General Discussion

When the candidates for the elections on May 7th come knocking on our doors or set up stalls in the town, here are three, local, and controversial issues, that you might like to ask them their views on;

1. The proposal, and by compulsory purchase if necessary, to turn Warren Farm, Dawlish into a coastal park. Remember the owner has no wish to sell and has been telling Teignbridge District Council that very thing since the idea of the coastal park was first mooted back in 2011. (and have you noticed how quiet this issue has gone of late?)

2. The planning application by Mike Nance to have his "Happiness" statue placed in the centre of Dawlish.

3. The recent monies granted to, and possible future funding of, Dawlish Carnival by Dawlish Town Council.   

Please feel free to add to this list anything else you think is controversial. 

There is, of course, the little matter of £23,000 being flushed down the pan to pay for the ill-fated woodlouse proposal.  I wonder if people will remember that when they place their mark on the ballot paper.

I will Burnside, but I shall be balancing out anything I don't agree with against anything I do agree with.  

Also I shall consider how active the candidates have been during their term of office, not just turning up when there is a camera present or an election pending.

And most importantly to me their conduct during the last four years, especially the way they have used to social media to either further their interaction with members of the public or to indulge in criticism of their colleagues.

On this issue of the bandstand replacement.

Won't what form and design the replacement might take be restricted and determined by the fact that the bandstand is sited on The Lawn which is within the Dawlish conservation area and that the conservation area, being a heritage area, has additional planning restrictions with regard to new development? I've quoted TDC planning policies S2 and EN5 on the 'Planning Application' thread concerning the Happiness statue. Take a look at those policies again with regard to what  might be acceptable and what not acceptable as a replacement bandstand. 

Warren Farm (see my first post on this thread).

I've just received an e-mail telling me that Warren Farm is still not for sale.

So don't forget to ask the Dawlish district council candidates about this!  

And to return to the bandstand issue.

On other threads we've been told that there is a TDC officer led working party that is concerned with replacing the bandstand in Dawlish but that this group has not met for over a year.

Perhaps then that's something else we can ask our district council candidates -

1. If standing for relection why haven't they done anything to get this group together over the past 12 months or, if they tried to do that and failed, what obstacles did they come across?.

2. For those standing for election for the first time - what do they think they can do to get things moving? (or similar questions along those lines).   

I've just received an e-mail pointing out that the TDC flower beds by/on the Lawn have not been weeded. And here we are during the Easter holiday tourist season..........

The author of the e-mail suggested we raise it with our district councillors. 

So I thought I'd put her concern on here as something else we might wish to raise with the district council candidates when they come knocking on our doors/set up stalls in the town centre.  

or perhaps I should say if they come knocking on our doors/have stalls in the town.........