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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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34th Sept '09
The latest monthly police report on crime in the Bideford division was very good news in that the trend for criminal activity has declined in virtually every area – and where in two cases it hadn’t fallen it had remained static. Doom-mongers have long warned that the economic recession would see a rise in crime but that doesn’t seem to have happened in Bideford. Sergeant Bassett, who delivered this cheering news, went on to say that the force were going to continue spreading the message that Bideford wasn’t only a friendly place to live but that it was also a very safe place. Councillors who listened to this report were happy but did raise one or two points. Brian Lacey asked about the rash of ‘Yellow Pages’ that has appeared on people’s doorsteps. As he pointed out they were a clear message to ne’er do wells that householders were not in. Apparently the police have been in contact with the distributors – but clearly not in strong enough terms. The Sergeant promised to follow this up. Philip Pester, our deputy-Mayor, asked whether the ‘Street Pastors’ under Duncan Withall were having an effect in the town? If you didn’t read the Journal piece about this group they are volunteers who walk through the town’s streets on Friday and Saturday nights helping the inebriated and removing glass bottles and other problematic rubbish – although my favourite aspect of their role is the giving of flip-flops to young women whose high heel shoes have become dangerous due to their owner’s loss of balance! The Sergeant was quite sure they had had an effect but it was as yet a bit early to give a definitive answer.
David Howell of the Bideford Chamber of Commerce came along to our last town council meeting to report on the current state of business in the town. Sadly, although traders had been hoping for a good year and actual numbers of visitors have risen their spending had remained static at last year’s level so the earlier hopes had not been realised. Nevertheless Mr.Howell reckoned that considering we were now in a recession then the town wasn’t doing too badly – and if we had an Indian Summer then that could be a real lifesaver for many businesses. Failing that belt-tightening would be the order of the day. After he completed his report councillor Brian Lacey read out a letter penned by an East-the-Water shopkeeper to a specialist magazine called Retail Express which refers to the Bideford area as ‘crumbling on its feet’ owing to both the lack of accommodation and the lack of attractions in the town. The writer also identified out-of-town shops and lack of council investment as being problems. David didn’t agree with all these things but it was sobering to hear such negative views from a local shopkeeper – an antidote to the very rosey picture some people always present perhaps.
Urban myths are everywhere on the internet – from rubbish about Knights Templars to cars that run on water. One of our local ones is that traffic wardens have to issue a certain number of penalty tickets to meet targets set by the council. Oddly enough when Torridge’s Quarterly Business Review was being scrutinised by councillors Geoff Lee from Torrington queried why there was a ‘Target’ for the Penalty Charge Income – which certainly suggested that in this case, at least, one myth was true. However, we were assured that the ‘target’ wasn’t that at all but merely a figure for anticipated income based on the number of tickets issued in previous years – which does make one ask do local drivers never learn? How odd to think that one word could lead to whole raft of misunderstanding.Published and promoted by and on behalf of the North Devon Green Party, of 1 Taw View Terrace, Bishops Tawton, EX32 0AW
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