King Ludd, you are not the first, and won't be the last, to wonder how some of the actions of the town clerk fit his remit of being impartial in his duties. I do recall, at the time of the first mooting of a supermarket on the estuaryside, and it was drawn to his attention, that he had not long had a piece in the local paper saying that you could buy everything you needeed in Exeter Road. Indeed our town manager has just done something similar in praise of local retail I believe.
May I add another example to inquiring mind's comments suggesting the world has gone mad. Last Xmas, the Police budget paid for three pissoirs smack bang in the middle of the town centre, one only across the road from closed public conveniences owned by EDDC, To my mind,they fit perfectly with the sort of town that has a lap dancing club- and just goes to show what happens if you leave it tio the professionals!
The town clerk refused to tell me what part if any he had in the pissoir arrangements - though others have said he was involved! Frankly,I think anyone involved in that or the lap dancing approval should be banned from any future influence on the town!

Hello Everyone,

a quick note to let you all know that the next film screening for Awakening Exmouth/ Transition Town Exmouth is on thursday 22nd May at the blackmore theatre at 7.30pm.

the film is 'power of community - how cuba survived peak oil' and looks at the inspirational tale of how cuba lost it's oil and food supplies overnight, causing the locals to rally round and grow their own food supplies/work out the transport system.

even if asda do get their dirty mits on our estuary, the knowledge that cuba have provided for us will be indispensable when asda's world-destroying transport and production methods come to a clattering halt with the end of cheap energy.

if you'd like to know more please email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and i'll put you on the mailing list

peace out

chris

Thank you once again for writing to us. As part of a comprehensive planning process for the site, an independent traffic and infrastructure assessment will be undertaken. The results of this assessment will help to form our final proposals.

The library and sports centre have been identified as facilities that could be improved as part of the wider development of this site. Our proposals, which include a new bus interchange, allow for the introduction of modern services which would provide increased benefits to the community.

A new ASDA store would bring up to 350 new full and part-time jobs to Exmouth. These will include a wide range of roles, with excellent training opportunities available to all colleagues. ASDA provides a comprehensive benefits package to its colleagues, including a contributory pension scheme and annual performance related bonus.

The community has shown a great deal of interest in our proposals for the Exe Trail. To ensure the Trail meets the needs of its users, we have already been in contact with the Cyclepath Exmouth group and our final proposals will make appropriate provision for cyclists.

Please check our website regularly for the latest information on ASDA’s proposals for Exmouth, including dates of the public exhibition.

Yours sincerely,
Chris Marlow



Chris Marlow | Property Communications Manager
Asda Stores Ltd | Asda House, Southbank, Great Wilson Street, Leeds LS11 5AD

I have been passed this reply from Asda that was in reply to a question asking whether their consultation was meaningful and in particular, whether they would drop their plans for the store if the majority of people in Exmouth didn't want them.

Dear Mr xxx,

Thank you for your e-mail. Each piece of feedback we receive helps us to improve our proposals to reflect the needs of the community.

ASDA’s consultation programme is designed to give as many people as possible the opportunity to provide us with valuable feedback. The consultation programme has already started through our website, and will continue beyond the public exhibition later this year where members of my team will be available to discuss the proposals in more detail.

The bus depot site has been identified by East Devon District Council as the most suitable site for redevelopment in the town. The correspondence we have received from a number of Exmouth residents demonstrates that our proposals are supported. ASDA is committed to the scheme and we believe it will support the broader regeneration of Exmouth and help to attract people back into the town’s centre.

Please check our website regularly for the latest information on ASDA’s proposals for Exmouth, including dates of the public exhibition.

If you have any further queries please don’t hesitate to contact me through this email address.

Yours sincerely,
Chris Marlow

So it seems the consultation has started! Is this all we get before they lodge their planning application which then gives us just a few weeks to make _object_ions that have to conform to planning grounds?

Well I now understand why it takes them so long to come up with a reply - they are so giddy from the spin they put on everything they are incapable of honest debate. PS. As an example of a far reaching community consultation, they up there with East Devon DC who managed only to get 17 members of the public to respond to a public consultation on public consultation- out of a population of 125,000

Note how they use the fact that they have (allegedly) received some letters of support to infer wide support. About as honest as saying that because a few people support paedophilia it has general support in the community.

"Note how they use the fact that they have (allegedly) received some letters of support to infer wide support. About as honest as saying that because a few people support paedophilia it has general support in the community."

Right. What a sick joke. There are no depths to which these people won't sink - no tendentious rationale they won't employ, no disingenuous argument they won't wheel out. The idea that they've got some positive letters from people in the community and therefore they can infer from that some kind of wider support is contemptible.

The so-called "consultation process" is pure farce - a pantomime - a profanation and mockery of real consultation - jogging along to one inevitable and choreographed conclusion. These people are 'manufacturing consent'. Who are they trying to kid? Us? or themselves?

Here's a poem for you.

GOING, GOING by Philip Larkin. (January 1972)

I thought it would last my time -
The sense that, beyond the town,
There would always be fields and farms,
Where the village louts could climb
Such trees as were not cut down;
I knew there'd be false alarms

In the papers about old streets
And split level shopping, but some
Have always been left so far;
And when the old part retreats
As the bleak high-risers come
We can always escape in the car.

Things are tougher than we are, just
As earth will always respond
However we mess it about;
Chuck filth in the sea, if you must:
The tides will be clean beyond.
- But what do I feel now? Doubt?

Or age, simply? The crowd
Is young in the M1 cafe;
Their kids are screaming for more -
More houses, more parking allowed,
More caravan sites, more pay.
On the Business Page, a score

Of spectacled grins approve
Some takeover bid that entails
Five per cent profit (and ten
Per cent more in the estuaries): move
Your works to the unspoilt dales
(Grey area grants)! And when

You try to get near the sea
In summer . . .
It seems, just now,
To be happening so very fast;
Despite all the land left free
For the first time I feel somehow
That it isn't going to last,

That before I snuff it, the whole
Boiling will be bricked in
Except for the tourist parts -
First slum of Europe: a role
It won't be hard to win,
With a cast of crooks and tarts.

And that will be England gone,
The shadows, the meadows, the lanes,
The guildhalls, the carved choirs.
There'll be books; it will linger on
In galleries; but all that remains
For us will be concrete and tyres.

Most things are never meant.
This won't be, most likely; but greeds
And garbage are too thick-strewn
To be swept up now, or invent
Excuses that make them all needs.
I just think it will happen, soon.