Saturday 25 December 2010

ADVANCED WARNING - Road Closures

I've been advised of a road closure in the Cowick Ward from Tuesday 4th January 2011 with an anticipated finish date of Friday 18th March.

BROADWAY will be closed for Utility Works to be carried out weekdays between the hours of 07:30 and 18:00

The alternative, signed, route for vehicles will be via COWICK HILL - BROADWAY and vice versa

The Devon County Council website advises that there may be SEVERE delays.

The actual notice for the Temporary Prohibition of Through Traffic can be viewed here.

Wednesday 22 December 2010

RUBBISH - What to do over the coming days

I've just received from Cllr Rob Hannaford an Exeter City Council news release which covers how to deal with uncollected and missed refuse.

Exeter City Council PR 908 22/12/2010 [For Immediate Release]
DISRUPTION TO CITY COUNCIL SERVICES (WEDNESDAY)

Refuse trucks were back on Exeter's main roads today (Wednesday 22December) but some waste and recycling collections will now have to waituntil after Christmas, the City Council has said.

After two days of being unable to operate, the Council's refuse crews were able to make collections on most main routes in the city. However many side roads remain covered in compacted snow and ice and collections that were unable to be made will now take place on the next scheduled date.

Information on collection dates over the Christmas and New Year period is available at http://www.exeter.gov.uk/ and is in the winter edition ofthe Exeter Citizen.

Cllr Rob Hannaford, Lead Councillor for Environment and Leisure, said:"We would ask the public to be patient and bear with us during this difficult period. These have been exceptional weather conditions and safety - not only to our crews but to the public in general - has to be our priority. We have already had a number of casualties with ourwork force slipping on icy surfaces, with one breaking an ankle and theo ther a finger. There are parts of Exeter that are still trecherous!

"Refuse vehicles will be back out again tomorrow (Thursday) and Christmas Eve but only on main routes and roads which are accessible.

"Next week, beginning on Wednesday, we will be throwing everything at the black bin collections and attempting to get as much done as theweather allows us," added Cllr Hannaford. "We will be putting on extra crews and concentrating mainly on the collections of household waste. In the meantime, if a collection has not been made, our advice is to take back the bin or bags and then put it out on your next scheduled collection date. Extra side waste will be accepted during this period butwe would encourage people to recycle or compost as much as possible over the Christmas break to minimise the impact of collections after the holidays. Extra bags of recyclable items can also be presented for collection but we would ask people to label them 'Recycling' and put their property number on the bags."

...

For more information contact Steve Upsher, Media Relations Officer, on 01392 265103.
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Saturday 18 December 2010

A bright idea?

Devon County Council, in a bid to reduce carbon emissions [and I guess, money] have formulated a plan that would turn off all street lights in Exeter, apart from those on major arterial routes into the city, between the hours of midnight 30 to 5.30am.

For the Cowick ward this will probably mean that all areas other than Cowick Lane, and probably Dunford Road, will be plunged into darkness throughout the night.

Initially Devon Country Council were to impose this policy, but pressure from local City Councillors has caused the County to have a rethink, and there will now be some local consultation.

Whilst I appreciate that there are strong environmental reasons for this policy [including a chance to see stars], it must not be implemented where there are public safety concerns.

The County Council would do well to investigate other alternatives such dimming of these lights, environmental friendly energy-efficient units, perhaps setting traffic lights to flashing red/amber at night etc.

What are YOUR thoughts?

Friday 12 November 2010

Selected to fight Cowick

As of 14:30 I am now the prospective Labour and Co-operative Candidate for Cowick Ward for the Exeter City Council elections on 5th May.

And to the left is the map of the ward - an area I will get to know well over the coming months, and for at least 4 years if elected to serve alongside Cllr Heather Morris, who won the by-election in the ward in September this year.

The Ward is split into 2 "boxes" - based on where you vote.

BA is the top part of the map, and voting happens at Buddle Lane Youth Centre [confusingly situated] on Merrivale Road.

And those in the bottom half of the map are in BB and use the prettiest polling station in Exeter, the mediaeval Bowhill on Dunsford Road [entrance on junction of Dunsford Gardens and Dorset Avenue].

The latest Ward Control Report on the Register of Electors suggests that
BA: 2043 electors/1086 properties
BB: 2308 electors/1230 properties
giving a total of 4351 electors living in 2316 properties.

That's a lot of people to see and houses to visit between now and 5th May 2011. So can I apologise now if I don't get to speak to you before election day, but as you can see from the above figures it's a mammoth task.