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Residents in two areas have been waiting years for road repairs, and at last – in the next fortnight – our pressure will pay off
I hope I’m not tempting fate, but the road closures have been announced, and the two roads where residents have been waiting longest for promised repairs in the current financial year – between Northleigh Cross and Slade Farm and at Townsend Avenue in Seaton – should finally see their repairs completed in the next two weeks.
In Northleigh, a road in shocking condition has been sidelined for repair for years. I made it my first priority for this year’s Pothole Action funding (which I control) so although the contractor has left it until the last minute, the worst sections will at last be done.
At Townsend Avenue, a scheme that was left half-finished in 2016-17 (!), before I was elected, then – after I protested – promised for 2018-19, was dropped from this year’s programme without my being informed and – when I protested again – restored with a commitment to do it this month.
So in both cases, all’s well that ends well, we hope – but what a struggle for local residents, Northleigh Parish Council and me!
‘Your chance to choose your local councillors is almost here’: my first piece on Nub News, new online news site for East Devon
As the chance to choose our district, town and parish councillors comes round on 2nd May, I’ve written this short piece on Nub News, a new online news service. It’s on their Honiton nub, but a Seaton nub is promised in the not-too-distant future.
Proposal to reduce speed limit on Seaton Down Hill and at junction with A3052 is overdue – let’s make it a step to a Slower, Safer Seaton
Devon Highways are currently consulting on a proposal to extend the 40 mph zone on Harepath Hill past the junction with Seaton Down Hill, bringing the hill itself within the 40 zone. This should help to make the junction safer – at the moment drivers coming over Harepath Hill may see the end-of-limit sign and speed up (as I know to my cost having been involved in a bump there a few years ago) – and also mean that drivers will slow down before they come into the 30 limit entering Seaton.
The change is the result of persistent pressure by the Speedwatch team, led until recently by Paul Allan, supported by the Town Council and myself as County Councillor (who have combined to fund the traffic order), which has already produced the Vehicle Activated Sign and pedestrian refuge lower down Seaton Down Hill.
However these changes need to be backed up by a campaign for a Slower, Safer Seaton, to get people driving at speeds which are viewed as safe by pedestrians. I’m on a group at Devon County Council which is looking at the problem of traffic speeds and I hope to use their proposals to promotechange locally.
County Council leader rightly lashes out at Government’s miserable funding offer to SW – but Devon Tories’ failure to speak out over Brexit has allowed May to take them for granted.
All credit to John Hart for his forthright comments on the insulting offer to the region. But it’s difficult not to say I told you so – I and other opposition councillors have been urging him to speak out for the last two years, but time and again – even last month – he and his Cabinet have (like Theresa May) put Tory party unity before the interests of Devon.
What John says now is right – but it is too little and too late, unless coupled with real pressure on Devon Tory MPs to stop the looming Brexit disaster.
NOW is the time to register if you want to vote in the local elections on 2nd May
Deadline to register for the May 2019 local elections: Friday 12 April.
To be able to vote, you have to be on the electoral register and to do that, you have to fill in a simple online form. Completing other official paperwork, such as getting a passport, paying Council Tax or getting a driving license doesn’t result in you being automatically added to the register. It is a separate process.
You only need to register once; you don’t need to register separately for every election. However, you do need to register again if you change your address, name or nationality.
You have to be 18 on polling day to vote (or 16 for Scottish Parliament and local elections, along with some but not all referendums). For that reason, you can register in advance of your 18th birthday so that if an election is called whilst you are under-age but you will be 18 on polling day, you can therefore still get your vote.
EU citizens are able to vote in the UK by the way – for council elections although not for the Westminster Parliamentary elections. Commonwealth and Irish citizens can also register to vote and they’re allowed to vote in all types of elections.
To register online right now, head over to the official registration site.
If voting in person isn’t the right option for you, either for a temporary or permanent reason, then once who are on the register you can also apply for a postal vote.
or appoint someone to vote on your behalf (a proxy vote).
Tory MP complains that Government isn’t giving Brexit bribes to South West MPs – because the region voted Conservative!
The Government has announced its bribes to towns in order to persuade MPs, mainly Labour, to vote for its miserable Brexit deal. Although it claims to have used a “need-based formula,” the South West is to receive the second-lowest allocation of cash (£33 million) despite being among England’s most deprived regions. Coincidentally, it also has very few Labour MPs — and Sheryll Murray, the Tory MP for South East Cornwall, appears to have spotted the discrepancy. “The fact this money appears to be directly routed to Labour-voting areas smacks of pork-barrel politics, and the public will know that,” Murray complains to The Times. “It would be a crying shame if Conservative-voting communities were being disadvantaged because of the way they voted.”
Devon’s food supply, NHS, farming, etc. are dangerously exposed to No Deal Brexit – the County Council must tell Theresa May on Thursday to stop this irresponsible course of action
There are mounting fears that if Theresa May allows a ‘No Deal’ Brexit to happen on 29th March, Devon will suffer serious harm including:
- shortages of imported foods, especially as Devon is near the end of many supply lines
- escalating staff shortages in the NHS and social care as European nurses and care workers are deterred from coming to take up jobs
- shortage of workers in the tourism and hospitality sectors – and care workers migrating to these jobs because of higher pay
- thousands of tons of animal feed blocked from coming in through Plymouth
- lamb exports to Europe prevented by Brexit red tape
- exporting businesses unprepared for the extra bureaucracy
- more business failures over the next year or so (Brexit has already been implicated in the Flybe, Barden, Ambrosia and Appledore crises).
After Devon County Council leader John Hart said in January that the council ‘hadn’t got a clue yet‘ about planning for a ‘No Deal’ Brexit, its chief executive was appointed by the Government – with barely 6 weeks to go before the UK crashed out of the EU – to coordinate local government responses in the South West. But whatever councils do at this late stage, they can only mitigate, not prevent, the likely harms.
Even if No Deal is averted, Brexit has already led to an economic slowdown and job losses, as well as discrimination against Europeans living in Devon. Exit on the terms agreed by May will be less bad than No Deal, but far worse than the bespoke membership of the EU which the UK currently has. When County Councillors consider the situation on Thursday, they have a duty to tell May to take urgent steps to prevent No Deal – and allow the public to vote on whether they want her Brexit or her remain in the EU.
School students’ climate protest in Exeter – we are following up at the County Council on Thursday
After hundreds joined the protest in Exeter yesterday (Devonlive picture) on Thursday I shall be seconding Green county councillor Jacqi Hodgson’s motion that Devon declare a ‘climate emergency’ (item 20 on the agenda).
