… for those old enough to recall the musical “South Pacific” was a relentlessly upbeat song.
So is EDDC’s Annual Review of its past year included as an appendix to this month’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee documents here
Click to access 110914_osagenda_combined.pdf
where no bad news is allowed and where we see a district full of happy, smiling people, not unlike those in Kim Jong Un’s North Korea where, according to the Leader, the grain stores are full to teeming yet the populace eats weeds.
Leaving aside the “small” point of why it is on the agenda at all when already published and subject to a glowing press release (again, press releases only glow at EDDC, they never perspire or, heaven forfend, sweat) does this publication contravene these rules for “lack of objectivity and even-handedness”:
Now, mentioning that little “problem” and the disgraced ex-councillor Graham Brown debacle AND the draft local plan omnishambles AND the missing 6,000 East Devon voters AND the discussions last year on restrictions on public speaking AND the Feniton “situation” WOULD be objective and even handed so we’ve given you a head start there!
Oh, and PS: no word on the East Devon Business Forum Task and Finish Group on this agenda either.
EDDC: where only good news is allowed.
East Devon Watch 
Sounds like someone needs to speak at the O&S meeting and point out all the missing bits, and point out that it breaks the publicity guidelines.
If O&S accept the report, then there needs to be a formal complaint to the Monitoring Officer for breaching the publicity guidelines.
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See also my comment on Claire Wright’s blog at http://www.claire-wright.org/index.php/post/looking_back_with_satisfaction_looking_ahead_with_confidence
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Some further interesting contradictions in this report:
Page 7 of the report (page 96 of the agenda) – “High demand for business premises … from small firms saw us let all our available business units in August. In response to the high levels of demand for workshop units we now have plans in the pipeline to create more units.” But they plan to get rid of the business units on the Heathpark Estate in Honiton in order to fund the office move from the Knowle to SkyPark – what hypocrisy.
Page 9 of the report (page 98 of the agenda) – “In 2013/14 we said we would build at least 100 affordable new homes. We managed to achieve 310 new homes built.” Of course it doesn’t say explain that the reason for this 200% over-achievement is because the developer free-for-all has resulted in (say) 200% more homes being built than the Local Plan would have allowed (if it had been approved). You have to admire EDDC for spinning a disaster into a success story.
Page 13 of the report (page 102 of the agenda) – “Our planning team have had great success in defending the council’s planning decisions at appeal … Major successes have included our defence of Feniton village from large scale housing development.” Funny, but I thought that the successful defence at appeal was largely down to the local residents (most notably independent Cllr Susie Bond and EDA Vice/Deputy Chairman John Witherington) rather than the Council.
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Apologies if this has been duplicated…
And what is in the Council Plan (http://www.eastdevon.gov.uk/council_plan_050312-4.pdf ) but omitted from the annual report:
Page 9 – “Our values must reflect the fact that we are an organisation that exists to serve its communities. We have consulted widely on what people think our values should be and have agreed the following: Accountable, Open, Listening” – not sure how that fits with the secrecy, preventing independent councillors from raising e.g. accountability motions at full Council, public speaking restrictions etc.
Page 12 – “You have told us that by far the most important issue you want us to tackle is to help with affordable housing so that young families and people with low incomes can still afford to live here. Our Housing Market Assessment gives us a guide to what ‘affordable’ means – it is where housing costs are no more than 25% of the household’s gross income.” – But according to the Western Daily Press on Monday (http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Housing-price-crisis/story-22857311-detail/story.html ) “The gap between how much people get paid and how much a house costs has reached “a major crisis point” after research revealed that for the first time ever, houses cost at least five times more than salaries in every single part of the West.”
Page 27 – “Assess whether there is a business case to move the Council’s premises to a more efficient building and deliver more effective and accessible ways of working.” Well the bulldozer is moving inexorably towards a move to SkyPark – but the business case is still not publicly available, and indeed when questioned at the July full Council, Council Leader Paul Diviani said he had no idea what the costs would be, and without estimated costs no business case can be developed or shown to be net positive.
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