A T THIS month's town council meeting the issue of drugs in Bideford surfaced again when Councillor David Fulford reported that lots of drug taking and dealing was going on at the back of St Mary's church.

He noted in evidence that lots of needles and other paraphernalia had turned up when the grass in the churchyard was cut. The site is ideal for these twerps, of course, as there are quite a few exits from the area thus making their running away from the police easier.

The police sergeant who attends our meetings did note wryly that whereas contemporary developments are specifically designed to avoid crime blackspots "clearly the church was built long before drug taking became a problem".

It is sad that this corner of Bideford has become infected in this way as the churchyard is a lovely haven of peace with some wonderfully large yew trees amidst the surviving memorial stones. I did once measure the circumference of the trunks of these yews in an effort to date them (they grow at a steady rate) and I reckon they were planted in the second half of the 18th century. I wonder if, when they were planted, gin drinkers used the area — the equivalent drug of their day?

THE county council has written to the town council asking whether we would like to take on the lead role in "taking the Community Action Plan forward".

Members basically considered this a way of off-loading some spending on to us but it did lead to some general discussion over what councillors want for the town — with an emphasis being on economic regeneration. You might consider there were such plans already in place but as Councillor Clive Bone said: "North Devon+ was supposed to have one but I think it is a fiction", while Councillor Caroline Church admitted she was slightly confused as she thought the late and unlamented Bideford Regeneration Initiative had come up with various aims.

Steve Clarke pointed out that the district council already employ a full time Regeneration Officer while I suggested we should ditch the "catch all" approach of the BRI and just concentrate on one or two projects we could actually all agree on and bring to fruition — a suggestion supported by Roger Vanstone who thought it better we do a few things well rather than a lot of things poorly.

On that note we moved on — so now all we need to do is prioritise several of the various schemes that have been suggested over the years and carry the chosen ones forward.

THE police crime report this month came from Acting Police Sergeant Kevin Conar who listed the Bideford figures which included damage to dwellings up 13 to 24 and damage to vehicles down 14 to 9. Burglaries from dwellings were down 8 to zero whilst there were slight rises in assaults and drunkenness — the latter, according to the officer, linked to the Summer holidays though whether this was due to tourists or locals he wasn't sure.

In order to tackle the situation the police were intensively patrolling the town centre between 7pm and 3am — a strategy named Operation Assure. He also introduced a new PCSO Becky Tanner who has been an almost ubiquitous sight around her "beat" area in the town centre of late.

THE town council deal with a lot of relatively small but important issues, including, this month, the loss of some of the panels in the bus stops on the Quay. When these were erected a few years ago Devon County Council were helped with funding from the town council and the Bridge Trust to pay for them — so it came as quite a shock to us to hear that the county now deny any responsibility for the shelters. We are going to write to Exeter to try and get the impasse sorted out, and will also be suggesting the county approach advertising firms who might like to sponsor the shelters in return for utilising them for their advertisements.

THE Plans Committee of the town council meets every three weeks and rarely attracts many members of the public but this week nine turned up to voice their objection to the planned construction of a new detached dwelling in Thornton Close at Londonderry.

Their spokesperson Christine Wright cited this as an example of "garden grabbing" with associated problems of overlooking and loss of open space — the site is very prominent and in the middle of many houses. The apparently "surreptitious" removal of part of a Devon bank to create the building plot was also raised and will have to be looked into by Torridge officers.

In the end the committee registered their opposition to this development and it will now go on to the district council for checking. I would point out that any Bideford resident has the right to come along and address the committee — and all planning applications are advertised in the Journal – if you wish to find out when a specific application is being discussed contact the Town Hall.

A FEW months ago I recounted how Mayor Philip Pester had been unfortunately described in some council minutes as "dual hated" rather than "dual hatted" — well now, as he himself recounts, he attended a civic event at Holsworthy only to see his name rendered in a local paper (not the Journal) as Philip Jester. At least he can laugh at himself.