Daily Archives: 17 Oct 2014

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17 Oct 2014

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EDBF, EDDC, Graham Brown

Economic Development Manager slips seamlessly away

Only a perfectly timed question from Cllr Claire Wright to Deputy CEO Richard Cohen, most appropriately at yesterday’s Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) Committee meeting, obliged Mr Cohen to mention that it happened to be Nigel Harrison’s last day at the office that very same day.
Mr Harrison was of course due to be the Lead Officer at a special O&S sub-committee, the so-called Business TAFF, although he had kept out of public view since the Telegraph’s Councillors for hire story broke (March 2013), and his expected resignation confirmed last month, came as no surprise to many. See http://eastdevonalliance.org/2014/09/24/lead-officer-of-stalled-business-taff-to-quietly-disappear/

So it seems that the fledgling Task and Finish Forum (TAFF) charged by the O&S Committee to carry out ‘an in-depth study’ on the relationship between EDDC and what was called the East Devon Business Forum (EDBF), has had its wings clipped yet again.The TAFF has been grounded for well over a year as the police investigation into key witness ex-councillor Graham Brown has dragged on. Now that another key player, the Economic Development Manager, has melted away, along with the Monitoring Officer in question, and of course the EDBF itself, will the Business TAFF ever get to fly?

More on the subject at http://eastdevonalliance.org/2014/08/04/eddc-ministry-of-magic/

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17 Oct 2014

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EDDC, Voting

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For urgent attention of EDDC’s Overview and Scrutiny Chair

Tim Wood seems to have been misled on two matters which cropped up last night at the O&S committee which he chairs.

1. The first was in response to this question from Marianne Rixson of East Devon Alliance :
‘At the Newton Poppleford Parish Council (30th Sept), Councillor Potter reported on a recent meeting of the Local Government Association. He quoted a government minister as saying that there would be no district councils left in 10 yrs’ time.
Given this prediction, will your scrutiny committee need to urgently explore the possibility that the millions of pounds dedicated to the Knowle move will prove to be a total waste of taxpayers’ money?
Could you please begin straightaway by asking Richard Cohen tonight to tell you how much it would cost to refurbish the present purpose-built Knowle offices, funded by the possible sale of part or whole of the former hotel building on the site?’

Tim Wood mumbled the reply that he believed Cllr Potter had been misquoted. Those who attended the Newton Poppleford Parish Council meeting, including 20 or so local residents and various East Devon Alliance members, heard and were astonished by Cllr Potter’s statement. Cllr Tim Wood was not at that meeting, so would he kindly check the recording of it?

2.The second was about comments made last week regarding the weakness of EDDC’s Scrutiny Committee, when EDDC’s Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) and Chief Executive, Mark Williams was summoned to a Parliamentary Select Committee unhappy with his ERO performance. Richard Thurlow ,Chair of Save Our Sidmouth, requested that the comments be addressed by tighter scrutiny of council officers.
Tim Wood read out a prepared (by whom?)statement to the effect that this was no concern of his O&S Committee, but purely a matter between the ERO and the Electoral Commission. Would he kindly check the LGA link below, which clearly states:

“Committees are able to investigate any issue which affects the local area, or the area’s inhabitants, whether or not it is the direct responsibility of the council’s Cabinet.”

See: s9F(2)(d) and (e), Local Government Act 2000, http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/20/schedule/2/part/1/enacted

Cllr Wood and his O&S Committee members might like to re-read and reflect on what was said about them http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/political-and-constitutional-reform-committee/voter-engagement-in-the-uk/oral/14118.html

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17 Oct 2014

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EDDC, Knowle/Honiton/Exmouth relocation

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Council watchdog toothless

EDA followers will remember our report of the O&S Committe resolve made in January this year : http://sidmouthindependentnews.wordpress.com/2014/01/31/council-watchdog-shows-its-teeth-over-ballooning-costs-of-the-knowle-move/
Eight months on, there are signs that the Council watchdog has been undergoing obediency training…..
An apparently tamed Overview and Scrutiny Chair Tim Wood cast a deciding vote to  accept an unelected council officers’ report last night. He made almost no contribution to his committee’s debate on the uncertainties, omissions,  and setbacks in Richard Cohen’s latest update on EDDC office relocation, except to ask the approximate size of floorspace that a revamped EDDC would require.Richard Cohen’s answer: 3,300 sq metres.
How does this compare with the floorspace of the purpose built Knowle offices? We’ll remind readers on a following link to be posted shortly.

For full account of last night’s meeting, see http://www.claire-wright.org/index.php/post/eddc_scrutiny_cttee_votes_against_holding_cabinet_to_account_which_is_its_j

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17 Oct 2014

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EDDC, Skypark

Skypark: 5 acres being landscaped

Sounds lovely doesn’t it? Developer St Modwyn has announcec that Skypark is to have 5 acres with a tree-lined avenue, grassland and hedges with “exercise stations” and woodland.

But one question arises: would this have happened if Skypark had managed to get more tenants or is it landscaping over the cracks? Or landscaping to hide what is behind the hedges?

And no amount of landscaping will alter the fact that the development is sandwiched between a main road and an airport runway, with a gas production unit and a 24 hour parcel delivery and collection service as its main tenants so far.

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17 Oct 2014

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Cranbrook, EDDC, NPPF

More on “consultation” – this time in the extension to the extension of Cranbrook

The developer exhibition for the extension to the extension of Cranbrook took place at the Younghayes community centre in Cranbrook on Thursday 16 October from mid-day to 6 pm.

There was very little advance notice of the exhibition (most people heard about it only the day before on the local news) and those hours would have excluded many working people from seeing it and asking searching questions about the “suggestions” the developers have put forward about the infrastructure that MIGHT support the extra dwellings.

Surely this cannot be the only “public consultation” on these plans?

Oh, and do these new houses count towards the Local Plan unlike earlier ones? And what will be the difference between affordable housing promised and delivered?