Goals score highly in Ottery community vote

People from the parish of Ottery St Mary have had their say on how to spend money on outdoor sports in the town – and they've opted to support two schemes.

In a joint project run between Ottery St Mary Town Council and East Devon District Council, residents voted on how they would like £17,300 to be spent on outdoor sports in the town. Over 290 Ottery St Mary Town Council area residents took part in the voting.

The parish of Ottery St Mary is anywhere covered by Ottery St Mary Town Council, which includes Tipton St John, Wiggaton, West Hill, Alfington, Escot, Gosford, Fenny Bridges, Fairmile and Metcombe.

The funding for these projects (Section 106 money) is available as a result of a number of housing developments in the parish of Ottery St Mary. Section 106 money is collected from developers and spent by EDDC, which has opted to involve the community in how it allocates these funds.

Earlier this year, people who live in the parish were asked how they would like £17,300 of this Section 106 sports funding to be spent. Five eligible and affordable proposals were received from individuals, community groups and sports organisation. At two voting events earlier in November, residents were asked by EDDC and Ottery St Mary Town Council to vote on which of these proposals they most wanted to see happen.

Whilst a good number of people took part, pollsters were short of respondents aged 20 - 59, so they then gathered in a few extra votes. See the attached table for the list of projects and their priority order.

The most popular project, which will receive £15,000, was for a substantial combined metal football goal and basketball /netball hoop (a sports activity wall) in Winter’s Lane recreation area in Ottery. This was an idea from a young person from Ottery and was chosen by nearly half of all the residents that voted.

The second most popular project was for two sets of small football goals to be used by the youngest players at Ottery Youth Football Club. They currently use cones as goals or have to use goals that are too big for them. It will cost £3,000 so there isn’t quite enough funding left but EDDC will investigate and see if £700 of additional funding has come in since the process was started; if not then they will wait until the funding comes in.

These results will be presented to Ottery Town Council at a Full Council meeting for ratification.

Cllr Glyn Dobson, Mayor of Ottery St Mary said: “I’m delighted that residents have had the opportunity of voting for the project they preferred. All five nominations were well received and I hope that the Town Council will be able to support more of them when future funds are available”.

Cllr Iain Chubb, EDDC’s cabinet member for environment, said: “It’s very gratifying that there is money available to spend on important projects like these, which encourage young people and others in the community to get out and about in the fresh air and take some healthy exercise and play games.

“There was a very encouraging turnout at the voting events and I look forward to seeing these projects progressing and taking shape over the coming months, so that Ottery has some new facilities that the town can be proud of”.

See table for community projects that got the most votes and so will be funded, in priority order (bear in mind that people could vote for up to two projects).