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Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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25th February '07
There are some 1700 council houses in Torridge with the majority being in Bideford and to bring them up to modern standards will cost far more than the council can afford in the short term. The decision has therefore been taken to pass them on to Tarka Housing a not-for-profit association which can borrow money to do the necessary work far more easily than can Torridge. I say ‘pass them on’ as we have been told the properties have a ‘negative value’ i.e. Torridge will get nothing for them as the refurbishment costs outweigh their value – though this does, of course, ignore the value of the land they stand on. After a very lengthy consultation the council has decided to go to a 3 week tenants’ ballot beginning on March 9th to see if they wish to pass from Torridge’s control to that of Tarka. As part of the lead-up to the ballot a massive door-knocking exercise has been going on with most tenants receiving personal visits at which they could raise any queries. At a recent meeting a range of their comments was presented to councillors - they run from ‘I am generally against this proposal because I have heard some bad things about Tarka Housing and I am generally happy with TDC’ (not something you hear very often!) to ‘I think the transfer is a good thing as it means more money can be spent on improving the houses’. A vote in favour does seem to be a foregone conclusion from the initial figures councillors have seen – but tenants in Mid-Devon recently voted against any transfer. At this meeting Cllr.Hugh Bone questioned Tarka’s 30 year business plan where heavy borrowing would see them ‘exposed to fluctuations in the financial markets’ whilst I raised the question of how much Tarka’s managers are going to be paying themselves. Councillors now await the results of the ballot with interest.
Bideford doesn’t really have a large community hall – though this is something that looks likely to be overcome with the building of the new College. Torrington, on the other hand, is trying to refurbish its old town hall. Described as ‘an historic but dilapidated and ineffective building’ its refurbishment is designed to create an environmentally and financially sustainable unit for the long term benefit of everyone in Torrington. Intriguingly the proposals include the enclosure of the under croft or space under the town hall to provide a ‘community space’ – which given its use by generations of youths one might have thought was there already. Be that as it may such projects cost a lot of money – some £890,000 at last count. This has been raised by a combination of funding streams though most is still in the balance. When it came before Torridge’s Development & Trading committee Cllr.Steve Clarke queried the costs of £123,000 for ‘Professional Fees, Inflation & Contingency’ as well as £15,000 for the Project Organiser. I proposed we give £5000 towards the fund so long as the other funding materialises. One odd point raised, however, was about the owners of the building the Torrington Towns Lands Trust. As Cllr.James Morrish pointed out they were giving £200,000 to the cost of the scheme i.e. giving money to themselves and he asked for fuller details of the charity to be made available at the next meeting. If both Bideford and Torrington can get new public halls then how much better for both communities.
Now everyone is green – but some are greener than others. Mukti Mitchell of Clovelly hit the news some time ago when he designed and built his own revolutionary new design of a microyacht. Mukti is keen, however, to spread the message about ‘Low Carbon’ lifestyles and in order to do this is sailing around the coast of Britain appearing at a series of events from Oban to Exeter over the period of April to October. This tour is backed by the Prince of Wales, Jonathan Porritt, Jonathan Dimbleby and Caroline Lucas MEP amongst others. If you want to get involved then you can find out more by visiting www.lowcarbonlifestyle.org or phoning 0845 3455075. Certainly Mukti is pushing this area to the forefront of ‘green thinking’ in Britain.
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