This week’s news starts with the regular meeting of the Parish Council, which was held on Monday. All the councillors were present as Chairman John Brooks got the meeting underway. The first bit of good news is that our wonderful Flood Resilience Group have been awarded their equipment grant from S.H.D.C., which is most welcome. It means that now they can go ahead with their plans for an equipment store in the village hall car park, an immense boost and a great central location for people to mobilise during an emergency. Plans will now be able to go ahead and provide the necessary stock items. Flooding has again been a problem over the last month in the village, with the main road impassible on at least one occasion during February. The plan to widen and dredge the stream has hit a problem at the moment, with the District Authority being not in touch with the local issues and generally not being familiar with the geography of the affected areas. However local councillor Tim Abrahall is to prepare a report to persuade to the positive side of the argument, so watch this space! The saga of the derelict boats on the river is about to be resolved. The offending craft are set to be removed by the end of this month(March) and will have notices placed on them, good news for all those of us who like to see our river at its best.
With the advent of advances in technology, it’s now felt that a digital rep is required for the community, i.e. someone who co-ordinates entries on to the village webpage and Facebook. Pippa Unwin has been charged with this responsibility. The latest developments on the Defibrillator were discussed and the machine has been ordered with the Ambulance Service, no delivery date has yet been discussed but hopefully it won’t be too long a time before it arrives. There is a training evening taking place on Wednesday March 12th at 7.30pm in the village hall so if you would like to take part, please sign up at the village shop. The goal posts are about to be moved in A.G. thanks to a grant from Devon Active and local resident Peter Smith. A grant has been obtained from Devon Active to update and renew our goal-posts, good news indeed for all our young sports fans. Moves are also afoot to repair the school swimming pool. The general area of the pool has become very run down in recent times. Things are very much on the up and grants are being obtained from various sources to bring the pool back up to standard, great news for this community asset. The police came to the village recently to check on the speeding problem in the village and apparently they didn’t catch anyone? We must have all been on our best behaviour, which is good news for all! There has been much talk on fungus growth in the play park wood chippings, apparently a report has been received from Earth works to explain that they have not seen anything untoward growing and that its not unusual for fungal growth to be present in wood chippings.
It’s quiz week at the Fisherman’s next week on Thursday at 7.30pm Quiz starting at 8.00pm. Friday night is Fish and Chip night there too.