Spring is here - March 2007

A busy week meeting friends and new members in the run up to the District Elections. On Monday I met friends in Kingsteignton in the Ten Tors pub and we exchanged views on local issues over a pint of beer. A number of you have taken the time and trouble to show me just how diverse Kingsteignton is - it is both an active farming community and busy urban village - and the concerns of both must be met. A common theme is always the rapid expansion of the village and the inadequacy of the roads, schools and other facilities to meet the needs of this fast growing community. Worst of all the planners seem to have failed to consult us all on what we think is needed and to have ignored some of the geographical quirks of Kingsteignton - in particular the flood plain and landfill sites on which much of modern Kingsteignton has been built.

On Tuesday, I spent the morning with the Shopmobility team down by the quays in Teignmouth. I take my hat off to John Birch and his team of volunteers who have made such a difference to helping the less able to get around - giving them a sense of freedom and Independence. John gave me a lesson on how to drive one of the buggies and off I went! In the afternoon I visited Kingsteignton's many housing estates that have been built in the last twenty years and was surprised at how different they all are, reflecting changing building ideas over the last decade or two. I was made very welcome at the local Bowls Club in Kingsteignton - that is quite a facility! A beautiful state of the art bowling green, home to some very successful teams and individual players, its walls covered in cups and prizes tell their own story. But we need to support this great game so that the club remains financially viable. I know that new members would be very welcome. It is also a good venue for meetings and celebrating special occasions - and what a view of Newton Abbot race course.

Thursday was devoted to Newton Abbot. A group of us got together to thrash out what we thought the Council should be doing but wasn't doing to make Newton Abbot thrive. Traffic congestion, parking, the "Asda" eyesore and the plight of the bypass were high on the agenda. On Friday I stood on Walborough Hill and could see very clearly the stream of almost static traffic heading south out of Newton Abbot to Torquey on the A380. This problem now almost fifty years old has now finally to be addressed and working with you all we need to find a solution. I suspect one of the main problems is that the current route proposal for the bye pass isn't in the right place and isn't solving the real problem.

At 4pm on Friday I was asked to stand in and speak at an event put on by the Honiton Conservative group that evening as their speaker had been delayed returning from a trip abroad - so my week ended with a quick rescheduling of plans to accommodate this! Saturday was filled with a coffee morning, committee meeting and then a dinner at which I was the guest speaker. We must be doing something right - the turnout was three times the usual number!