Latest news with #Teignbridge
BBC News
29-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Plans approved to prevent unauthorised camps in Teignbridge
A council is to spend more than £70,000 on a range of measures to try to stop unauthorised Gypsy and traveller District Council said it had to clean up sites and repair damage following the unauthorised use of council-owned land, with eight cases requiring legal action in 2024.A report discussed on Tuesday proposed installing boulders, barriers and a new fence at six parks across the district. The council approved all the plans to make access more difficult for unauthorised council said there was no transit provision for Gypsy and traveller groups at the moment in Devon and it would work with other local authorities to identify possible sites. The report which was considered by the council's executive committee said unauthorised encampments created "significant demands" on resources through "the requirement to clean the site and surrounding areas, repair any damage caused and deal with complaints from residents and businesses that have been impacted".The plans include a new rail with steel posts at Osborne Park, boulders at access points to Sandringham Park and Bakers Park, lockable bollards at Courtenay Park and Forde Park and a barrier at Dawlish Countryside council said there were "no real alternatives" other than "to continue to reactively manage the unauthorised occupation of the parks and accept the associated costs, complaints and impacts on local residents and businesses".However, the council also acknowledged the risk that "the measures proposed will not guarantee a stop to further unauthorised encampments at these sites" and that encampments may move to other, more accessible, council-owned land.|About 20 members of the public attended the executive meeting which heard there had been an unprecedented number of encampments this year.
BBC News
29-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Toilet charging may increase 'public fouling risk'
Public toilets in seaside resorts and other towns and villages could be closed or have an admission fee District Council says it wants to save about £250,000 a year by closing or charging at toilets in places like Dawlish, Shaldon and Teignmouth and in rural villages on council has given a rating to 20 public toilets with the lowest 13 to be closed or transferred to town and parish councils and the possibility of charging for entry for the seven highest rated.A report setting out the plans to be debated by councillors on Tuesday acknowledges closures could lead to " an increased risk of fouling in public spaces". The council's report also said it recognised a potential "impact on tourism and businesses" and that "a reduction in public convenience provision could deter visitors". Several petitions have been launched by campaigners who want to keep services open, gathering thousands of signatures between local authority said it was a "difficult" decision to "reduce any valued service" but the impact of closures or charging "must be balanced with the council's requirement to remain financially viable".A decision on whether or not to go ahead with the plans is expected to be made by members at a full council meeting on Tuesday. Petitions have been launched by campaigners who want to keep the blocks at those locations Connett, Lib Dem councillor for Exminster and Haldon at Devon County Council, set up a petition to save the public toilets in Starcross, which is in his said the number of petitions launched showed how important the facilities were to many."They may not use them every day or indeed every week but they like to know they are there," Connett said."I hope Teignbridge think again and abandon this plan."
BBC News
13-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Devon council is acting lawfully on single-sex spaces
A council has clarified its position over single-sex spaces in the wake of the Supreme Court judgment which ruled a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities councillor Jane Taylor said Teignbridge District Council had continued to "deny women single-sex spaces" and asked for a full review of the council's equality and diversity policy to clarify exactly what was meant by a single-sex council hired a barrister to produce a 26-page report to advise it on what it should do report said the authority was acting lawfully in line with the judgment and there was no need for a review of council policy. Taylor, a retired police chief inspector, put forward a motion in October 2024 which said: "This council cannot continue to ignore and sideline the centrality of sex as a key factor of discrimination and deny women single-sex spaces where they are necessary, proportionate and legitimate to the objectives of upholding their safety and dignity."She called on Teignbridge to "agree a definition of single-sex spaces, for males and females, owned or managed by Teignbridge District Council and any appropriate service provision".At the meeting on Monday, she said: "Does this council still believe it is unlawful to exclude men who self-identify as women or who possess a gender recognition certificate to enter advertised single-sex female spaces."A transgender woman is a person born male who lives as a Woodhead, head of legal services at the council, said: "The Supreme Court made it quite clear what the position is and we will not deviate from what that position is."The Equality and Human Rights Commission issued guidance following the Supreme Court ruling which said in services that are open to the public "trans women (biological men) should not be permitted to use the women's facilities and trans men (biological women) should not be permitted to use the men's facilities, as this will mean that they are no longer single-sex facilities and must be open to all users of the opposite sex".Speaking after the meeting, Taylor said she was "elated" that women could now use single-sex spaces in Teignbridge District Council properties, such as changing rooms, in full knowledge that only other biological women would use that space. 'Immediately apparent tension' In the report prepared by Jonathan Ward of Magdalen Chambers in Exeter, he said the issue related specifically to single-sex spaces at the Broadmeadow Leisure Centre in said this was "a divisive issue" and that there was "tension between the protections for the protected characteristic of sex, and the protected characteristic of gender reassignment".In his report, he said there was "an immediately apparent tension" in cases where "a woman complains that she feels unsafe for example in sharing a changing room with a transgender woman" but "that a transgender woman feels unsafe if required to share a changing room with other men".During the meeting, Ward said "village" facilities where there were individual cubicles with locks appeared to be "a sensible answer".He said it was "difficult to see the process for enforcing single-sex spaces" and that questioning of individuals could amount to "victimisation and harassment".The BBC has asked Teignbridge District Council what the cost was of the barrister's report but has not received an answer. Following the meeting, council Liberal Democrat member Andrew Swain said he was pleased with the said: "We looked at it in detail. We've taken legal advice, and the conclusions there pretty much agree with my feeling that what Teignbridge is doing is really good."Teignbridge has been redesigning the leisure centres - they're moving towards individual lockable cubicles and, for me, this is a better way of said some people had "tried to make this into a battle".He said: "I don't think it's a battle - it's about creating leisure centres and public facilities which are inclusive."
