CLLR MHB BLOG

Saturday 27 June

Sorry - it might look long this week but do just skip to what interests you.

Heatwave still here, if weakening. There’s great anxiety, for good reason, about plans by X-Links for a so-called Data Campus in an area bounded by the villages of Alverdiscott (which has a national grid sub-station), Huntshaw and Weare Gifford. This is in Torridge rather than North Devon but people in both districts are alarmed by the demands the proposed centre would make on energy and water (for cooling the plant), as well as the blotting out of a vast area of biodiversity. The company has put out info at this link:
Click MPublic Informatdevondatacampus.comion Da

I’d like to see a thorough cost/benefit analysis - not only on this project but on a national scale. Is it a Campus - suggesting something studious and peopled - or a Centre (suggesting something soulless and empty)? Discuss.

As this evening’s game between England and Panama approaches, I would advise anyone who wants to read about the World Cup to turn first to the column by Emma Hayes (hugely successful former manager of the Chelsea women’s team, now managing the US women’s team) in the Guardian. She also delivers brief but to the point mid-match observations for ITV. She makes most other pundits look superficial to the point of irrelevance. Our result against Panama (2-0) was twice as good as the results against them of our rivals in the group, Croatia and Ghana. No negativity, thank you. Bellingham was and is extraordinary.

Sunday 28 June

The annual Fringe Theatrefest in Barnstaple: the cancellation of an event we were going to attend gave us time for a delicious lunch at Plant in the Strand and our first encounter with re-usable copper drinking ‘straws’. Then we joined a reading by Robert Gillett from Cornwall, who turned his affliction with MS into a moving text which used those letters to start every word in the poem. Next we watched Hats Off to Laurel and Hardy, a delightful tribute to the great comic duo. David Hockney had a painting of them - by him - hanging up in his house in the Hollywood Hills when we worked on an exhibition of his photographs in 1983. After that we attended Wasted, an eloquent one-hander by Nathan Rodney-Jones which reflected on the poly-crises of our time through the lenses of a school teacher, interspersed with extracts from T.S. Eliot’s Waste Land. Nathan, whose poetry I first heard when he was still at school, is a remarkable talent.

Monday 29 June

Excellent article by Zoe Williams on data centres: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/29/were-up-against-forces-that-have-all-the-money-in-the-world-erin-brockovich-on-her-battle-against-ai-datacentres?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

I’ve been a member of our North Devon Cllr Advocacy Group for over two years - a regular online catchup with police officers plus North Devon Council’s Anti-Social Behaviour team. It’s valuable to get a picture of policing and crime issues and to bring particular problems to the group. On Monday afternoon I travelled down to Exeter with Insp Andy Wills, who oversees policing in Barnstaple and the surrounding villages. We attended a thank you event hosted by Alison Hernandez, Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. I had no inkling that I was to receive an award as a cllr advocate. I felt shocked and touched by the citation read by Insp Wills (in the photo with myself and Commissioner Hernandez) -

Tuesday 30 June

My blog often draws attention to what should be said or asked by our mainstream media. Learning to question public statements - whether government or advertising - was part of the English teaching at my school. Critical thinking about texts was at the heart of my English degree. I think it stands me in good stead as a citizen and cllr. Eng Lit also enhances empathy. Like me, Andy Burnham MP read English at Cambridge - he seems to have empathy but I’m not sure critical thinking can have much role in his membership of Labour Friends of Israel. That apart, I’m shocked by news in the past few days that huge redundancies have been proposed in the English and Creative Writing departments by the bosses at Exeter U. I recall the story of a vice-chancellor at another of our best universities who was ex-army - it was said that he left the military because it wasn’t aggressive enough. The petition is here: https://c.org/7rGH2FZDwj

I attended this webinar, aimed at local cllrs, on Tuesday evening. Prof Michael Antoniou of Kings College London explained how current official assessments of the safety of glyphosate are plain wrong, partly because the chemical is tested in isolation whereas it is always used in actual practice in combination with other chemicals. It needs to be banned from use in non-agricultural settings such as parks, gardens, streets, etc. Cambridge council has successfully stopped using pesticides to deal with weeds in its streets and other public spaces.

Wednesday 1 July

Planning Committee. We approved the use of vinyl advertising on the doors and windows of the former Mountain Warehouse shop in Barnstaple High Street. Excellent idea with potential for wider application. It will look like this:

A public consultation has opened on the new Local Plan being developed by North Devon Council with Torridge DC. Details of how people can respond and consultation materials are available here: [SCOPING CONSULTATION EVENT] . The deadline is 17:00 on Tuesday 11 August 2026.

I attended Landkey parish council in the evening and heard the good news that a new development of 150 houses off Birch Road in the village will all be offered as social housing of one form and another to local residents via Devon Home Choice. As I’ve mentioned before, Labour’s target of building 1.5 m houses in five years is hard enough but finding the same number of open market buyers is not easy either.

Because of other meetings, I had a chequered connection with Democratic Republic of Congo 1 England 2 - first by the Guardian text reports, then BBCTV, then BBCR5 Live. Excellent, even brilliant, as Harry Kane’s goals were, they were not - despite the pundits - his alone. The second one came from a great through ball, a typically excellent run (Bellingham), his fierce, rebounded shot and clever pass, an even better backheel by Gordon, then the exceptional strike by Kane. I love this image posted by the artist Cornelia Parker on Insta:

(In case you were wondering, Kane could have played for Ireland and Gordon for Scotland or Ireland).

Swimbridge Parklands committee in evening. Highways have published their report on access issues to the new school in the park: they have no problem with access via Liverton Drive. I hope this will reassure residents.

Friday 3 July

Speaking of immigration, as I was yesterday, the Pickwell Foundation shared this statement with cllrs:

The Pickwell Foundation welcomes the developments of the UK Government's new Named Sponsorship route, a landmark moment for community-led refugee resettlement in the UK. The UK Government will be shortly outlining plans for a new sponsorship resettlement scheme currently known as ‘Named Sponsorship’ to be launched this autumn. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood confirmed that community groups, employers and universities will be able to identify (“name”) specific individuals with a protection need that they wish to support to come to the UK, subject to Government eligibility, security and other requirements. Sponsoring groups will be required to provide appropriate accommodation, funds, integration support and a warm welcome as newcomers begin their new lives here…Modelled on Canada's long-running community sponsorship programme which has resettled nearly 400,000 refugees since 1979, with 70% finding employment within a year, Named Sponsorship is one of the most significant reforms to the UK's refugee resettlement architecture in a generation.

The Nature's Rights Bill, sponsored by Green Party Peer Natalie Bennett, will have its second reading in the House of Lords today. Email your MP with this template to ask them to support the Bill.

Decluttering: our stable has been accumulating potentially useful bits and pieces for almost 17 years. My wife initiated a GRAND DECLUTTER -

I have taken a lot of the smaller pieces of wood to a corner of the garden I call the Rottery where old stumps decay and make a habitat for insects. The various oddments will form something like an improvised insect hotel or, more accurately, shack.

Wildlife: above is a wild margin of the garden where, although I do nothing, wildflowers - Herb Robert, Oxeye Daisies, Red Campion, Bird’s Foot Trefoil, Mouse ear Chickweed, Yarrow, Rough Willowherb - and Honeysuckle flourish as do the bees. I also noted a Comma, a Meadow Brown and several Ringlets feeding there. Best of all, this morning I observed my first Hummingbird hawk-moth sampling the Honeysuckle flowers.

Finally, right at the end, a really good summer exhibition at the Museum of Barnstaple & North Devon opens on Saturday. Thank you for reading.