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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
Previous entries
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29th March '09
Identifying new sites for housing development in Bideford has always been a mix of developer-led plans and the earmarking of sites by the council. Torridge is currently ‘consulting’ to identify any new ‘potential housing sites’ and has asked the town council for their input. Readers may, of course, be wondering if Bideford actually needs to go through this exercise at the moment given that a huge number of housing sites have already been scheduled at East-the-Water and at Moreton opposite Londonderry. The town councillors took the view that there should be no more large housing developments in the town until adequate infrastructure is provided for the existing housing developments. The ‘credit crunch’ has derailed current building schemes and given us a breathing space in which we can stand back and look at the overall picture of Bideford and see if the town is functioning properly – which personally I think is a good thing.
So another MP has been found claiming allowances on rather dubious grounds. At least this time there is to be a full investigation into the whole question of payments for second homes – but how many noticed the inquiry is being extended to include the pros and cons of MPs having second jobs as well as their Parliamentary ones? I do believe that all MPs should have had a ‘proper’ job before they enter Parliament (unlike Tony Blair and David Cameron) so at least they have some experience of the real world – but why on earth they should be allowed to continue this job in parallel with their Parliamentary one escapes me. MPs are paid excessively well and as taxpayer I would expect them to work full-time for that money and not ‘moonlight’. Torridge’s own representative Geoffrey Cox earns a basic £63,291 as an MP plus he claimed £143,262 last year in ‘Expenses’ yet he still, of course, maintains his practice as a highly paid barrister. I notice that his voting record in the House of Commons was 61% last year - which is ‘below average’. Perhaps the electorate ought to demand a written undertaking from any would-be MP that they will actually stick to just one job before asking us to vote for them?
Two weeks ago I mentioned the apparent excessive costs incurred by the county council in running care homes. Since then another example has come to my attention. At this month’s town council meeting councillor Andy Powell cited, as a fact, that the county were being charged £100 a time to fill in local potholes and that in a recent 4 hour period one firm earned £3700 for filling in 37 potholes along the Westleigh Straight coming into Bideford. Councillor Powell expressed incredulity at this and reckoned that local builders could a) do it a lot cheaper and b) employ local people. Perhaps this is what happens when organisations get as large and unwieldy as the county council?
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