Nobody wanted it but we got it anyway
TEIGNMOUTH Town Council said no. Two hundred and thirty local people said no – and were also moved to put their objections in writing. So far as we know, nobody in Teignmouth wanted it.
But, with its usual sensitivity to local opinion and commitment to the spirit of democracy, Teignbridge Council naturally said yes.
Last year our council granted outline permission for 135 homes to be built on 12.6 green acres off New Road, designated both as an Area of Great Landscape Value and a Coastal Protection Area.
Does this sound like democracy to you?
Now we start to realise the real cost as the first flush of detailed plans emerge, hinting at just how dreadful this unwanted development promises to be.
Dismayed as they were by the lacklustre design and cheap grey mono-pitch roofs proposed by the developers, Teignmouth councillors’ fears were summed up by Cllr Vince Fusco, who demanded a complete rethink of the original planning consent.
But that, as planning chief Nick Davies told him, was out of the question. It was already a done deal.
However, we now have a little respite as the developer, Bovis Homes, has been told to make changes before detailed planning can be granted. Is it too much to ask, since this development really is now to be dumped on Teignmouth, that it sets architectural quality above profit for shareholders?
Interesting name, Bovis, by the way. Mycobacterium Bovis is a slow-growing aerobic bacterium and the causative agent of bovine TB.
Market makes
its mark
GOOD to see that so many people turned out for Shaldon’s first Christmas Market when it hit the street on Thursday evening.
Stalls were set out along The Strand, as well as in the gardens of the Ferry Boat and the Beachcomber, and the place came alive with Christmas spirit.
Choirs of angels – that is to say local schoolchildren, the Shaldon Singers, Singalong Shaldon and the Red Rock close harmony group – sang in exultation and everyone seemed to be having a pretty good time.
I gather business was brisk for many of the stallholders and shops that had stayed open further away in the village did well too. The Red Rock singers were certainly rocking the London Inn as I?passed by later on, after they’d made their Ferry Boat appearance. That must have brought in good extra custom as well.
This is an excellent way of bringing life and business into the village in winter. With the promise of a second market scheduled for last night (after this edition of the Post had gone to press) here’s hoping the Shaldon Christmas Markets will become an annual fixture for early December.
The letter H
IS that ‘aitch’ or ‘haitch’? A delivery driver turned up unexpectedly the other day, asking whether our address had such-and-such a post code. And the code in question included the letter H.
It was actually a bit more complicated than that, involving combinations of various other letters along with the H.
He kept saying ‘haitch’. I kept saying ‘aitch’. It was quite embarrassing, as though we were trying indirectly to correct one another.
So ‘haitch’ or ‘aitch’? As a public service in resolving the debate, I consulted Fowler’s Modern English Usage for definitive guidance. And it turns out that the sagacious Mr Fowler makes no mention of ‘haitch’ as an option at all.
So there we have it. We may drop our ‘haitches’.
Light fantastic
MID-MORNING one day last week found me killing 20 minutes in the car park on the Point while Mrs Chris picked up a few items of shopping.
It was one of those winter mornings when nature decides to deliver a masterclass on the true essence of light, aiming a shimmering streak of silver directly at Teignmouth from the horizon.
And then a pilot gig hove into view out at sea from behind the Ness headland. The silhouette of boat and crew transfigured in that extraordinary silver sunshine completed a mesmerising picture.
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