Our Town Council is of it's Collective Head

I think the balloon has gone for good even though I can see no official announcement anywhere.

Down on the site there is a pile of dug up equipment and the wince gear plus the dismantled gondola. As well as this pile which should some be taken away ( hopefully) the paths that lead to the balloon plus the concrete landing place have all been dug up. Around the site there were several blocks of concrete set into the ground to tie the balloon down. They have also been removed. The mast that carried the CCTV cameras are also no where to be seen. Now a few weeks ago I was down at the site when some workmen form the balloon company were working there. I was assured that the equipment was only being removed to be refurbished. OK I can understand that but only a perfectionist with loads of money would dig up all that concrete just to 'refurbish ' it.
Hopefully next time I get down there the railings around the site will have gone as well and we can all forget the blood thing was ever there in the first place.
The last mayor forced this hideous object onto the sea front, now the present mayor wants to spend up to half a million quid to see if it would be possible to build a 3rd harbour in Torquay so cruse ships can dock here and disgorge rich passengers who would spend loads of money here. Sounds fine until you look at his, the mayor's figures. Extra income to the council of just over a half a million pounds plus extra income to the businesses in the town of 800 000 quid. So far so good. The cost of actually building the harbour would be at least £125 million. If you add interest on any loans plus the inevitable over spend a project like this generates plus maintenance it could be a couple of hundred years before the project breaks even and goes into profit.
Either the mayor wants to bankrupt Torbay or he is mad or just bad at simply arithmetic? This third harbour will never happen but the council have just agreed to spend hundreds of thousands of pound on a feasibility study. Are they also mad? Or did the mayor hold a gun to their heads? Email your councillor and tell him you will be voting for someone else at the next election if this blatant waste of money goes a head.

Petition to get the Mayor to Explain Why Someone Owes the Council £50 000.

Stop press Weather is bad so protest is off. Will take place if it ever stops raining
This is where the balloon used to sit before it got damaged in a small storm earlier in the year. That storm created a wind speed of 43 mph and the balloon was supposed to be able to stand higher wind speeds than that. I have heard that one of the cables holding the balloon down came lose and hit the balloon and £30 000 worth of helium vanished into the Devon skies and the wind then tore the balloon to shreds.
Mind you that storm was nothing compared to the storm that followed the revelation that no rent had been paid to Torbay council all the time the balloon had been in action. The elected mayor, a Mr Gordon Oliver has so far refused to either explain fully why no rent has been paid or hold an enquiry in to why this state of affairs carried on for so long. He claims it would be improper to do so as there is an on going legal wrangle in to the dispute. We, the people of Torbay, have no idea of the nature of this dispute or to what stage, legally, it has reached. For all we know it could consist of a letter from the council pointing out that the owners of the balloon th
at they haven't paid any rent and would they mind doing so. Or, worse still, very well paid council lawyers could at this very moment be engaged in behind the scenes negotiations with very well paid lawyers on the balloon owners side. As the sum involved is £50 000 it could turn out that the negotiations cost more than the value of the rent.
Anyway, a local councillor for Tormolun ward here in Torquay, one Darren Cowell is trying to get the mayor to hold an inquiry in to the affair. Yesterday, Saturday, he was out in the rain in Paignton collecting signatures on a petition. On Sunday 10 June, probably also in the rain he will be down at the balloon site at 3pm continuing to collect signatures. I will go along and talk to people, find out what the mood is, try and judge the strength of feeling the lack of rent payments ha
s generated. I will also be interested in what people think of our elected mayor and his performance so far.
I will also take one or two photos as well.
Personally I would prefer the site to be cleared of all the mess that is there now and a retirement home be found for the poor innocent balloon.

The Balloon and a Chanal Four TV Program

I've just been for a walk along the sea front here in Torquay as I did yesterday. I took one of these photos on yesterday's walk and the other today. In between taking these two walks and photos Torquay and the whole of the South West had been battered by gale force winds and heavy rain. The weather and the view have both improved. As you can see the Balloon didn't make it through the night. The 3rd photo below shows the balloon as it is now and is a nice photo with the rainbow.

The balloon will have been insured against this sort of thing so I imagine it will be only a matter of time before it is up and floating once again. I expect the people who work at the site will be hoping for it's speedy return even if lots of Torquayians aren't.

While I was at the crash site taking photos a couple of visitors, a man and his wife, Paul and Chris from Coventry also stopped to take some photos and we got talking. Paul and Chris are staying at the Grosvenor Hotel in Belgrave Rd. In case you missed it The Grosvenor Hotel is the star in a Channel 4 fly on the wall documentary ( described elsewhere as a comedy documentary). The first part was on New Year's Day ( available still on iPlayer) and has upset some people who think it does Torquay down by reminding everyone who saw it of a certain hotel in Torquay run by Basil Fawlty and his almost as mad wife Cybil. I have worked in the hotel industry(briefly) and thought the whole thing hilarious and fairly true to life. The program did start by describing Torquay and said," Torquay had many attractions to entice the visitors and many fine hotels." ......... dramatic pause , "And this hotel"
People here in Torquay seem to think it did Torquay down but personally I think the person it did down was one of the two people getting married in the hotel. It was her big day and she made sure everyone knew it.
Anyway, Paul and Chris from Coventry who I mentioned a while back both love the hotel, good food, nice rooms, friendly, helpful staff and handy for Torquay and all it's varied attractions as well as the X46 for a trip to Exeter.

So don't belive everything you see on the telly is the absolute truth,....... dramatic pause, or even anything like it.

What!

Not sure what's going on here.

Could be:-

a) a stowaway

b) a base jumper

c) a misguided and shortsighted rock climber

d) a protester

e) some one doing essential maintenance work

A Thing of the Past (Almost)

This is what our ticket machines look like today. Tomorrow, Sunday and for ever, they will be completely different, super duper electronic monsters that we have all been trained on over the last few weeks. But sitting in a nice stationary class room with a trainer saying do this, do that without a queue of people waiting to get on is a little bit easier than actually being on Torquay Harbour with 35 people waiting to get on and you're trying to remember how to issue such and such ticket. I fully expect that in a weeks time we will have completely mastered them and will issue tickets with the same confidence a magician produces rabbits out of his hat. But that will be in a week's time so if you are using a Stagecoach bus in Torbay on Sunday and for the next few days please be a little patient. (Photo of new machine tomorrow, I know you can't wait.)


The Balloon is up and running on the sea front, it started yesterday. One thing I did report was that it went up 400 metres. I got that information from the local paper, the Herald Express, but it was wrong. It should have read 400 feet which is only 120 metres, no where near as high as I expected. You should still be able to see 20 miles or more but not the 45 miles I reported a few weeks ago. Trips cost £14.00 adults £11.50 Senior Citizens (me) and £8.00 children. Bring your own camera.

Notices

Ever wondered where all those notices on the side of bus came from? No, neither had I. But I pulled into Paignton Bus Station yesterday and this chap in a yellow jacket approached the bus and asked me how long before I went. Usually this either means his wife is in the shop round the corner and wont be a minute, (She usually is about 5), or he wants a quick ciggy before getting on the bus. Not this time when I said two minutes. A quick spray to clean the window and quick as a flash the notice was up. Round the other side and a similar notice appeared as if by magic. I wish I could put wallpaper up like that at home, the place would be decorated in a couple of years instead of the 5 it has taken so far.

The notice is about the changes coming up for the summer Basically the 12 is a ten minute service between Newton, Torquay, Paignton and Brixham but there are lots of other changes mainly to the 12A (not going to Brixham but going toSouth Devon College, Paignton, Torquay, Babbacombe, St Marychurch and Teignmouth) the 12B is discontinued and a 12C is now running between South Devon College and St Marychurch and Teignmouth but by a different route than the 12A between College and Paignton. Catch the 12A for the Zoo, it's a good Zoo, been on telly. The other main change is to the 32 service in Torquay, it will no longer run up to Babbacombe and St Marychurch, catch the 12A or 12C from outside Debenham's on the Harbourside.

We also should have new ticket machines by the start of the summer season, some drivers have been trained how to work them and the rest of us should know how they work in the next two weeks. They are different so if you get on a bus and the driver is staring at the machine muttering nasty words under his breath please be patient, we'll get there in the end.

The balloon went up yesterday for a trial run. It has to be inspected by the Civil Aviation Authority as it is classed as an aircraft before passengers can be carried. The first passengers should be flying by the middle of the month. One or two passengers, visitors down for the Bank Holiday weekend were disappointed it wasn't up and running yet. More photos when it does start.

New Attraction In Torbay

Torbay, not know for being exactly progressive, has shocked the country by installing it's very own Nuclear Reactor on the sea front. It has also shocked one or two thousand of Torbay's residents. When I was down one the sea front this morning taking the photos I heard one person exclaim that she though it was dangerous as well as a bit of an eyesore. Nick Bye, the Mayor said his vision for Torquay, sorry, Torbay was leading us into the 20th Century at last.

OK. What it really is, is a helium filled balloon that will carry 30 volunteers at a time several hundred feet up in the air in an experiment designed by leading experts in the field to see how many people will be willing to part with £14 to go several hundred feet up in the air so they can have stunning views of the beautiful English Riviera. I might not be first in line but any photos I do take from up there will appear here first.

I did try to get the two double deckers stacked one on top of the other so up could compare it's size with two double decker buses in the traditional manor but both drivers said, "Sod off, this is my break trip."