It looks like 2024 is going to be a busy year full of change and brighter futures. 

This will be a general election year and whatever the result it will bring change. The general election could be called in May, or autumn - or as late in the year as December – but it will be 2024.  Right now, it looks like we will have a new government with new ideas and, no doubt, new initiatives for local government to deliver. 

Some things are unlikely to change quickly however.

The Cost-of-Living crisis has hit many people hard, and we have more people in need of better homes than ever. Happily, inflation is slowing down, but that doesn’t mean anything gets cheaper. Energy costs are staying high, and food prices have rocketed.

The need for affordable homes for local people is growing and the cost of new houses, rents and mortgages is higher than ever before.

And on top of this local government is going through a difficult time having had its funding from central government cut massively over the past few years.

At Teignbridge Council, we will continue to do what we can to help. The new council home building programme is delivering new homes locally, and we will see more in 2024.  We are working closely with the voluntary sector to make sure that people can get help when they need it.

And we are working on a new way of delivering for the residents of Teignbridge. We are developing a new council strategy for our journey to become a community powered council. This means making sure that we work much more with community groups and Town and Parish councils in partnership to make our area better. And we are working on a transformation of how Teignbridge works, taking advantage of modern technology and becoming more efficient.

And all through this we will keep up with the outstanding services that we provide for our residents. Every day we collect the bins largely on time, keep the leisure centres open, the public toilets clean and so much more. Much of the day-to-day operation of the council is often forgotten, but is something we can be proud of.

Happy 2024!

Cllr Martin Wrigley

This discussion of the proposals at our Executive Meeting marked the start of a series of council meetings to scrutinise the plans and  find the best way of using our current 8% share of the overall council tax to deliver these essential services before a final decision is made by our full council in March.

Until then, you can tell us what services are most important to you by taking part in our budget survey which runs until noon on Friday 2 February.  All feedback from the survey will be reported to councillors before final budget decisions are made.

The proposals considered by the Executive also highlight the ways we aim to make savings over the coming months as well as increases in some fees and charges to help bridge our budget gap.

Councillors this week agreed to renew a contract with the RNLI to continue to provide summer lifeguard cover for the next five years at Teignmouth and Dawlish Warren beaches.

The RNLI - which is celebrating its 200 year anniversary - has provided a lifeguard service on the beaches of Teignmouth and Dawlish Warren for 15 years and has been involved in numerous rescues, provided first aid to beach users and taken thousands of preventative steps to keep people safe.

As well as helping to keep people safe, life guarded beaches are one of the elements that contribute to Dawlish Warren being a Blue Flag beach.

Councillors were advised that as well as saving lives, the presence of RNLI lifeguards also gives confidence to less confident swimmers and so increases access to wellbeing opportunities.

By providing a beach lifeguard service we are also supporting the UK Drowning prevention strategy, developed by the National Water Safety Forum with the aim of reducing accidental drowning fatalities in the UK by 50% by 2026.

If you play tennis on our council courts at Newton Abbot’s Bakers and Forde Parks and at Buckfastleigh’s Duckspond our new web pages tell you everything you need to know to book a court to enable you to continue to play after 15 January.

That’s when our new electronic gate access and charging system goes live - and to play you will need to have a Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) account login to book and pay for a court.

When booking a court for the first time you will be asked to set up a free account after which you can book your courts by downloading the ClubSpark Booker App for free on both iOS and Android.

You can get ahead of the game by setting up an account and buying online a £36 annual tennis pass which covers up to 10 people in a household and which provides a 10-day advanced booking option.

And if you don’t want to have an annual pass, from Monday (8 Jan) you can book a court seven days in advance, paying £6 per court per hour.

When you book and pay online for one of the refurbished, all-weather courts, you will be given a code to access the court. As well as offering great value for money, this new system will provide certainty and will end the need for players to hang around waiting for a court to become free.

After the new electronic gate access and charging system goes live, all the money raised will be ringfenced for future maintenance of the courts.

More information is on our new tennis court web pages.

Friday 19 January 2024 is the deadline for people to have their say on proposals to refurbish Broadmeadow Sports Centre and future-proof it for the next 20 years. 

This short video outlines the proposals and draft plans are available on our website.  We ask everyone to complete this short online survey giving us their views.

The proposals include:

• Moving the centre entrance and reception so access will be from the car park 
• Refurbishing changing rooms to provide single sex, family and unisex (village) changing and showering cubicles
• Creating a ground floor studio to improve accessibility and to run more classes
• Expanding and opening out the ground floor gym spaces and first floor studio to increase the number of equipment stations  
• Making the building more energy efficient by increasing insulation levels and replacing the boiler system with a low carbon air source heat pump
• A makeover to create fresh and bright spaces.  

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the Met Office have issued a yellow cold weather alert for the period between 09:00 on Saturday 6 January and 12:00 on Friday 12 January.

Tips for staying warm are on the UKHSA website and include:

• Heating the rooms you spend a lot of time in to at least 18°C if you can
• Reducing draughts by fitting excluders around doors 
• Wearing several layers of thinner clothing rather than one thick layer.

Watch out for those most at risk from cold weather such as people aged 65 years and over; young children under 5; those with long-term health conditions; pregnant women; people who are housebound or have low mobility; and those who live alone.

New parents can now claim Child Benefit online for the first time since it was launched 47 years ago, helping millions of families with the cost of raising their children, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has announced.

Since 1977, families claiming Child Benefit had to fill out a paper form, post it, and wait as long as 16 weeks for their first payment. Now, the quick and easy claims process on GOV.UK takes about 10 minutes and payments could be made in as little as 3 days.

With less than a month to go to the Self Assessment deadline, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is urging nearly 5.7 million customers to file their tax return for the 2022 to 2023 tax year. 

The deadline to file a tax return for the 2022 to 2023 tax year and pay any tax owed is 31 January 2024. Customers can submit their tax returns and pay any tax owed online at GOV.UK.