Knowle court case update

“A resident’s bid to make the district council disclose confidential details of its plans to leave Sidmouth has resulted in the authority having to argue its case at a tribunal in court.

Jeremy Woodward lodged a Freedom of Information request in November 2012 asking for the minutes of various relocation working parties to be made available to the public.

He also asked that full, unredacted reports from the project manager be released, but both requests were denied by council officials.

The Temple Street resident took the matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office, which accepted the council’s decision to withhold the minutes.

However, it did not agree that the project manager’s reports were covered by the same exception under the Environmental Information Regulations.

The council was told to publish the reports, but has appealed against this decision. As a result, the matter has been referred for an oral hearing by the First Tier Tribunal at Exeter Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, August 28.

Mr Woodward welcomed the news.

A council spokesman said it would not be appropriate to comment on the matter with the hearing pending.”

http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/news/court_to_hear_knowle_case_1_3680513

Development at Gittisham: some strange goings-on

Developers want to build more than 300 houses on the outskirts of Honiton along the country lanes between Honiton and Gittisham. This planning application has gone like a ping-pong ball at DMC meetings.

See here for a summary of the latest omnishambles:

https://susiebond.wordpress.com/2014/07/13/decision-deferred-on-land-west-of-hayne-lane-gittisham/

So many, many questions!

Why was the warning of Councillor Claire Wright (which predicted exactly these problems in November 2013) not heeded? Surely not because she does not belong to the majority party because, of course, as we all know, planning is not a party issue:

see
http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Site-location-fears-hundreds-homes-Honiton-voiced/story-20021094-detail/story.html

Why was this originally recommended for approval when even the Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government has said it is so controversial it will need to go to him for determination?

Why, given that so many of our councillors have “two hats” and serve on local AONBs (and boast about it) did they not object earlier?

Why did officers not take into account the effect of this development on health service education and local infrastructure?

The Chief Executive NOW says:

“Further consideration and discussion needs to take place. As a result I would like to recommend that Members defer this application to enable this further work to be carried out. The matter to then be reported back to the committee at a future date when all of the necessary information and professional advice can be made available to Members in the officer’s report so that a fully informed decision can be made.”

so what has changed since this development was recommended for approval?

Who ARE Welbeck Strategic Land LLP – they seem to have appeared all over the country with their reductive compass and square logo, shoving in similar speculative applications just about everywhere? Why is its original planning application form so devoid of information (no information about the types of houses, parking, no waste storage or collection information, etc.? If people can put a planning application in with so little information how can a DMC make a decision about it?

Skypark – Exeter Science Park’s poor relation

Exeter Science Park romps ahead leaving Skypark as its poor relation.

http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/University-subsidiary-Peninsula-Innovations/story-21464968-detail/story.html

Boles moved in Cabinet reshuffle

Can we hope for a better replacement? PLEASE!

Nick Boles (moved)
Nick Boles has been appointed as minister of state at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Education. David Cameron said part of his brief will be equal marriage implementation.

Memo for redrawing a Local Plan

The Strategic Housing Market Analysis can be contested. See http://saveoursidmouth.com/2014/07/15/shma-does-not-of-itself-set-the-housing-target/

How NOT to undertake a police investigation: a cautionary tale

There is an ongoing scandal in Carmarthenshire, where the question of unlawful payments to the Chief Executive of Carmarthen Council became a national scandal. For the background on this see:

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/police-launch-investigation-unlawful-payments-6701913

As a result it was decided that there would be a police investigation. However, it was decided that because council and police in the area had many joint undertakings, the investigation would be undertaken by an outside force. Gloucestershire and Avon police were chosen to do this investigation:

http://carmarthenplanning.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/gloucestershire-police-to-investigate.html

After three months, the police called off the investigation saying there was no case to answer:

http://carmarthenplanning.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/police-call-off-investigation.html

However, a local blogger was not satisfied with this and asked the police how they had come to this conclusion:

http://carmarthenplanning.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/unlawful-payments-police-foi-response.html

Here is what she says:

Following the conclusion of the police investigation I made a freedom of Information request to Gloucestershire police. The response came today and there is a link at the end of this post.

I asked for;

1. A list of any persons interviewed, and /or job titles, and whether any of these were 
interviewed under caution 
2. Correspondence between Gloucestershire Constabulary and Carmarthenshire County 
Council
3. Whether or not the Crown Prosecution Service were involved and if so, any relevant correspondence. 

The responses were that;

….nobody was interviewed,
….there was no correspondence between the council and the police and
….the CPS weren’t involved.
This was, you recall, a three month long criminal investigation….

I also asked for;

4. The final report following the conclusion of the investigation 

5. A list, or summary, of all documents in either paper or electronic form which formed part 
of the investigation.

These were refused under the Section 30 exemption in that the release of this information may jeopardise police tactics in the future…presumably they’re expecting a flurry of similar local authority unlawfulness.

A thorough investigation? We’ll have to take their word for it. I remain of the view that in both instances there was, amongst other matters, the deliberate prevention of proper scrutiny as documented in the two Wales Audit Office reports.The full FOI response can be read here.
I am now considering whether to request an internal review of their response.

“Jurassica” £60 million competitor for £4 million Seaton Visitor Centre?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-28290760

Those missing 6,000 voters in East Devon – how do we compare with other councils? Pretty badly

Firstly, it is a missing 6,300 voters in East Devon and the worse council of all (Taunton Deane, see below) managed to lose 8,800 voters.

This comes from a very interesting table on page 10 of the Electoral Commission’s report of June 2014

which identifies East Devon District Council as one of the worse 17 councils in the country for not dealing with the transition from the old system of voter registration to the new one.

The table shows the 10 local authorities with the largest decrease in elecorate. Taunton Deane was worst – they managed to lose 8.8% of the electorate between 2012 and 2014 followed by Allerdale (7.9%), Maidstone (7.7%), Northampton (7.4%), Isles of Scilly UA (6.5%), Newham (6.4%), East Devon (6.3%), Wellingborough (6.0%), Tonbridge and Malling (5.9%) and Hastings( 5.8%).