Honiton.......Axminster..........Ottery St Mary
Budleigh Salterton - in East Devon is the entry to both the Triassic and Jurassic coasts
The Pepplebeds are a landmark feature of the World Heritage site
The town of Budleigh Salterton is pleasant with its excellent range of shops and its magnificent beach and red cliffs. The town has around 6,000 residents and a thriving primary school. So all those residents cannot be elderly and infirm, can they?
Yet that is the reputation that the town has earned - 'God's waiting room' where 'Admirals talk only to generals and generals talk only to God' are the jokes told to visitors. Not true and not even mostly true. What is true is that very many successful and still vigorous people have chosen to retire to the town because of the climate and slower pace of life.
There are cricket, bowls, tennis and football clubs, also a world-renowned croquet club and superb golf club where Bobby Locke famously drove 12 new balls into the sea from the 7th tee (the top of the cliff). There are other sports played and the cultural life is looking up with the Music Festival into its 3rd year and attracting residents and visitors galore. People need to stretch their minds and bodies even into retirement!
It is true that there is a higher than average older population, however and this may be the reason why progress and energetically modern ways of living are not at the front of some folk's wish-list. What a pity this is because everyone knows that people these days are living longer and doing so with increasingly excellent health and appetites for new challenges.
Everything said about Budleigh Salterton is true of Sidmouth and Honiton. Exmouth has a younger population.
Look at this comparison:-
Sidmouth, Honiton, Exmouth Budleigh Salterton Private subscription sports clubs Yes Yes Public sports facilites Yes No Public open space Yes Yes..but Swimming pool Yes No Easy access to sea from beach Yes No Well-tended public gardens Yes No Leisure centre Yes No Public tennis courts Yes No Bandstand Yes No Good bus service or connection to Exeter Yes No Farmer's market Yes No For the sake of the young and healthy and the older, yet still young-at- heart and active we need to find better facilties and investment in them as soon as possible. Ask your council why Salterton is so often left behind in the competition for local government funds.
The solution is to help ourselves rather than wait for the EDDC to act. For years the money has chased targets throughout East Devon except in Budleigh Salterton where the need now is greatest. The above table shows this all too clearly. What is now needed is a good youth centre, improved swimming facilities - preferably one that can be used by the school too and a better senior citizen's centre. The space for this exists and it only needs a push for it to happen. The investment is there for the right idea.
Wouldn't you like:-
Bathing access like this?
Manicured gardens like this?
A swimming pool for all year use with cafe?
Sheltered botanical gardens and walks for the elderly like this?
Then here is where you will find all of these public facilities and many more
Such normal modern facilities are worth fighting for. Salterton is too small to expect realistically to have them all but a few basic facilities are what we pay for in Council Tax and therefore what we expect to be provided through a fair share of the capital spend on leisure.
Sorry. Forgot to mention we have a skate park for the youngsters in Limekiln. Eat your heart out Sidmouth, Exmouth, Honiton, Ottery St. Mary ....more....
