BOVEY Tracey's annual town meeting last week attracted about 90 people to the newly-refurbished town hall for a spirited meeting that lasted two hours.
Mayor Cllr Anna Klinkenberg described events in the past year. They included a church service commemorating VE and VJ Day in July – a hot summer's day with evening entertainment – and the total contrast two days later of two minutes silence in Union Square to mark the London bombings. She wrote to the mayor of London to commiserate about the bombings. Cllr Klinkenberg explained how years of work came to fruition with the opening of St Catherine's Primary School, Heathfield. She said how pleased she was that the town council could award enablement grants to local clubs and organisations, and then proceeded to present £750 to Devon Wildlife Trust, £320 to Bovey Tracey Football Club, £1,160 to the Bovey Tracey Players, £500 to St Catherine's School and £100 to Newton Abbot Shopmobility.
q Cllr Alan Griesiel announced that the council tax increase worked out at 87p a week on a Band D property in Bovey Tracey.
q Michael Martyn, a Newton Abbot solicitor, gave an informative talk on the role and activities of a manorial borough as part of the annual town meeting.
q Cllr Sally Morgan, who is a county councillor as well as a councillor for Bovey Tracey, urged people to back A Fair Deal for Devon campaign by signing the petition. She explained that Devon was £36 million underfunded by the government, Social Services will have to be cut by £1.4 million.
q District and town councillor Fernley Holmes was congratulated and thanked by the mayor for his 40 years of service as a Bovey Tracey councillor. Cllr Holmes voiced his concerns about the Lustleigh cycle track and the traffic problems he fears it may cause. He is also questioning the compulsory purchase of properties on the old railway line.
q Cllr Audrey Warren spoke emotively about the litter problem in Heathfield: 'It is an absolute crying disgrace,' she said: 'I shall not let this rest.'
q Bovey Tracey Exhibition Foundation Trust made 18 grants of £75 this year to applicants staying in education.
q The new leisure centre at Heathfield has suffered construction delays and will now not be completed until the summer.
q Questions from the public raised some interesting issues. The traffic flow in Fore Street was declared to be a problem, and a one-way system was suggested. Town clerk Terry Westwood explained that buses would withdraw their services if Fore Street was one way. Tesco's expansion also drew public comment, with concern about 'the major problem of pantechnicons delivering to Tesco'. The town clerk confirmed that no planning application had been made by Tesco, but since there was no change of use planning permission was not needed. 'My dear boy, you live in the country now,' said Bovey's deputy mayor Cllr George Gribble, in answer to a resident's complaint about the muddy state of de Tracey Park. 'If it's muddy, go walk somewhere that isn't – try the old railway line – and try to be a little more tolerant.' In answer to a question about the large fence erected on Bovey Straights, the mayor explained that action had been taken by the council. the fence was now lowered to a legal height and the container behind it had been removed. The public also complained about the 'horrible' and 'far too large' building under construction opposite the doctors' surgery.
q Rent from the phone mast has enabled the Bovey Tracey Town Trust to make donations to several town organisations as well as financing the almshouses. In 2005 it gave £1,000 to the bowling club, £750 to Bovey's primary school, £500 to St Catherine's School, Heathfield and £1,000 to the cricket club.
q Bovey Tracey Youth Cafe´ has proved so successful in the last year that it may open for an additional evening each week.
q Bovey Tracey Heritage Trust aims to lay a short stretch of railway track between the former goods shed and the station building.
q St Catherine's School, Heathfield, still has £135,000 to raise towards the new school, and is asking for any good fundraising ideas. St Catherine's pupils have this year made a three day educational visit to a medieval castle in the Forest of Dean. The numbers at St Catherine's have risen to 153 full time pupils and 42 nursery school children. These should rise to 170 full timers next year.
The Under Secretary of State for Education has written to St Catherine's to congratulate the school for coming 34th in the UK for sustained improvement over four years.