http://www.devon24.co.uk/home/tesco_sets_sights_on_town_centre_store_1_3884361
Category Archives: Budleigh Salterton
The new NHS: internet cafe, gym – oh and some beds for poorly people!
Hugo Swire: ace at getting you a statue financed by the tobacco industry!
You want a very large, imposing iconic statue? Don’t have the money for it? Fear not! MP Hugo Swire will have a quick word with his mates who represent the tobacco industry and it’s yours!
Wonder how many useful things the cost of these statues might have financed? How many Mulberry ipad cases one statue could have bought for the homeless!
“Grey” seaside towns in the southwest
And still we build Cranbrook and luxury housing.
“Torbay MP, Adrian Sanders, a member of the all-party group for coastal communities, said the findings highlighted the need to redress the age imbalance.
He warned that if action was not taken, some towns could struggle to cope with the pressures of an ageing population.
“These coastal locations strongly appeal to older residents looking to retire, but this comes with increased social costs,” he said. Over 65s are coming to these communities at a time when they are less economically active but have growing needs which must be met by local services. While they can be a fantastic asset to their local community, in the long term we have to look at creating a more mixed demographic in these communities. We need to attract and retain more of the skilled, working age population.”
The ONS report, which looked at 274 coastal towns in England and Wales with populations of more than 1,000, identified several South West communities as having particularly high concentrations of retirement age inhabitants.
These included Charmouth in Dorset and Newton Ferrers in Devon, where 42% of residents are 65 and over, and Sidmouth and Budleigh Salterton in south east Devon, where numbers were around 41%. This is compared to the national average of around 16%.
The study also found many seaside communities suffered from lower than average employment rates and higher economic inactivity rates, as well as higher numbers of workers in part-time employment.
Mr Sanders said that these towns were in desperate need of better housing, infrastructure and educational provisions.”
“You need good schools and colleges to ensure the local labour market can offer employers the right skills. Many businesses find they have to move out of smaller communities when they want to expand because they can’t find the right employees,” he said.
“You also need the best possible connectivity, both in terms of rail and road as well as digital and communication. But most important is the housing policy – you need to ensure that young people who can work locally can also live locally.
“We need more regulated rent, secure tenancy housing in order to create stronger, enduring communities. In my opinion, this kind of accommodation needs to account for half of all new developments.”
Westcountry coastal towns have some of the highest proportions of private sector rentals of any location in the UK, according to the ONS study, even outstripping areas of London and Manchester.
Budleigh Salterton: Timeo Danaos et donna ferentes
Timeo Danaos et donna ferentes – “Beware Greeks bearing gifts”
Odysseus had the idea of a Trojan Horse. When the massive wooden statue was left at the gates of Troy, the Trojans thought the Greeks had left it as a parting gift because they had given up and sailed home. The Trojans welcomed the gift, not knowing that the belly of the horse was filled with armed soldiers who would soon destroy their city.
Think of this when reading this article whilst similarly bearing in mind that it is election year:
http://www.devon24.co.uk/news/free_car_park_wins_stay_of_execution_1_3850160
Environment Agency reassessing coastal flood risk
Clinton Devon Estates plans for River Otter flood relief
Coastal communities: will they change their voting patterns in the next election?
If the things that are currently happening in Exmouth (selling the seafront to the highest bidders, knocking down Elizabeth Hall), Budleigh (the Longboat, inappropriate development), Sidmouth (coastal erosion and job losses) and Seaton (strange statues in the wrong olaces and more retirement homes) it seems a good possibility!
Otter Valley Association has a new website
Budleigh Salterton Car Park – questions needing answers
This comment was recieved to the last entry about the car park at Budleigh Salterton. Recall that EDDC has told the town council that they should either pay massively more rent for this asset or it EDDC will take it back under its control. The car park originally belonged to the earlier urban district council and Budleigh Salterton Town Council has maintained it so that parking in it can be without charge to motorists parking there:
The comment is from Angela Yarwood, a local resident and businesswoman:
“As far as we are aware, the points in the attached excerpt (and others in the deed) from title no DN349560 pertaining to the land including the Station Road ‘FREE’ carpark are as follows. This doesn’t appear to bear any resemblance to that sited from EDDC in response to the FOI request from Mr Freeman regarding the same…(section (c) below)
Could we hope that somebody informed, unbiased and in authority from EDDC would explain here to the posts above, rather than us having to pick up pieces from the press, blogs, uninformed councillors, rumour etc..
…and bear in mind that although ‘owned’ by EDDC, the vast majority of the upkeep of the Station Road carpark has been paid for by the Town, and not from EDDC funds.
Schedule of restrictive covenants
1 The following are details of the covenants contained in the Conveyance dated 22 April 1947 referred to in the Charges Register:-
“The Council on behalf of itself and its successors in title owner or owners for the time being of the land hereby conveyed hereby covenants with the Grantor his successors in title owner or owners for the time being of the adjoining lands of the Grantor and as a separate covenant with the Grantor henceforth to observe and perform the covenants and conditions particulars whereof are set forth in the Second and Third Schedules hereto respectively.
THE SECOND SCHEDULE
COVENANTS AND CONDITIONS AFFECTING THE LAND FIRSTLY DESCRIBED IN THE FIRST SCHEDULE
(a) The Council shall keep the hereditaments hereby in the First part of the First Schedule hereto described save such part thereof as shall be laid out and kept for the playing of bowls tennis croquet putting or any other game for which space shall be provided by the Council requiring the provision of a special court lawn or green in good order as public playing fields or open space park and pleasure ground for the free use and enjoyment of the public and to keep in good repair and condition all fences stiles and gates upon or about the land and to keep all such courts lawns or greens as aforesaid in good order and to permit members of the public to have access thereto for the purpose of playing games upon payment of a reasonable charge to be fixed from time to time by the Council.
(b) The Council shall keep the grass land and the paths in good order and condition and shall keep all trees now or hereafter grown upon any part of the land affected hereby protected against injury.
(c) The said land or any part thereof shall not at any time be used for any trade or business whatsoever or otherwise than as a properly ordered Public Recreation Ground for the use of inhabitants of and visitors to Budleigh Salterton only without the consent in writing of the Company first obtained and that the said land shall be daily open to the public on such conditions and subject to such Byelaws and Regulations as shall from time to time be laid down by the Council but this clause shall not preclude the Council from charging a fee for the playing of games as in Condition (a) hereof.
(d) School children shall not be permitted to resort to the land in such numbers as to be or become a nuisance or annoyance to the General Public and the Council shall if necessary and practicable make byelaws to prevent such occurence but this condition shall not render it incumbent on the Council to provide a full time attendant to exclude children should other means prove ineffective to this end.
(e) The Council will not do or permit to be done anything upon the land which may be a nuisance or annoyance to the Grantor or the Company or any of his or its lessees or tenant.
Budleigh Car Park Round 2 – traders and residents bite back
http://www.devon24.co.uk/news/new_twist_in_campaign_to_keep_car_park_free_1_3728674
and as our commentator informs us, look here for details of the covenants:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/budleigh_salterton_car_park
Will it be yet another case of EDDC “buying out” the covenants from Clinton Devon Estates as they did with Exmouth seafront, and, if so, has this cost been factored in?
Budleigh: a town with an increasing literary scene may end up with no library
It doesn’t seem to matter that Budleigh has an increasing profile for the arts:
http://www.devon24.co.uk/news/still_no_clear_ideas_to_save_library_1_3673057
A library is apparently a luxury we must all do without it seems
Budleigh parking: should we blame Eric Pickles?
… Mr Pickles is also urging Town Halls to “turn idle assets into money” to protect front line services. The government is allowing councils to use money raised from the sale of assets, such as empty buildings and redundant brownfield land, to help pay for the costs of improving local services and to keep Council Tax down.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-fund-to-help-councils-fight-fraud
Does our council leadership see a new HQ on the edge if Exeter as an “improvement” that income from the car park could fund?
Budleigh parking: a resident’ perspective
According to the Journal EDDC has announced plans to turn the free car park by the Public Hall in Budleigh Salterton to one for permit holders only. If so, this is surely the worst of all outcomes. Not only is the car park no longer free but would only be available to permit holders i.e would exclude visitors and those attending events in the Hall! There is no nearby alternative of this capacity.
The plans were due to be decided on by EDDC’s cabinet on Wednesday — however, there was hope that a last-minute compromise could be found.
Councillor Tom Wright, a member of Budleigh Salterton Town Council and EDDC’s deputy cabinet member for environment, is reported as saying: “We hope that the cabinet will arrive at a compromise which will allow flexible, low cost parking, for residents of Budleigh and our visitors.”. But the Town’s fate may already be sealed.
The saga of the car park began in 2012, when the town council, which had rented the car park for £500 a year, was told EDDC wanted to increase this to £35,000. The town council made a counter offer of £6,500, which was rejected, and heard no more about the matter until now.
An EDDC spokesman said: “Our district-wide car parks review found that it was not reasonable for EDDC to subsidise ‘free’ town centre car parking for just one town in East Devon.
But as Cllr Wright pointed out: “EDDC is trying to say it’s a free car park. It’s not free. The people of Budleigh Salterton have been paying for it through their precept levied by the town council.” (Town ratepayers have been paying for maintenance and no costs fall on other East Devon ratepayers.)
In fact the land was “given” to the people of Budleigh in the shape of the then Urban District Council by Clinton Devon Estates on a peppercorn long lease. Ownership, unfortunately, had to be transferred out of local hands to EDDC when the district council was formed in 1976.
Both the Chamber of Commerce and Budleigh in Business, as well as the Town Council, are opposed to the introduction of charging because of the damage it will do to business and social events such as the series of local festivals.
Wasn’t one of the principles of localism to encourage local communities to make these sorts of decisions to suit local needs? Or are we witnessing another example of “one size fits all” policy making aimed at destroying local identity and creating a degree of conformity that one used to see in the USSR?
Seaside towns like Budleigh and Exmouth have large car parks with good access to the sea but far away from the town centres. They need all the help they can get to encourage visitors into the towns themselves.
Beavers on the River Otter – will the public be able to have its say?
Beavers are a native species, hunted to extinction 500 years ago. Re-introductory trials (at some expense) are taking place in Scotland but it seems that Nature is taking is taking her own course here in the river Otter.
The photo above was taken very recently in Otterton. Defra, whose first response to most problems seems to be to cull, wants to get rid of them.
Devon-based wildlife consultant Derek Gow, who was responsible for three imported beavers destined for an animal sanctuary in Scotland, is a long-standing campaigner for the animals to be returned to the wild. He is reported as saying: “At the moment they [Defra] are ringing all the zoos and asking them if they will take the beavers. “What Defra should do is look at a more informative project where by the beavers are left and studied – it becomes an English beaver trial.”
He blamed angling groups for demanding the beavers be removed [beavers are vegetarian]. “Why should three beavers be three beavers too many?,” he said. “This will be the first time in history that we have exterminated a native mammal twice, setting an extraordinary historical precedent”.
Only recently have Otters returned to the lower Otter. The water vole has been in decline nationally attributed partly to the American mink, an aggressive predator of the vole, together with unsympathetic farming and watercourse management which destroyed parts of the water vole’s habitat. The water vole, an important indicator of a healthy environment, has not yet returned to the lower Otter.
American mink are a non-native, carnivore species, introduced to Devon so that they could be farmed for their fur. Over the years escapees have naturalised and there are still mink in the Otter. EDDC Countryside Service monitored the mink rafts in the Otter, owned by Clinton Devon Estate, for many years because of the threat that they posed, but this has now stopped due to budget cuts. The Axe, which belongs to EDDC, has priority for funding and monitoring continues there.
Some believe that beavers make a positive contribution to flood prevention and river quality. With the Environment Agency expressing concern over the bathing water quality in Budleigh Salterton, and flooding a well-known vexation, one wonders whether we have got our priorities right.
More information, including reference to two “save the beaver” on line petitions, can be found here:
http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/petitions-Devon-beavers-remain-large/story-21312530-detail/story.html#comments
http://www.claire-wright.org/index.php/post/beavers_found_living_wild_in_devon_countryside_to_be_sent_to_the_zoo
Another major threat to tourism in Budleigh: water quality
From an article in today’s Budleigh Journal it is clear that the Environment Agency (EA) believes that Budleigh beach will be among the ten or so beaches in Devon, out of nearly two hundred, likely to fail to meet the more stringent bathing water quality standards being introduced next year. If it is, then there will have to be “no swimming” signs posted along the sea front with devastating implications to tourism. Add to that the strong possibility of the free parking being withdrawn (see below) and Budleigh could be in real trouble.
It appears that water quality was excellent until about 2010 when something changed. Extensive monitoring of the beach and all the rivers and brooks that empty into the sea at Budleigh is ongoing.
What on earth could have changed in five years?
Budleigh Salterton: EDDC wants its car park back so no more free parking
This district responsive to tourism needs?
Tourism, what tourism? Now let’s talk instead about more industrial sheds and little boxes .. that’ what our district specialises in now.
Bicton College faces uncertain future
Click to access Bicton_College_-_Further_Education_Commissioner_assessment_summary.pdf
Prime development land for its closest neighbour perhaps?
Innovation and risk in planning!
Kate Little, erstwhile Head of Planning, made no secret of her wish to encourage developers to ignore town design statements and conservation areas in order to increase the stock of iconic contemporary buildings in East Devon. It was a manifestation of the extraordinary power that unelected officials have to change our landscape.
But this policy is not without dangers. There is always the risk that the aesthetics of contrasting styles won’t work when juxtaposed in a real setting rather than on the drawing board, though by the time you discover this it’s too late. There is also the risk that revolutionary, unconventional, structures won’t stand up to the elements as well as those which incorporate evolutionary development of tried and tested techniques. The Basil Spence tower at Exeter University is a local example of a problem iconic building and more recently Lloyds of London have let it be known that they are looking to vacate the Richard Rogers iconic building sometimes known as the “inside out building”, grade I listed in 2011, because the maintenance costs are too high. The Exmouth Bowling Alley has not been without structural problems either.
Spare a thought then for this domestic example, as described in a design and access statement recently posted on the EDDC planning portal (14/1494/FUL).
“……………An inherent feature of the design as an appropriate response to the site and context is extensive glazing to the seaward south facing elevation. Whilst this has proved highly successful in delivering both the intended visual impact of the design and internal experiential qualities, our clients were shocked to experience during the exceptional weather conditions which occurred over the past winter an unanticipated phenomenon which resulted in relatively significant damage to the glazing.
This concerns an action whereby small pebble-like material bedded within the adjacent cliff top becomes exposed by persistent heavy rain and is then transported by strong winds directly towards the seaward face of the building. The relatively flat open area between the cliff-top and the house allows considerable wind driven acceleration of such stone particles which then impact upon the glazing with significant force, sufficient to shatter the toughened glass panes of double glazed units. In one instance, a piece of material actually became embedded within the cavity of a double glazed unit.
The first instance of this action occurred over night and, our clients recount, was actually quite terrifying to experience, the impression being of the glazing apparently imploding. This phenomenon had certainly not been foreseen at design stage and neither had any immediately neighboring owners anecdotally drawn our clients’ attention to such a problem existing in this location although it now seems other property owners have previously experienced similar instances of damage.
Although this past winter’s weather may still currently be deemed exceptional, it is increasingly likely that such conditions will occur more frequently in the future. To date, damage has been caused to several different areas of the glazing on the affected elevation inflicted during several separate episodes of the action occurring and our clients have incurred relatively significant expense in repairing the damage.
It is against this background that a potential solution to permanently protect the building has been sought given it is beyond doubt the same circumstances will occur under future storm conditions……”
The proposed solution involves adding solid glass wind screens for winter storms (maybe it was a mistake to clear the vegetative shelter belt to improve the view) and brise-soleil devices to offset another problem: solar heating in summer.
Large panes of glass, high speed, corrosive (salt), wind vortices and pebbles from the cliff edge site, strong sunshine – What could possibly go wrong?
Remedies sound expensive – let’s hope they work.
How many beans make 5? In Budleigh – think of a number, any number, except 5!
Budleigh population exceeds that of Sidmouth – Official!
Because of funding cuts imposed by central government a two tier system is being proposed for Devon Libraries. Medium and larger libraries will upgraded to become “Devon Centres” while smaller and less well-used will have to be run by the community, if they are to remain open at all. To separate the well-used from the less well-used, County Hall policy makers are using some very dubious numerical analysis which has been exposed in a letter from an alert Budleigh resident published in this week’s Journal.
Budleigh always thought its library was one of the most heavily used in the county for its size. It has 2,400 borrowers in a town of around 5,000 (48% active borrowers). In comparison Sidmouth has just under 4,000 borrowers for a population around 13,000 (only 31% active borrowers).
Yet in the hands of the bean counters Sidmouth comes near the top of the county pecking order in terms of utilisation rates with Budleigh relegated towards the bottom. The reason is that DCC statistics are calculated on an interesting definition of the catchment area for each library. These are not based straightforwardly on the population of the town in question, nor on the town plus its surrounding villages (which in the case of Budleigh might push its population up to 7,700).
The calculation is much more complicated, adding to the catchment area the population of the postcode of every borrower. So, if a book is borrowed from Budleigh Library by an Exmouth resident (because he or she prefers Budleigh’s poetry section, for example) then Budleigh’s catchment area is increased accordingly. The result is to raise Budleigh’s official catchment area to more than 18,000 (larger than Sidmouth’s) simultaneously reducing its utilisation rating from 48% to a mere 13%!
Budleigh Library seems to have become a victim of its popularity and theand the Mayor, Caz Sismore-Hunt, is quoted as saying “I don’t think using those figures is fair”. We agree.
The message to officials, and councillors for that matter, is that the East Devon Alliance has a team of forensic bean counters always on the lookout to expose any misleading use of data!
East Devon Watch 