NEWSLETTER FROM THE PARISH COUNCIL September/October 2007

•   David Bettoney – Parish Clerk

The Parish Council is now:

•   John K Welsby CBE as Chairman
•   Nick Burgess as Deputy Chairman
•   Mike Bostock
•   Howard Castle
•   Erica Eden
•   Bryan Hollingsworth
•   L H George Livingstone-Learmonth

The next meeting is 8th October 2007 at 7:30pm in the village hall. All members of the public are welcome and may address the council in Open Forum. I welcome ideas for anything to be included in the Newsletter

Further explanations!

I produce the newsletter at home. I do a single copy on my computer which is then taken down to David Bowyer who copies it for me. He does this as a free service to the Parish Council and we are very grateful to him. The finished newsletter is then taken by members of the Parochial Church Council and stapled by them to the “Church” newsletter and then distributed by them to every house in the parish. We are also very grateful to them.

The Parish Council gets a small amount of money each year the “precept” from the Council Tax; on a band D property this is about 30p per week.

The Church Clock

I am very pleased to see it back in place after its restoration and to hear it chiming. Those who raised money for it and the bells are to be congratulated. Councillor Michael Lee [our Mid Devon Councillor] had access to a grant which he made available to the Parish Council. The Council was able to donate this for the clock as – despite being connected with the church – it is defined as a “public clock” which is something the Parish Council can give money to.

Our next meeting

As stated above this will be on October 8th in the village hall starting at 730pm.

We are hoping to have two speakers to address us and to answer questions from members of the public and from councillors.

Mr Gary Pilling from “Operations Services” at Mid Devon District Council will attend with a display about recycling and will answer questions both on that subject and any relevant issues. The system in Zeal Monachorum seems, in the main, to operate well yet we are said to have a problem with rats. Please do come along with any questions that you may have. I believe that he will also have available some useful products for sale such as the cornstarch bags for the kitchen “caddy” bags and bags to put recyclable kitchen waste into the brown bin. This should not be put in plastic bags even if they are biodegradable.

Mr Pilling will – I understand – answer questions in public or deal with people privately if they have specific personal concerns

A spokesman from the Police in Crediton will also be there [subject – of course – to any urgent duty calls] and will welcome any questions or concerns. Again the Officer will deal with general or specific questions. If there is anything you feel the Parish Council should raise please let me know.

We are concerned about traffic speeds in the village and this may well need to be addressed jointly with the police, Mid Devon District Council and Devon County Council Highways.

The Roads

I am pleased to see that most of the major potholes have been patched and this has made an improvement to driving in the lanes. If you know of any others or any other Highways issue please let me know.

Bus route changes

From the end of this month the service 51 which at present goes from Exeter via Bow and North Tawton to Okehampton will change to terminate at Hatherleigh. There will be a bus from North Tawton to Okehampton but I have not been able to find out whether this will make an effective connection. There is also a bus – the 86 – from Hatherleigh to Okehampton.

Despite the Government’s commitment to reducing car use [and by implication improving public transport] the bus service provided in the evenings to the villages by Crediton Community Transport has now ceased due to lack of funding. We did seek public opinion as to whether it should come to the village but there was no support for the idea. Legally it could only have been used by those without a car of their own.

However there will now be a bus leaving Exeter at 11:15pm and which gets to Bow at about 11:40pm on Monday to Saturday so it should be possible to go out for an evening in the City and return by public transport for at least part of the way.

I feel this is to be encouraged and hope that some use will be made of it. A common complaint is that there are few “leisure time” services.