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
East Devon Watch 
Worrying that Cllr Wood, with his experience of parliament and local goverment, seems unaware of the General Power of Competence provided by the Localism Act.
If I may quote from the Department of Communities and Local Government guide to the Act, “The Localism Act includes a ‘general power of competence’. It gives local authorities the legal capacity to do anything that an individual can do that is not specifically prohibited; they will not, for example, be able to impose new taxes, as an individual has no power to tax.”
By my reading of it, the Overview and Srutiny Committee have the power to er, take an overview and scrutinise.
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Tim is right, so the question arises: why would Tim Wood NOT want to look into this matter?
Who gains from his drawing a veil over his ERO/CEO’s curious strategy in the last week?
Well, Mr Wood himself – if he asserts that’s it’s nothing of his concern – stops looking foolishly excluded for not knowing his CEO was strutting and fretting his hour upon the stage at his own former workplace.
And Mr Williams – well, as you were, old boy, nothing to see here.
Because what’s in it for the Tories to lose their main man at such a delicate time, and why would they possibly want to constrain his seemingly permanent, unelected power? How can they?
The fact is, he’s Mr Wood’s boss now, not the other way round …
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