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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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30th Aug '09
At the August meeting of the Bideford town council it was asked how much money we had put into the Bideford Regeneration Initiative to date? A simple question - but not one that anyone could answer at the time. If I had known the question was to be raised I could have answered as I did obtain the figures several months ago. I think many people would be interested - so here they are. Over the years 2006-8 expenditure was about £135,000 – with £32,000 going on ‘Salaries and Overheads’ and nearly £100,000 being paid out to various consultants. The money to pay for this came from Devon Renaissance, which is a local quango, (£72,000), Bideford town council (£30,000) and Devon county council (£30,000). Since then the town and county councils have put in another £20,000 each and Torridge district council has paid out £45,000. Whether readers think this is money well spent I will leave up to them – but it is safe to say that quite a few councillors are getting very restive about the lack of tangible results – and several on both the town and district councils have already made it clear that they will not be supporting any more funding being made available – especially if it is to go into the bottomless pit that seems to characterise the world of consultants.
The repair work currently being carried out on the Long Bridge has been on an heroic basis. Apparently the men working on the scheme commenced by lying underneath the main structure scraping off layers of bird droppings before the actual repairs could start – rather them than me. Since then some 4500 holes have been drilled and 18 miles of 3 ply cabling been inserted into the masonry. Arches 1-12 (from the East-the-Water side) have already been completed with 13-18 virtually done whilst the remainder are well advanced. On ‘top’ of the Bridge the pedestrian crossing at the eastern end is to remain after the work is finished – and to complete the whole scheme the floodlights under the bridge are being stripped out and replaced by new eco-friendly ones with a possible inauguration date to co-incide with the ceremonial ‘switch-on’ of the Christmas lights. As to the cost of all this we will only finally learn after all the various phases of the plan have been completed - but how good that the oldest complete structure in Bideford is getting all this care and attention.
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