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Seaton Town Council keeps precept (almost) on hold
This is old news now, but in the absence of the View From, readers may not have picked up that, on my proposal, the Town Council decided in January to hold its precept to an increase of 0.58 per cent, well under the rate of inflation (3 per cent).
Council Tax will still go up substantially, however, with big increases expected from DCC, EDDC and the Police and Crime Commissioner, reflecting yet more large cuts in Government funding which are stripping services to the bone.
CPRE Devon to produce report on housing needs, to help challenges to major development proposals
Gigaclear announce superfast broadband rollout by 2020 in Branscombe, Weston, Farway and Offwell – postcode checker available online
It is intended that work will start in Q3 of 2019 (Q4 in Offwell) and finish in 2020: Q1 Farway, Q2 Branscombe and Offwell, and Q4 (Weston). You can see the map and check your postcode HERE.
Although a Carillion company has been contracted for some of the work, Ian Thomas quotes statements suggesting that Carillion’s collapse will not affect the programme.
34 per cent of children in Coly Valley, 24 per cent in Seaton, living in poverty says shocking new report
From devonlive – The End Child Poverty coalition has collated the data: altogether 251 children in the Coly Valley (34 per cent) and 232 in Seaton (24 per cent) are likely to be living in poverty. The figures are estimates of child poverty in different areas, calculated using HMRC data and the Labour Force Survey.
Sam Royston, Chair of End Child Poverty and Director of Policy and Research at the Children’s Society said: “It is scandalous that a child born in some parts of the UK now has a greater chance of growing up in poverty, than being in a family above the breadline.
He added, “There can be little doubt that the Government’s policy of maintaining the benefits freeze despite rising prices is a major contributor to the emerging child poverty crisis.”
As above-inflation council tax rises loom – men’s real earnings in Devon fell by over 3 per cent in 2017
A shocking figure leaps out from the Equality Impact Statement for next month’s Devon County Council budget – average male full time earnings in the county did not increase at all in 2017. The annual change was ZERO! Since inflation ended the year at 3.1 per cent per annum, this means average male earnings fell by this amount. Many families still rely wholly or mainly on a male full-time worker, so this means a drastic fall in many people’s income (indeed since the figure is an average, many will have lost more than this).
Average female full-time earnings did rise, by 3.8 per cent (a small real increase) but since many women work part-time, this doesn’t necessarily mean that overall women were better off. Taking male and female full-time workers together, there was a cash increase of 1 per cent, meaning a 2.1 per cent average decline.
Can Devon councillors go along with above-inflation council tax increases when their constituents already have falling real incomes?
Progress on traffic calming in Colyford and Seaton Down Hill – MP, councillors and police thrash out solutions with Community Speed Watch teams and residents
On Friday I chaired a meeting in Colyford in which interested parties discussed solutions to problems of speeding in the village and on Seaton Down Hill. Those present including Cllr Stuart Hughes (Cabinet member for Highways) and officers, Superintendent Elaine Hartley (Speed Watch Co-ordinator Peninsula Road Safety Partnership) and other police officers, Neil Parish MP (who had chaired two earlier meetings which had brought everyone together), and representatives of Colyton Parish Council and Seaton Town Council. In a lively meeting, progress was made including:
- Work should begin at the end of this month on a new pedestrian refuge in Seaton Down Hill.
- Surveys have established that the agreed crossing in Colyford would be best situated near the Memorial Hall, but problems associated with the school buses need to be resolved before this can go ahead.
- Devon Highways have accepted in principle that the 40 mph restriction on Harepath Hill could be extended past the A3052 junction with Seaton Down Hill (because of problems of visibility at the junction and the need for pedestrians to cross from the carpark to the footpath towards Holyford Woods). This change would mean that Seaton Down Hill would also be subject to a 40 limit, as asked for by the Speed Watch team and Town Council. However funding remains to be discussed and the change will need to go through the usual formal approval process.
- Two Vehicle Activated Signs (VAS) for Colyford (one at each end of the village) are under discussion between Highways, the Speed Watch team and myself.
- An additional uphill VAS sign for Seaton Down Hill is under discussion between Seaton Town Council, the Speed Watch team and myself.
The meeting was also a landmark get-together of local Community Speed Watch teams. Teams from Rousdon, Wilmington, Knowle, Ottery St Mary and West Hill, as well as the Colyford and Seaton Down Hill teams who organised the meeting, were present, and were unanimous in complaining about the slowness of police administrative procedures, the lack of data sharing, and uncertainty about how Highways and the police used Speed Watch results. Elaine Hartley acknowledged these problems and promised a meeting of teams from across Devon and Cornwall in the coming months.
Seaton’s tourism signage scheme gets go ahead at last
Devon County Council Highways has finally signed off the scheme for over 30 new tourism and traffic signs which the Town Council has been negotiating for over a year. The scheme will mean that new attractions like the Wetlands and Seaton Jurassic are finally properly signposted. The scheme has been carefully integrated to make everything easy to find for visitors coming into the town, and should be implemented this spring before the main tourist season.
People often complain about the Town Council but this scheme is a tribute to the persistence of councillors, who have brought partner organisations together and overcome difficulties in raising the full cost of the scheme. Devon County Council has contributed the majority of the £20,000 funding, and I have contributed £1000 from my County Councillor’s locality budget to help fill the funding gap.
SW bottom of the league for infrastructure spending – what do we get for having most of our MPs from the ruling party?
(from the Sunday Times) Britain does infrastructure well –
New Axe Valley service replaces X52 from Seaton and Beer to RD&E and Exeter from 22 January
The timetable for the new service is here: 52 Seaton-Exeter 220118. I am disappointed that the service does not include Colyford and, at my instigation, DCC are talking again to Axe Valley about this.
This is still a minimal service. If you want a better service, use these buses and encourage the company to believe more journeys would be viable!
Seaton & Colyton MATTERS 