Village gets new sports facilities thanks to Devon County Council

According to the Midweek Herald:

A VILLAGE project is to get a significant boost with the creation of new sports facilities - thanks to £53,000 given by Devon County Council from funds allocated from the sale of Exeter International Airport.

The 'Young At Heart' project in Upottery, near Honiton, is to get £32,000 from the county council's Community Fund plus a further £21,000 allocated by Honiton St Paul's county councillor Roger Boote from his local projects fund.

The money will pay towards a new cricket pitch, double all-weather tennis court and better drainage of the football field. They will provide playing and coaching facilities for local young people. In addition, new changing rooms are to be provided thanks to a local initiative to recycle a Portakabin previously used by the village school.

Well, aren't they lucky. If you live in Seaton you get NOTHING for sport or recreation - not even for a youth club. Our youth and community centre has been lying derelict for nearly three years now - DCC's answer: a bus that comes to the Underfleet car park which can deal with "up to" 30 youngsters. In the meantime, Town Councillor Sophie O'Connell's personal initiative, Grove Zero, regularly gets anything from 80-200 youngsters every week.

As far as we can pick up from local newspapers, the money from the sale of Exeter Airport has so far gone to projects in this area for: £500,000 for the Seaton Visitor Centre which has just had £1.2 million of SWRDA funding cancelled, £6,000 to Axmouth Village Hall, £4,000 to Beer Mariners Hall, £2000 to Seaton Tourist Information Centre and a new bus shelter outside the Townsend Road medical practice.

In the meantime, Colyton somehow manages to find masses of funds for a new youth centre to replace one it already has! What do you have to do to get facilities in Seaton? The mind boggles.

What is it about Seaton that means that we get overlooked time and time again?