Hi all - just a round up of things that you need to know in the Exmouth area.
Hopefully Non-political, hopefully informative!
Exmouth Gateway
It looks like the Exmouth Gateway developments near the train station are about to be shelved by Devon County Council. They’ve listened to the consultations and decided that filling in the subway was so unpopular that they’re not going ahead. Is this actually what happened, or is there another reason behind it? Who knows. Exmouth Town Council have asked that they consider implementing some of the more popular ideas (traffic light-controlled crossing by the station, for example) which I am fully behind. We’ll find out this week the result of the vote at DCC. They say that it shouldn't affect the funding for Dinan Way - fingers crossed…
The Strand
It looks like, praise the lord, outdoor use of public space on the Strand has successfully been negotiated this year without too many hurdles, and to both the council and traders approval. If I’m honest, I’d like to see certain traders make a little effort to return the space to us in the same condition they received it, but that’s by the by at the moment.
Housing
I’m getting lots of emails and calls regarding people struggling to find housing recently, either privately or through Devon Homechoice. It’s depressing. And unfortunately I rarely have an answer.
In an ideal world, we could engage with landlords, get holiday lets back in the private rented sector and sort this. However, correspondence I've received since writing what's below suggests that legislation makes it costly and difficult to do so. I'll speak to officers and see what we can do, if anything.
(I’d like all AirBnB-ers or owners of holiday lets to have a long hard think about whether or not their properties could be used to accommodate someone long term. Your income is not so seasonal, far more secure and you’ll be helping the people of the town. EDDC and its partners are desperately short of housing options and will need those who can help to do so.)
Resident Parking
The Proposed review of these schemes, which has already been delayed, was again kicked down the road at the April DCC HATOC meeting. There is now due to be a report at the next one, in July. Please contact your County Reps, Cllr Scott and Cllr Trail for more details.
Exmouth Community College
I’ll write something seperately about this elsewhere, but I’m more than a little bit concerned at the news that ECC is in negotiations to become part of the Ted Wragg Academy Trust. Having spoken in recent months with the head, he seems to be a pragmatic yet forward thinking chap, and I hope he can ocnvince them to adapt their style of school management to suit Exmouth’s needs, rather than turning it into what some describe elsewhere as something akin to a boot camp.
The Chargers…
We're still waiting for them to be connected to the grid. I'm increasingly frustrated by this. Grrr.
Any questions, comments or anything else, email me on joe.whibley@eastdevon.gov.uk
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