WITH the arrival of June I have left the Children's Scrutiny Committee at Devon County Council but maintained my interest.

I have so far been to two meetings with officers and attended a Children's Scrutiny Committee meeting.

Both the meetings with officers concerned health and well-being.

There was an interesting meeting with our staff under the public health nursing banner.

They deal with children's health from 0 to 19.

We still have school nurses who visit schools rather than be a part of the establishment of the school members of staff.

It is pleasing to report that prenatal and early months of childhood are well catered for with all young children seen at home by the age of nine months.

A total of 29 libraries in Devon have weighing facilities so that parents can go and weigh their baby and have an accurate check on progress. Some libraries also have 0 to 5 groups.

I also visited the assessment centre in Phoenix House in Tiverton, staffed by County officers.

Staff here are responsible for Mid and East Devon children and take referrals from the “front door”, to assess the child and find the right direction of care.

With my new role as chairman of the Corporate Infrastructure and Regulatory Services Scrutiny committee I shall be chairing the meeting which will be looking at changing our highways maintenance contract, looking at policies for motorhome owners and a careful look at the direction of travel of our budget.

Because of the constant number of complaints about potholes, overgrown hedges and poor road surfaces I have been investigating the county council's website and looking in particular at highways and reporting problems.

I was surprised to see that there are 16 headings for problems that you can report.

I urge people to report and to keep the reference number of their complaint and if nothing has happened in a reasonable time, let us say 10 days, do contact me with the reference number so that I can pursue it for you.

By the time so you read this we may well have a new government which may mean some changes for County, District and Parish Councils! We must wait and see.

Cllr Frank Letch MBE

Crediton Rural

Devon County Council