St Thomas Newsletter | cllrpaul4cowick

Exeter City Council continues to support communities

Following the Annual Meeting of Exeter City Council, St Thomas Councillor Paul Bull was appointed Portfolio Holder for Communities and Neighbourhoods and Councillor Rob Hannaford for Place.

On his appointment, Paul said: ” I see this as recognition of the work I have been doing as Member Champion for Community Engagement in working with various communities across the city; perhaps the best examples of the nature of this work can be demonstrated by some of the work local councillors have done right here in St Thomas”.

Work continues to support residents and businesses with the opportunities and challenges in the ward.

Cllr Hannah Packham has been exploring with local businesses the possibility of a St Thomas Business Improvement District – on a similar basis to the successful city centre model, and has continued with the frustrating struggle of engaging a number of parties to find a permanent solution to problems in and around the railway arches.

Your local Councillors were pleased to see work has been undertaken on Cowick Street to tackle the large puddles which form around some junctions, and attempts to improve the paving which is safety issue for many residents. However, unfortunately, although the puddles have reduced in size more work will be required and the pavement here, and in other St Thomas roads, are far from satisfactory.

Councillor Hannaford commented “The paving on Cowick Street is old an needs replacing, we are hopeful that this work will be undertaken in this financial year, and we will continue to lobby for this essential improvement”.

Building on the work of local gardeners in the RHS Britain in Bloom competition over the past few years, we’ve seen the emergence of many related groups – the work of the Bloomin’ St Thomas group in planting wildflowers across the area, the greening of the platforms at St Thomas Railway Station to name but two projects, both of which have been supported by your local Labour Councillors.

Earlier this year Ben Bradshaw, Paul, Hannah and Rob joined local residents to plant fruit trees and a new Lucombe Oak in Cowick Barton Playing Fields, and we are now seeing the City Council installing a path to form party of the Alcoa Activity Trail.

Your local councillors attended the recent very succeful Garden Party to celebrate the famous Wisteria Arch where they spoke to local residents and tried their hand at croquet. Rob Hannaford said “We were very pleased to support this wonderful event, which drew people to one of the most beautiful parts of the city – congratulations and thanks to the volunteers who made it the success it was.”

Many of these projects have been supported with small community grants of up to £300 from the local councillors, and over the coming year we will be looking to seed fund many more such projects.

Thank You!

st-thomas-team — *The St Thomas team: [L-R: Cllr Paul Bull, Cllr Hannah Packham, Cllr Rob Hannaford]*

Following the merger of the old Cowick and St Thomas wards into the revised ward of St Thomas, the three successful Labour candidates wish to thank everyone who voted for them on 05 May.

As elected members of the old wards, we have spent the past 6 months speaking to residents across the ward, listening to the quietest voices, looking at ways to address their concerns.

The results were:
Rob Hannaford – 1502 [elected for 4 years]
Hannah Packham – 1314 [elected for 3 years]
Paul Bull – 1219 [elected for 2 years]

We thank you for renewing your faith in us.

We are honoured to represent the people of St Thomas and the Labour Party.

As we move forward, we all know that the hard work begins now – to represent all the residents of St Thomas, whether they voted for us or not.

We will constantly strive to repay the trust the esidents of St Thomas have placed in us, and look forward to seeing you in community.