Top of Bishops Avenue Improvement Scheme
The plans to enhance the village centre by making improvements to the top of Bishops Avenue are now well advanced. Villagers have given their strong support to the scheme during two public consultation exercises and the Bishopsteignton Enhancement Group have been actively seeking funding to allow the project to go ahead.
Bishopsteignton Parish Council initiated the project following the production of the Village Plan; this revealed that villagers felt the area at the top of Bishops Avenue was top priority for improvement. Although we’ve tried a number of different funding possibilities, schemes which involve highway improvements of any sort are primarily considered local authority responsibilities. We have received financial support in principle from Devon County Council, Teignbridge District Council and the Rural Aid Fund. The Parish Council has also agreed the scheme but we now need to raise some of the money from the Parish Council precept to ensure full partnership working across all three councils. We are looking to raise £30,000 this way which represents about 10% of the total cost.
This will involve a long term loan for the Council and a small increase in the precept. Council tax payers will pay less than 1p per day extra per household for the duration of the loan. We are still discussing details of the loan but as this facility is commonly used by councils and is for a relatively small amount, we envisage no difficulties.
Our next task is then to get the formal agreement of all the other funders with the aim of carrying out the work in 2010/11. We can then look forward to a much improved village centre! There are of course a number of other environmental issues which were raised in the village plan. We will be happy to look at other projects in the village in due course should villagers and the Parish Council wish us to.
For more information please contact the Bishopsteignton Enhancement Group- Gill Greatorex 779628, Peter Hepworth 775598, Ian Johnson 775919, Colin Day 775293 Janet Pepperell 772072, Roger Hunt 775255, Bryan Ellard 775298.