North Devon Green Party

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6th May '07

May I start by saying thank you to all those voters who put me top of the poll in Bideford – a thank you I expect I can extend from all those who stood. It is a pretty thankless task walking the streets, posting leaflets and knocking on doors and I applaud anyone who is willing to put themselves before the public and risk embarrassment or even worse when the results come out. Democracy is alive and well in Bideford.

Readers may recall me writing about the costs of repairing Bideford Bridge. Costs have soared to around £9 million and a ‘value analysis’ is to be carried out by officers at Devon County Council to see if spending such a sum is ‘good value’ given that none of the contractors who were approached were willing to give a guarantee of more than 10 years for their work. This approach seems to ignore the massive cost of the new Barnstaple bridge (£42 million plus) but more worrying was the statement by L.Willmington the Head of the County’s Highway Management that the county council would ‘Undertake necessary repairs at some time in the future.’ – a wonderfully vague turn of phrase even if £750,000 has already been budgeted to fund initial work in the 2007/8 financial year. On the same occasion I asked for further details about the proposal to site a temporary Bailey bridge somewhere – to both provide a short cut and reduce construction time. Unfortunately the only answer I was given was that the contractors would have to find a sit. Presumably this would be from the slipway just past the Blacksmith’s Arms to somewhere in the long derelict areas on the west side of the river – one can only cringe at the almost certain traffic snarl-ups in Torrington Street.

At the time of the last General Election Private Eye magazine ran a long running competition about leaflets issued by candidates and MPs which featured ever escalating numbers of photographs of the people concerned. Just prior to the town and district elections here in Bideford I, and I suspect most of you, received a folded 2 sided ‘newsletter’ from Geoffrey Cox our local parliamentary representative. I assume it was designed to boost the chances of local Tory would-be councillors without having to appear on their election expenses but I was astounded to find no less than 25 separate photographs of the beaming member. Opinions may vary as to how photogenic our MP is but I will be sending this to Private Eye claiming a new record.

Canvassing is a time for would-be councillors to really find out what people are thinking. Having done my share during the recent election it is clear that the new Bideford school is greatly welcomed, there is widespread unease over the Regeneration Initiative – and Tony Blair is deeply and personally disliked. One thing that did come up with some regularity was the state of the Pannier Market and whether it should be moved or not. As readers will know I have suggested before that the market could well be moved to the large area behind Heard’s garage in Queen Street. The purchase and demolition of the now empty card shop in Mill Street could provide a useful (and easily secured) entrance to supplement the two existing entrances in Queen and Cooper Street whilst the provision of a fountain in the middle of the area could provide a beautiful piazza style market place. One person I have talked to about this recently was our leading artist Reg Lloyd who has gone even further than I and suggests that the adjoining Queen and King Streets plus Jubilee Square could provide overspill pitches for further market stalls to produce a unique and extremely attractive addition to Bideford’s retail and tourist provision right next to the Quay. King Street clearly needs a makeover and it would certainly give the Square a useful function. What do readers think?

Well the ballot over whether to pass on Torridge’s council houses to a housing association has been taken with tenants voting overwhelmingly in favour of the transfer which should be complete by December of this year. This wasn’t a surprising result given that Torridge didn’t have enough money to refurbish the houses to a high modern standard whereas Tarka Housing Association do. What came as a bit of a surprise to many councillors was to learn that ‘consultants’ who have already been paid £260,000 for their input during the run-up to the stock transfer are to be paid another £240,000 for help with the ‘Post Ballot phase’. What this boils down to is that Torridge are paying nearly £1/2 million for the privilege of giving away council houses and land worth tens of millions of pounds. This is, of course, at the behest of the government. I should point out that all we councillors voted for the transfer to take place as being the most pragmatic way of actually improving the living conditions of local people. The consultants’ bill is something else and on reflection I find myself wondering why Torridge’s taxpayers are paying it rather than Tarka Housing who stand to be the major beneficiaries.

There have been many changes amongst those representing Bideford on both the district and town councils – with some long term councillors having decided to retire. Amongst them was Pam Paddon who, at the last meeting of the full TDC, highlighted lack of communication as one of the main problems on that council. She talked about how she had found herself walking through Bideford and being stopped by townspeople discussing various aspects of council business who knew more about the topic than she did they presumably having been informed by the ‘clique’ of councillors leading the council – who hadn’t seen fit to bother informing fellow councillors. I too can vouch for this and if the new council is to get its act together then the new leadership will have to address this problem pretty quickly if it is not to sink into a quagmire of its own making as did the last council. Open and honest communication is the key to effective local government and councillors, who think, merely because they have been elected, that they can do what they like need to learn and apply the lessons of democracy – or else they will not be given a second chance!

The Bradworthy Wind Turbines

Councillor Christie's Weblog

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6th May '07