Cllr Alan Connett

Residents in Starcross may well have heard that the current Post Office and shop is to close within the next few weeks. I have contacted the Post Office centrally to see how we can keep a Post Office in the village, writes local councillor Alan Connett.

Fortunately, the Post Office is looking to keep a local post office in the village and I have been in touch with the Westbank League of Friends to see if a village post office could go into the charity shop on the Strand.

The Westbank would be delighted if this could happen and I hope we can work everything out so we keep a local post office in the village - although there may be a gap betwen the current post office closing and a new one opening.

  

Local councils in Devon have saved over £1.5M in the last two and a half years thanks to a Procurement Partnership operating across Teignbridge, the South Hams and other

Devon areas. 

The South Devon and Dartmoor Procurement Partnership was set-up when Teignbridge District Council and South Hams District Council employed a joint Corporate Procurement Officer in July 2007, reports cllr Alan Connett. 

It has since been responsible for making a number of money-saving changes to the way the councils buy and pay for products and services. 

Highlights include

1. Reducing temporary staffing agencies from 22 across the partners to a single provider (removing 400 invoices from their administrative systems and creating savings by combining buying power).

2. Introducing electronic tendering and ordering; achieving savings of £50k and removing 380 invoices through a new telecoms tender.

3. Creating an online Procurement Tool, providing grass roots staff, senior management and councillors with everything they need to know about procurement in the area.

4. Breaking previous internal records for speed of invoice payment to suppliers.  It’s also helped keep business local,  with 49% of suppliers being within Teignbridge and 76% within the South West. 

The Partnership has been expanded to include West Devon Borough Council and also works with East Devon District Council.  It has been recognised by the national Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) as a good example of procurement success rarely seen outside Metropolitan and London-based councils, as it saves money, improves efficiency, helps provide better services, supports local businesses and eco-friendly products, and offers a firm foundation for the integration of services across Devon. 

 

Five Teignbridge Council public loos have been awarded 5-star ‘Loo of the Year’ Awards – the highest possible grading in the national competition, reports local councillor Alan Connett.

Every year since 1987 the Loo of the Year Awards, run independently and promoted by the British Toilet Association, have celebrated the best quality public loos across the country. 

This year all five of Teignbridge Council’s entries have achieved top marks, placing them as among the cleanest, highest quality loos in the country.  The five-star winners are: 

· Abbotskerswell

·Cricketfield Road Car Park, Newton Abbot

·        Market Walk, Newton Abbot

·        The Lawn Public Conveniences, Dawlish

·        The Den Public Conveniences, Teignmouth.

 The results follow a rigorous judging process which examined a number of key components.  This included cleanliness, hygiene equipment, air quality, signage, décor, maintenance, provision of fixtures and fittings, security, accessibility, and overall management & care. 

There was further success for Teignbridge at the Awards when both Teignmouth Den and Market Walk loos also picked up awards for ‘Attendant of the Year’. 

The days of fumbling for coins are a thing of the past in Teignbridge car parks thanks to a new cashless way to pay launching tomorrow (25 January), writes local councillor Alan Connett. 

Most car parks across the district now benefit from ‘RingGo’ — a system which allows motorists to pay for parking using their mobile phone and credit or debit card.  It’s available in 34 car parks around Teignbridge, covering 5,432 parking spaces. 

The innovative system enables anybody to park and pay from the comfort of their vehicle.  No paper ticket is required, as car parking attendants are able to check vehicle registrations against payments made using internet connected handsets. 

The convenient service costs just 20p in addition to the parking charge.  Users can register by calling 01626 811813, a local number that will be free to call from many mobiles with ‘inclusive minutes’.  This number is shown on signs and payment machines around Teignbridge car parks, which also provide a unique location code needed for the service.

Customers will have to provide their car registration number and the length of time they want to park.  Payment will then be taken from the driver’s debit/credit card.  First time users will need to give full details of the payment card they use, but the next time they use the service they will only need to provide the three digit security code from the signature strip of their card. 

To register in advance of using a car park go online at www.RingGo.co.uk, where receipts for parking can also be obtained.  The website and local number can also be used for topping-up time, to stay longer, if that’s required.

The application for a single gypsy pitch at Small View, Mamhead, has been approved by the teignbridge planning committee, writes local councillor Alan Connett.

Councillors were told that Government planning guidance was supportive and that there were no planning reasons for refusing the application. In addition to a number of conditions put forward by the council’s planning officers, the consent is personal to the applicant with a legal agreement not to allow more use of the site than has been permitted.

Full details can be obtained from teignbridge planning department.     

Just over 3,600 pensioners in Teignbridge are eligible but not claiming pension credits which means they will not receive Cold Weather Payments if the weather drops below zero degrees Celsius for seven consecutive days.

Cold Weather Payments of £25 a week are paid to people on low incomes who receive a qualifying benefit, such as pension credit, which goes unclaimed by as many as 1.7 million pensioners nationwide – according to analysis of Government figures by the Lib Dems. 

STUDENTS in Devon’s secondary schools have achieved another significant improvement in their benchmark GCSE pass rates.

The percentage of students gaining five or more good A*-C passes at GCSE has gone up by an impressive 2.3 per cent.

Last summer’s results for Devon, published by the Government today, show 51.8 per cent passing five good GCSEs, including English and maths, compared to 49.5 per cent in 2008. That figure was itself up 2.9 per cent on the 2007 results of 46.6 per cent.

Devon’s figure of 51.8 per cent compares with a national figure for all schools in England of 49.8 per cent.

Devon’s schools now sit at 64th out of 151 local authorities despite being 148th out of 151 for funding from the Government.

Devon’s care homes could be sold off ‘on the cheap’ and became a speculators bonanza in the depressed property market after Devon County Council confirmed it may not achieve market values for the homes it wants to dispose of. 

Devon is to press ahead with its plans to break up the network it has across the county putting them out for tender to organisations to buy as single units or groups of homes.

Councillors on the Conservative controlled authority were told “It is possible that bid prices will be lower than the market values”, in a report from the county’s officers. 

This raises fears that homes could be bought cheaply and then possibly closed down by the purchasers as they seek to capitalise on the investment potential of either the home or the land around it, say Devon’s Liberal Democrats. 

The Conservatives plan to advertise Devon’s care homes, which cater for some of our most vulnerable residents, throughout Europe.

Local councillor Alan Connett says:“One of the problems we can see is that Devon residents and those being cared for are taking a risk too. They are taking a risk that the home they live in and serving the local community will continue running.” 

During the county’s Cabinet meeting on 13 January it was revealed that legal restrictions would be imposed on any sale which meant the homes, when sold, could only be used for care purposes and that they would have to stay open. 

However, Liberal Democrats are questioning whether those planned safeguards will actually work. There can be a very wide interpretation of ‘care services’ and despite a legal agreement to stay open. What happens if a home closes because of financial or other serious problems.

How will the interests of Devon people be protected?   Will the covenants the Conservatives say they will include in any sale do the job or would it be better to have formal ‘claw-backs’ in place so that if a home closes or is developed the interests of residents and Devon taxpayers are better protected.  

If you use the local mobile library service, then please keep a lookout for a new consultation being launched by Devon County Council, writes local councillor Alan Connett.

 

 

The library service has 11 mobile vehicles at present making over 1,140 stops covering 400 parishes around the County. In the past 10 years there has been a 40% drop in the number of people using the service. Currently, 7,500 residents use the mobile libraries. 

 

The county council thinks there could be some service developments such as making the libraries available in late afternoons and for some larger villages on Saturdays – which may suit families and young people. It also wants to look at where the mobile libraries stop, improve the stock on board and consider improved IT access perhaps through satellite broadband etc. 

 

Local Parish Councils and other ‘stakeholders’ will be consulted, says the county council. It hopes to complete its consultation by Easter and new routes to start late this summer. 

 

For more details, look at the

Devon County website for the Cabinet meeting on 13 January and you should be able to read the full paper, considered by members of the council’s cabinet yesterday – or view the meeting via the webcam service.

Devon County Council is shortly to launch a major consultation on proposals for a high quality public transport scheme for Exeter, taking effect from next year.

However, proposals put forward so far do NOT include provision for a new rail station at Exminster, which could help reduce road traffic going into and out of Exeter.

I asked if a new Exminster rail station was being considered as part of the plans, but got no answer when I spoke at the Devon County Council cabinet meeting yesterday (13 January).

I have now sent in my questions so we can establish what Devon’s Conservatives think about the future of Exminstr rail station, writes local councillor Alan Connett