Police Councillors Residents

Cold and dark?
That didn't put off the Arena Park residents from joining the waiting Police Officer and us to discuss local issues yesterday evening.

Not the best photo I've ever taken! - good to see the Police uniform reflective gear works :) A local resident, Neighbourhood Beat Officer Lou Western and Simon Bowkett, my co-Councillor in Pinhoe Ward

Good to meet the new Chair of Arena Park's very active Residents' Association. We had a quick catch-up on the campaign to get lighting installed for the estate's new MUGA (that's Multi-User Games Area...). We believe we can achieve it before next Autumn.
Not so good was the childish graffiti scrawls reported by the two keen gardener residents who have successfully obtained compost bins for use by the whole community.
I went to see it.

Facebook features large in young people's lives... the graffiti clearly that of a child old enough to know better.

Arena Park's residents will clean the graffiti off the gate.
I took WPC Western to see it. She and PCSO Ryan Williams know the estates children well. They'll be talking with them.

Also, I'll be sending the photos to the Housing Association, whose Housing Officer works closely with the Residents' Association.

Arena Park is a pull-together estate.
The adults draw the children in to community activities and make them feel they can contribute positively.
That's one of the big reasons the new MUGA was installed this year. A residents Group, including Youth Ambassadors elected by the estates children, worked with the charity Exeter Parks Watch to win a £65,000 grant from the Home Office.

I'm not surprised that every child who left school this year now has a job, but I am delighted. These are tough times with so many young people jobless.
I strongly suspect the graffiti writer will be identified and persuaded to behave better.
I cycled home thinking in admiration how, even as the Government's austerity cuts hit people hard at Arena Park, residents still hold firm to a strong sense of community.

Do only drivers fly-tip?

After Simon Bowkett and I spent a couple of hours delivering our latest newsletter
I cycled home along one of my favourite routes - Hart's Lane.
There's hardly ever any motor-traffic. It's green and pleasant. You always meet other cyclists or walkers. It's friendly. There's even signs of badger activity.

 But then, in the dog-leg for motor-vehicles to turn, near the end of the 'drivable' length of road, I came across these four bags of post-fix concrete: set solid. They had been left too long outside someone's home. Their contents had been wasted, now dumped - without regard to their impact.
 For almost anyone it would have been as quick to drive to Pinhoe's excellent new Pinbrook Road Recycling Centre as to drive to this little-visited back lane.
As building waste, and therefore chargeable, the driver would have paid £2 per bag. That's £8.
What sort of person lets £25 -worth of post-fix concrete go solid in the bags they bought it in, but won't pay a third of that for proper disposal?
And, as I was reported this piece of shabby behaviour to Exeter City Council's Fly-tipping phone line the thought occured that only drivers can fly-tip.
How can walkers or cyclists, who like to use Hart's Lane and other remote or less frequented spots, carry the weight of waste that is fly-tipped?
But drivers' fly-tipped rubbish and rubble affects walkers whose children might pick up something dangerous, dog-owners whose dogs might gash their paws, cyclists whose tyres might be punctured.

Snow-free Summerway sunset ... a big plus.

Beautiful sunset this evening.

As I watched the sun withdraw its gold I realised I was appreciating the watery gleam on the cars and road as much as I enjoyed the winter-pale sky colours. 

Not hard to understand why.

It's a whole year since Exeter suffered serious snowfall. 

Twelve months ago driving was treacherous. Too few roads were cleared quickly. Buses struggled. 

Cycling was scary - partly because drivers didn't want to share 'their' two parallel tracks with a cyclist. 

But no-one, by foot or bicycle, dared share space with the soon-slithering vehicles going too fast for the conditions.

 
All of which might not have mattered - we might have enjoyed wintery walking through stunning scenic views of our city - if only our pavements had been cleared/gritted. Instead every footway became a churned-up skid-pan.

So, until there's a sensible solution to keeping Exeter moving after snowfall... I'm dreaming of a white wet Christmas, not like the one we knew last year.

Nature nearby

How can urban areas have nature nearby?
Natural England have an inspiring answer  - they invite local residents to get together to create "doorstep greens". Exeter City Council calls these "pocket parks".
Whatever the name we're aiming to start up soon in the Whipton area of Pinhoe Ward.
If you're interested in getting involved come along at 10.15 a.m. on Friday 2nd December to Whipton Community Hall Pinhoe Road, near Whipton shopping centre.
I will be there, as will the  RSPB and  Exeter Wild City.

Daylight lights: what big switch-off?

Very many Pinhoe streets are scheduled to switch over to 'part-night-lighting', which is the "glass-half-full" way of saying Devon County Council proposes to create lots of darkness across Pinhoe sometime in the not-too-distant future.

See - Part-Night Lighting: Carbon reducing scheme

The switch-off/on can't happen until each street lamp has been replaced with one more readily controllable.

Which brings up the seeming lack of any control at the moment down Parkers Cross Lane to Orchard Close.

At least a dozen lamps were shining brightly at mid-day today - as I reported to the County Council number - 0845 155 1004 for highways faults  /problems.

There was an explanation. Sometimes, as the My Devon voice told me, lamps are deliberately left on for repairs checks. Plausible, I thought.

Except, as I cycled on I couldn't see any repairs vehicles parked anywhere. And the two residents I stopped and spoke to told me the lights were often on. Night and day, that is.

So when part-night-lighting does reach Parkers Cross Lane the County Council will be saving a whole lot more carbon than they thought. Unless, of course, they still leave their lamps on during the day.

Ultra-rapid bicycle rescue

Firstly - big thanks to the Pinhoe resident who alerted me to the Claude Butler bicycle. Beside the Exeter-to-Waterloo railway track - below Exhibition Way Bridge.

Secondly - equally big thanks to Pinhoe's excellent PC and PCSO for the speed with which they got the bicycle removed.

They're now trying to trace its owner.

Hope the bike's not too badly damaged and the owner's story of loss has a happy ending.

Fly-tipping gets worse - why?

We have two excellent recycling centres in Pinhoe.

First is the new, superb Pinbrook Road Recycling Centre

The second is the small group of bins in the corner of Sainsburys  car park 

So why do people still fly-tip? 

Almost anywhere, 

but also right beside the Sainsbury's bins.

I asked at Sainsburys enquiry desk how frequently tipping happened.

Far more often now - was the reply - it's since people have had to pay to recycle.

I tried to explain that it was only building waste which was charged for, but really, that explanation needs to reach everyone, not only the person at Sainsburys enquiry desk. 

Because he was right. 

Purely by making one category of waste chargeable it has some-how sent a message that recycling centres now charge for anything. 

As a result, many more people are resorting to fly-tipping. And clearing up the fly-tipping costs a lot of Council money that could be better used. 

I wouldn't be surprised if it costs more than the income  made by charging for the building waste. 

An own goal, Devon County Council?