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.