At the Economic Forum held earlier this week in Bideford we discussed the Local Plan – we have to comment on it by 15th March & it can be found on both the North Devon District Council & Torridge District Council websites.
What was interesting is that businesses, not just residents, are needed to comment – the plan is after all a plan to grow North-ern Devon (dislike this term myself) and to do that we need jobs, inward investment, houses & importantly “employment areas” – where are these new businesses going to go?
One of the aspects that made me think was that some of this employment areas will be on greenfield sites – once the land is allocated, new businesses will be able to get planning permission far easier than on brownfield sites, particularly as the cost of cleaning up the mess that is already there needs to be taken into account – contamination was one area that creates a barrier to wanting to take over a brownfield site!
This plan does not include rural development, it only includes the major towns, Bideford, Torrington, Barnstaple, Ilfracombe and the like (are there many more?) and each town has to build so many houses, have so much employment land, recreation land etc…, but it doesn’t yet include rural development – that comes later in the process, but the villages and rural parishes will have to come to the party!
A suggestion, and it was only a suggestion, that each parish will have to come up with employment land – let’s say half an acre each – as well as housing to support the jobs that this land will create!
What do you think – is it a good idea to extend the development of the area in both the towns & the more rural villages, or should it be left to the towns to absorb the anticipated growth?
I haven’t cycled for many years so when I was lucky enough to win the use of a pair of electric bicycles for the day, courtesy of Experience Exmoor, I was quite apprehensive about my ability to pedal across Exmoor. I asked Paul Clews (@paulkclews) if he would like to join me for a day of exploration and he jumped at the chance.
On a marvellous August Friday, we arrived at Waytown Farm Shop, just outside Combe Martin, where Neil Osmond met us and demonstrated how the bikes work – they assist you when pedalling and provide a range of powered assistance from eco to standard and up to maximum. Neil also provided us with helmets and panniers (for our picnic and drinks) plus all-important chargers. Neil explained the bikes’ range, how to get the best performance and when and how to charge them. After cycling round the car park a few times to acclimatise ourselves to the assistance the bikes provide when you pedal, Paul and I set off for Lynton and Lynmouth.
Once on the road, it felt exhilarating. We cycled down Coulsworthy Lane and towards the coast where the views were stunning. We really felt the benefit of the electric assistance the bikes provide on the steep Exmoor hills. They still require effort but the help makes all the difference for casual cyclists so that anyone of reasonable fitness could cycle the route we took. I’d only ever been along these lanes by car and cycling felt a lot freer: definitely one of the best ways to see Exmoor.
We stopped off at Hunter’s Inn for an ice cream and chatted to Julian Gurney (@NTExmoorRanger) before setting off once again. We cycled up to join the A39 and made our next stop at Woody Bay Station, on the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway. For a moment, I thought Paul was going to cheat and hop on to a steam locomotive!
Once again, we set off, turning left at Barbrook towards Lynton and Lynmouth. Before making the descent to Lynmouth, Paul and I stopped to discuss whether we were fit enough to cycle back up again! Pitting our adventurous spirit against common sense, we decided the question with the toss of a coin: down we went! Paul filmed the ride down with a camera on his handlebar:
Now I never thought I would ever cycle down this hill and it was even more exhilarating, especially as we whizzed past the escape lanes with emergency instructions in four languages. We were relieved that the brakes on the bikes enabled us to control our speeds and were surprised to pass Neil at the bottom in the Experience Exmoor Land Rover Discovery.
Paul and I had considered the option of taking the bikes back up on the Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway and as we went round to check it out (and it does carry bikes), Neil caught us up. After gently pointing out that it would be cheating, Neil persuaded us to stick to pedal – and electric – power for the ascent.
Before we attempted this, we needed food, drink and a rest and the batteries needed charging. We popped into the Glen Lyn Gorge, one of Experience Exmoor‘s charging points, where we plugged the batteries in to charge for an hour. Meanwhile we enjoyed our picnic by the river in the sun before finding a café for a cup of tea and a glass of coke.
Suitably refreshed, we collected the bikes and, having replaced the batteries, made our way back up the hill, which required more effort and took quite a while longer than our descent.
Once in Lynton, we made our way through the stunning Valley of the Rocks, stopping off at Mother Meldrum’s Tea Room and Garden for cherry pie and clotted cream and a small charge for the batteries. Even with electric assistance, our bodies needed fuelling.
For the return we cycled along the cliff road, passing the White Lady, Lee Abbey and stopping frequently to enjoy the sea views. By now we were tiring. Even though it was a hot day and I was not used to cycling like this, we still found energy reserves to cycle back through Woody Bay and Martinhoe, passing back past Hunters Inn, resisting the urge for a pint.
When we turned off the road to hand the bikes back to Neil, I felt a little twinge of regret. I wanted to cycle mine home!
Looking over the day, the electric bikes certainly enabled Paul and me to experience Exmoor in the best way possible. I want to do it again and have rediscovered cycling.
For anyone thinking about trying out Experience Exmoor‘s electric bikes, I would thoroughly recommend them. They are easy to ride and make climbing the steep hills accessible for those of who aren’t born athletes. After 20+ miles of energetic cycling, I woke up the next morning with few aches.
I’d like to thank Neil and Christel at Experience Exmoor for opening up my eyes to the beauty of Exmoor in a way that I hadn’t got round to experiencing before.
Over at the North Devon Business Alliance they have a blogging competition going on – plenty of details can be found here - http://www.ndba.org.uk/awards/ndba-blogging-competition – and I know for a fact that there are plenty of people in North Devon who write blogs, but so far the number of entries appear to be quite low!
It is the first month of six monthly competitions, with a winner of winners announced later in the year at the awards event that the NDBA will be a hosting! Competition will hot up as the months go by and so the first month will be probably the best chance of getting into a podium finish, but do people realise that their blogs are actually blogs and that they can enter, whatever the subject matter. Be it gardening, photography, writing, hobby related, retirement related, plus many more, all of these blogs are of interest to the rest of North Devon and beyond.
Have you wondered how you can get more people to visit your blog on a more regular basis?
Having a go in a competition has to rank as at least one way to get noticed – it doesn’t matter whether you win, people will want to know more about you and will find your main blog – mainly because you’ll put a link in it so that people can find it – links are good aren’t they for promoting your website and/or blog, so just from that perspective it is worth having a go, isn’t it?
I have entered this month & it focuses on my llamas – just in case you would like to read it – you can find it HERE! What do you think – a winning entry – could you do better – go on – have a go!
Yesterday at the B2B event in Barnstaple I picked up the latest copy of the North Devon Business Alliance magazine. I had a chance to have a quick read this morning and must say it’s a very good read. This copy focuses on Twitter and has some great articles on Twitter basics and getting the most out of Twitter.
The magazine has articles written by local North Devon business people, but I must single out one of them. Robert Zarywacz not only wrote articles he also edited, designed and arranged the publication of the magazine. This obviously takes time and I would like to offer my personal thanks to him for all the effort and hard work that he puts into it as well as his other business activities.
Over the years in business we have really struggled to find a great stationery supplier that provides great value products matched with great customer service – Well at last we have found them!
Their customer service is great and if there is something I need a bit of advice on I know I can give them a call or send them an email and they are only too happy to help. Their delivery is also fantastic and super quick and products are great quality and value for money.
The final bonus is they are local and it’s great to support local business!
Thanks for the great service Sue and Lance – looking forward to many years of placing orders!
Today I went into Pedlar’s, a department store in Ilfracombe. Nick Pedlar, the owner, was on the phone trying to source a scarce item for a family. They had found what they wanted online, but because Nick had helped them find something previously, they wanted to give him their custom. Once again, he was phoning around trying to source what they wanted.
I’d gone in to buy some potting compost. I picked up a bag I saw and went to pay for it. Ivan, who works with Nick, asked if that was the size I needed and pointed out another size in the shop and two more larger sizes they kept out the back. As it happened, I did want one of the larger sizes and left very satisfied because I’d got just what I wanted.
It’s unlikely that this level of service would be available at many national chains. How often have I heard: “If it’s not on the shelf, we haven’t got it.”
It’s no surprise that a number of national retailers are failing. What is more surprising is that so many have survived until now when they have provided such poor service.
What is so valuable in Ilfracombe, and I’m sure it’s similar in some other North Devon towns, is very helpful shopkeepers who offer a personal service. They care for their customers.
That is why I always go to Pedlar’s first for my garden supplies and other local shops for other goods before even thinking of a big garden centre or national chain.
Perhaps larger retailers and high streets could learn from this?
It’s been on my mind now that we haven’t had a tweet-up for quite a while – yes I know that there was a successful tweet-up at Lilico’s last month, but I couldn’t make it!
As I tweet a lot about business it is always assumed that if I ever organise anything there has to be a business angle to the tweet-up, so I have put a bit of thought into it and along with Ian Starling at The Voice we have a plan.
As some of you may know, the Voice will be broadcasting around Barnstaple on FM 107.1 for 28 days from 16th March to 12th April and are also working hard to get a DAB radio station and/or a full time FM licence to broadcast to North Devon. What better way to promote the launch of the next 28 day license than have a tweet-up at their premises the day before the launch.
A chance to see the studio in action – they’ll be broadcasting online, as they are now, (listen here) – meet some of the presenters and have a slice of cake made by the wonderful Mrs Starling herself.
A pure social tweet-up from 5.30pm – get to listen to some great music – talk to other tweeters and show some support for the Voice FM.
The Voice is located at:-
Back Of Coop, 21 High Street, Barnstaple. Need to go towards church yard. Blue door – numbered – at back!
Last night my son and I were in the car stuck in a queue on the way out to Chivenor to see friends.
As we approached the tail end of the queue my son said let’s turn on the radio and listen to local travel to find out what is happening – I went on to explain to him about the radio station Heart and that I thought they were based in Exeter and this road issue would probably not get mentioned as they have to cover the whole of Devon’s roads which is a pretty large area!
His reply was to keep flicking through the radio stations saying
“There must be a local station that just covers North Devon?” He went on to say “Why is no one doing anything about this?”
“Ah ha” I said “there is”
I went on to explain to him about The Voice and that they are trying to bring local community radio back to North Devon. But it does not come cheap and it costs money to deliver this service to the local community that’s why it needs as many advertisers and donators as possible to keep it going – then you can turn on the radio and find out about your local roads, local events and local communities!
Well done The Voice – another supporter gained who has said he will spread the word at School for everyone to tune in on 16th March to 12th April on 107.1FM to listen to genuine local radio!
If you want to support The Voice North Devon then please visit their website for more information on advertising or simply spreading the word.
Many people blog and tweet, and in the main they are blowing their own trumpet to tell the world how good they are at what they do. I did a 30day Blog challenge last year set by the great @NikkiPilkington – and on day 6 we had to say something nice about someone else, on that occasion it was @robertz who got the plaudits!
On a follow up to that blog, which I did on my own website, I thought it would be a good idea to have a regular blow of someone else’s trumpet and so today I would like to blow the trumpet of Lance Rice!
I have known Lance for quite a few years now, meeting him at one of those breakfast networking events that seem to come around with far too much regularity, but having struck up a rapport with Lance, I was very soon a customer of his. I liked his attitude and approach to running his business and nothing was ever too much trouble – even to the point of lending me some document wallets – I only wanted 20 or so but you had to buy them in packs of 500 – the project I was working on came off and yes, I eventually bought a box of 500 of them.
Last month, my printer played up and just wouldn’t talk to my computer, not the first time it has happened but as the printer was very old, it was time to treat myself to a new one. One call to Lance and he talked me through several options and gave me a few recommendations, and yes, I did check elsewhere, and didn’t find his recommendations any cheaper, so I ordered a nice duplex, scanner, fax, printing machine.
It was delivered personally by Lance and he gave me a few hints on how to get the best out of the machine, and also how to use the registration process and get the best deal on offer – 3 years free on-site warranty – and not only that, he called to make sure that I had got it set-up and yes, I did have a bit of trouble, and he even offered to pop by sometime and help, but no, I did do it myself in the end.
I’m very happy with the printer, and even happier with the service that I got, Lance will even take back unused cartridges from my old machine and give me full credit for them.
Why not check Lance out, here on Twitter as Lance or here as SW Office Supplies, or why not go direct to their website HERE!
You’ll be amazed, not just at the service, but at the prices as well!
A bit of a bummer, but I cannot make it, but there is a tweetup happening this coming Tuesday!
On 7th February – at Lilico’s in Barnstaple – from 5pm to 8pm there is going to be a tweetup to help promote the use of social media for both businesses and of course for social purposes.
There is no need to book up, as the whole point of a tweetup IMHO, is that it is spontaneous and you make your mind up whether you can make it right up to the last minute.
As far as I can see the main people behind the event are Easy Computing and Sarah Escott – two great people who deserve a great turnout!
So, if you are in Barnstaple on Tuesday, please pop in and say hi to these great people, even if just for 5 minutes!
Watch out for the next one in March – follow us on twitter to find out all about it!
