The Town Clerk Chronicles: Your new Barnstaple column

This is the first of a series of monthly articles, and an opportunity to inform everyone about matters pertaining to Barnstaple Town Council.

As an introduction, I’d like to talk briefly about our vision and strategy. We serve approximately 24,000 residents and have 24 elected councillors.

Collectively, our overarching goal is to ensure that Barnstaple remains a thriving, healthy, inclusive and attractive place in which to work, live and visit.

We operate from our head office at Barum House on the Square, and our chief point of reference and resource for information is our website, at barnstapletowncouncil.gov.uk

If you are ever unsure which tier of local government to contact please visit the website, where links will inform you of the responsibilities and activities covered by North Devon Council and Devon County Council. We are always happy to help and guide you to the best resource for your enquiry.

Various activities have taken place this last month, including a quiz to raise funds for the Mayor’s charities at Cedars Hotel. I’m glad to say it raised more than £700 and I’d like to thank George Hammett for hosting and everyone who took part.

October saw the Rock Park Skateathon attended by people from across Barnstaple and North Devon. 

Rock Park remains a key facility and an important focal point for the town. We invest a lot of time and effort in looking after it and welcome suggestions and ideas on maintaining and improving it. We know many hundreds of people visit the park each week.

Historically, The Guildhall has always been a vital asset for the town, and it remains so to this day.

We will be embarking on some major refurbishment in due course and I’ll talk more about that when further details become available.

In addition to the regular town council meetings held there, it is also used for a number of public events. In October we hosted a graduation ceremony for local students who had been studying nursing and midwifery. Congratulations to them all.

We’ve also recently had two Halloween Craft Days during half term. It was great to see so many families taking part and magnificent that more than 200 people attended. On a similar note, the Halloween Storytelling at the library was also relished by those who went.

Our Town Rangers have been busy in their efforts to keep the town clean and tidy and I know many of you very much appreciate their hard work.

Recently they have been removing gum from pathways and vape stickers from bins, as well as maintaining various benches in the town centre, many of which have been recently repaired.

There is so much I could tell you, but space dictates I can’t divulge it all in one go! I’ll be reporting on various events soon, including highlighting the tremendous work our Community and Heritage teams undertake.

We look forward this coming month to Remembrance Day and then Christmas Lights and Fayre at the end of the month. There is also developing news about the Bus Station and I hope to have more on that for you shortly.

Lastly for now, I must conclude by thanking everyone for their tremendous support for my charity bike ride.

I set off with my son Daniel and daughter Rebecca from Land’s End on September 16 and we arrived at John O’Groats on October 5 as scheduled.

It didn’t start out as a charity bike ride, but it became an opportunity to raise funds for the Mayor’s charities and I’m thrilled we could do so.