have heard of the proposed waste incinerator that Devon county council and North Devon district council want to build on Barnstaple’s Seven Brethren Bank to take both Barnstaple’s rubbish – and what we generate here in Bideford. Townspeople in Barnstaple have already begun to mobilise opposition to a scheme that I have to say seems ill-conceived and even possibly dangerous. Given the collapse in the prices paid for recyclable materials, however, incineration appears to be a viable – and easy – option and it has the backing of Tesco who, having taken over the Brian Ford store by stealth now stand to get ‘cheap’ energy from this waste incinerator. I tabled a motion to the last Torridge meeting asking that county council officials come along to Bideford to explain their thinking as to why they want to go down this route. Rather surprisingly I didn’t even have to put my motion as Devon has agreed to give us a presentation. If you are interested it will be at 6.30 on Monday 9th February in Bideford Town Hall.
Amongst all the problems connected to the economic recession there is one that is going to loom large in Bideford. I refer to the plans of the Bideford Regeneration Initiative concerning the development of five specific sites in the town – Brunswick Wharf, the Sports Ground, the Pill, the Cattle Market and Bridge Street. The first four of these are already blighted by the new Environment Agency guidelines which make it extremely difficult to develop sites such as these which are liable to flooding. Sadly the seizing up of the property market must make any possible sale a rather vague possibility at the moment. At the last town council meeting some strong feelings bubbled to the surface with councillor Simon Inch forcibly pointing out that he had been a councillor for 2 years and during that timed hadn’t seen anything for its money – and it was about time we did see some concrete results.’ The BRI spokesperson councillor Andy Powell was rather taken aback by the ferocity of this but pointed out that no-one was more frustrated than himself over the slow progress which, in exculpation, he blamed partly on the slowness of other bodies and organisations over which the BRI had no control. One point that did come out of the discussion was that according to councillor Powell the district has delayed the planned refurbishment of the Old Town Cemetery although when I raised this with the Chief Executive it was suggested that this was a misinterpretation of what was actually happening – we shall see.
The controversy over the old Gaiety Cinema in Appledore rumbles on. Having been present at the planning meeting where it was discussed it was clear that emotions were running high around this particular development. Clive Jones, an Appledore resident and architect produced some compelling technical arguments whilst the Appledore Residents’ Association quoted the council’s own guidelines and claimed, with some justification, that the development of the cinema breached these with the developer accused of having ‘paid scant regard to the conservation area and conservation principles.’ Councillor Andrew Eastman reckoned the scheme had been ‘done in an appalling way’ – indeed the whole thing was ‘A nasty bag of works’ and ‘very upsetting’ whilst councillor Philip Pester likened it to ‘a blot on the landscape’. At one point a member of the public shouted ‘One of your officers needs watching’ – which the council leader James Morrish firmly repudiated. The motion to reject the scheme was finally put by councillor Miranda Cox who viewed the application as ‘a dangerous precedent’ and she was seconded by councillor Philip Pennington with the voting being unanimously behind them. As I said it was an emotional meeting.
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