WHEN I lived in London, many years ago, we used to say you waited for a bus for half an hour and then three come along all at once! 

Now it seems the same is happening with road closures in and around Crediton, three in the past week!

The road closure between Crediton and Yeoford will be in place for a few days because there is a lot of patching work to do; there was an extension of one week.

The closure of the A3072, which is a main road of course, is likely to be in place for a week or more because there is a lot of work to do trenching across the road in order to lay gas, electricity and water pipes.

This is to supply the Peddlarspool proposed 257 houses.

The final one occurred in Copplestone. This is having a great impact not only on traffic but the isolation of areas of the village and the takings in the village shop.

As far as the Copplestone closure is concerned I am urging highways to keep the closures to a minimum in place and time and to keep me informed.

I've also been in contact with building control with the same request. It seems at the moment that there has been a meeting between the owner, a building firm and building control.

I intend to find out a timetable for the works, the road closures and any repercussions if the timetables are not adhered to.

The one thing we must all remember is that public safety is paramount and that building is in a very dangerous state and if it collapses it could do a lot of damage to other properties, anybody driving past or walking along the pavement on the other side of the road.

With the help of a few people in Copplestone I have put a copy of the building control reports online, keep looking out for updates.

I have placed a copy in the shop window. At this point I can offer no more.

As chairman of the main scrutiny committee I have interviewed members of the senior leadership team in Devon County Council, there were eight interviews in all, including the chief executive, heads of highways, finance, communication, adult social care and recruitment and retention of staff.

My purpose was to get an overview of what each department is responsible for, what the challenges are and how it is progressing. This will enable the committee to focus on areas of challenge and concern.

I am also to visit the materials laboratory Exeter where materials used on the highways and elsewhere are analysed! This will be very informative.

My other proposed visit is to the national operations centre which has cameras or on all the main roads in Devon. Again I am looking forward to an interesting visit and will report back on both as soon as I can.

Now that August is over we have to turn our attention to September and the raft of many meetings ahead.

Cllr Frank let MBE

County Councillor for Crediton