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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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29nd July '07
The long running saga of whether Bideford’s Burton Art Gallery and Museum should still be run by Torridge District Council or be hived off to a North Devon Cultural Trust has taken another turn – although whether for the worse or not remains to be seen. At last week’s Community Development Committee meeting councillors were faced with a decision as to whether to go down the Trust route or not. Councillor Geoff Lee kicked off by saying he was very concerned with the proposal as having read all the relevant papers still didn’t understand the financial details - mainly as none had been provided. Even after a whole series of searching questions to officers he was left none the wiser. I joined in here and queried many other points of detail. The proposed Trust is to be run by Alan Giddings whose expertise is in running the Ilfracombe and Barnstaple theatres – so who would provide the necessary knowledge to run the Burton? I also asked about financial details of how much ‘board’ members (a new board has been discussed) would be paid – but again no figures were forthcoming. In an effort to carry the scheme and all interested parties forward I proposed a special meeting to include councillors from both Torridge and North Devon along with representatives from the Plough and the Beaford Centre (who have declined to join the new trust) plus interested parties from Appledore, Torrington and Holsworthy museums. I thought this would be a reasonable way to go bearing in mind Torridge’s new mantra of inclusivity and compromise but it wasn’t accepted. The vote on whether to go ahead with the trust was a recorded one and the results were as follows. For the trust – councillors Phil Collins, Mrs.R.Lock, Ken James, Philip Pennington and Mrs.G.Tabor; against – councillors Peter Christie, Andrew Eastman, Simon Inch and Geoff Lee. One couldn’t help noticing the spatial and political breakdown behind this vote; of those voting to dispose of the Burton all were rural members and include 3 Independents and 2 Tories, of those voting to keep it in house all are urban based and include 2 Lib Dems, 1 Green and 1 Tory.
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