by Councillor Ken Lewis

It was just over 4 years ago that I attended a National Association of Local Councils Conference in Cardiff. Many interesting things were discussed, seminars held and general information passed amongst the Councillors attending.  Major points raised were Elected Regional Councils, Quality Councils, Community Plans and Council newsletters and magazines.

On my return, I mentioned these ideas to the then Town Clerk, Rod Tuck, and discovered that he was also very interested and started making enquiries about becoming a Quality Council. 

I had heard that the Market Towns Association were pushing the idea of Community Plans and I had started making enquiries about funding for the idea.  Sums of around £60,000 had been awarded to some Councils in Devon, but I was firmly told that Newton Abbot was not entitled to apply as we were not a market town!  I protested strongly, but was advised that we were too large to be considered.

I returned the following year to the next NALC conference and in a Q & A session with a member of DEFRA, I posed the question,

“If Newton Abbot is not a market town, what an earth is is?!”

I had heard that a town with a population of 30,000 had been accepted onto the scheme and that meant, (as far as I was concerned) that our population of 25,000 was certainly acceptable.  We were still turned down!!

I was very aggrieved by this, and with the assistance of the Town Clerk, the Town Council, a small grant from Devon County Council and assistance from officers at Devon County Council and Teignbridge District Council, we set up our own Steering Committee, comprising those residents that were interested to see what we could achieve independently.

The first decision that was made was that whatever we did in Newton Abbot would have a significant impact on our neighbouring villages. With this in mind, we wrote to every Parish Council adjacent to our borders inviting them to join us, and I am pleased to report that five parishes joined us: Abbotskerswell, Kingskerswell, Ipplepen, Kingsteignton and Ogwell.

We appointed a Part-Time Co-ordinator and set about our long-term task of formulating our Community Plan. I can imagine that most of you are asking,

“What is a Community Plan?”

In simple terms it is the end result of a group of community minded people investigating the problems that they and the public perceive to be holding Newton Abbot back.

The members of the plan seek to gather evidence and produce a long-term plan of ideas that will regenerate and improve the town of Newton Abbot.

As stated in our May-July newsletter, we were eventually accepted by the Market and Coastal Towns Association and are in the process of receiving a grant in the region of £20,000 in order to access their advice and to help further OUR plan.

We do have certain procedures that we are obliged to follow, but the plan is OUR plan of the town of Newton Abbot.

We have a business plan and a target of 9 months to finalise our plan.  If we can prove that we have completed the necessary research and based on the evidence that we provide, the MCTA may assist us again to enable us to press ahead with the regeneration of Newton Abbot.

We have introduced various Theme Groups concentrating on the following areas: Education & Youth, Transport & Access, Environment & Community Safety and Sports, Arts, Leisure & Heritage. 

We have been reinvigorated by the support of the MCTA and with your help we aim to complete the task within the next 9 months.

Please help us as the plan is that of the citizens of Newton Abbot, not the Town Councils’ or ‘their’ plan, it is OUR plan!

If any readers wish to become involved in the progression of our plan, then please do contact the Town Hall as would really value your assistance.