Photo: Taw Valley flooding last week
An Extraordinary Full Council meeting was held on Thursday evening to discuss the trade waste service. Well done to the Chief Executive for allowing four members of the public to speak (when only one would normally be permitted). They all spoke well. The result was that the issue will be referred back to the Strategy & Resources committee (which meets on Monday), with the steer that we want the service to continue: it will be trade waste collection only without the accompanying food waste and recycling collections. It is a very complicated issue, not helped by party politics rearing its unlovely head. The Conservatives put up a motion which the Independents (including us three Greens) voted for but the Lib Dems did not. Then the Lib Dems put up a motion, helpfully amended by our group, which we again voted for but the Conservatives did not. They and the LDs whip their members (order them how to vote) whereas the Indies do not, which seems healthier and more democratic.
I’m delighted that these awards will be running for a second year and that the prizes will be from Dartington Crystal, some of whose glassware I own and love using, plus Pearce, the local building firm, which brings so many young people into skilled work through apprenticeships. The nomination form is here: https://www.barnstaple.co.uk/events/flourishing-culture-awards-nominations
Another local initiative worth getting involved with is the Burton Art Gallery’s appeal to collectors - of all kinds - in Northern Devon. Here is the open call form: Collections open call form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfLGgaIjrFK8i7aLGGzHXdNP0dZYC_VSDevzrxOhy2XvQdqcw/viewform
Dave Clinch and other members of the North Devon Palestine Solidarity Campaign met at the Plough Arts Centre in Great Torrington on Friday morning to read out the names of all the journalists murdered by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023. How many - 250? Each murder is an outrage. On the walls is an exhibition of pictures by children in Gaza and the West Bank. A vigil for Gaza is held in Torrington on Thursday afternoons at 4.30pm. I read this on the occasion - an extract from a poem by Hind Joudeh in You Must Live, the new anthology of Palestinian poetry published by Copper Canyon Press:
Waiting on a bridge. Hung over a chasm.
Cups of disappointment being passed round
as breaking news:
Humankind is losing
consciousness.
There is a fine beech avenue near us. The owners had tree surgeons assess all the trees last year, after which one was reduced to about half its original height and two cut down. However, another has now collapsed - without any visible sign of the rotten interior now revealed. It could easily have fallen on any of us locals as we walk or drive up and down the lane.
I had a fine morning counting wading birds last Sunday. The highlight was a flock of 26 Curlews which flew up from a field beside the Taw, displaying their surprisingly light under-plumage. Finally, it was horrible to read last week how EU apples have become cocktails of pesticides: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/01/29/european-apples-tainted-with-pesticide-cocktails-new-study-claims
We are very glad we have a supply of our own apples - rather wizened, like us - that will last a few months yet. I do eat one everyday. Thank you for reading.
