Ashdown to visit South Molton as Lib-Dems gear up for general election

FORMER Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown will be in South Molton tomorrow (Friday) to visit unique projects that are putting Devon on the map both nationally and internationally. Lord Ashdown, who has been asked by Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg t

FORMER Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown will be in South Molton tomorrow (Friday) to visit unique projects that are putting Devon on the map both nationally and internationally.

Lord Ashdown, who has been asked by Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg to head up the party's General Election campaign in the South West, will join North Devon MP Nick Harvey at a pioneering recycling project in South Molton.

For more than 18 years South Molton Recycling (SMR) has developed the recycling facilities and collections for the local community and held contracts with local district and county councils.

The model used by SMR, which now has more than 34 staff and 22 vehicles collecting recycling from over 32,000 households in Torridge every week and recycling from businesses throughout North Devon, Torridge and parts of Mid Devon, has been adopted and modified to suit other areas resulting in the increase of kerbside recycling nationally.

Lord Ashdown and Mr Harvey will then move to the Community Shop and Post Office at Bishops Nympton to meet volunteers running the former village store and Post Office and a team fund-raising for the re-building of a dilapidated village hall which would have a new shop and Post Office incorporated into it.

Lord Ashdown will next cross Devon to join Adrian Sanders MP on a visit Kents Cavern in Torquay, a long established visitor attraction aiming to become an International Centre of Excellence for the study of stone age man, broadening Torbay's offer for Further and Higher education study to both domestic and overseas students, while maximising the economic benefits to Torbay of UNESCO Global Geopark status.