COUNCILLOR Mrs Liz Brookes-Hocking told a meeting of Crediton Town Council's general purposes committee that she had just read a 257 page explanation, issued with budget questionnaire produced by Mid Devon District Council.

The questionnaire set out the district council's budget process for 2011-2012.

"One of the discoveries I made was that the district council made a profit of £75,000 on its car parks; I understood they had been run at a loss," she said.

She went on: "We are being asked to comment on a budget but with very little explanation. For instance, the leisure services were mentioned but there was no indication of how each centre performed financially."

Turning to the matter of waste she said: "Of the £11.5 million budget, £1.5 million is spent on waste and if you study the budget you will see the council gets one third back from trade waste and half of what is spent on recycling."

After other councillors had agreed that the questionnaire was "a waste of time" it was explained that the district council would be conducting a street survey on the subject on September 16 (yesterday).

Among other matters discussed by the council were traffic speed checks in the town. The committee was told that three speed checks had ben carried out on Exeter Road. One vehicle had been checked at 31-35 mph, 21 at 36-40 mph and seven at 41-45mph.

Councillors were warned that further checks would be carried out with the possibility of voluntary speed watch checks.

NO BEES ON

ALLOTMENTS

A request had been made to keep bees on one of the town council's allotments on Exhibition Road. It was felt that, with the proximity of houses and playing fields, this was not a good idea.

PEDESTRIAN V

MOTORIST

It was reported that there had been a site meeting at the pedestrian crossing on East Street between two councillors and Devon County Council highways and transport engineers.

Council chairman, Cllr Frank Letch, said they had been looking for ways to slow traffic. Speed would be monitored over a 10-day period and, as often as possible, a police officer would supervise the crossing.

One idea had been a sign on the road to warn of a pedestrian crossing, plus other visible options. Cllr Letch said the police involvement was "most encouraging". There was not enough room for a 20 mph sign.

Cllr Way said Hayward's School had been "very good" with its "walking bus" and he would explain to the school what was happening.

Cllr Letch had asked about the possibility of a zebra or other pedestrian crossing near Lloyds Bank on the High Street.

"Bus stops are on either side of the road and people either take their lives in their hands or have to walk to one of the two pedestrian refuges," he said.

"However, I was told this could cost about £35,000 because of drainage, electricity and so on."

Councillors thought the recently built-out pavements made it more difficult to cross the road; an island or refuge would help. People who used the Silbury Place path to the St Saviours Way car park often crossed the road there.

The committee wondered if a new pedestrian island or refuge, with removal of the built-out pavements, might be a better answer than creating a new crossing.

Pointing out that traffic often slowed to let people cross at the High Street refuges, Cllr Tom Connell wondered whether if every pedestrian acknowledged kind motorists, this would encourage more motorists to stop. Lorry drivers were particularly good at letting people cross the road.

Cllr Liz Brookes-Hocking would like the whole question of transport and pedestrians on the High Street to be looked at. "There are so many issues, now," she said.

Cllr Nick Way felt a lot could be solved by educating drivers. "In many countries pedestrians take precedence, but here the motorist seems to rule. They must become pedestrians, too, at some point," he said.

PRAISE FOR

LOLLIPOP MAN

Praising the work of Dave Cann, the East Street "lollipop man", Cllr Letch said there had been complaints he stopped traffic too often. However, councillors pointed out that if it was pouring with rain it was not good to keep children waiting.

Cllr Way said that, as different lights were now available, it was possible the Belisha beacon at the zebra crossing could be made more noticeable.

He added that the attention of Hayward's School was to be brought to the number of parents who crossed the road outside the school with their children.

EXETER ROAD

"MAKEOVER"

Reporting on other issues relating to Exeter Road, Cllr Anne Hughes said that residents and the Floral Crediton group felt this area to be "long overdue for a make-over".

Problems included trying to cross the road and air quality. "People living there wonder how much longer they have to wait, but are grateful that a police traffic survey is taking place," she said.

"They would like access to the railway station to be easier, perhaps modify the two Town Bus services to take in the station," she added.

It was also reported that people were getting to the Exeter road from the Tesco store by climbing through the hedge and walking along the main road to avoid walking to the bus stop near the roundabout.

The Floral Crediton group would look again at the hedge along the Exeter road which, it was understood, belonged to Tesco and had not yet adopted by the county council.

BROADBAND SPEED

Talking about responses to the town council's recent press release on provision of broadband services in Crediton, Cllr Letch reported that someone who had moved to the town from Bideford had been "amazed" at the broadband slowness in Crediton.

The town clerk, Mr Martin Maggs, reported having emailed a copy of the release to the broadband director at BT and the BT chief executive. He had received replies quickly, but no commitment.

Saying the system was complicated, Mr Maggs added that Crediton would get six months' notice of the improvement being switched on, but that BT, which has control over broadband provision, was working with the larger towns first.

Crediton has what is known as an "unbundled" exchange and the BT broadband director said it was offering ADSL 1 speeds of up to 8mb.

He had added that performance would vary between addresses with quality of wiring in the home being a factor. ADSL 2+ and speeds of up to 20mb is offered in many locations with BT expanding availability each year.

"Crediton is not yet enabled and I cannot at this stage confirm when it will be, as our engineering plans remain very fluid until we have completed exchange surveys," he had written.

The BT chief executive had also written: "Other service providers choose whether they wish to unbundle an exchange, not BT - they base this on whether it is economic for them to do so.

"There are technical reasons why a few exchanges cannot be unbundled but I suspect it is more likely that someone had misled you ..... They base their decision on whether they think they can make money and do not provide a national service as BT does."

Cllr Letch added that the area MP Mel Stride was supporting the council's bid for better service. He wondered if it needed all the South West MPs to work together on this.

COMPUTER CLASSES

Cllr Connell had been disappointed to have been told he would be able to take computer lessons at the improved Crediton Library - and then found the service had been dropped.

He asked how people such as he would be able to learn computer use without it costing a lot of money?

PARKING METERS?

Cllr Way reported that the county council would be looking at pay and display car parking at its meeting the next day - that meant on-street parking meters.

He had "quite a lot of concerns" about this. He said there were no plans, yet, and that the county HATOC (Highways and Traffic Orders Committee) was unanimously against this in any Devon market towns.

TIME AND WORK

For some time the town council has been looking at improving areas of Peoples Park and the Scout Memorial garden there.

Cllr Bob Wright said things were not going as well as he had hoped because he had only received two quotations for the work. Three were needed by the council.

The town clerk produced one of several large boxes of archives and memorabilia, wanting to know where the town council would prefer them to be stored.

It was suggested that they be offered to Crediton Area History and Museum Society, once catalogued.

Committee chairman, Cllr Joyce Harris, reported that the millennium clock on the Old Town Hall needed work on the system to keep it going when the mains electricity supply failed.

Total cost of the repairs, including transport, was £668 plus VAT. If the town council waited until next year it could save more than £100, but if the clock failed before then, which it was likely to do, it would have to pay for someone to reset the clock manually.

It was agreed to have the work done this year.

Because it should save money in the long term, it was agreed to subscribe £80 a year to a digital mapping service.

COSTLY REFERENDUM

A document had been received from the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) on local referendum to veto "excessive council tax increases".

Councillors were somewhat concerned about this because it did not explain how much "excessive" was. Crediton Town Council was not a capped council, and a referendum would cost it £5-6,000, which would have to come from its budget, and for which it would have to precept, adding to costs.

It was felt that, if the district council stopped providing some services, such as grass cutting, the town council could be blamed, but it was unable to get extra funding through its precept.

It was said that while the town council would like to be able to do more, it might not be able to maintain its own responsibilities without increasing its precept.

Councillors wanted to know what "excessive" meant. The town clerk said it could mean the town council having a "shadow budget" if the Government said its budget was too high.

AND THE LOTTERY

Proposed changes to Big Lottery Grant Funding would remove councils from applying for this. It could mean the council not being able to do special works such as improvements some time ago to Upper Deck, completed with National Lottery funding and an increase to its precept.

It was explained the Government intention was to allow bids from charities and community groups. The town council would only be able to apply by working with a voluntary group.

It was felt to be a difficult situation that would take time to apply and could impact on the council's policy to do what townspeople expected.

On both issues the town clerk said the National Association of Local Councils and the National Association of Local Council Clerks had both expressed serious concerns.

The committee echoed this and added that it would take away its policy of working for the local community. "This is Government interference," complained Cllr Brookes-Hocking.