AUGUST is a very quiet month as few councils at any level have any meetings.

With this in mind I decided to take a 10-day holiday break.

I took no iPhone nor iPad and existed in uncontactable bliss!

I spent a week in Germany where I was very impressed with the public transport system, the abundance of solar panels, pothole free roads and drains that were actually clear enough to let water run down them when we had those occasionally heavy showers!

How different to Devon.

What are we doing wrong? How can we improve?

I do have a few ideas following my visit and will discuss them with the various officers at Mid Devon and Devon Council; I shall keep you informed. Travel they say broadens the mind and it certainly opened my eyes to what can be achieved.

There has been some progress locally on the state of the roads because there has been some patching done in Crediton and a good repair at the bottom of Station Road in Bow!

I have lost count of how many emails, phone calls and even face-to-face talks I have had over the disgraceful condition of the road in Bow.

But it is done and that is the important thing.

At the beginning of August I had a drive around some of my division with our highways officer.

It was a very interesting experience pointing out the faults to him and having other faults pointed out to me.

These were all logged down and we just hope that sometime there will be sufficient money to make some progress.

I hope to do another “tour” in September.

We did at least finalise a site for the bus shelter in Yeoford, and I have promised a contribution of £500 from my council locality fund.

It will be interesting to see what happens to the mobile library service.

I attended a parish council meeting in Coldridge with Natalia, my wife, as she is the district ward member.

The main topic of the meeting was the mobile library service which is very well used in the village.

We were both surprised at the number of people who turned up.

It seems that there has been a wide consultation and we must now wait for any ideas that come from it.

Just as August has been a quiet month I look at my diary and see that September is already filling up and so I will have more to relate to you next month.

Enjoy the rest of summer.

Cllr Frank Letch MBE