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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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29th October '06
Readers may recall my jottings about the Asda application in Bideford and how Bideford town council and the Bideford Regeneration Initiative were upset that Torridge seemed to have missed a golden opportunity to get some ‘planning gain’ e.g. sports facilitries for the town from Asda (who, remember, are owned by the biggest company in the world). Since then Asda’s plans have been ‘called in’ by Government Office South West for further scrutiny in the light of the Government’s worries over the proliferation of out-of-town developments. At the last town council meeting we heard Humphry Timperley a county councillor for Bideford pass on the news that Devon County Council agree with the town and BRI that Torridge’s decision on Asda was ‘poorly argued’. It will be interesting to see what if anything Bideford is now offered by Asda.
Having mentioned the BRI I can report that the consultants’ report on future projects in Bideford is only to be issued after a ‘reality check’ is carried out on some of the odder ideas they put forward – a move I have been advocating for some time. My award for the weirdest has to be the plan to erect flats in the Riverbank car park overlooking the river. Almost certainly destined to be luxury second-homes I can’t recall any Bidefordians ever saying they wanted such a development in this area.
Last week as I was coming home from a meeting I attempted to cross High Street but was stopped by three ‘boy racers’ zooming up the hill. That they were engaged on an illegal race there can be no doubt and I wonder if they were caught on CCTV. I raised the possibility of speed bumps on High Street to slow these idiots down but Councillor Barton who represents Bideford on the county council’s roads committee said such humps ‘were not in favour now’. He offered to look at narrowing the top section of the road – but as any resident could tell him the road is already as narrow as it can get when parking extends along both sides as locals park there to avoid using Torridge’s car parks with their increased fees. Given this what can be done to counter speeding in Bideford’s old streets – let me know your thoughts on the subject.
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