The Exmouth and Seaton Regeneration Board meetings have always been secret. Many people have attempted to get their meetings, agendas and minbutes made public but no-one has succeeded, even with Freedom of Information requests.

And, when those meetings are discussed in Cabinet, they are again always secret.

Always the reason is “commercial confidentiality”. This has been the case for years and years.

So, all regeneration matters are kept secret between developers and the council – or rather a few councillors. We are not even allowed to know who exactly they meet with or why or what is discussed. Anything that gets into the public domain is sanitised “good news”. Any “consultation” is done against a backdrop of those few priviledged councillors and (presumabky) developers operating in the shadows until they decide what we can be told of decisions that have been made in secret.

By law, all items heard in secret must have reasons given in advance. The usual one (which EDDC uses for Knowle relocation and even the now-defunct Knowle Planning Application) is “commercial confidentiality”.

Who signs off these confidential items? None other than Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee – Councillor Tim Woods.

East Devon District Council – working for …. well, who are they working for?