| Join the Green Party and you'll receive our local quarterly newsletter, as well as invitations to Green Events. You'll be invited to attend meetings, join our discussion list, vote on issues, and contribute to our campaigns and policies for North Devon. |
The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
Previous entries
|
27th January '08
The long running saga of the Bideford Regeneration Initiative trundles on. You will have read how, at a recent town council meeting, Torridge’s Chief Executive John van de Laarschot turned up to tell us that the very well funded South West Regional Development Agency was now seriously looking at working in Bideford – but in addition four companies had expressed interest in helping us to sell five development sites in the town, notably Brunswick Wharf. The first of these is certainly good news but still there is nothing definite as yet. I say this because apparently the ‘delivery mechanism’ i.e. actually getting something done, will be the remit of North Devon Plus which isn’t actually up and running yet. Councillor David Fulford asked what sort of development Mr.Laarschot envisaged for Brunswick Wharf and was told that a ‘mix of uses’ was likely in order to get the best ‘commercial return’ for the land. I picked up on this as it is pretty obvious that the best commercial return would be from having luxury flats on the site – and I asked how much weight would be given to the public’s views on what should go here? The Chief Executive said he was very keen to draw people into Bideford and a mix of an iconic building and an area of restaurants/modern cafes might well be the avenue to go down. As with everything connected to the BRI, however, it seems to be that we are back again at the wait-and-see stage.
The Citizens Advice Bureau provides valuable assistance to many people facing everyday problems – and Torridge supported the Bideford office with some £24,305 worth of funding for 2007-08. The agreement to pay this comes back every year for councillors to decide on the next year’s grant – usually it is just the existing amount plus inflation (presumably the 4.3% identified above). Councillor Barry Parsons suggested paying the CAB a ‘reward’ or ‘incentive’ payment based on how much outstanding council tax the Bureau managed to get paid to Torridge from indebted clients. I opposed this believing the CAB should be seen as totally independent – it would not help if the CAB is seen as a sort of ‘debt collection’ service for the council. In my experience many of the CAB clients actually manage to get payments from Torridge (underpaid housing benefits etc) which raises the possibility that if this idea went ahead and the CAB actually ‘cost’ Torridge money should we ‘fine’ them and take some of their grant away?
Website designed by Jon Hooper
Published and promoted by Jon Hooper, 3 Elizabeth Court, Well Street, Torrington EX38 8EP on behalf of the North Devon Green Party, 1 Taw View Terrace, Bishops Tawton, EX32 0AW
PLEASE NOTE: Not all of the material presented on this site is necessarily Green Party Policy or endorsed by The Green Party.