As I write, this summer seems to be all but over, with rain running down my windows, and so we now look forward to autumn and winter.

Sidmouth’s festival season is not quite over with the Walking Festival taking place between September 14 and 20 with lots of fascinating walks all over East Devon, including areas not normally open to the public.

The launch event will be at Kennaway House between 10.30am and 1pm on Saturday, September 14.

The Walking Festival will be followed shortly afterwards by the Sidmouth Science Festival between October 4 and 13 with lots of events for children at the weekends, including Super Science Saturday, and fascinating talks during the week with topics as diverse as artificial intelligence, sports science and plastic recycling.

These festivals’ programmes are available on their websites and at the Tourist Information Centre. Come along to events at both festivals and improve your mind and body!

There will be a lot of activity around the Ham this winter as three different organisations undertake major building projects.

Work will start in the autumn on the Drill Hall converting it into the much anticipated Rockfish restaurant.

It will be good to see this rather tired building given a new lease of life. Rockfish plan to open the restaurant in 2025.

At the same time the Sidmouth Lifeboat, an important institution in Sidmouth, will start their expansion of the Lifeboat Station.

This will enable them to house all their equipment under one roof and reduce the launch times, which are clearly critical for this vital emergency service.

During the construction, the Lifeboat will continue to provide its usual service. The new Lifeboat Station should be ready in the summer of 2025.

The final piece of work will be undertaken by South West Water (SWW) as part of their plans to reduce the usage of the Combined Sewage Overflows (CSO) which in turn will reduce the number of times untreated sewage is released into the sea or river.

At our council meeting on September 2, we were briefed by SWW on their plans. This involves an additional storage tank at the Ham, sewer infiltration reduction by lining sewers, and surface water separation, so surface rainwater does not flow into the sewers.

The new tank will be on the middle of the Ham next to the existing one which is buried under the southern part of the grassed area.

Once finished, both tanks will be buried and therefore invisible. The grass area will be restored and will appear as it does now.

We were told that the design has not yet been finalised but options, including increasing the pump capacity at the Ham are being considered. Construction should be finished in spring 2025.

Given all this activity it is inevitable that there will be some disruption to normal activities in the area.

The Ham will need to be cordoned off during the South West Water construction, but the footpaths will remain open other than when heavy vehicle movements are taking place. The playpark will remain open.

The turning circle is likely to be closed to allow movement of construction vehicles for the Lifeboat and Rockfish. Temporary toilets will be installed, to replace the existing Port Royal toilets which will be demolished.

And unfortunately, there will be some loss of parking in the East Ham car park for the duration of the construction.

Sidmouth Town Council has been ensuring each organisation is aware of the plans of the other two so they can coordinate critical activities such as heavy vehicle movements.

Once complete, the area around the Ham and Port Royal will look very different with improved services for residents and visitors, and a cleaner environment.