Teignmouth Town Council, tonight unanimously rejected the “Western Extension” option of Teignbridge’s Core Strategy. This option would cover the fields in this picture with buildings.

There been no curtailing of “the right to worship … a fundamental and hard-fought British liberty,” as Eric Pickles has suggested in the Bideford Council prayer case. In fact for the National Secular Society (NSS) this is a Pyrrhic victory. Mr Justice Ouseley rejected the main part of the NSS case, that incorporating prayers into its order of business the council was unlawfully discriminating against Councillor Bone and abusing his human rights.

Mr Justice Ouseley said: "A local authority has no power under section 111 of the Local Government Act 1972, or otherwise, to hold prayers as part of a formal local authority meeting, or to summon councillors to such a meeting at which prayers are on the agenda." However the Judge added: "The saying of prayers in a local authority chamber before a formal meeting of such a body is lawful provided councillors are not formally summoned to attend." So we’ll just carry on as normal at Teignmouth Town Council.

Eric Pickles is well aware of the limits to the powers of councils. As Bradford Council leader in the 1980s he tried to have a ticketing system to control who entered the public gallery for council meetings. The judge quickly declare Eric's idea ultra vires – and contrary to "a fundamental and hard-fought British liberty" l

Teignmouth Mayor Cllr David Cox is strongly urging residents to give their opinions to the single largest issue affecting the town since the war. The Core Strategy document S18, once adopted, could see a large increase in the town’s population, with wide-reaching implications for housing, employment and local services over the next 20 years.

Councillor Cox is very concerned that the scale of impending developments has been largely overlooked by the public which he says ‘Is hardly surprising as the district authority hasn’t exactly gone out of its way to make this known. There has been little or no use made of the local press, and public consultation meetings have been held to largely invited audiences’.

For those who know what to look for, copies of the summarised document are available online from both Teignbridge District and Teignmouth Town Council websites, the same document, is on display at council offices and the library but can cost up to £1 for your own copy, so the average resident can be forgiven for not having seen one before.

Time is running out for residents to make their opinions heard, the closing date for comments is 2nd March and it is essential that input on the issues raised is received before that date. Councillor Cox will be spearheading a campaign to raise awareness of the current plans and will be handing-out free copies of the consultation document at the TAAG centre in Northumberland Place on Saturday 4th February.

Cllr Cox concluded, ‘although I have my own views on the proposals it is ultimately the people of Teignmouth who can influence them to the greatest extent, yet there is a very real danger that widespread ignorance of the plans will lead to their implementation without any public scrutiny or modification’.

Copies of the Core Strategy Preferred Options for Teignmouth and other documents are available online at: www.teignbridge.gov.uk/planteignbridge

A warm sea this year, for the RNLI walk into the sea on Boxing Day.

Our Countryside

Conservative Teignbridge Council want to build hundreds of houses in the countryside near Shepherd’s Lane. We must stop more of our precious countryside being wrecked by bulldozers and concrete. We need homes for local families; with the average house costing over 12 times the average Teignbridge wage, they need to be houses to rent and houses that are truly ‘affordable’ and can only be sold to another local person. What we don’t need is thousands of ‘open market’ houses on our countryside. Teignmouth needs to be a living town not a dead dormitory for Exeter and Torbay. The problem is the decision seems to have been made already – a councillor in the ruling group let slip about the road weeks before the plan was published.

Youngster will be able to do the Bike-ability course, even if they don’t have a bike. We’ve just won funding so that donated second-hand bikes can be refurbished and then given to the children.

They said we couldn't get our bus down Bank Street...