Information on public speaking is available online.
Minutes:
John Gregory, Labour Party member in Honiton on behalf of Honiton and Axe Vale Labour Party read out the following statement, in relation to minute 17.
“I am commenting on behalf of Honiton and Axe Valley Labour Party on the scoping of the district council’s Vitality of High Streets report and recommendations.
Labour is here today to speak up for Axminster, Honiton, Seaton, Colyton and Beer town centres. All are bursting with desire to capitalise on their unique heritage, beauty, character and amenity. We note the district council has as yet achieved none of its 2008 aspirations for the mixed-use development potential of Webster's Garage in Axminster, or Honiton’s Ottery Moor Lane, Cattle Market, Bradford Builders Yard and Chapel Street.
Town centres should be buzzing destinations, with facilities, shops, amenities, health, culture, education and wellbeing backed by excellent physical and service-based infrastructure. Employment should be place-based. Neither community wellbeing nor environment are served by turning our towns into commuter dormitories for “Greater Exeter”.
The report should take note of the recommendations of the House of Commons cross party report on "High streets and town centres in 2030", which echoes Labour’s 5 point plan to rebuild our high streets:
· Ban ATM charges and stop bank branch and Post Office closures.
· Improve local bus services and provide free bus travel for under 25s.
· Deliver free public Wi-Fi in our town centres.
· Establish a register of landlords of empty shops.
· and bring the business rates system into the 21st century.
In a rural area with underfunded public transport options, it makes no sense to rule out looking at car parking solutions, as is proposed in the scoping statement. The innovative town of Frome in Somerset has successfully provided 700 free car parking spaces within 4-13 minutes’ walk of the town centre.
Our towns should be "destinations", with creatively packaged "happenings" integrating our creative, artisan and agricultural heritage with our history. Speciality markets can be packaged as a cultural experience, supported by erection of Cullompton-style high quality gazebos at rates affordable to small traders. Publicity campaigns, tourist information, signposts and a properly funded, vibrant website and social media offering should be facilitated by the district for each town, and that link up with surrounding villages, and each other, into a coherent trail.
Labour recommends the district funds and develops best practice with visionary organisations like Light Up Axminster, that have fostered a culture of trust and community engagement and are incubators for the ideas that will transform our town centres.”
Anna Day Lewis, Labour Party member in Colyton on behalf of Honiton and Axe Vale Labour Party, read out the following statement.
“I am commenting on behalf of Honiton and Axe Valley Labour Party on the district council response to the Fire and Rescue Service consultation.
Colyton is Britain’s oldest fire station, dating from 1681. Even our medieval ancestors were more visionary than this present government, prudently importing the latest in fire-fighting technology for the benefit of the community, with an appropriate sense of humanity.
The Labour Party opposes both the closure of Colyton Fire Station and the downgrading of Honiton Fire Station. All the fire stations at the eastern end of the district are already run on an on-call basis, and even now there are no wholetime fire station services between Exmouth and Dorchester.
The figures used to justify the closures are bewildering. Why is present performance based on 80% staffing availability, but outcomes of the closures based on 100% staffing? How can the response times from other stations to meet Colyton’s needs be justified?
Just this week fire-fighters have released a trapped child in Honiton, but helping people in trouble is excluded from the consultation’s figures. So are the first responder services the fire service undertakes on behalf of the defunded ambulance service, the frontline support it provides to the police, and the public fire and safety training.
When the Clarence Hotel burned down in Exeter almost every engine across Devon responded, but how many stations were given credit for their response? Just one response was included in these official statistics being used to justify more cuts. And with all those engines engaged in Exeter, which station was meanwhile supporting the safety of our residents? You guessed it - Colyton Fire Station.
Just today Colyton was on standby, covering a farm fire near Bridport, but will they be given credit in the official figures? No.
Independent analysis shows that over 600,000 people annually face increased risk of death by fire under any of the current proposals. With significant population growth built into our local plans, the problem can only become worse. The population of Colyton is elderly, and statistically more vulnerable to fire, and I’m afraid to say apt to nod off with something on the stove.
Firefighters routinely give many hours over and above what they are contracted to provide, and are subsidising the service with their goodwill in spite of ongoing cuts to real wages and benefits. We can’t afford to lose the goodwill of the real people providing public services at the heart of our communities.
These cuts are not penny wise and they are pound foolish. Labour calls upon the district council to strongly oppose all of the options in the consultation, and to call for the fire station in Colyton, and the two pumps in Honiton, to be retained and properly maintained for the benefit of our district.”