The latest Sidmouth Herald’s report (10th October, p.4) on East Devon District Council’s New rules to trim ‘unwieldy ‘talks , includes strong criticism by the East Devon Alliance Chair, Paul Arnott. In summary, Mr Arnott warns, “Our beautiful district is under pressure from speculative planning applications as never before, and while EDDC fails to have its Local Plan in place this will only increase. In this context, public speaking at the DMC has repeatedly prevented the council from rubber-stamping a hard-pressed officer’s recommendation to approve. To curtail the right for such sincere people to contribute at this very moment is self-defeating, reactionary and arrogant. For the leaders to claim that EDDC’s new speaking restrictions make them somehow better than other councils in the south west ignores the elephant in the room – the severe crisis in public confidence in planning and democratic practice specific to East Devon.”