A whistle stop tour from Great Torrington’s Castle dig to the Houses of Parliament in Westminster

The past few weeks have been busy ones, which started at the historic castle site in Great Torrington and ended with a visit to the equally historic Houses of Parliament.

The earlier visit was to drop in on the Dig the Castle community project in Great Torrington where my wife and I joined local councillors Cheryl Cottle-Hunkin, Chris Bright, Doug Smith, and Chris Wheatley to lend our support to the dig.

The event encouraged the community to get involved and was well supported and designed to strengthen the town’s knowledge about its heritage and especially its castle.

Two trenches were dug along with a number of tests pits, with the aim of cutting across undisturbed rampart sections.

The castle site is quite unique in that it sits on common ground, which is owned by the people of the town - other sites around the country are owned by heritage organisations or privately, so that makes the site special.

The town was also the seat of one of the great medieval Baronies but has not been extensively surveyed in the past.

The dig site has now been covered over once again and the job of collating the finds, making detailed notes and producing the reports will begin. Congratulations to Archaeologists Engage, Great Torrington Futures Group and the rest of the team for organising such a great experience. You can follow all the finds and further updates on the digthecastle Facebook page.

Last week marked the restarting of the Area Advisory Group meetings, which were held in Bideford and Holsworthy with Great Torrington planned for next Monday, November 6.

The meetings are intended to promote face to face debate between district, county, town and parish councillors all of whom are invited to attend.

While we all interact via email, over the phone or at online and in person meetings, an open forum like these are a great way to discuss progress on projects and the issues affecting all councillors and the residents we represent.

The main purpose of the recent meetings was to rekindle this closer working relationship and to discuss the draft strategic plan, which as you may have read elsewhere, is currently open for consultation.

With that in mind, there is still an opportunity to have your say on the plan until November 14 by going online at http://www.torridge.gov.uk/strategicplan.

It’s an important document as it will shape the councils’ actions and spending over the next five years. So, if there is something you think this council should focus on or something we should maybe spend less on, then now’s the time to tell us.

The fortnight ended with our chief executive Steve Hearse and myself travelling to the Houses of Parliament in London to meet with our MP, Sir Geoffrey Cox, and the Government’s Levelling Up Minster, Jacob Young MP.

The Minister leads on this policy agenda in the government and it was an opportunity to discuss Torridge’s Levelling up Partnership to support our strategic vision for Torridge and present some of our ideas and thinking.

Torridge is already benefiting from £15.6million being allocated to the Appledore Clean Maritime Innovation Centre under the allocations already announced and we hope to benefit further.

In closing, don’t forget you can also take part in the consultation on the maritime centre until November 10 by visiting https://www.torridge.gov.uk/appledoreconsult.

More from me next time.