Sad to hear that Jeremey Thorpe has died.

No matter what you might think about his behaviour (or politics), he was an excellent constituency politician.

I went to the South Molton Tourist Information Centre AGM on Tuesday.

They ran at a loss last year and things are going to be worse this year. Partly because an increasing number of people are booking things on-line, but primarily because North Devon+ have withdrawn all their funding!

Their biggest items of expenditure are staff costs, rent  and gas and electricity.

Their sources of income are:

• members subscriptions;
• sales in their shop;
• sales of advertisements in their ‘mini’ guide;
• National Express coach ticket sales; and
• sales of tickets to other events e.g. the North Devon show.

In 2013/2104 they received just one grant – £1,500 from SMTC.

Why no grants from surrounding parishes, NDDC or DCC, or indeed Somerset County Council or even the EU ?

Devon County Council have stopped running the Youth Resource Centre, and, as far as I’m aware, the YMCA haven’t yet started running it. And yet on both Friday evening and Tuesday evening there were people in there.  Not that I’m complaining – it’s a good thing it’s still being used – but who has responsibility for it at the moment?

UPDATE: It appears that SMTC (driven by Andrew Coates) are keeping the centre open until such time as the YMCA can take it over. This is extremely good news as it gives continuity to all the groups currently using it. Well done SMTC!

After coming back from the NDDC meeting in Barnstaple, I had a cup of coffee (excellent as usual) and a panini in That New Place.

It’s always interesting sitting there watching the world go by and today I spotted this abysmal bit of parking:

Looking at the following picture you’d never think that there was a weight limit on this stretch of road would you? Of course it could have been delivering to one of the shops along the road. Christmas sweets for Bon Bons perhaps?

On Saturday morning, in the Pannier Market, I was introduced to Sally Bush, who will be standing as a town councillor in the May elections next year.

I guess Sally is in her twenties, and this would bring a much needed younger person’s perspective on things, which would be an excellent thing.

My concern is that she is standing for the Lib Dems, and, as I have made perfectly clear before, I don’t think party politics should have any place at the local level. My second bugbear is that I’m not sure that she lives in South Molton.

I went to the North Devon District Council (NDDC) Executive Committee meeting this morning as there were two items  relating to South Molton on the agenda – Care Closer to Home and .

In essence NDDC appear to be against the Care Closer to Home proposals and want to have a closer look at the way population growth was worked out and the what the financial model looks like,

NDDC members seem unable to grasp the difference between acute care and long term care. There still seems to be the misapprehension that beds equals hospitals i.e. if the beds are closing the hospital is closing.

The second item of interest to South Molton concerned Norrington Yard. In essence approval was sought to appoint the same agent as that used by Tesco to explore the sale/development of the Tesco site and the NDDC site.  Lots of waffle but no real action – both Cllrs John Moore and David Worden did speak in favour of taking the views of South Molton people into account and ensuring that things didn’t end up stagnating again.

It was good to see Councillors Goodman, Moore and Worden at the meeting – along with our Deputy Town Clerk, Andrew Coates.

I went to presentation in the Assembly Rooms on Monday afternoon given by McCarthy and Stone, a development company that specialises in building homes for the elderly (generally considered to be those over 60!).

They are currently having discussions with North Devon District Council before they submit a planning application for 34 one and two bed roomed apartments behind Moors Yard, to the south of the Community Hospital and Eastleigh.

McCarthy and Stone have a good reputation, and whilst I’m always suspicious of developers, this largely looks like it could be ‘a good thing’ and fulfill a real need for some people. Although it certainly won’t be affordable by everybody. Prices are likely to be quite high, as will the service charge and there will be no social housing element (see also my final point).

The apartments will be spread over 2/3 floors with an even mix of 1-bed and 2-bed flats. The building will have two lifts, a community lounge, a house-manager on-site and a guest room. It will all be wheelchair accessible and special provision will be made for the needs of the more frail elderly.

There will be covered ‘parking’ for four mobility scooters (with charging points), and four disabled parking bays i.e. much wider than normal. There will be an additional 30 ordinary parking bays and four or five bays for visitors.

One of my major concerns is that the amount of parking is insufficient. Apart from the visitors’ parking, there ought to be more parking in each of the categories, including for mobility scooters.

The access to the complex is also somewhat problematic. Traffic will approach from the north i.e. it will come past the Community Hospital and then head south in front of Eastleigh.

The developers have said that they would ‘facilitate’ pedestrian/mobility scooter access to South Street via Moors Yard. This will be somewhat difficult as there is no public right of way, and it’s not exactly appropriate to have elderly pedestrians mixing with garage/workshop traffic.

My final issue is that this isn’t really for local people. I think it’s primarily aimed at retirees from elsewhere – London, Birmingham Manchester etc.

The sales pitch can be found on their website.

EDIT: This development has changed its name and is now called Squire Court.

Well done NDDC for removing the fly tipping detritus from outside the old Phoenix recycling centre.

The first of a series of Antique Fairs was held in the Pannier Market today,

A good selection of stalls, no tat, and reasonably priced.

Have a look at the website here.

Let’s hope they go from strength-to-strength.

Outside the old recycling centre.

I’ve reported it via the NDDC flytipping website. Let’s see how long it stays there.