Salisbury and Exeter Rail Users Group > meeting Sidmouth Library > Tuesday 30th April

There are a lot of fed up rail travellers:
Futures Forum: HS2: The Great Train Robbery @ Channel 4's Dispatches

And there is a group which is campaigning for a better service in these parts:

How the West Country could double its rail services in 5 simple steps - Somerset Live

They are SERUG: 

Salisbury to Exeter Rail Users Group 

SERUG is a lobby group focussed on the operation of the railway between Salisbury and Exeter and its future improvement. We enlist the support of rail users, MP’s, County and local Councils and other communities...

SERUG – The Salisbury to Exeter Rail Users Group 

They will be meeting up tomorrow in Sidmouth:
30th April 2019 - Salisbury to Exeter Rail User Group - talk, Sidmouth

SERUG Salisbury to Exeter Rail Users Group - Home | Facebook
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Turn your lawn into a meadow

A very simple tip from the Guardian this week: 

Why you should turn your lawn into a meadow

Most lawns are biodiversity deserts, but there is a simple way to encourage nature – and you don’t even have to ditch the mower

Alys Fowler
Wed 24 Apr 2019
Comments 864 

A wildflower meadow: ‘every inch of soil is waiting for its moment to burst forth’. File:Wildflower meadow in Manor Park (geograph 3015138).jpg - Wikimedia Commons

My garden sings its own song. It starts after the dawn chorus with the honeybees, followed by the heavier buzz of the bumbles, punctuated by the hoverflies’ higher pitch. You can even sometimes hear the rustle and creak of beetles as evening comes. To lie among it, eyes closed, is to hear something exquisite.

My garden sings this song because it is allowed to. I have long been a proponent of neglecting lawns to nurture nature, as Margaret Renkl recently made the case for in the New York Times – and there isn’t a manicured strip of green that doesn’t ache to do the same.

Most lawns have been silenced by the regime of a lawnmower, leaving just a few species of grass. They are biodiversity deserts, barren of beetle and bee, contributing to a vanishing insect population – and worse still, we pursue this. There are aisles in garden centres promising ever-greener sward, with no moss and weeds. Let there be no misunderstanding: these are chemicals that silence the soil.

There is another way. Your lawn is already a wildflower meadow – every inch of soil is waiting for its moment to burst forth. Those weeds are some of the best insect food, growing despite the weather, endlessly repeat blooming, rich in nectar and pollen. A seed bank is already there – it might even contain orchids. Oh, and perhaps plenty of moss, essential stuff for nests and nature of all sorts.

The simplest route to this is not to abandon your lawn and mower but to learn how to move the mower’s blades up, so the cut is higher than 10cm. Hold out for your first cut until the end of June, then leave a month between each cut until autumn. If you need a route to the washing line or shed, mow just a path. The wildflowers will adapt and bloom under your blades, the bees will dance and the birds will sing in praise of it all.

Why you should turn your lawn into a meadow | Life and style | The Guardian
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Beach Management Plan: "Something drastic for Sidmouth needs to change soon so that we can have a scheme that we can afford, as at the moment there is no sign of it."

The District Council considered a motion to push for South West Water to contribute to the Beach Management Plan for Sidmouth:
Futures Forum: Beach Management Plan: pressure on utility companies to contribute to costs

The context is that the cliffs are not being protected - and so are collapsing:
Futures Forum: Beach Management Plan: urgency for action after further cliff falls - but what action?

The trouble is that the solution being pushed by the District Council is not universally accepted as the best:

Futures Forum: Beach Management Plan: businesses oppose seawall and stakeholders demand clarity

The District Council's 'preferred option' of groynes is not the preferred option of the local stakeholders on the BMP steering group:
Futures Forum: Beach Management Plan: breakwaters rather than groins/groynes
Futures Forum: Beach Management Plan: "There is widespread scepticism of the process and little regard shown to the local understanding of what the real issues might be."

Returning to the ploy to get SWW to contribute, the District Council is desperate to cover the costs of its plan that almost no one in Sidmouth wants:

Futures Forum: Beach Management Plan: still a funding gap of £3.3million 

And so at the last District Council meeting last week when the idea of approaching SWW was debated, there was also debate about the desirability and viability of the 'preferred option' - which does not have the necessary funding and probably never will: 

Council
Wednesday, 24th April, 2019 6.00 pm

The Chairman welcomed those present and invited members of the public to address the Council.

The next speaker was Richard Eley who wanted to discuss the Sidmouth Beach Management Plan, which was also related to climate change. He outlined the situation facing Sidmouth in terms of rapid erosion and the likely risk of flooding, with a severe storm potentially bringing about inundation of the town centre. He stated that there needed to be a serious discussion about how to progress this in the face of unlikely assistance from the government. He had resigned from the Group two years ago but stated that there was now more data available and greater understanding of possible solutions available in order to generate effective change. He wanted to thank John Golding and Dave Turner for their hard work.

In response, the Portfolio Holder for the Environment, Cllr Tom Wright, stated that he had been chairing the Sidmouth Beach Management Plan Group for the last year. A fully designed and costed Plan is currently being prepared which will be brought to a meeting next month, which it is hoped will satisfy the Environment Agency and assist the Group in getting funds to prevent flooding. The nature of the meetings has much improved and Cllr Wright stated that he was confident a Plan will be produced which will safeguard Sidmouth from the risk of flooding in future.

Motion - Government support requested for financial contributions from utility companies to flood and coastal protection schemes

Cllr Gardner had been involved with the Sidmouth Beach Management Plan Group, but had also resigned due to lack of progress and no sight of a scheme which was affordable, or which was likely to achieve government support or which utilities companies would contribute to. She would support the Motion because it would affect her ward, without conviction that it would change matters.

Cllr Ingham commented that if EDDC tried to prescribe how SWW raised the funds to contribute to schemes they would not agree. It was inevitable that they would pass on costs to the customer.

Cllr Wright stated that he supported the Motion but clarified that the funding gap was now £2m rather than £3m. He was confident that a full Business case would soon be available to be put to Council which would help in obtaining the necessary funding.

The Chairman asked Cllr Hughes to give his right to reply.

Cllr Hughes stated that in North Norfolk, Anglian Water had acted positively by endorsing the fact that they should be contributing to coast and flood defence schemes.

The Chief Executive read out the amended motion with a slight re-wording as follows;

‘That the Government ensures that where their assets and infrastructure will be protected by a flood and coastal protection scheme all utility companies are required to make a proportionate and appropriate mandatory level of financial contribution towards that scheme, and subject to the costs of any contribution not being borne by the utilities customers‘.

Having agreed the re-wording the Chairman put the motion to the vote.

RESOLVED

that following a vote, the motion proposed by Councillor Stuart Hughes and seconded by Councillor David Barratt was carried with 2 against.

Agenda for Council on Wednesday, 24th April, 2019, 6.00 pm - East Devon
Printed minutes 24th-Apr-2019 18.00 Council.pdf

Devon Live carries a report: 

The plan to protect Sidmouth’s crumbling cliffs is set to be finalised

Councillors also agreed to call on utility companies to be forced to contribute towards coastal defence schemes

Daniel Clark Local Democracy Reporter
26 APR 2019

The full business case for a plan to stop Sidmouth’s crumbling cliffs from crashing into the sea and the town being flooded is set to come forward in the next couple of months.

The proposed scheme for the East Devon town will see a new groyne built to help keep shingle from being moved eastwards away from the vulnerable cliffs and a higher splash wall will capture water coming over the sea wall to prevent flooding. The scheme will cost £8.9m, but currently has a funding shortfall of around £2m.

East Devon District Council on Wednesday night agreed to support a motion calling on the Government to request electric, gas, telephone and water companies to be mandated, where their assets and infrastructure will be protected and benefit from them, to make a proportionate and appropriate mandatory level of financial contribution towards that scheme, and subject to the costs of any contribution not being borne by customers.

Option 1 - The preferred option that the beach management plan for Sidmouth has identified is to construct one or two new rock groynes along East Beach over a distance of up to 200m east of the River Sid and to modify the length of the seaward end of the River Sid training wall and East Pier rock groyne to improve sediment transport between Sidmouth Town Beach and East Beach. This would be supported by importing new shingle and moving shingle along the beach as required.

It was put forward by Cllr Stuart Hughes as in Sidmouth, South West Water infrastructure will be protected if the scheme is built, but they have not contributed financially to the near £9m scheme.

Wednesday night’s full council meeting also heard from Cllr Tom Wright, the portfolio holder for the environment, that a full business case for the Sidmouth beach management plan would come forward soon to the council.

Cllr Wright said: “In the next month or so, the full business case will come to the council. Then we will know how much we are looking for, and I am certain that once we have the business case evaluated and costed, it will help us to find our funding.” He added that he totally supported the motion and said that the delay in the business case coming forward was to ensure that the design would actually work.

Proposing the motion, Cllr Hughes said: “Utilities services will be protected by such works. However at present they don’t have to contribute and I don’t recall seeing any scheme that’s gone ahead receiving funding from either the electric, gas, or telephone companies. Water companies don’t always contribute and as far as Sidmouth is concerned, they haven’t come to the party with any promise of financial contribution

“This necessary work will protect not just homes and businesses but also important infrastructure and utilities. In Sidmouth, for example, the South West Water infrastructure and other utilities will be protected from the incursion of the sea and erosion when the scheme is delivered. It seems fair and reasonable that all utility companies contribute towards the cost of coastal and flood protection works.”

He added that North Norfolk District Council and Great Yarmouth Borough Council had already signed a letter to government ministers saying it is “inequitable” that water, electricity and gas companies do not have to contribute to projects managing coastal erosion, so East Devon would not be acting alone, and that Anglian Water had said that they endorse the principle of utilities contributing towards the costs of coastal protection where they have assets in vulnerable areas.

Cllr David Barratt, who seconded the motion, added: “It is quite clear that South West Water should be giving a contribution to a scheme that will safeguard their units on the seafront at Sidmouth, but as well as this, we must continue our local attempts to try and persuade them to contribute and generally redouble our efforts to seek our partnership funding. It is desperately urgent that we move the beach management plan forward before we see Sidmouth falling into the sea.”

Cllr Cathy Gardner said that will she supported the motion, she was not enthusiastic that it would work. She added: “The beach management plan process has been grinding on for years. We are now waiting for funding but I have no confidence it will be found. Something drastic for Sidmouth needs to change soon so that we can have a scheme that we can afford, as at the moment there is no sign of it.”

She also added that she thought that if the utility companies were forced to contribute, she expected that the costs would be passed onto customers anyway.

The motion was discussed in the same week where rubble crashed to the ground down at Jacob’s Ladder beach on Easter Sunday, in full view of hundreds of sun seekers and that at the other end of the seafront, on the precarious East Beach, there was a massive landslide that saw rubble crash down and block off a cave that was opened up following a previous cliff fall.

East Devon District Council subsequently reissued a warning to members of the public that the cliffs pose a very real danger and caution must be exercised when visiting them and the beach, and not to ignore warning signs, and not to sit directly beneath them.

The proposed beach management scheme aims to reduce the risk of flooding to Sidmouth by maintaining the standard of defences along Sidmouth Beach, and to reduce the rate of erosion to the cliffs.

The scheme will cost £8.9m, with around £3m of funding needed to be provided locally. £500,000 of this will be provided by East Devon District Council, with £500,000 set to be committed by Devon County Council and £100,000 from Sidmouth town council. Around £1m of local funding has been found, Cllr Wright announced, meaning roughly £2m more needs to be found.

The plan to protect Sidmouth’s crumbling cliffs is set to be finalised - Devon Live
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Tree Week > 20th - 25th May

The Sidmouth Arboretum will be celebrating its annual Tree Week next month:
Sidmouth Arboretum

Check the VGS calendar for more details:
Events for May 2019 – Vision Group for Sidmouth

The Residents' Magazine has a full spread on the upcoming events - with photos from the Arboretum:

Chance to celebrate the trees in Sidmouth

PUBLISHED: 07:00 27 April 2019

Andrew Coley

Sameer with guests, reading the information from the QR code at Sidholme.

This month Diana East, president of Sidmouth Arboretum, invites us to meet some of the trees in hotel gardens. All are easily found on their free Tree Trail leaflet.

Cedar of Lebanon at Sidholme

As you enter the Byes by the Toll House Bridge, you soon notice the mature trees surrounding Hunters Moon Hotel. On closer inspection, you can enjoy a well-maintained small orchard, a putting green and a magnificent, fast growing foxglove tree, which should be in flower soon.

The Fisher family have been planting trees in their grounds for many years. Julie remembers a conifer seed planted by her father and an oak for her brother's first birthday; so it is no surprise that Julie understands the importance of the gardens to their guests.

Foxglove flower.

“I love the old trees, they are so grounded”, Julie explains. “You feel relaxed just sitting close to them.”

Some of the trees would be classed as veteran, and take some looking after.

The redwood has recently had dead wood removed from its upper layers, the tree is healthy, we are told, though the branches on one side are affected by sea spray.

A massive holm oak has suffered the indignity of immense branches being removed for safety reasons.

Sidholme red rhododendron

Yet the contribution these statuesque trees make to the landscape is surely why guests return again and again.

Across the river and up the secluded Elysian Fields lane you arrive at Sidholme Hotel, sheltered by a magnificent Cedar of Lebanon, nearly 200 years old. Many trees around this fine building date from the mid 19th century plant hunting fashion.

The Arboretum has begun labelling the trees, which include QR codes providing varied details about each tree.

When I visited, standing by a katsura tree, operations manager Sameer Velayudhan was explaining the app for the QR codes. He doesn't begrudge the time and cost of maintaining and improving the grounds as he knows 'the trees create a tranquil environment, much appreciated by guests'.

Trees are a part of Sidholme heritage. There is much to do here, and an energetic volunteer group is working hard to restore the Lost Garden at Sidholme.

Down by The Esplanade, behind the Belmont Hotel, is a wooded goyle quite unlike the formal bedding often found in hotels.

In 2013, the Arboretum was offered a Wollemi pine – a rare pine rescued from extinction in its native Australia. With the help of the head gardener, we planted the pine on the steep sides of the goyle and it has taken to its new home very well.

This area has been much improved recently and we hope to visit it during our Tree Week celebrations from Monday, May 20 to Saturday, May 25.

Details on www.sidmoutharboretum.org.uk

For more features from East Devon Resident, click here.

Chance to celebrate the trees in Sidmouth | Latest Sidmouth and Ottery News - Sidmouth Herald
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Have the public gone bonkers about plastics? Julia Hailes, author of The Green Consumer Guide, to talk in Lyme Regis: Friday 3rd May

Are plastics a bad thing?
Futures Forum: Is 'plastic free' a stretch too far?... There are clever ways to use and deal with plastic waste.
Futures Forum: Plastic: can you live without it?
Futures Forum: "Plastic's bad reputation is not always borne out by the facts. Just because a brown cardboard box looks greener than plastic, that doesn't mean it is."

A veteran campaigner and writer is speaking next week on the issues: should be interesting: 

HAVE THE PUBLIC GONE BONKERS ABOUT PLASTICS?


Friday, 3rd May      
Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis, Dorset      
7.00 – 8.45pm
Tickets £8 (concessions available)  Book online

Julia Hailes MBE  will give a very thought-provoking talk.   

Pictures of turtles with straws up their nostrils and an albatross chick regurgitating a toothbrush have been key in galvanising public attention to the very real problem of ocean plastics. 

So, you may be surprised to hear that plastics are often the best environmental option, in particular by saving energy and tackling climate change. 

Julia Hailes is a sustainability pioneer with over 30 years in the green sector. She’s a campaigner, writer, speaker and consultant, who has written nine environmental books, including The Green Consumer Guide, which sold over 1 million copies. 

She will talk about how humans have become the most wasteful species on the planet and what we should be doing about it. Some of her conclusions may surprise you.


Plastic Pollution  Turn Lyme Green |
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Sidmouth Town and District council elections > HUSTINGS event > Tuesday 30th April > meet the candidates in one-on-one Q&A sessions

The Vision Group will be putting on hustings for the upcoming elections:

Futures Forum: Sidmouth Town and District council elections > HUSTINGS event > Tuesday 30th April > more details

The Herald has put out a reminder:

East Devon elections 2019: Quiz candidates at husting events

24 April 2019

Clarissa Place

Residents will be able to quiz some of the election candidates in the run up to polls as husting events have been organised in Sidmouth and Ottery.

Sidmouth residents will be able to meet both town and district candidates at an event organised by The Vision Group of Sidmouth on Tuesday, April 30, at St Teresa's Hall.

All candidates will be available to speak on a one-to-one speed dating set-up. Town council candidates will be available from 7pm to 8pm and from 8.10pm to 9.10pm for district council contenders.

East Devon elections 2019: Ottery and Sidmouth to hold husting events | Latest Sidmouth and Ottery News - Sidmouth Herald

The Herald is also providing full details of each candidate:
East Devon elections 2019; Who is vying for a Sidmouth Town Council seat?
East Devon elections 2019; Meet the candidates for EDDC’s Sidmouth and parish seats

And it today's Herald, the lead letter, from VGS member Peter Murphy, asks a question - and provides a few answers:

Dear Sir

East Devon Elections – Why go to the Hustings?

As I recall, analysts commented when the result was declared that if many Brexit remainers had bothered to vote in the referendum, the outcome may well have very well been different. Did complacency rule I wonder? It seems that ‘not voting’ can give rise to regret if the outcome is not what one hoped for, and expected! Here in the Sid Valley, voters turned out in their droves to have their say.

Brexit was, and is, an issue of massive importance to the future prosperity of not just the UK, but for the many issues it raises. But here in East Devon, candidates for both local and district elections are setting out their stalls to gain our votes on the issues that matter here. From the campaign leaflets I’ve had through my letterbox (Sidmouth North) from East Devon Alliance and Conservative candidates in recent days, the important issues cover the full spectrum of maintaining a diverse and prosperous future for the Sid Valley, referring to, and mirroring in many ways the key findings of the Sid Valley Neighbourhood Plan, now with the Inspector for examination.

Hustings are usually organised in the community interest by independent groups, to bring together voters and candidates for discussion. The Sidmouth hustings, organised and moderated by the Sidmouth Vision Group, have opted for a ‘Speed Dating’ format to facilitate one-on-one Q&A sessions. One might perhaps presume that election candidates will be eager to receive the views of their voters and maybe listening more intently than at other times in the election cycle.

The Sidmouth Hustings will be held at St Theresa’s Hall in Connaught Road on Tuesday 30th April, with Local Election candidates available from 7.00 pm and District Council candidates from 8.10 pm. As a member of the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group I certainly have some questions I would like to pose before I cast my votes, and hope to see many residents doing the same. To paraphrase one candidate re-standing for election “Just vote!”

Peter Murphy

Sidmouth

Disclosure: Member of Sid Valley Neighbourhood Plan and Sidmouth Vision Group.

East Devon Elections – Why go to the Hustings?
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Sidmouth Repair Café > Saturday 27th April

The Residents' Magazine inside today's Herald has its regular piece on the Repair Café - and it covers the basic idea of getting us educated on how to repair stuff:
Futures Forum: Lack of repair knowledge in society
Futures Forum: Repair Café > "acquiring and enhancing technical and entrepreneurial skills while raising awareness on issues of sustainability and the circular economy"

The Herald online carries a further piece - with a reminder of tomorrow's next Café session: 

Sidmouth Repair Café – it's about building up relationships

PUBLISHED: 07:00 26 April 2019

Chris Dunford of Bradfords (second standing from the left, with members of the café team) and a table laden with materials and tools to help the fixers in their work.

The Repair Cafe movement has been growing over recent times and communities are benefiting

The Repair Café movement is gaining ground. Last month, the Café in Exeter repaired 263 items, breaking the world record for the highest number of items mended in one day.

The Sidmouth Café has not yet reached these heights, but last month was its most successful.

One satisfied customer was clearly pleased: “Two pairs of trousers expertly repaired and a much loved coat, which was a challenge but now looking in perfect condition again!”

All sorts of things are fixed at the Café – from printers and lawnmowers to teddies and toasters, with the Café now particularly able to help with broken computers.

The expert fixers have been helped by a generous donation of tools and materials from Bradfords Building Supplies. And as their manager Chris Dunford said when visiting the Café: “It's not just about repairs, it's about building up relationships and making friendships.”

The Repair Café is held every last Saturday of the month at the Youth Centre in Manstone Lane, Sidmouth.

Sidmouth Repair Café will be operating on Saturday, April 27.

For more features from East Devon Resident, click here

Sidmouth Repair Café – it's about building up relationships | Latest Sidmouth and Ottery News - Sidmouth Herald
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