The Full Council at Knowle tomorrow evening, from 6.30pm, will generate much interest. A proposal has been made, to require public questions to be submitted in advance, and to have restricted numbers of speakers on either side of a debate. Some councillors have been asked to request a recorded vote on this particular agenda item. Full agenda here: http://www.eastdevon.gov.uk/09042014_council_agenda.pdf

Here’s a copy of an EDA  press release sent out today:
East Devon Alliance (EDA), active supporters of the successful Fight for Feniton’s Future, are delighted by the sound of champagne corks popping, as the village celebrates its reprieve from mass development, after a full scale public inquiry held at the beginning of the year, and masses of hard work. Inspector Jessica Graham has ruled that Feniton needs only one development, of 32 new homes, and not the more than 200 houses proposed. So campaigners for only appropriate development, CAN successfully engage in democratic dialogue, which is what the non-party-political network, East Devon Alliance, is all about.
But EDA warns that Super Inquiries like that held at Feniton, are not the norm. It predicts that glasses will be chinking more ominously elsewhere in East Devon, as developers celebrate their biggest boost in years, thanks to East Devon District Council’s incompetence. As Planning Inspector Anthony Thickett has found the East Devon District Council’s Local Plan is fatally flawed (even at the second attempt). And without a Local Plan in place, according to National Planning guidelines, there must be a presumption in favour of development.
Consequently, as EDA Vice Chair, Dr John Withrington says, “We should not be surprised if the Local Plan has to recommend many more houses than it does at present, to recommend substantially more growth in villages in East Devon, and for developers to be even more aggressive in their proposals as a result. And all this could have been avoided had EDDC got its act together.”
Given the seriousness of the situation, the starkly complacent comment by Council Leader Paul Diviani that he is “very relaxed” about starting work again on the Local Plan, is incomprehensible. The question is, on its past record, can EDDC be trusted to produce a Local Plan that meets the Inspector’s required standard? The signs are unlikely, unless the proposal to make restrictions on public speaking is rejected by this week’s Full Council (Weds 9th April, 6.30pm, Knowle) . As the events at Feniton have shown, sound plans come from more democratic dialogue, not less.

The potential problems with the 5 year land supply were all highlighted in July 2009 in the report of a Task and Finish Forum on 5 year land supply (here are extracts):

1. Our assessment of our District wide figures shows that we have only just over five years availability. An Inspector at a planning application appeal could take the view that this is close enough to the five year threshold to side with an applicant/dismiss our arguments.
2. The District wide five year figure is based on our assessment and assumptions we have made. A developer might challenge these and come to a different conclusion (i.e. that land supply falls under five years) and persuade an Inspector that his/her evaluation is the more accurate.
3. Circumstances change and assessment/s done at the present time (and initially in 2008) can and will be out of date in the future.

Unfortunately, the document has since been removed from the EDDC website.

David Cameron has claimed here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/conservative-mps-expenses/10744347/David-Cameron-claims-MPs-did-not-have-casting-vote-over-Maria-Miller-expenses.html

that independent members of the Commons standards committee rather than MPs had the “casting vote” on whether to censure Maria Miller over her expenses. Commons rules state that only MPs on the committee have the right to vote on its findings, while “lay members” can only take part in debates and evidence sessions. However, Mr Cameron, who has given Mrs Miller his “warm support”, claimed that MPs are not being allowed to “police themselves”.

He told Sky News: “We have now got a committee that has independent members on and effectively they had the casting vote, and what this committee decided, it is not my decision, it’s the committees decision.”

….. A spokesman for Mr Cameron later said his comments were a “slip of the tongue” and that “lay members do not have a vote”.
However, let no-one be mistaken: in East Devon the “Independent Person” on the Standards Committee does NOT have a vote and, as can be seen in this excerpt from a Standards Committee meeting minute from 29 January 2013, the Monitoring Officer does not even ask for the Independennt Person’s views or comments in writing, preferring to “make notes” about what she says as that is “less bureaucratic”.  It is also, of coursr, much less traceable if something goes wrong  or there is a difference of opinion about what was said later on ….
See
http://www.eastdevon.gov.uk/standards_mins_290113.pdf
Rest assured, – in East Devon, it is possible to mark your own homework!

If you are concerned by EDDC’s proposed changes to rules for public speaking, NOW is the time to let your representatives know, in writing.
A decision will be made next Wednesday evening, 9th April, when the Full Council meets (6.30pm at Knowle).
The letter copied below, which has been sent to the three Sidmouth town ward members, may be helpful as an example. EDA also understands that the author has also asked a councillor who did not agree with the new speaking rules plan outlined by Cllr Bloxham at a previous Development Management Committee meeting, to request a recorded vote.

‘Councillors,

For more information, go to http://www.claire-wright.org/index.php/post/public_speaking_restriction_decision_to_be_made_next_wednesday_evening

The inspector’s letter

Click to access letterno8toeastdevon.pdf

finds that the Local Plan draft is fundamentally flawed when ut comes to housing numbers but does not mention employment land which he presumably feels is fine.

Developers and former EDBF members must be delirious with joy.

How long will it take to sort out?  Months and months or years and years judging by past performance.  And all that time the developers will be choking us with little boxes to the north, south, east and west, in tiny villages, in towns, in (particularly) the countryside.

Well done EDDC, well done.

We learn from a comment from Councillor Roger Giles on the blog of Councillor Claire Wright (claire-wright.org) that the reason given for making it so difficult for ordinary people to speak at Development Management Committee meetings is that the lack of a 5 year land supply means that there are now so many applications that there just is not time.  He also points out that one other reason that there is not time is that members of the DMC speak at length and repetitiously and then generally vote in a very similar way, few needing to be swayed by the intellectual arguments of other members it seems.

How dreadful that we must pay for EDDC’s own past and present mistakes.

So when we have a new Local Plan – hopefully very soon – and the number of planning applications decreases, will we then go back to former arrangements where we did not have to register with a written question days in advance and hope that we won the lottery to speak?

Aaaah …..