SEPTEMBER was a busy month which you may well have seen with the various television articles on the local news.
Devon County Council passed a motion to support parish and town councils who wanted 20 mph speed limits. There were however certain conditions!
The requesting council has to finance the enforcement and signage for the 20 mph speed limit.
I would suggest that this is not suitable for parishes but possibly for our towns.
The status of care experience young people has been accepted as a protected characteristic by Devon County Council.
This means that those people who leave care and branch out into adult life will receive extra support from the county in areas of accommodation, education and health.
It is proposed that they pay no council tax until the age of 25. At the meeting where this was decided several young care experience young people spoke and welcomed the decision warmly.
The problem of RAAC has been aired quite fully but just to put people in the picture the condition was first noticed in 2018 and DCC undertook inspections of all its maintained schools (161 primary and four secondary) in 2022 and 2023.
The good news is that after a rigorous inspection following Department for Education guidelines no RAAC was found in council maintained schools.
Some trust and academy schools did however find this condition and the county council has offered help.
Those of you who travel to and from Exeter will perhaps have noticed that the famous Iron Bridge now has large concrete blocks on the corner of the pavements!
The Bridge is almost 200 years old and sometime ago it was made one-way in order to lower the weight of passing vehicles.
A weight restriction of three tonnes (a metric measurement) was imposed and it was noticed that some heavier lorries were bumping over the kerb in order to access the shortcut.
This will now not be possible as it is only wide enough for cars. The bridge is inspected annually because it is a historic access and must be protected.
The question of the mobile library service has appeared often on TV and it was discussed at the senior scrutiny committee on Thursday, September 28.
The scrutiny committee made recommendations to the Cabinet and it is this body that will make its final decision. This decision will be binding!
As the Chairman of Mid Devon District Council I was privileged to be invited to a meeting of CHAT (Christian Housing Action Team) which was attended by the Duchess of Edinburgh.
For me the highlights of the meeting were talking to a group of young carers. These are school-age youngsters who care for parents or siblings.
One of them told me at the age of 14 she regularly has to inject her type 1 diabetic brother with insulin because he is only 12 and needs help! This is some responsibility.
There are co-ordinating adults so if you know of any children in your area who are carers please let me know and I will put them into contact with the relevant group.
At the same meeting I also came across “Balloons”, which is a group formed 15 years ago to help children cope with bereavement.
Again if you know any youngsters who recently lost someone close to them, please let me know and I will put them in contact with this wonderful organisation.
Cllr Frank Letch MBE
Liberal Democrat Frank Letch has been trying to help Residents of Bow get the road surface at a major junction, Station Road with the A3072, repaired.
