The government is channelling £12 billion to Local Enterprise Partnerships (see below). This money is to be used on projects of their choosing. The people choosing are predominantly business men and (some) women and a handful of top councillors. Decisions are made by a simple majority.
This is mostly money that, in the past, would have gone to local authorities which would have been accountable to us for it and their choices would be subject to the ballot box. Our LEP is spending an awful lot of it on the projects allied to the Hinkley Point C power station – when even its owners have very cold feet about investing.
Our LEP meets in secret and produces only sketchy notes of its deliberations. We have no idea if it has any sub-committees or who is on them. We do not know how to access its accounts or what form they take. We do not even know how many people they employ or what their jobs are. Heck, even their postal address is a post office box number
Heart of the South West LEP, PO Box 805, Exeter, EX1 9UU
and their contact numbers are mobile phones:
http://www.heartofswlep.co.uk/contact-us
where it also says this:
“By telephone: 01935 385977 – The LEP does not have a Head Office and this number is kindly answered by one of our partners, who will take a message and forward onto the appropriate person in the LEP to answer. This service is kindly provided by Yeovil Innovation Centre, supported by South Somerset District Council.”
Anyone else as worried as Owl?
East Devon Watch 
Well, Owl, I have been concerned for sometime, which is why I’ve spent so much time over the last few weeks mole-ing around, including a trip around HotSW website. They have kept proper minutes up until recently and they do have sub-committees and groups which are all listed. Manu of these actually lead off site; for example, the Penninsular Rail Task Force, the Growth Hub etc where they, in effect, are a ‘partner’. The extent to which HotSW are actually calling the shots on anything is most unclear at the moment. What I’ve been doing is keeping an eye on their internal committees and tracking the topics and subjects raised. One thing which is manifestly clear though, is that LEP ‘deals’ around the country have been rushed through at such a speed that at the moment there is confusion and even contradicting messages even amongst LEP Board Members.
So, I carry on digging and watching…
Keep up your good work, Robbie B (South Devon Watch – aka vichara0 on WordPress)
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