I rang Western Power on Saturday morning because the power went out.
I have to say that their call centre (on 0800 6783195) were very helpful indeed and luckily their estimated time to restore power was wrong – it was only off for 13 minutes rather than the estimated three hours. The supervisor gave me a call back to say what was happening and I also received a text message on my landline.
I asked for a written response to explain why we constantly get short duration outages and was amazed to receive a this morning.
Well done Western Power for such good customer service. Let’s just hope you can put your line plant underground. This should stop these mini-outages and improve the streetscapes of South Molton immeasurably.
People may say that these mini-outages – often less than ten seconds – aren’t a big issue, but if you use computers, or many other forms of electronic equipment, they’re a very big issue. They’re the reason I spent a fair amount of money recently to buy an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).
I had quite a long correspondence with BT Payphones about this redundant phone box.
They refused to budge on the removal date, but, bizarrely, agreed to get it working again and replace the glass panels before they eventually remove it.
At least it’s now in somewhat better condition, albeit unpainted and without a door, but the important thing is that it does actually work again (I tested it on Sunday afternoon). Mobile coverage in that part of South Molton is pretty dire so a working phone box is a good thing. Mind you, a working phone box is always better than one that doesn’t work.
Max managed to destroy his first toy (Gnasher) on its first day! However, unlike pigs, its squeak is used. If Max won’t come when called ( a relatively rare occurrence now) I just press the Gnasher squeaker a couple of times and he drops everything and comes running.
I was proud that Max appeared to be very house trained. Until I took him to Shoecraft to buy a dog tag. (He may be chipped and have a passport but he still needs a tag!)
John kindly let him into the shop and the first thing that Max did was pee on the floor. Quite why he waited ’til then I don’t know, but John was very sanguine about it all – so a big thank you to John!
Our new dog, Max, arrived today. He’s a rescue dog (or rather five month old puppy) from Spain and came in a van via France and the Channel Tunnel.
Incredibly the van arrived within five minutes of the time they said they would. After such a long drive I was expecting them to be four or five hours late.
Max’s Pet Passport
Our first task was to give the dog a shower as it was very muddy and had been travelling since early Tuesday evening. I was expecting this to be quite a struggle. Far from it, Max appeared to relish it.
The task now is to housetrain him – I’ve never known a dog to pee so much – and then move on to other training. He’s already virtually destroyed his first toy – a soft Gnasher – but seems to love it.
I attended a Care Closer to Home meeting at the Barnstaple Hotel last night along with Councillors John Moore and David Goodman,
It was much better attended than the first meeting I went to there, when the CCG staff outnumbered the attendees by quite a large margin! This time around about 15 or 16 people attended.
It would appear that the CCG are certainly taking people’s views into account. However, indications are that the number of beds to be provided will be at the lower end of the range rather than the upper end! Comments on this part of the consultation need to be in by Friday 12 December.
The CCG will probably set out their proposals in January which will be followed by a further period of consultation. The final decision is expected in April at the earliest, but is more likely to be announced at the end of May/beginning of June.
There are more bike stands in South Molton than you might imagine.
The issue is that they’re all in the wrong place.
Until recently I had no idea that there were bike stands behind the library. The problem is that there’s usually a car parked in the space on the left and it’s almost impossible to get bikes to the stands (the chrome things on the right).
There are also bike stands in King Street (near the phone box and Barnstaple bus stop).
There is a need for bike stands in the centre of the town but they are currently all in the wrong place:
most residents don’t know they’re there, let alone visitors to the town ;
they’re not in public view, so cyclists have concerns about the safety of their bikes;
the locations are not at all convenient.
I suggested to the Town Council some time ago that bike stands be located on the central Enhancement in the Square:
they would be visible, and would thus be more secure and far more likely to be used;
closer to the destinations that most people need to go to in the town centre;
easily approachable from whichever direction the cyclist is travelling.
Bike stands on the Enhancement would benefit those residents who cycle and would also benefit touring cyclists passing through South Molton. There are quite a large number of the latter, particularly in the summer months, and if they could be encouraged to stop in South Molton this would benefit businesses in the Town Centre.
Someone (Margaret White?) had the inspired idea of exhibiting the kneelers. Although they’re always in the church they’re invariably hidden underneath the pews.
