T HE CALL by Cllr Miranda Cox to investigate the rebuilding of the railway line between Barnstaple and Bideford has caused a great deal of interest. I think the feelings of many were summed up by councillor Andrew Eastman at a recent council meeting, "Everyone thinks we are living in fairyland but I believe this will become of major importance in the next decade."

Needless to say this view is shared by the Bideford Railway Heritage Centre whose latest magazine bears the teasing headline "Barnstaple to Bideford Rail Link Reopens" — which refers to the recent attempt by James May to link the two towns with a model railway rather than the real thing — although I love the mock-up model of the old station with a train just departing.

There is also coverage of the plans to re-start running their passenger train between the old station and the Nutaberry Hill bridge, which is all of 217 yards long. I should add that I have a great interest in this as I was Mayor at the time the trips were launched in 2004 — and rode on the first journey.

Following some years of legal and financial problems the very keen group are now ready to re-launch the service which is a great tourist attraction, especially when one considers that the engine used is one of only three surviving working versions remaining in the UK.

Other articles deal with local milk trains, the repair of the semaphore signal at Instow and an update on the on-going restoration of a 1942 parcels van at the Bideford station. They are a very energetic group and if you wish to join or just get a copy of the magazine contact them at 01237 476769 or sales@swanswood.co.uk.

I presume readers will have watched James May's antics on the TV programme given over to them. Apart from the rain it was a good plug for the area even if his starting from Barnstaple meant that our sister town got a lot more coverage than we did. Personally I was surprised at just how many people I knew in the various crowd scenes — perhaps I have been teaching too long.

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Y OU WILL probably have read that Torridge were given a really good report by the Audit Commission — with only one real cavil which concerned the ethnic diversity of the council's workforce and the perceived "low level of female managers".

Needless to say this got some councillors hot under the collar with Bob Hicks rhetorically (I think) asking if the Commission would only be satisfied when Torridge is controlled by females and we appoint new staff on the basis of diversity rather than skills? Given that our new Chief Executive and her deputy are both female, Torridge seem to have already answered the first point — and as for the second, Cllr Hicks repudiated this himself with his tongue in cheek comment that we are already committed to employing people from right across the ethnic spectrum — indeed we even employed people from Appledore!

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AMONGST the never-ending blizzard of paper that descends on local councillors was one recent arrival — the imposingly named Shoreline Management Plan Review Draft put out by the equally impressive sounding North Devon and Somerset Coastal Advisory Group. The section dealing with "our" part of the coast is generally non-contentious apart from two items.

One deals with the Pebble Ridge at Westward Ho! which, as was already known, is to be allowed to "re-align" itself to the dominant wave action. This means it will swing on its axis at the southern end back towards the esplanade area and at the northern end move out to sea. We are now told, however, that "Implementation of this policy will need to consider allowing total incursion into the eastern side of Northam Burrows to help the wider Burrows adapt to sea level rise" or in simple English allowing flooding around the Skern area.

The second point is linked to this in that any flood defences identified as being necessary, as for example at Westward Ho! esplanade and by the old landfill site, will fall on Torridge ratepayers as an obligation — and no-one knows what these could amount to — which doesn't sound good to me.

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BIDEFORD town council runs quite a few allotments and we have an Allotments Committee where the councillors and representatives of the lessees' association meet to discuss matters of mutual interest.

At the last session the latter brought up the matter of toilets at their holdings. Information was passed around on the working of compost toilets which operate without any running water and produce a usable material after a certain time. Unfortunately "due to the ongoing maintenance, together with health and safety implications" the committee decided they couldn't install such facilities at the moment.

I think this is a missed opportunity but the council did add that if the association wanted to install toilets itself and apply for a grant from the Council, that was something upon which the Council would look "favourably". This doesn't of course limit the association to compost toilets but if they want to see such facilities in operation they could do worse than cycle to Yarde along the Tarka Trail (just past Torrington) where the highly enterprising gentleman who runs the wonderful café and bunkhouse there has installed composting toilets – so that his customers actually help grow some of the food they eat!