I know that the town appreciates the use of the estate lands to mount charitable and other events.
However, one must remember we are no longer living in an age when one has to refer to the "big house" in order to advance the needs of the town and I mean no disrespect when I say that the age of the "touching of the forelock" is long gone.
Of course we appreciate that the descendent's of General Sir Redvers Buller inhabit the house from time to time, but that for whatever reason they no longer play a part in the day-to-day life of the Town that the family once did.
I do not believe, for one moment, that there has been any collusion between the County and the Trustee's of the Estate, but what I need to point out is how matters are perceived in the town. Clearly, though, there is nothing to be gained by rumour and Chinese whispers, which do more harm than good.
The Estate, I believe, gained financially when land was sold to Tesco and of course the town gains by having another supermarket. However, I firmly believe that the town will not gain anything by a proposed and so called Western Route, because the residents who live in the houses along Exeter Road will be condemned to living in a "traffic sandwich."
Many of the residents were born in those houses and it is their choice to live there on a day-to-day basis, not periodically as with Downes House.
Why should they be put in this position of having the prospect of the "road to nowhere" in their back gardens?
The General not only contributed to the life of this town, but I believe left another legacy, that is a spirit, which fights for what it, believes in.
The General fought for what he believed in, which was freedom from oppression. I think that this fighting spirit remains today and I am certain that he is looking down on this town with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye.
Anne Hughes
Cllr for Boniface Ward and Member of Exeter Road Residents'
Association
5 Dartmoor Railway Mews
Station Road
Crediton