It seems no-one thought to cost how much will be spent on maintaining satellite hubs if EDDC relocates.
Back of an envelope:
One half day, 50 weeks a year renting space in the 8 towns of East Devon – say to keep visits to a minimum 2 hours per week. A low cost for renting would be about £15 per hour. Cost £78,000
2 people visiting each time (1 officer cannot do everything surely) and each officer claims £10 per trip petrol, subsistence, etc. £2,000
Total minimum £80,000 per year.
Anyone like to put their own costings forward – councillors?
East Devon Watch 
Whilst I agree that there should be an analysis of costs for “satellite hubs”, I am not sure that this is really something that is dependent on a move from Knowle as the benefits of them would presumably be the same whether EDDC is based in Sidmouth or SkyPark.
However, it does seem a little odd in this technological age, when more and more organisations are centralising their teams and providing access by call centres, web-chat, video conferencing etc. for EDDC to be going in the opposite direction. As I understand it, many local councils are successfully implementing multi-functional call-centres for which staff are trained to be able to handle the vast majority of calls.
Without this multi-skilling, I am somewhat sceptical that the small number of staff manning satellite offices will effectively be able to handle the wide variety of issues they are faced with. And if EDDC had moved to a multi-skilled call centre approach, would there be a need for “satellite offices”?
Does EDDC actually have any evidence to show that residents are demanding “local EDDC offices”? Have they tried any form of pilot to confirm that there is demand and to understand the skills needed by staff manning these offices?
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EDDC is at Sidmouth, there are no satellite hubs as most people in the area can get there for personal visits. Skypark is inaccessible for most East Devon residents.
And, of course, the relocation will make it very difficult for electors to attend council meetings …… especially those in the evenings.
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