► GAS BOARD DIGGING UP ROADS

The problems arose after the change over to natural gas. The ad-lib digging up of Bitton Park Road has taken months and months. Everyone is disgusted with the disturbance of smoothly laid roads. Occupants of cars can feel the bumps as they pass over the filled-in pits and the delays from temporary traffic lights cause a waiting line stretching back to the Shaldon Bridge lights.

The Gas Board are being very painstaking about the conversion. In one South Devon town, a procession of 12 different men turned up at one house in a three-month effort to make a griller usable.

► HEAVY THUNDERSTORM

During a heavy thunderstorm and torrential rain last Sunday evening, sewage came up through the drains in various parts of the town. Firemen were called out to wash down First Avenue, the lower part of Bitton Hill, Station Road and Hollands Road. Mr A B Mitchell, chairman of the Lower Bitton Residents’ Association, wrote to the Council: ‘We have reached the stage when we are afraid to leave our properties unattended, in case flooding occurs.’

► URBAN COUNCIL’S LAST CHAIRMAN

Mr Edward Card has been elected the last chairman of the Teignmouth Urban District Council, which has run for the last 70 years. They had little thought that the control of the town, for which they had worked so hard, would one day pass to a council of 57 members, covering an area of 166,000 acres, and that Teignmouth and Shaldon would have but a 15 per cent representation.

‘With justifiable pride,’ he said, ‘I would refer to the new sewerage scheme, the first of its kind in the country, which should be commenced in the autumn, and completed approximately 18 months later.’

► WISE WORDS

Anger makes dull men witty, but it helps keep them poor. Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent. It is not necessary to be a stag, but we ought not to be a tortoise.

► NOT THE LIBERAL PARTY

Dear Sir:  This Association wishes it to be known by all the electors in Teignmouth that Mr William Cole is in no way supported by the Liberal Party, neither by the local branch, nor any known members of the Liberal Party in his candidature. Mr Cole is not a member of the Liberal Party, nor to my knowledge has he ever paid a subscription.”

John Marshall, Hon Sec Teignmouth and Shaldon Liberal Association.

► MAYPOLE RALLY

Haldon Motor Club this year replaced the March Hare Rally with the Maypole Rally. Most of the route was in the Haldon, Exeter, Crediton area, but the climax of the night was the special stage of 3.7 miles of woodland track near Fingle Bridge, which Fountain Forestry Ltd made available.

Times on the stage were not quite as fast as anticipated, partly due to the rain, but the sheer drop of 100ft from some of the hairpin bends undoubtedly had a daunting effect on the competitors. Many had dropped out before this, mostly with mechanical troubles, but a few had ‘seasick’ navigators.

► MASSED OAP CHOIRS

Over 100 voices from eight old age pensioners’ organisations delighted a packed audience in the Carlton Theatre recently. The occasion was the 16th annual choirs’ festival, held in connection with the Teignmouth Senior Citizens’ Holiday Weeks. The organiser, Miss Alice Cross, described the preparation as great welfare work.

► RIVIERA CINEMA

A Clockwork Orange; Mad Dogs and Englishmen; Charles Chaplin in “The Funniest Man in the World; Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.