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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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3rd June '07
At the end of last month the town council held its Annual Parish Meeting. This is not a formal council meeting as such but rather an opportunity for anyone on the Register of Electors to turn up, hear reports from the committee chairs on what the council has been doing – and have a say on any aspect of the council’s work. Sadly not one member of the public turned up which is a sad comment on the workings of democracy in this area – but there again none of the Tory councillors turned up either! Next year we will be publicising the event far more extensively in a hope that more people will attend – after all most electors don’t see us for the four years between elections.
In order to hit the ground running Torridge councillors have decided on two new approaches to its work. Firstly a series of Lead Members are to be appointed to ‘champion’ specific aspects of the council’s business. They will work with individual officers to push forward ideas and particular jobs. There are some 15 of these LMs covering aspects like Finance, Culture, Car Parks etc. with Cllr.Miranda Cox suggesting another one covering Sustainability. The second idea is to develop an annual ‘Forward Plan’ of things we want to achieve over the following 12 months which will allow the council to become a lot more proactive and in so doing will hopefully become a better organisation.
I have written several times about the changing appearance of the mud
and sand banks in the Torridge and the future of the pebble ridge – and
have been surprised at the range of responses from people all claiming
to know what was happening. Now, however, I have been told exactly what
has been occurring. For the last 18 months the Environment Agency have
been employing Professor John Pethick the UK’s leading coastal
geomorphologist to study how the estuaries of the Taw and Torridge
work – and how their changing nature affects the coastline at Westward
Ho! and Braunton Burrows. Last week I went to a briefing given by the
Professor on what his findings were – and sat mesmerised for several
hours listening to an expert present a very complex case clearly and
simply.
His work is based on 53 cross-sectional surveys of the beds of the estuaries – the
first time this has been done in such detail. His findings are too full
to give here (I took 11 pages of notes!) but amongst other things he
pointed out that more sand is coming up the Torridge to Bideford than
is being carried out to sea, hence the accumulation of material between
the new and old bridges. He also explained how the whole pebble ridge
is moving anti-clockwise and as it does so is becoming more stable although
more stones would be a welcome addition – at which point Councillor
Rodney Cann from North Devon District Council suggested to me that his
council had some spare stones on a roundabout if we wanted them. Answering
questions about the future of the old rubbish tip on Northam Burrows
we learnt (from a County Council official) that moving it would cost ‘around £30
million’.
As I say I cannot give all the details of the talk here but if you are
interested in the subject, and anyone living along the estuaries or near
the coast should be, the Professor is repeating his talk, albeit in a
simplified version, at 7 pm on Wednesday June 13th at Edgehill College.
As the organisers are unsure how many will turn up they have asked would-be
attendees to phone 01237 423655 to book a place. You will not be disappointed
I assure you.
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