It’s now exactly one year ago that a scandal at East Devon District Council hit the national headlines. East Devon Alliance questions the way this has been dealt with, and asks how far the consequent police investigation has got, in this press release issued today 11 March 2014:

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY? … East Devon Alliance calls for transparency in planning matters at East Devon District Council, on the first anniversary of the Daily Telegraph expose of former Councillor Graham Brown – “If anyone can get you planning permission, I can, but I don’t come cheap”.
Disgraced ex-councillor Graham was the subject of an expose on the front page of the Daily Telegraph on 11 March 2013 (see below for links to this story and its follow-up)
East Devon Alliance is concerned that since then almost nothing has happened regarding ex-Councillor Brown’s possible conflicts of interest.
And what has happened in this last year?
It should be noted that East Devon District Council (EDDC) took several months to report the potential wrong-doing, as it first referred the allegations to the national ‘Action Fraud’ website – entirely the wrong action. Subsequently, the case was taken up by the Devon and Cornwall police.
Now, there is silence from the police force so we have no idea whether or even if the allegations have been investigated, though we do know that ex-Councillor Brown was forced to resign from the local Conservative Party and then chose to step down from EDDC.
Former Councillor Brown had been Chairman of the Local Development Framework Panel, which made decisions about where and how much housing and employment land should be developed in East Devon and, at the same time, he was Chairman of the East Devon Business Forum (EDBF) – a group made up of local landowners, developers and farmers concerned with the same matters. EDBF was funded by East Devon District Council and was given a named District Council officer to act as its Honorary Secretary. After public outcries about conflicts of interest, EDBF was disbanded and council funding and officer support ceased.
A District Council Task and Finish Forum (TAFF), set up to do an in-depth study of relations between EDDC and EDBF, was prevented from discussing or investigating planning matters on the instructions of East Devon District Council’s Chief Executive, Mark Williams and has therefore made no inroads into any of the possible conflicts.

East Devon Alliance calls for the immediate reinstatement of the EDBF Task and Finish group and a statement from Devon and Cornwall Police as to the current state of its investigations. Until these are forthcoming, members of the public cannot be certain that the conflicts of interest within the council have been properly addressed.
The council has been reluctant to embrace national guidance on lobbying which causes further disquiet.
We hope that we will not be writing again on the second anniversary of this event that nothing has changed within the council.

Notes for Editors:
The front page Daily Telegraph story can be found here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9921344/Councillors-for-hire-who-give-firms-planning-advice.html
and its follow-up story
here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9921333/If-I-turn-a-green-field-into-an-estate-then-Im-not-doing-it-for-peanuts.html