Tiverton Town Centre Masterplan
Mid Devon District Council has reminded residents in Tiverton to make sure they have their say on the town’s masterplan.
Councillor Richard Chesterton who is cabinet member for planning and economic regeneration said the Council had ambitious aims to revitalise all of its towns.
Wetherspoons White Ball Inn Reopens in Tiverton 2019
Pub goers in Tiverton are “absolutely loving” their new look Wetherspoon White Ball Inn.
The pub reopened after ten weeks on Tuesday, August 27, following an £850k refurbishment which saw toilets moved upstairs and new floorspace created.
Prior to opening, the pub chain invited 2,600 guests for a free meal and lunch as part of their soft opening.
“People in Tiverton have absolutely loved it,” manager Ben Grainger said.
“We have got 29 draught products, just on the lagers, the ciders the stouts. Then we’ve got real ale; ten on the at any one time, I don’t think any pub in the area has got that many. Then we’ve got local ciders. We now sell pizzas; we are punching out so many pizzas we can’t believe it.”
Mr Grainger added that it was good to have the team back together again.
“We had staff down in Tavistock, Admiral Collingwood in Ilfracombe, they were in the Imperial. To get all of us back under one roof, you can’t explain how excited we all are to be here.”
Mayor of Tiverton, Councillor Colin Slade, officially opened the new-look pub.
He said: “I think it means a lot to have Wetherspoons back in Tiverton. The pub is popular and has been for a number of years. Everybody knows Spoons, it’s got a wonderful location by the bridge and River Exe, a great place to be out in the beer garden on a sunny day, but now, of course, it’s all been improved.
“We have had to do without it for 71 days while it’s been closed. Was it worth it - of course, it was.
“It’s a fantastic refurbishment, and the loos are brilliant, everything is good about it now.
“Visitors have even more choice of food and drink, and they’re serving pizzas and fantastic value food all day including breakfast for £3.60 – where can you get value like that?
“We know there are always stories about things not being good in Tiverton, shops closing and so on. These things come and go, the economy goes up and down, but it is a mark of a town success that companies like Wetherspoons continue to invest. The future, I think, is looking pretty good.”
Community Clear Up Day in Tiverton
VOLUNTEERS gave up their Saturday morning to help give Tiverton a spring clean.
The litter pick was organised as part of a nationwide Community Clear Up Day on Saturday, 22 March.
Around 20 members of Tiverton Volunteer Litter Pickers (TVLP) joined members of the community including town and district councillors.
The area covered by the pick was centered around the Exe Valley Leisure Centre with Kennedy Way, Bolham Road and Park Hill nearby.
Chairman of the TVLP, Douglas Rice, said: “This is a much used area, we have a school, college, park and of course the leisure centre itself.
“There is always a need to try and keep this area tidy because it is a major leisure area. We hope that we are making a serious contribution to improve the appearance of the town here.”
Mr Rice said that although the council’s employees do a good job in the town, they are always on the lookout for new people to join them: “There is always a need for more,” he added.
“We do make a serious contribution but I hope that when people see us doing this, they are determined to be careful about throwing things down, because obviously, what’s important to us is preventing litter in the first place.”
Community Clear Up Day was championed by the Mayor of Tiverton, Councillor Sue Griggs who helped organise the morning’s litter pick.
Cllr Griggs said: “We have collected a shed load of rubbish in the hour we have been out collecting.
“It’s sad that there is so much litter about. I expect people will turn around and say there aren’t enough litter bins, but nevertheless, there are litter bins about.
“If you can’t find them take your litter home or find somewhere for you to put your rubbish, don’t just drop it on the floor.”
Sue added that she would like to see more civic pride put back into the town: “It’s only a small minority of people who are spoiling it and making the place a mess. It’s just not on.
“We have to rely on a lot of people, who do good work in this town and across the country, and these people need supporting by the people who don’t make any effort at all – it’s a shocking state of affairs really.”
The TVLP are currently planning to work in conjunction with other community groups in the town. Douglas Rice added: “We could extend it beyond litter picking and think about other environmental issues.
“Getting to know about plastics and the use of packing materials by retailers and seeing what can be done to help sort out some very severe problems.”
Twyford Spartans Disability Counts for Join In Local Sport
TWYFORD Spartans Disability Counts Football Club teamed up with Join In Local Sport as part of a national celebration showing that anyone can get involved with sport.
The club hosted a day of disability football with all ranges of ability taking part on Sunday 19 August at the Exe Valley Leisure Centre Astroturf.
Jeff Rawlings, coach of the Disability Counts football team said: We've had well over 150 here today with and without disabilities and they've come from all over the area.
Having a disability doesn't stop you participating in sport -- today we're using football -- but any sport can be adapted to make it accessible for everybody.
Blind, mute and wheelchair football were just some of the games played during the day which was backed by Tiverton Town, Elmore, Moors and Twyford Spartans football clubs.
Ryan German, coach of Elmore Football Club said: It's very important for the community to get the kids and football together shows how strong the community is in the town.
It doesn't matter if you win, lose or draw; enjoyment is the first and foremost above anything.
Today, all the lads and coaches have had a great day, it's been brilliant.
Paul Hunt from Moors FC added: They had me in a wheelchair earlier so that was a bit of a challenge, but we got a goal.
The talent on display is very good, there's all sorts of abilities, from beginners to more accomplished players.
They're all enjoying it, and that's the main thing to take away from today.
For more information on Join In click the link, or view the video below for more on the day itself.
Willand is Rising by 2cm a Year
Satellites have revealed a Devon village is rising by 2cm a year and the reason why is baffling experts.
The revelation comes following the release of a map which shows the subtle warping of the land surface across the UK for the first time. The map was created using more than 2,000 radar images acquired by European Union’s Sentinel-1 satellites.
Those behind the map say it could prove a useful tool for policymakers, and those working on major infrastructure projects.
However, the village of Willand in Mid Devon has found national fame by being a spot on the map which is seeing an uplift of up to 2cm per year.
Dr Andy Sowter from Geomatic Ventures Limited (GVL) who designed the map and is an expect in satellite data said he “doesn’t have a clue” why and that it was a “strange anomaly.”
Speaking to Devon Live he said: “When I spotted it, first of all it was important to confirm it. On this map I can see mining deformation, I can see peat lands deforming and landfill and 99 per cent of everything on this map I can account for, but that thing in Willand I can’t.
“It’s important because it straddles the M5 and a major railway line.
“First of all we checked that it was real and that we hadn’t screwed up. We looked at different satellite passes as an independent thing, and yes it’s real so it’s definitely rising at a maximum of about 2cm a year so we know it’s there.”
Dr Sowter said he contacted the British Geological Society to ask if there was any history of mining in the area and found there to be none.
“They didn’t say anything weird about Willand. It’s miles away from any mining centres or former mining centres in Cornwall or Devon so there’s nothing that could explain that. The next thing I did was contact the Environment Agency and it’s with them at the moment. They are looking into it but they’ve not been back to me.”
Dr Sowter suggested that because the rise is being seen over both a built up area and agricultural fields means it is something deep underground.
“We see this sort of thing happening over the peatland surfaces and bare soil but we wouldn’t see that if somebody has built over it,” he said.
“The fact we can see it over the built area as well as the agricultural area means that it’s probably well below the level of the soil.
“We’ve done a lot of surveys and you’ll see on the map of the UK the other areas where we see this sort of uplift are former coalmines. They’ve got ground water recharge where coalmines have been pumped out for years and years so they turn the pump off and they start to fill up with water and it’s like a sponge which starts to swell. The rocks start to swell and you see a some uplift so this would be consistent with that sort of thing but that is as far as I can get with that as I’m not a geologist.
“It shouldn’t have any impacts as the rate is still very low at 2cm a year. It might have an impact on the railway lines, if you’re standing still and the whole village comes up at 2cm a year you’re not going to notice it but if you’re running a railway over that you may notice you have to maintain a bit of rail a little more often because they are looking for things like that on railway lines.”
A suggest Dr Sowter gave was that there could be some sort of contamination of the water supply or that industrial water was getting into the ground.
He added: “Over the coalmines this uplift indicates groundwater is coming up but water from the mines is dirty and you don’t want that coming up and contaminating the agriculture. Tou don’t want it hitting the surface so for me the thing in Willand is not so much about whether your house going to collapse, it’s what is this indicating. Is it indicating something like groundwater recharge from a polluted environment, or it could be something natural, it could be something like a drain has collapsed, that would be my concern with this.”