Many readers may have seen last weekend The Times Newspaper listing Exmouth as “One of The Best Places to Live 2024”.

The article included a superb quote from the Sideshore’s Ella Slade who said she thinks the town is “going places”.

“I love being by the sea,” Ella said, “and Exmouth is a great place with a great community. It feels really young. It’s got character and personality and everybody puts their oar in to make the businesses work and the community the best it can be.”

The bit of Ella’s quote I loved was that “everybody puts their oar in”, which is true but also can be read in two ways. In my experience of doing all I can for Exmouth as District Leader for four years that is spot on.

There are people breaking their backs to make the town blossom, and there are commentators on the sidelines (you find everywhere to be fair) for whom nothing is ever right. That’s democracy, and long may the two ways of putting your oar in live.

As the district council we get a regular kicking from some locals, which is expected of course. (Before I was a councillor I’d considered the daft plans for a seafront hotel at sea level quite potty too, and said so.) But taking that on the chin without complaining does justify a right to reply. Many will remember the superb Monty Python routine from Life of Brian called “What have the Romans ever done for us?”

So, I scribbled a few notes of new actions East Devon District Council has taken in Exmouth this year alone. Let’s start with a lovely one. With the leadership of a wonderful team of volunteers aged 3-96, our Parks and Gardens Team at EDDC been involved with the lovely Exmouth Tiny Forest Group planting 185 broadleaf trees creating three small copses to surround the new Tiny Forest at the Carter Avenue Green Space. In the same week, we opened 28 new parking spaces for bikes on the front by the RNLI Lifeboat Station and in Phear Park.

We also concluded a very long consultation process which has been going on for two years about Placemaking in Exmouth. Now, the sideline commentators always say “they won’t listen”, “it’s all rubber stamped already” and astonishingly, “it’s all been done behind closed doors”. In fact, since I put my own oar in four years ago, we set up an open Placemaking Group with representation from all sorts of interest groups in Exmouth, including the Town Council which – unlike the old days under the Conservatives – meets in public.

Indeed, those meetings are all there on YouTube to watch if you wish, and the agenda and minutes are on our website. I’d like to thank the nearly 700 hundred contributors who either attended public sessions at the Ocean or filled in the consultation document in recent weeks.

Of course, the biggest recent intervention is the £1.5 million funding to urgently rebuild the sea wall at Sideshore. We could have crossed our fingers and hoped it would hold up, but my Cabinet decided that the works must be done instantly. Thanks to all Exmouthians for your patience as the path in front of Sideshore becomes a bit of a building site for the next few weeks. Better than the seafront being swept into the sea I’d hazard.

What then have the Romans/EDDC done for us? Loads. Can we do better? Yes, everyone can always do better. But as long as I have a say, East Devon District Council has Exmouth’s back.