In May I had the honour of being voted again to the position of Mayor, a position that I was very proud to accept. I am very fortunate in leading an enthusiastic council and my thanks to all c

In his annual report, Ottery Mayor Glyn Dobson's annual said:

In May I had the honour of being voted again to the position of Mayor, a position that I was very proud to accept. I am very fortunate in leading an enthusiastic council and my thanks to all councillors for the hard work put in by them, also my Deputy Mayor Councillor Ian Holmes, Town Clerk Judith Reynolds and Deputy Clerk Su Graham.

New Council Offices

For many years the Council have been seeking new offices that would enable us to conform to current legislation and be more accessible to the public. When the Convent Building was put up for sale it was resolved that the Council should attempt to purchase it.

This resulted in many months of negotiations and we finally exchanged contracts in October 2008.We were greatly encouraged by public support of a petition of almost 1000 signatures which was obtained by members of the public in five days.

Obviously this has meant a huge financial commitment by the town but we hope to offset the majority of this by sub letting offices in this building.

Planning

The Planning Committee is chaired by Councillor Peter Williams and all councillors are members. It has been a very busy year with a large number of applications. This year we expect planning applications from two major Supermarkets i.e. Tesco and Sainsburys and I am sure once these have been submitted there will be great public interest. It will probably be necessary to hold our planning meetings in a larger venue to accommodate this.

Council Surgery

The Surgery continues to be popular still being held the last Saturday in the month from 0900am -10.30am at the Council offices. This gives the public the opportunity to speak to Councillors and voice any concerns or observations. In addition it is hoped in the future the Police will attend these sessions to answer queries from the public.

Bowling Club

After lengthy negotiations with the Bowling Club, the Council are very grateful to them for handing back the land that they were not using. This gives the opportunity for future sports activities in this area. We have submitted an application to East Devon District Council for an access road to the site but there is still much work to be done to achieve the Council's ambitions

Bridge over The Otter

Plans for this Bridge are progressing with the funds now in place. The next stage will be the submit a planning application.

Tourist Information Centre

The Tourist Information Centre continues to run successfully under the Manager, Mrs Phyllis Baxter who is still concentrating on giving our local residents as much support as possible.

Finally my thanks again to all Councillors, the Town Clerk and Deputy Town Clerk and the Tourist Information Manager. Remember we are here to serve you and always welcome your views.

Once again, I would like to invite anyone that would like to become a Councillor to contact me and I would be pleased to meet you for an informal discussion.