HAVING recently received two complaints of street lights not working in different parts of town, Crediton Town Council is asking for a "more robust" system of reporting faults so that people were not "bounced" from one authority to another.

This is what happened when street lights on Butt Parks were reported not working, with both Mid Devon District and Devon County Council telling those who complained to one council to go to the other.

When he checked, the assistant town clerk Mr Martin Ashley found the problem had been caused by a cable fault. Town council chairman Cllr Frank Letch, speaking at the November meeting, reported that work had been going on at Butts Parks. He hoped this meant the lights were back on.

Cllr Joyce Harris reported another problem with street lights in another part of town. She had been told that when this fault was reported to the county council by a member of the public, that person had been told to contact the district council.

When the person did so, she had been told the district council would contact the county council for her. "This person was pushed from one council to the other," complained Cllr Harris.

Town councillors agreed when Cllr Walter Brown said the system for reporting faulty street lights should be "robust enough" so that members of the public were not bounced from one authority to another.

A further street light problem was one that was broken on the outside of The Manse in Belle Court. The county council had offered a second-hand replacement and would have liked the town council to adopt it, but the town council decided against doing that.

Mr Ashley reported that that the county council, which had maintained the light since 1974, had understood the light to have been maintained by the former SWEB. It had once been owned by the former Crediton Urban District Council, but through various authority reshuffles, ownership was now uncertain.

Cllr Brown wanted to know why the county council would want the town council to adopt the light? "People living there pay their county council Council Tax," he said.

It was felt that, as the county council, as the highway authority and street lighting authority, should continue to provide this service for its Council Tax payers at Belle Court.

Health and Safety

It had been thought that the pouring rain at 11am on November 11 had caused the lack of a maroon at the War Memorial to signal the beginning and end of the two minutes' silence.

However, having queried this, the town council had found that it was a question of Health and Safety rulings. It is asking for the maroons to be reinstated for the 2010 Remembrance Day observance at the War Memorial.

Tom takes the seat

There were four candidates for the vacancy in Lawrence Ward, created by the resignation of Cllr Linda Scarbrough.

Each of the four spoke to the council for three minutes at the start of this month's meeting after which a ballot chose Mr Tom Connell to be co-opted.

The other three candidates - Mrs Aleks Mucha, Mr Martin Binks and Mr Derek Shapland - were all urged to stand at the next council elections.

Mr Connell ran Crediton Food Fayre on the High Street for about 40 years, retiring earlier this year. He said he believed Crediton to be "a fantastic town with fantastic people, businesses and community".

With "two of the biggest giants of the food industry" in the town, he could see more people coming to the Crediton from east and west.

"Hopefully, they will come into the town to shop, but we need to provide more car parking. It is vital. I have tried through Crediton Chamber of Commerce, Devon County Council and Mid Devon District Council, for the past two years, to try to find where we could get extra parking space. Nothing has been done," he said.

Mr Connell told the town council he had plans drawn up by the late Mr Arthur Hall, a former town councillor, for housing and parking behind the High Street on the Barnfield side where up to 175 parking spaces could be created.

"I would be campaigning for that," he said. "There are so many things where I think the council should get involved," he added.

Of the possible compulsory purchase of the Rugby Club ground, Mr Connell said the club was "part and parcel" of the community, a good training ground for young people, a good amenity.

Asked how he would "wear the two hats" of Chamber of Commerce and town council, Mr Connell said he would "go down the line of the majority".The organisations were two of the most important in the town.

Valley link route

Reporting on a recent Crediton Traffic Action Group meeting with a county council highways engineer, Cllr Liz Brookes-Hocking said it had been "heartening" to hear that the valley route for a possible link road for the town was "not quite out of the agenda". But neither was the western route.

Cllr Brookes-Hocking had asked for the result of the recent exhibition and consultation to be made public.

Notices

Mr Ashley reported that the recent gales had blown the doors, and notices, off the town council notice board outside the Market Street council offices.

He would be checking on what repairs might be needed. As it was not glass in the doors, but a Perspex-type of material, this had not broken.

Garden Club

Cllr Letch reported that the inaugural meeting of Crediton Garden Club would be held at the council chamber on December 8 at 7pm.

Bus shelter

North Tawton Town Council had offered to sell Crediton Town Council a bus shelter it had recently bought for £2,000 but now did not want.

It had been thought it could be used at Willow Walk, but as the Town Bus was now running to time more often, the town council decided against the offer.

Plantings

Cllr David Nation reported that the Trees Group of Crediton Climate Action Group had been offered three or four wild cherry trees. It had asked if these could be planted at the junction of Queen Elizabeth Drive with the A377. This will be an agenda item for a future meeting.

Cllr Letch said the town Scouts would be planting some of the bulbs given to the town by the people of Dokkum at the Scout Memorial Gardens on Peoples Park as part of their Badge work.

Fewer signs

Cllr Nation, also a member of the district council's planning committee, reported that Tesco had agreed to "something more acceptable" after a meeting with the four town district councillors and the district council planning officer over the firm's application for advertisement signs.

He said the original plan had included two signs on the roof of the new store on Exeter Road, one a metre high. There would now be one sign.

"People will still probably say there are too many signs around the site, but it is much better," he said.

Tail ends

Councillors agreed to pay the council's utility bills by direct debit.

It was reported that the county council would do a count in the new year of the number of people who go by bicycle and on foot to visit the new Tesco store.

Tesco has said it will give the town council £5,000 with one idea being to use this to make a "teen shelter". Cllr Nation reported that the police had suggested one site. There had not yet been a reply from QECC, and the town's youth workers wanted first to talk to the young people about a site.

Graffiti had to be cleaned from the Union Road bus shelter before the Remembrance Day services. Cllr Wright reported that a different paint was being investigated, easier to clean but more expensive.

Planning

Approval was recommended to the district council for an application to put a canopy over a part of the playground at the Hayward's Primary School.

There were no objections to an application to convert part of the garage at 41 Creedy Road to make extra living space with an extension.

With the public part of the council meeting ending shortly after 8.30pm, after a 7pm start, this was one of the shortest meetings in recent times.

Sue Read