In the roughly six weeks before a general election local authorities should not take any actions that might affect the outcome of such elections, such as signing contracts for controversial projects.
The next general election and local elections will be on 7 May 2015. This means that controversial activity should cease by 26 March 2015.
One can see why the Skypark issue is being railroaded and kept so secret. The ink must be dry on the purchase of the site by the end of March next year. Especially if the European Election results in 2014 are replicated in East Devon as, if they are, the Conservatives will lose their overall majority and will be at the mercy of Independents, Greens and UKIP.
Here is the political guidance which was issued for 2014 elections.
http://www.parliament.uk/Templates/BriefingPapers/Pages/BPPdfDownload.aspx?bp-id=SN05262
East Devon Watch 
Sorry, but can you point out the relevant paragraphs in the document to refer to relating to local authorities signing contracts in the pre-election period?
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That document refers only to the election of 2014 – the one for 2015 is not yet published but this article gives the Act and paragraphs:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purdah_(pre-election_period)
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Well that says nothing about a decision moratorium in the pre-election period – only about publicity.
It also says “Purdah does not have actual legal force, rather is considered a ‘self-denying ordinance’, and has considerable moral authority; because of the lack of statute different local authorities adopt different standards as to the extent to which they observe the convention,[3] and authorities are always mindful of the possibility of results and decisions being open to challenge in the event of a breach of purdah.” – and based on my (admittedly limited) experience of EDDC moral standards, this does not fill me with confidence that EDDC will follow this non-statutory code.
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Yes that’s true – ethics isn’t strong with them. The only silver lining would be that if Independents, Greens and UKIP then got the upper hand they could also ignore the rules – the current incumbents having set all the precedents!
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You cannot be serious, man!!!!
Personally I would prefer to see Inds, Greens, Lib Dems, UKIP etc. take the moral high-ground and commit themselves to an Ethical Charter that commits them to policies of openness, ethical and democratic behaviour and acting first-and-foremost in the interests of their individual ward residents – and not see them commit to sinking to the same deplorably low ethical standards as the current Tory administration.
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Agree! But they would have found themselves with the millstone of Skypark of course.
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