Daily Archives: 27 May 2014

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27 May 2014

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Democracy, EDDC

Trust in politics and business

In her speech to the Inclusive Capitalism conference, Christine Lagarde, head if the International Monetary Fund, recommended income and property tax changes to reduce inequality, attacked the financial sector for not changing its behaviour quickly enough and said that inequality in the UK was at levels not seen for almost a century.

It was highly political, quoting Pope Francis, John F Kennedy and Winston Churchill.

It was also a demand for the players at the top of business and politics to understand that “trust arrives on foot and leaves in a Ferrari”.

Capitalism needs to change its ways, she said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27588394

Yes, trust arrives at Knowle on a bus and leaves with BMWs at Skypark too perhaps!

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27 May 2014

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EDDC, Knowle/Honiton/Exmouth relocation

Transparency – a foggy issue

In response to the post below where EDDC is trying to keep information secret by claiming that a consultant was “seconded” to EDDC so his information should be secret (although his report was written under his employer’s name and he continued to be paid by said employer) even though the Information Commissioner has said that it should be published a correspondent writes:

It does make one angry that EDDC engage external private “consultants” without transparency stating that such vested interest is somehow considered in-house. Some senior officers are so partisan they seem to believe they and their “stakeholders” friends have a political mandate to operate behind closed doors on behalf of the electorate. Some like the EDDC Economic Development Manager and his EDBF developer chums seem to think the public were voting for them. They fail to appreciate such insider trading with private enterprise is highly suspect and lacks democratic accountability and responsibility. We unfortunately live in the “Age of Shopping” but all this quick-buck culture of privatising and selling-off of the public assets which our more civilised grandparents generation established after two world wars is deeply disturbing.

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27 May 2014

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Democracy, EDBF, EDDC, Local Plan

EDDC Overview and Scrutiny Committee – it’s not too late …

…to include an agenda item of the next O and S committee in June on the “Business Task and Finish Forum” investigating the creation, running and administration of the East Devon Business Forum and its effect on planning and the Local Plan debacle.  You know, the one you kicked into the long grass for as long as possible.

Oh, and where is Mr Harrison – EDDC Economic Development Officer – these days?  Since his job as Hon Sec of EDBF finished he seems to have gone totally silent when, in the past, he had such a lot to say about individual developments, particularly those of EDBF members.

And just when “economic development” is an even hotter topic.

What exactly are we paying (and paying handsomly) this person to do?

 

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27 May 2014

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Cranbrook, Local Plan, Misc, NPPF, West End: WestClyst BroadClyst/ Pinhoe

Coalescence between Exeter and East Devon continues apace

http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Shock-detailed-plans-revealed-new-Pinhoe-homes/story-21147357-detail/story.html

Too close to the M5? Not a problem! (Just don’t open your windows or sit in the garden perhaps? Bet the “affordables” – if they ever happen – are closest!).

Coalescence between West Dorset and East Devon continues (see Uplyme link) but, oddly, no coalescence between the Blackdown Hills and South Somerset.

 

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27 May 2014

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EDDC, Freedom of Information and EIA, Knowle/Honiton/Exmouth relocation, Skypark

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EDDC – Knowle relocation secrecy – important update

Following a Freedom of Information request in November 2012 for the full minutes of various ‘relocation working parties’ on Knowle and for the full, unredacted reports from the Project Manager, Sidmouth resident Jeremy Woodward was told by EDDC officials that if he wanted these publishing, he would have to go to the Information Commissioner – which is what he duly did. And last month, they ordered EDDC to release the full reports on the plans to relocate from Knowle

See: http://www.claire-wright.org/index.php/post/office_relocation_freedom_of_information_battle

EDDC have now appealed, and the case (number EA/2014/0072) is now before an Information Rights Tribunal – and will probably be heard in early August.

See: https://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/tribunals/information-rights/current-cases/register-cases.pdf

EDDC have meanwhile submitted further documentation – and they are absolutely determined that the reports on the relocation project should not be published.

In the original ‘decision notice’ where the Information Commissioner tells EDDC to publish the reports, they make it clear that the Project Manager of the firm appointed as consultants produced documentation for EDDC as a third party – and being from an outside consultancy, Davis Langdon, they should be made available to the public. EDDC will be making the case that the Project Manager was producing material which is commercially confidential and that he worked as an ‘insider’ – so his reports should be treated in the same way at the minutes of the ‘relocation working parties’, which the Information Commissioner has said should not be published.

See: http://ico.org.uk/~/media/documents/decisionnotices/2014/fs_50498100.pdf

In the meantime, there have been new, separate Freedom of Information requests made for the full minutes of these working parties – now that EDDC, a year and a half on since the original request, have clearly made the decision to leave Knowle and relocate to Skypark.

See: http://futuresforumvgs.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/knowle-relocation-project-further-foi.html

With this Tribunal, together with the further delays over Rights of Way and the Village Green application at Knowle, EDDC will have their hands full as they try to prevent anything from derailing their ‘relocation project’.

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27 May 2014

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EDDC, Skypark

Science Park gets £1m grant for “infrastructure”

Exeter Science Park is close to the Skypark development and also part of the “East Devon Growth Point” as is Skypark. Here is an article on progress of the site about progress so far and how proud they are to have recieved a £1m grant to provide “infrastructure” to the site which seems to mean that it is for faster broadband facilities.

and here is an interesting paragraph in that article:

Exeter Science Park is part of the £2 billion Exeter and East Devon Growth Point development programme, where a number of strategic projects are set to deliver over 20,000 new homes and over 25,000 jobs by 2026.

A date for your 2026 diary perhaps. And where will all the homes be by then? Will any of them have been “affordable”?

Somehow you know when something is a puff job rather than a fact and here the giveaway is that it is not boasting of tenants to come but of having received a £1 million grant.

Which begs the question: how much will a similar connection to Skypark cost – bearing in mind all the work that officers are going to do out of their offices at “touch down” places in the area because residents cannot get to Skypark with any ease (unless they live in Exeter or Cranbrook).

Is this yet another cost that residents will have to bear if no grant is forthcoming?

Source:
http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Exeter-Science-Park-backers-hail-progress-new-8m/story-21143606-detail/story.html