EDA exclusively broke the story of the district’s 6,000 missing voters in July this year and on the fiasco that followed (where very-belated attempt to recruit 10 house-to-house canvassers resulted in only 2 taking up the offer)
According to
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/calendar/?d=2014-10-13#cal41011
and here:
http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/political-and-constitutional-reform-committee/news/voter-engagement-13th-evidence-session/
EDDC CEO Mark Williams (also the district’s official Returning Officer)has been called to give evidence on
13 October 2014
to the
Parliamentary Select Committee on Political and Constitutional Reform
who are investigating “Voter engagement in the UK”.
Extract from site here:
Political and Constitutional Reform:
Voter engagement in the UK 5:15 pm
Witnesses: Mark Williams, Chief Executive and Electoral Registration Officer for East Devon District Council and Kevin Finan, Chief Executive, Mid Devon District Council; Roger Casale, Chair, New Europeans and Samia Badani, New Europeans
This committee appears regularly on the UK Parliament Channel on TV and Chris Ruane Mp, who has taken a keen i terest in our district, does not pull any punches. And, since he has been extensively briefed about the situation in East Devon, we do not anticipate that Mr Williams will receive an easy ride.
If it is not televised, a transcript of his performance and that of the CEO of Mid-Devon (also heavily criticised by the Electoral Commission) will be available a few days later.
Watch this space yet again!
And to remind you of what Mr Williams said in response to a public question about this, see:
THE MISSING 6,000 VOTERS: A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE FROM AN EDA BLOG COMMENTATOR
http://eastdevonalliance.org/2014/07/
where the (in)famous quote: … “in any major change process it is not where you start from that counts but where you end-up” was uttered by the CEO as an explanation of why the lack house-to-house canvassing of missing voters in the previous three years led to the loss of more than 6,000 voters on the register of electors at the recent European Parliament elections.
East Devon Watch 
Has East Devon Council published anything about this themselves? It can’t be every day – indeed, decade – that its Chief Executive is honoured with a summons to Westminster.
Will we be reading about this in their next full-colour propaganda mag? Probably not.
Good on you, East Devon Alliance!
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There seems to be a pattern emerging insofar as EDDC’s senior officers are concerned.
Could it be that higher authorities are recognising that the responses from EDDC, to fair questions about their conduct, from the electorate, are entirely unsatisfactory and that some external examination is needed?
As well as Williams appearance before the Select Committee, Deputy CEO Richard Cohen has recently appeared before an Information Commission First Tier appeal.
Who is next?
Council Leader Paul Diviani’s promises of greater transparency by EDDC seem even more hollow than first suspected.
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The post of Returning Officer is vested in the Leader of a council and is traditionally devolved (as in the case of EDDC) to the CEO who does the job as a (paid) addition to his main job. So ultimately Diviani is also in difficulty. Both senior officers AND the Leader now needing to justify themselves to higher authorities.
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